Take Me Away

Chapter 1 - My Moon

The war wasn't a sudden thing. I didn't wake up one day to a declration of war. It was more of a gradual thing. We all knew it was coming, everyone was expecting it. I suppose that's better in a way, I mean it wasn't much of a shock when all the killing started. We were all waiting for it to happen. The waiting was scarier than the actual fighting.

I hated the fact most of my childhood was spent cowering in my papa's bed, dreading a bomb blast. I would wrap myself in the blanket, digging myself deep into the mattress. I knew that a blanket wasn't enough protection against a bomb blast. But it was comforting. The familiar scent of papa was enough to calm me, enough to take away all the tears. I had wanted the final scent I inhaled to be my Papa's.

I'm horrified when I look back at it all now. A child shouldn't be thinking about their own death. It simply wasn't right.

What they did was selfish, there is no better way to explain it. As much as I hate the coward, who calls himself the leader of our country, and was the one who started all this, I also equally hate the so-called rebels. The people promising us change.

Oh, they brought change alright. Bad Change. They were never doing it for us poor commoners, were they? It wasn't very hard for them to kill innocent people, was it? They scarred me for life. I can never have a peaceful night of sleep. Ever. My dreams are filled with lifeless bodies of people I knew. People I loved. Their faces with the same look. The same look of fear. My dreams are filled with their agonizing screams of terror. Their emotion filled pleas for help. And I hate it. I hate not being able to help them. I hate watching them die in front of me. I hate seeing them being taken away from me.

Do you know what the worst part is? The worst part is that it's still happening. And it's affecting people like me every day. Both sides still committing murders of countless people each day. I honestly can't understand why anyone would do this. Why would anyone want to end the lives of this many people? What is it that they want? What is it all for?

My brother Isaac had said that it's cause they're all greedy. Greedy for power. Both sides would stop at nothing to achieve this. He had said that the death of innocents doesn't bother them. Why would it?

Isaac wanted us to leave Syria right at the start of the war. He said Syria wasn't safe anymore and that the war was the start of the self-destruction of the country. But papa disagreed. Papa didn't want to leave Syria. After all, it was the place he had called home for all his life. He assured us that the war would get better. But it never did. As each day went by, the number of people killed by both sides grew. All around us, people were leaving. The fighters tore our city apart, but Papa was still adamant that we weren't going to leave the shattered country.

***

The moon stood proudly among the clouds, gleaming down on me. Sadly, I couldn't return the same amount of joy. I'd no idea how long I'd been sat on top of this building, but it was long enough for the sun's golden rays to disappear and the sky to be instead filled with the luminous light of the mother moon. I stretched my arms and let out a yawn. I was indeed very tired, and I needed to urgently catch up on some sleep if I was to carry on my journey.

I hated sleep, I'd been trying to function with a little sleep as possible, but I don't think I can keep that up very long. Sleep was something I dreaded. For some people, it was an escape. A brief time of peace, where they weren't in a world of corruption and killing.

Sleep for me, however, is a very different story. As I slip away into the darkness of sleep, images of people that I'd lost would flash in front of me. Their last moments would be re-lived in my dreams, and I'd have to sit there helplessly, watching them cry out in indescribable pain. I'm forced to see this every single time I rest my eyes, there's no way to escape it.

So, I would have to lie awake at night, whilst everyone was sleeping, alone, staring into nothing but darkness. The only one who would keep me company was the moon.As I whisper's my day's problems, the moon would be patient enough of to listen, her sweet smile keeping me sane every day.

I shivered as a cool breeze swept past me, I hugged myself with my arms and laid down. I glanced at the beaming moon and whispered, "I have no one, they're gone", my lips were trembling as I uttered the last word.