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Our footsteps splashed across the dripping soil of the dense fir forest quickly. The trees and leaves of the bushes sounded through incessant rain. And the thunder echoed throughout the valley as if this were the last thunderstorm we would experience.
I did not know what we were running away from. I did not even know why. But my father warned us – me, my little sister, and my mother – not to slow down. "Hang in there! Soon we'll have made it!" his voice rang out, louder than the raging lightning above us. You could tell from his tone that the situation was dead serious.
Thus, I did not ask any more questions, and moved forward as hastily as my small body would allow me. Small, jagged stones and wild thorn hedges made their way into my bare feet every so often and tore unpleasant wounds into my skin.
"Continue! Don't stop!" I was told every time the pain became too great, and I thought about jerking to a halt. The others felt the same way. We were nothing more than poor farmers after all who could not even afford decent footwear. The rusty sword that my father carried around his waist was probably the most valuable in our possession. He unsheathed it, when my mother suddenly stumbled over a root, hindering our progress.
We helped her back to her feet in the wink of an eye. She, however, had injured herself so badly in the fall that she could not go on. My father held her safe by one hand and looked around restlessly. "Take the children and leave me behind!" she said to him in a tearful voice.
Before he could answer, demonic screaming arose from the direction we had come from. It was still far enough away now, but it was rapidly approaching and instilled even more fear in me the louder it became at that.
"W- What's that, father?" I stammered, and then held on to him, trembling.
He looked down at me, then at my mother and sister, and finally into the dense fir forest, but did not say a word. Due to the heavy rainy weather, it had become so dark between the trees and bushes that I could no longer make out his expression. But I was sure that he was troubled more than ever before right now.
"Take your sister and run as fast as you can, Aidan!" he suddenly ordered me without warning and pushed me away from him.
"No, Ephraim! You can't let the children go on their own. They need you to –"
"If I don't buy them some time, none of us will survive," he interrupted her harshly. "Besides, I can't just leave you behind."
"Father –"
Further demonic screaming took my breath away for a moment. Judging by the deafening volume, it was now dangerously close. Crackling and rustling were also noticeable in the nearby scrub. There was no time left.
"Now go, my son!" These were my father's last words before he finally turned away from me and prepared himself for what was about to happen.
I held back my tears and ran away hand in hand with my sister. Shortly thereafter, I heard my father roar in despair. And a moment later it was dead silent. Only our splashing feet sounded in my ears now, whereby I had to admit that four were now missing – four that I would certainly never hear again.
My tears emerged and blurred my vision. "Now is no time for grief," I thought to myself and quickly wiped them away. But like the rain, they did not stop beading down my cheeks and lips. With a salty taste in my mouth, and my little sister in tow, I reached a small clearing then.
I paused and looked around in all directions. "Father, where now?" it slipped out of me, whereupon it struck my conscience mercilessly that we were on our own. "Where do we have to go?" Hoping that my sister would have an answer, I looked at her insistently. But she was too young to even realise what was going on. "What now?" I asked desperately. And then demonic screaming made itself felt again.
Wraithlike figures walked forth from between the tree trunks menacingly and gradually encircled us. I tightened my grip on my sister's hand and tried to find an escape route. Meanwhile, the black shadows approached leisurely, groaning like the living dead. "There!" I shouted and wanted to go for it.
But then I suddenly heard a fleshy smacking behind me, which briefly made the cool rain feel warm. I stood there rooted to the spot and turned to my sister. Her hand still seemed so alive, but her head was already dangling to the ground, lifeless. A head-sized hole in her stomach had taken her out of life from one moment to the next. And a moment further, her entire body was dismembered by invisible forces. Another warming gush of blood came down on me at that.
The strength left my legs thereupon, and I stumbled backwards to the ground, still holding her hand. Only when I could truly process what had just happened, did I drop it, press my hands to my temples, and let out a terrible scream in the middle of the forest. For a while, nothing else could be heard. Soon, however, I fell silent, and so there was room for the sound of thunder and rain again.
The wraithlike figures stopped around me in a tight, circular arrangement and then looked at me with their non-existent eyes. They could have killed me a long time ago, but they did not. Something told me that they were feasting on my suffering more right now than they could on shedding my blood.
"Why did this have to happen, God? We have never done anything wrong. Why do you allow something like this to happen to us?" it raced through my hopeless thoughts. Of course, I did not receive an answer to my questions. I could have sobbed, but what for. I was sure that there was no way out, so I accepted my miserable fate.
After I had come to terms with my situation, they suddenly became restless and screamed again like bloodthirsty demons. I closed my eyes and was ready for death.
An ice-cold breeze ran through my body as they suddenly approached me and intended to finish me off. But before they could disfigure me like the rest of my family, a bright storm of lightning followed by a mighty rumble of thunder swept across the sky. Lightning struck them and shattered their ranks then. One of the silhouettes completely vanished into thin air.
"Come quickly! There's another survivor," a female voice shouted nearby. Immediately afterwards, several people unknown to me stepped into the clearing. At least, I could not make out their faces. My vision went black by exhaustion – exhaustion that was coming over me only now. And then I fainted.
