Guilt

1

     In the Empire, in the far west of the capital's border, there is a small village called Erasis. The small village was full of laughter as the children ran around playing with a small ball, the older woman sitting down outside their houses gossiping, and young boys who tried to court the young ladies. In that village, there was a young girl with a slender body and long beautiful brown hair tied up in a bun.

    Out in the open were many merchants lining up on the side of the roads, selling what they have brought to offer in the village. The young girl, Nora, and her older brother, Maxi, were walking around and buying some wood for themselves before winter approached. Everything was going well for everyone until the ground started to rumble, the merchant carts fell, and the animals started running. As the rumble continued, the villagers started yelling for everybody to run to the next village. In the next village, was the safe house of the Western border.

     Before anybody was to make it out of the village, the sky turned darker and something emerged from the sky. It was slowly becoming visible for the villagers to see. As the strange big castle-looking ship lowered down onto the ground, Maxi grabbed Nora's hand and started running in the opposite direction of the ship. As everybody continues to run, the surrounding buildings start to collapse, resulting in many people's death and injuries. Fire starts to spread as strange-looking things start emerging from the castle-like ship with some type of greatly detailed staff.

     Nora and Maxi made their way to their house, which was on the other side of where the strange attack occurred. In their house, there was a built-in underground basement that their parents built for them to hide if anything was to happen to their village. Maxi dragged Nora and pushed her down into the underground basement, but before Maxi was able to get down with her, the house collapsed. Nora fell and covered her eyes as the dust started rising. Maxi, however, got buried under piles of wood, the big woods from their roof. His legs were now stuck as he tried not to scream out in pain. The smell of fire became stronger. The longer they were stuck, due to the shock and pain, the stronger the smell. Nora, who was lying on the ground trying to breathe, slowly crawled over to her older brother, who was stuck under piles of woods.

     "Max... Maxi..." she says in a weak voice, while slowly pulling herself out of the underground and towards her brother. "Nora, listen very closely. I need you to run, run far away from those aliens," Maxi said in a raspy voice as he groaned in pain. Nora slowly tries to pull off the woods that were piled on her brother's leg. She didn't plan on leaving her only brother behind.

     "No! You are my brother, the only family I have left. I can't leave you!" Nora yelled out as tears started running down her face. She held onto Maxi's hand and sat there crying.
Maxi put his hands over hers gently. "Nora, I have to tell you something, okay? You have to listen carefully," he said quickly as he was scared that time would run out. Nora quickly nodded her head as her brother's hand caressed her face.

     "The prophecy that mother has always told us to remember, Nora, you are the girl that they have come here for. You know what you need to do. Mother may have not told you the other half of the story, but aliens don't know what lying is. You have an advantage."
Nora sat there, staring at her brother. "Lying? Maxi, I have prepared myself for this, I just need to find him, hold on for me, I'll be back with help" she tried to say without stuttering as she slowly stood up, and made her way to the door. "Nora, I will wait for you here. Just know, I love you," Maxi says before she walks out of the house.