HAVEN BLACK - complete

THE SLAUGHTER

Chapter 3 – THE SLAUGHTER

A radiating heat from a nearby fire felt soothing after the long hours I'd just spent in the cold left of my head throbbed as I felt a disorientating sensation of blood rushing into my left ear. Murmuring sounds, the crackling of burning wood and the pelting of rain against a window reverberated around my head. Turning from pitch black to a flickering grey, my vision slowly returned, but I kept my eyes shut, for I was too afraid to see what was waiting for me on the other side of my eye lids. A pain burned on my wrists and as I wiggled them slowly I realized that they were bound to the chair I was sitting on. I could barely move them at all and any movement caused an intense increase in the burning sensation. I tried shifting my feet, but they too were bound tight.

Slowly opening my eyes towards the flicking light of the fire, the room became familiar; I was in our den, our living area where we'd spent so many times as a family conversing in each others company and comfort. My thoughts were short lived as my eyes soon fell upon him, the monstrous Nazi beast; He sat in a chair, in his black uniform, next to the mantle with a cigar hanging out of his mouth, his face smirking with an inhumanly delight.

Anger welled up inside my chest. Tensing all my bodily muscles and bracing myself against the burning ropes that bounded me, I strained in an attempt to break out of the rope – but it was hopeless.

An agonizing moaning sound haunted my left - It sounded like my father, and it sounded as though he was in great pain.

With my nostrils flaring, I cocked my head towards the noise and saw my family bound by rope to our dining chairs that were laid out in a semi circle around the fire place. Groaning, Father sat fastened to the chair on the far side, blood seeped off his fore head – he was barely conscience. Terror consumed my mother's face as she stared back at me, her eyes petrified. My brother's bottom lip trembled as tears streamed down his young, terror stricken face.

A snickering whisper crept up from behind me. Straining my neck further sideways, I turned to look behind me and saw the rest of the Nazi men standing behind us, eagerly waiting. I couldn't see the man that stood behind me, but I could smell his dirty stench; His heavy, smoke burdened breath descended on my neck and his hands kept rubbing up and down the backs of my arms. I shuddered to think what he was currently thinking.

My arm... the bullet... I couldn't feel the pain anymore! Looking down at my left, a ripped off piece of clothing was tightly wrapped around the wound. A small patch of blood had worked its way through the fabric.

My fear had all but diminished the moment my Grandmother was killed – anger and deep hatred had since replaced it.

"What do you want from us?!" I bellowed out hotly at the man smoking the cigar casually.

"Oh little girl, how old are you? Seventeen? Eighteen? Surely you are old enough to know what my men want – what they crave... I cannot deny them of this desire when it is right here, ready to be served. They need to have their hunger satisfied... I need to have my hunger satisfied. And you're oh so pretty."

"Go to hell!" I screamed harshly.

"Oh yes, I almost forgot one more detail..." the SS officer continued smugly. "...you are also going to watch your family get slowly murdered"

"No!" I breathed in disbelief.

Both my mother and little brother's sobs became distinctively louder.

Feeling as though we were running out of options, I started moving my shoulders from left to right, putting as much weight as I could into each swing - the burning sensation around my wrists erupted again but I pushed forward gritting my teeth. The chair rocked a little bit on the first try, the legs lifting off the ground only slightly. But the next swing was momentous and the chair lost its balance and tipped sharply to my left.

Not being able to break the fall with my bound hands, I crashed sideways to the ground. The side of my head slapped the floor and searing pain shot through my cheek bone. I could now see my family in full view of our despairing situation. The light from the fire place flickered shadows that scampered on the Nazi's faces as they looked at me fiendishly from their towering positions above my family who sat helplessly below them.

"Should I help..." The soldier who had stood behind me called out to the SS commander who abruptly shook his head in response.

"Let her lay there, she has a good view of her family" said the SS officer, smiling childishly at me.

Opening up my mouth to protest, a sharp pain traveled through my jaw and no more than a squeak escaped my lips. My jaw... it was hurt from the fall.

Speaking in German, the commander addressed his men all of whom responded accordingly by rising shiny metal objects from their belts – knives, our very own knives from the kitchen. Fear and panic returned as I shook on the floor bound to the chair in a despairing attempt to escape. The rope around my ankles and hands burned fiercely again against my skin as I desperately tried to pull myself free.

The soldiers waited, their knives now pressed against my family's throats.

Exhausted, my muscles refused to work anymore and I slumped back on my side to the ground, my eyes open to see my family alive for the last time.

The soldiers each gripped a knife in their right hand and in their left hand they grasped their victim's hair and pulled downwards, forcing my family to look up, exposing their throats upon where the knives threatened malice. My father, mother and brother sat there in still silence, daring not to move an inch. Their sobs had stopped but their breathing was erratic and panicky.

Almost simultaneously, I watched in utter terror as the sharp metal blades cut slowly along their necks. A trail of blood pulsated from under their chins and a haunting whistling sounded from their necks as their lungs gasped for air through their throats. A few horrifying seconds later, the soldiers let go of their hair and their heads slumped forward, blood still streaming from their severed necks. Looking up through the tears that streamed out of my eyes, I saw the evil murderer's smiling at me – tormenting me. A deafening scream lingered only in my head as I could now barely open my jaw.

Forcing my head upwards, I peered towards the SS officer, my vision blurry. He stood up off his chair and walked towards me. The soldier who stood behind me and the SS commander grasped the chair that I was tied to and lifted me up back into a sitting position. I felt tugging at my legs and arms as they untied me from the chair.

It was now or never.

I mustered the last of my energy into my legs and pushed them with all my remaining strength to stand up and run away. But my effort was met with large hands that push my shoulders down, forcing me back on the hard chair. It was utterly hopeless. The man who now stood facing me opened his mouth, bearing his blackened teeth, and stuck out his tongue as he moved his face closer to mine. With his face now only inch from mine, the man's repulsive moist tongue slithered upwards on my lips and I felt my stomach wrenched abhorrently.

It then dawned on me that they were all going to rape me.