Behind the Tears of War

Chapter four

The fire was warm against my face, as I rubbed my hands over it in order to heat up my shaky palms. Matt watched the fire silently, there was no words for the events that had happened. We lost a day of travel, and there was nothing we could do about it.

Katrina had fallen asleep after I carried her to the campsite. Her eyes were puffy and pink from crying, I hated whoever would think to do that to a little girl of her age. Matt gave up his hoodie to Katrina as she slowly fell into a light slumber. I'd found my little sister, and now, I had no idea how to comfort her. I still had one question burning on my mind. 'Why were the Pendomite's looking for Katrina and I specifically?'

Time passed by, as I stared at the fire rather exhausted. I was still afraid to drift into sleep, as I glared at the crackling fire. Suddenly there was something that sounded as if a gunshot ringing in the distance. Then followed by a heart wrenching scream that pierced the air. My eyes bounced to Matt, "What was that?!" I was frantic as Matt stood up hesitantly.

"Get your sister, we need to hide right now." Matt whispered in a rush while stomping the fire out.

I silently tiptoed to pick up my little sister. Her eyes fluttered open as I did so. "Wha- what's going on?" She whispered in a tired voice. At her voice I allowed her to stand up herself.

"I don't know." I told her. "But whatever it is, It can't be very good." I whispered as both Katrina and I began to catch up with Matt. Katrina was dragging her feet tiredly against the floor. I picked her up, and helped her onto my back, so that she couldn't slow us down. Her arms we're wrapped around my neck, but not enough to choke me.

Matt led us throughout the tangle of trees, and finally backed up into a narrow path of bushes that could hide us if we were quite enough. I sat closest to the nature created path, that we'd been running through. Katrina was in between Matt and I both. I held my breath as I heard feet pattering across the path near us. But, at the sight of the two lost girls, I sighed in relief.

They looked frantic, and the blonde girl had tears welling in her eyes. She stopped in her tracks and dropped to the floor bursting into tears. The other girl was a red head and seemed to be quite older than any of us, she stopped in her tracks and gave the other girl a sympathetic look. I looked at Matt asking permission to help. He nodded at me, and I immediately stood up and sneaking through the bushes we had been hiding in. Which made the redhead jump in fright.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you guys, but you are not safe in this area." I whispered to them both.

The blonde girl was still freaking out, she couldn't breath, and she was rocking back and forth to soothe herself. I felt horrible, her eyes became more pink and puffy as she continued to sob. There was a silence for a second or two, between the redhead and I. She suddenly nodded and smiled weakly, choosing to trust me.

She stepped forward placing a hand on the blonde girl's shoulder. "Clarissa, come on, we need to hide." She whispered shakily. The redhead wrapped an arm around Clarissa and helped stabilize the girl to her feet. Clarissa was still weeping quietly, but listened nonetheless. I stepped through the bushes to show them through.

Matt looked up questioningly, as I sat back down, allowing my little sister to fall back asleep against my lap while I leaned against the tree. The two girls were behind me slightly and sat across from Matt, Katrina, and I. The redhead was trying, to soothe the blondes crying as she continued to shake slightly. Soon enough her cries began to muffle, and Clarissa was asleep.

The redhead looked up at The three of us thankfully. "Thanks so much,"she whispered before taking a small breath. "Oh my name is Ann, and this is my little sister Clarissa." She nodded to the now asleep girl beside her.