Fallen (yaoi)

1- Summer

It was the longest day of the year when they came, the summer far too beautiful for the horrific things that happened.

Blossom fell amongst the floating fluff from the cotton plants. I lay in the long grass, between the trees in the orchard. Dad would be angry if he knew that I had abandoned my chores to enjoy the warmth but right then, I didn't care. Birds were singing, a steady tinkle from the fountains in the main garden tempted me to sleep, however, the shrill yet comforting laughs of the master's children. kept me awake. It was all so perfect. So calm. But then there was that shout. The mistress' shout, twisted with panic,

"Soldiers!" I sat bolt upright, my heart in my throat. All went silent. Then all I could hear was the hooves of the horses, tearing past the fence at the end of the orchard, heading towards the village. Seeing their red gloss carriages tearing past sprang me into action, panic rising as I hauled myself over the wall separating the orchard from the main garden. Kipper, the masters eldest, looked up as I ran towards the master's family. His eyes were scared but determined, as if this danger had switched some courage button inside him.

"Kip, why're they here?" He opened his mouth to say something but his mother beat him to it.

"Fell, honey, help take the little ones down to the wine cellar, then go and find your father."

"My dad?"

She forces a smile, her pretty face strained, "Yes." She pulls the youngest- baby Lo- up into her arms and runs towards the house. Kip nods to me then grips seven year old Taisy's arm, tugging the scared girl in the direction of the cellar, me following with Taisy's twin sister, Bump.

I'm usually faster than Kip but today he stays ahead of me, probably with the same fear coursing through him that I have. He stops me when we get to the cellar door,

"I'll take her. Go find your dad."

"Kip, what's going on?"

He shakes his head, his dark hair gleaming, " I don't know. Honestly, Fell, I don't." Bump starts to cry and he runs with them down into the cool darkness of the cellar. I can hear the soldiers again, closer than they were before.

It doesn't take me long to find dad, he appears through the door that we'd just run through. He looks wrong, limping towards me, all muddy and rough, in the rich glass conservatory. But then again, so do I.

"Dad-" he cuts me off, shoving a bag into my chest.

"Wear these. Now!" He's shouting, hurriedly closing doors and windows. The main gates clang open, shouts are ringing through the estate. I unzip the dirty canvas bag. Inside is clothes, Kip's clothes.

"Why do I have to wear them?" Dad lurches towards me, slapping me round the face,

"Put. Them. On." My face stings as I kneel on the marble floor, tugging off my clothes. Dad groans as a crashing sound echoes through the manor. The soldiers are here. They're in the house. My hands are shaking, my heart threatening to burst as I desperately try to change. But everything suddenly goes silent. No shouts, no crashes, no nothing. Just my own frenzied breathing. I freeze, we both do, me om the floor, with Kip's shirt half done up and my dad standing by the door leading to the rest of the house. The silence is deafening.

Then we hear a laugh. A cruel laugh, long and invasive. I turn slowly around. I gasp. A soldier stands on the patio in the garden, smiling at me through the glass door. A silver tipped cane pushes the door open with a paralysing gentleness.