Cursed Moon

Chapther 1

STELLA

I can't breathe.

My life has fallen apart in a matter of hours, and right now I don't seem to have a viable way out to survive. No matter how hard I search my brain, there is nothing.

Just emptiness.

Maybe dying is a better option.

I push that idea out of my head, because Dad raised me with ideals in life and he wouldn't want me to take my own life. My religion would not allow it, and if in some of the cases I have to die, I would like to be reunited with all my family in that eternal paradise.

I am very afraid, I am scared, I don't know what to do. The darkness envelops everything, preventing me from knowing what time it is and if I am close to my destination.

Tears leak from my eyes as I walk, I have tried to run, I cannot. My knees are stained with blood, full of wounds and the bruises are multiplying. To add to my misfortune, the roots of the trees in the forest are scratching the soles of my feet.

I can't take it anymore.

I want to give up. I don't want to continue this torture.

I should have died with them.

But I'm still here and that's much more agonizing.

I just hope Dad, Mom and my siblings are together in a place filled with peace and happiness.

Will death be dark?

Will they feel anything?

A sob comes out of my burning chest, I can't control my crying while I sort through the large fir trees that surround me. I need to get out of this territory, but first I have to look for the box that dad hid, in case this happens.

I think they knew this would end up happening.

They killed them.

And they took me to another place, they mistreated me, they insulted me, they hit me and...

I hit a tree, I hug it because I need to stop. I need to breathe. I can't believe this is happening. I want to wake up from this nightmare. The bark of the tree hurts my bare chest, so I move away.

I close my eyes, a bad idea, because the memory of my family's mutilated bodies appears.

The pain is so great that I can't resist, I get a little dizzy trying to get my bearings. The forest is too big, I hear the noise that the animals make in the distance. I'm shaking with fear, anger, sadness.

I'm alone.

And they have broken me.

They have taken everything I had from me.

My body is naked, full of horrendous marks that are drawings that represent the bad things those men did to me. My pretty hair that is always full of long blonde curls, is now a meaningless tangle full of mud and blood. The dried blood stains my crotch, the path continues down my legs until it disappears into my ankles.

Those bandits were in charge of killing my family, and made me see each of the tortures they committed against my loved ones.

Then they went against all my neighbors.

And finally against me.

My village is destroyed.

I have nowhere to go.

I lack air. I feel suffocated, the pieces of my broken heart drown me.

Dad told me that if something like this happened, to go to the tree we always visited, and that he would dig up the dirt on the right side until a rusty box appeared in my vision. He said it was the only way to save my life and survive. That's what I'm doing right now, going there, or at least I'm trying to.