Somewhere They Could

★ Second breath ★

I did not reach for the doctor as he bled out. I simply stood beside my mother, waiting for an order from the current threat before me. Charli and Rose were right. I sobbed at the thought. The girl didn't look at us, nor the doctor, but rather her bare body. She traced the place where the knife once lived. A scar smiled back.

My eyes widened.

The bloody gash was gone. I blinked once. Blinked twice. Then blinked once more.

The scar remained in the wound's place.

"God almighty." My mother whispered in horror.

Her eyes snapped up to us sharply. Two pale grey eyes met mine. I shivered.

"Who are you?".

Her accent made me jump. She had a western Juve accent. She must've escaped from the Larian army when they took the western coast of Juve earlier this month.

"Who are you?" I asked without thinking.

Oh god why did I have to do that?

She looked me up and down, sending an uncomfortable sheet over my head suffocating me.

"Dolly." She answered.

It took me a moment to realise she was telling me her name.

"Halley Crawford." I replied unreadily, resisting the urge to curtsy.

She nodded.

We waited in silence for something, I don't know what. Maybe an explanation.

"You cannot stay." She stated, breaking the silence.

A gasp came from my mother.

"Why?!" she blurted.

The girl's eyes shifted to my mothers.

"The Larian army will burn this place to the ground shortly." She stated bitterly.

Laria wants the Capital though. Why would their army possibly want to terrorise villages off the trail of the Capital?

"We are too far east to be on their route-".

"They want Oviaer Castle first." She interrupted.

Of course they do. Laria wants death, land and riches. I shouldn't be so surprised.

Panic surged my senses in an instant.

"We must pack our things and fetch the others!" My mother yelped, reaching for the rations we had been given ever since our food supply had been cut off in the south and a leather bag.

I rushed out the door, my thoughts on my family in town.

I climbed into the dead doctor's cart without hesitation, yanking the reins. The horse jolted before beginning to trot in the direction of Glaven.

My knuckles grew white as I forced the horse into a gallop.

If I hadn't been in such a hurry I would've cried because I had only really driven a cart once, when my father had had too much whiskey and we had a cart and horse. The fear of crashing, let alone driving was overwhelmed by the army closing on my home.

I didn't need evidence to know they were close. I could feel it.

Glaven was in clear view by the time I could hear the deathly march coming from the western road.

I half crashed, half parked my cart in the town square just as the first fiery arrow planted itself in the town hall. Everyone watched me as I climbed onto the ground.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIV-!" I screamed as a blast shook the earth below me.

Chaos ensued.

Halley's body was found in the thin beginnings of the Shookermore forest, 600 metres from the Church where her siblings learned to read. She had fallen behind her siblings as a soldier began chasing her into the outskirts of the forest. He raped and beat her to death.

Charli, Thompson and Rose had escaped into the woods, heading towards the city of Oviaer.

The Crawford's home was burned to the ground upon discovery. No one was found by soldiers apart from the family cat, Oats, which had his head smashed in with the hilt of a sword.

Mathel escaped with as many belongings as she could carry into the forest. She fell in a steep slip, breaking her neck leaving her paralysed.

Dolly found her groaning in agony, pried Mathels fingers from two bags worth of food and a waterskin and put her out of her misery in one swift motion.

Dolly waited for days hidden in the woods until the army deemed the village dead, before travelling north-east to the Capital.

The Larian army marched down the eastern road, killing, pillaging and burning everything in their way. For once Laria had Oviaer, the King would have nothing left to crush but the Capital and Court of Juve.