Moonlight - Pause

Preface 1.0

Alex POV

Kolov 2235

It was a very cold day. Kolov is one of the coldest cities in Anura. With temperatures far below from the acceptable, snow is one of the biggest problems throughout the year, but everyone gathers to clean and leave the roads clean. My brother Isaac, the oldest, is helping my mother, my middle brother, Alan, is trying to climb a tree and my father is trying to catch him.

Everything was calm. Too calm. It's true that my country hasn't gone into wars for more than 200 years but even so ... I ignored the bad feeling, after all what a 7- year-old child could know, right? Wrong.

Since I was a little child, maybe since I was two/three years old, I demonstrated that I had skills that weren't normal at my age. Obviously they aren't skills like super strength, super speed and other ridiculous "powers". It's hard to explain, but it's like hunch , a side of me that I didn't have many opportunities to develop but there are things inside us that we can't ignore.

I barely set foot indoors, when suddenly a bomber plane arrived along with troops .I was amazed because of the size of the plane until I looked at my father's face. Terror. Fear. Panic. My mother was no different, when I came back to reality I was on her arms and my whole family was on the run.

The bombs fell in the city for half an hour and destroyed everything I knew.

Many screams, a lot of smoke, lost kids and dead people on the streets that were once perfectly normal.

We quickly escaped into the forest, my parents probably thought that there was the safest place. I remember that I couldn't sleep that night and i grabbed to my mother. I know she was full of fear but she still hugged me and said everything was going to be fine. Those words comforted me despite knowing now that was just beautiful words without truth in them. The real war was just beginning.

In the next day we woke up with the sound of gunshots. They were close. Too close... I've never run so much in my life as I ran that morning. We arrived at a shelter in the mountains, that shelter used to be the house of the 'Watchers' (they watched mainly the wild animals trying to enter the city, I had dreamed of one day be a part of that group). The shelter became our safe place, we stayed there for one week and we had the tasks well distributed: my father hunted and took care of me and my brothers, my mother cooked and make clothes with animal hair. Isaac tried to fix the house and keep it cleaned, Alan helped Isaac and I was in charge of not messing up. It seemed like we were on vacation. Far was a reality with flames, smoke, destruction, fear and deaths.

The last night we decided to stay in the shelter, three huge men broke down the door; they had axes and other weapons that I didn't know the name at the time. It was all very fast. My brain preferred to erase the moments that followed so I only have a few flashbacks of what really happened. My mother hid me under a trapdoor and covered it with a carpet. I heard strange sounds, it looked like they were gutted animals. After a while the sounds stopped, the men left and i didn't dare to leave the place where I was. Terror. Fear. Panic.

I spent the night shaking. With a head flooded with questions. "Are they alive?" "I'm going to die?" "Why?" "Who were these people?" I don't know how much time has passed, but when i heard a few steps I stop breathing. "Did the men come back?"

My heart almost jumped out of the chest when someone opened the trapdoor door. It was Isaac. His head was full of blood but he was alive. He seemed like an angel with all the enlightenment coming from the outside illuminating him.

- Isaac?

- Alex - He ran to me and hugged me - It's okay, I promise I'll take care of you.

- Where are mom and dad? - My older brother looked at me with a deep sadness in his eyes - And where is Alan? - Internally I knew the answer to these questions but verbalizing them would make this nightmare more real.

-Let's go upstairs, you have to see with your own eyes what they did to our family - Something very cruel for a child to see, in my opinion, but I understand why he showed it ...

A light but unpleasant smell invaded my nostrils and i almost threw up. I looked at my brother face and he had a cold expression. Alan's body was closer to the trapdoor, had an axe stuck in his heart, right next to the door was my mother's body, she had several deep cuts, her face was disfigured and the body was in an abnormal position, she should have broken bones. My father... his head was separated from his body...

My father's last look was tattooed on my soul. Something I could never forget.

In short, my brother fulfilled his promise, fed me, dressed me and took care of me. But something in me died along with my family.

Murderous instincts woke up. I became smart, fast and lethal. The street didn't give us an easy life and honestly made me intolerant of certain types of people. If I didn't start stealing or killing earlier it was because of my brother, he always tried to keep my human side, but over time he understood that it wasn't worth it. I love him so fucking much; I would give my life for him and kill anyone for him. As soon as he had 18 years he joined the army, making money to give me a better life. I wanted to follow his footsteps, but not for a better life. I wanted to kill one by one, all the motherfuckers who dared to slaughter my family.

A few months after the bombings, news spread that Djev had claimed the attack.

Djev is the nation that borders Anura. They've always been pigs without manners but well prepared for war. At the time, much was said about the subject and why they attack. I don't care about their motives, the fact is after Kolov, they went to center, Kilead.

In my opinion, who planned the strategy was a fool. The alarm sounded quickly in the capital and they sent troops soon to defend our territory. Kilead had the lucky that my hometown didn't have. From what I heard, our army devours the enemy and still gained some new weapons.

Anura has changed with this event. If before the north was already poorer than the south, now this difference would notice even more. I've never been in the south but the main cities are Hembry and Baltia. Disgusting selfish people, who have never lost seconds of their lives thinking about how they could help the north.

Military power increased exponentially, more and more young people wanted to join the army. It was not mandatory but the fact is: more than 70% of young people (between 18-24) were or have already been there.

Djev made three invasions and Anura retaliated them all but lately we are living a rotten peace. In fact, both sides are trying to buy time to rebuild airplanes and war tanks, training soldiers and develop even more lethal weapons.

This will not last and the time has come to show Anura's true strength.