Crescent (Old Version)

+ Part 1 +

I never thought my world would end in fire.

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Memories burned in the flames. Picture frames became ash, photo albums went up in the smoke, and it wasn't until the smell and sound of it all scorched my senses that I shot out of bed. 

Fire. Fire. Fire. 

My senses blazed and I rolled to the floor to keep from inhaling the smoke. My eyes shot to my sister's bed across the room in search for her. She was gone.

"Rosie!" I screamed. I was frozen, coughing, trying to listen for her or for my parents in the room across the hall. Glass was breaking somewhere downstairs, and outside, people were screaming, their voices crying out. Past the stench of gasoline, I couldn't smell anyone in the house.

I needed to get out. And fast.

The door handle was scorching hot, and I kicked it open just to get to the landing outside. The stairs were in flames, my parents room gone with it. The fire was getting hotter, the flames higher, the smoke heavier. My thoughts raced as I searched for escape.

 My only chance was to jump over the railing. Fifteen feet high, but my blood was rushing and I was over and tumbling onto my back before I could even blink. 

Fire covered every inch of the house. The smoke was almost unbearable down here, and the screams were getting louder. I ran like hell down the hall, past the kitchen and the study where pictures of my life were shriveling in the heat. 

Flames licked the sides of my face as I sprinted toward the front door. Somehow, I'd jumped, and I burst through it, the wood splintering as I fell to the ground and the cold air bit my face.

One breath of relief. That's all I allowed myself.

"Please!" someone cried. I knew that voice. Though my body protested, I stood and turned to the voice.

In the front yard, standing in the patches of snow now falling, I saw my family. My mother was sobbing silently across the yard, bucking wildly against the men in black uniforms now forcing her to her knees. The men shoved my mother into the mud, riffle pressed to her back, and my father growled as they yanked Rosie's dark hair at the scalp. Her face was wet with tears. But, she looked at me as if it were the first time she'd ever seen me. 

Rosie screamed before I could get a closer look: "Look out!"

 It was too late by the time I saw it. Gunshot cracked, and I felt a bullet whizz past my ear.

"Please!" my mother screamed. 

Another shot sounded, and the air was knocked from my lungs suddenly.

I felt pain for only an instant. My chest burned. My muscles contracted, retracted, my whole body battling for control of my lungs. I collapsed, forwards, backwards, my world went upside down. The cool outside air suddenly hit me, and I felt blood flood out of me as I gripped the porch steps between my numb fingers. My vision went cloudy.

Help. Need help, a voice told me.

Distantly, someone was shouting. There was more screaming, and despite the wave that overcame me, I knew we weren't the only family being dragged out of our homes. 

Two other homes beside us were red hot cinders on the ground now.

I looked towards the Johnsons- the only other family I'd ever known that was like us- kneeling in their own yard next door. Two soldiers in black stood before them. I saw the silver insignia carved into their uniforms. I saw the muzzles of the guns in their hands. I heard two shots sound, and then red sprayed onto the sidewalk.

There was no help coming.

 Footsteps stomped by my head, and my body felt light as two hands gripped my arms. Even through the dizziness I felt coming in waves, I knew two men were now dragging me onto the lawn. My mother was sobbing in the corner of my vision, and the men forced me onto my knees in front of her. My mother clutched me to her, her hand covering the hole leaking blood from my chest. My vision spun, and my mother sobbed something I couldn't hear. I felt the butt of another gun press into my back, but I looked only to Rosie, whose cool blue eyes were near red.

She's too young to see this.

"What do you want?!" my mother begged. One of the soldiers slammed the barrel of his gun into her temple, and she fell to the ground with a smack next to me. My father looked hard at the men before us, and I heard Rosie whimper beside me. I gripped her with every ounce of strength I had as the men continued assessing my family.

Take them... or leave them.

"Load them up," a larger man ordered. He was tall, dressed in the all black uniform but a golden badge glinted on his chest signifying he was likely the leader of the bunch. 

Captain, commander? 

"They're all mutts," he dismissed, and my mother screamed as they dragged my family towards the vehicles. 

"S-Stop," my voice was a whisper as the soldiers yanked me upwards. The commander walked towards me and smiled when he saw that my shirt was red with my own blood. I met his dark eyes, knowing one look would likely cost me my life- whatever little was left. But, his sick gaze went blank as he looked at me. 

He yanked my hair suddenly and pulled me close enough that I could smell the bloodlust on his breath. Surprise was etched into his features. "She's pure," he growled and released me backwards. 

Pure? 

He gripped the front of my father's shirt, found his eyes, and shoved him back only to grip my mother in the same vice and look between the two of us." They come with us," he ordered another soldier.

Another soldier spoke up. "Sir? All of them? Lord Sh-"

The commander gripped the soldier's uniform and hauled him to within an inch of his face. It was pure venom in his voice now. "That was a direct order, soldier." He released the man, who then pushed me and my mother towards one of their rovers.

"Let them go," I gasped, acutely aware of the hinge of the truck door creaking as they moved to throw me and my mother in.

The sound made my head swim. My senses were betraying me, running into overdrive. I couldn't hear, smell, or see anything past the smoke and the tension in my chest. 

Deep down, I knew... if I didn't fight now, I wouldn't see my family again. 

As one of the soldiers lifted me by my shoulders onto the back of the truck, I kneed him hard at the same time that my mother punched the man holding her. We fell to the ground in a heap of limbs, and both soldiers fumbled backwards for long enough that I caught one last glance of the world around me.

My home was gone, our neighbors either dead or being driven away by the batch. Dad and Rosie were being thrown into the back of a different truck with some of the others. Rosie sobbed and my father clutched her close, his eyes catching mine briefly, before the soldiers grabbed us again.

One of them slapped me, or at least, I think they did. I was numb enough that I hardly felt anything. But, I knew a pistol was pressed to my back and the one I'd kneed was yelling a string of curses at the back of my head. This was it. The barrel of his gun ground into me. I closed my eyes.

"We can't kill them!" I heard the other guard in black yell. The pistol was dropped. "You heard our orders."

A moment later, I was shoved back into the truck, my mother in tow. She stifled her sobs, gripping the side of my face tenderly; I felt my eyes droop and my life fade. The metal door clicked as it locked, confining us within four walls of impenetrable steel.

Every bit of me ached to fight, ached to touch my mother's hands. I knew it would be worthless. I sank to the floor and listened to the gunshots that now sounded all too distant. My voice was a whisper as the truck roared to life beneath me and I fell against my mother's chest:

"Rosie," I called. And, then dizziness took me over.