Chapter one.
Running around the meadow, dodging rocks and trampling daisies; I was chasing my younger brother, Kahn, he was such a typical ten year old, thinking the world was his oyster and he could do anything he wanted, he thought he was invincible to everything. That's why I had to protect him from everything, he thought I was just being silly, but he didn't know of the terrible dangers that could happen any time, any day like I did. I saw it all happen in front of my very own eyes, but I was too numb to feel myself slowly descending from it.
It happened when I was seven, and Kahn was five. My mother got sick, some disease no inside doctor could recognise. But it was highly contagious, I was confused at the time, thinking back now It seems I should have got sick but I didn't. Too many people died, and then, more people died from loss. I couldn't explain it, I suppose It was like a great depression in the Village.
My father left the village shortly after the disease came in, set on finding a cure. His friend, Gregory could identify the root that carried a likely cure. He didn't need proof, he had hope. And I had tears. Those days when my father left were terrible, Kahn just looked up at me with curious eyes, and I wondered why my family was falling apart, and mum was always in bed. She stopped moving shortly after the disease set in, she just sat in bed, without moving or speaking to anyone. I wished dad would come back. I remember overhearing a conversation with my mother and grandmother a few days before she died.
She was laying in bed, looking at the ceiling, her voice cracked with effort.
"He's not coming back. I'm dying. And I need you to.. Take care of them".
Grandmother couldn't speak, I suppose, then I heard a whimper and another croak.
I snuck upstairs and cried into my pillow.
Kahn asked why I was crying, when we were having steak and kidney soup tonight, and that was my favourite.
