Shadow Part 1, Genesis

Chapter 4

"Run!"

Aeliana jumped in panic as she heard a woman shouting.

"Run!"

Hearing all the chaos around her, as everyone tried to put out the flames, she turned to see a woman desperately running towards her.

"Aeliana, run!"

The woman wore a familiar, soft, white linen garment, which flowed behind her while she ran, and as the smoke from the fire began to clear, the woman's pale face and pleasant voice become more noticeable.

"Mary?!" Aeliana yelled while peering into the smoke ahead and over the houses at the fiery blaze. "Mary! What the hell is going on?"

Mary, Aeliana's lifelong friend, rushed quickly towards her, with her long brown hair bouncing wildly in the wind. She grasped Aeliana's shoulders, frantically shaking her backwards and forwards. She was hysterical, her large hazelnut eyes shown in the lantern's afterglow, proved that she was as frightened as Aeliana.

"Run! Quickly! It's Cato! He's looking for you!" Just as Mary said his name, the trembling suddenly moved throughout her whole body.

"Aeliana!! Where are you!!" Cato's drunken slur shot from behind the houses where Mary came from, and as the babies began to quiver uncontrollably from Aeliana's wobbling arms, she could feel her whole body shudder.

With the flames gushing from her hut and his voice blasting through the smoke, he wasn't only going to beat her this time, he was going to beat her within an inch of her life.

"Oh my god. Don't let him find me! Please!" Aeliana cried as tears began to fill her eyes.

"His soldiers are doing what they can to stop him but he won't stop looking for you!" Mary exclaimed, while pointing in the direction she had just ran from.

Immediately Mary's attention focused towards the children in her arms.

"Aeliana?! What? Who are they! Where... Don't worry" she said confused "Just run!!"

Snatching the lantern from Aeliana, she turned and pushed her in the opposite direction to the other side of town. Holding onto the babies firmly with the strength Aeliana had left, they both started running for their lives as the children's constant cry carried on through the distance behind them.

With Mary ahead of her leading the way around the outskirts of town, Aeliana could barely keep up, yet alone breath properly.

"Quickly! We've got to get to the other side of town and lose Cato!" Mary whispered worryingly.

"I can barely keep up with you. I'm too tired Mary" Aeliana replied.

Mary then found a solution. Pointing in the direction through the town's market place, she answered, "Alright, we'll go through this way and hopefully cut off a bit of distance through the market".

Taking a right through the town's market, while running into tables, knocking down pottery and smashing vases from the few stalls sticking out of the wall in their path, Aeliana couldn't keep up. With her bare feet bashing against the hard dusty ground, her legs and her arms started to become heavy. Shuffling along, her legs shot a stinging pain which surged throughout her whole body and she could hardly balance herself. She was exhausted. Leaning against the wooden walls of the closed stalls, Mary Looked back to see Aeliana struggle and came to a halt.

"Aeli, let me help carry one of the babies," She insisted.

Aeliana didn't want to let go, but knowing her arms were eventually giving in, Mary ran back and slowly picked up the baby in her left arm, the baby with the blue eyes.