S E W A K T U

E D E L W A I S S

November 1993. 

Snow fell as it has always been in this place and night fell quicker than usual. Only one or two were seen out against the biting cold of November wind after the sun sets at five and the temperature dropped below zero.

'I should got back home earlier,' A girl looked around nervously while walking down the cobblestone street, hands in her pocket. 'better hurry before some funny people came here.'

This story took place on a remote village off the european mainland coast. It was hardly recorded in the map, a small village in one of the nook of the mountains. The village was small. Most of the building were built traditionally with stones and wood and were erected closely one to another with narrow cobblestone path linking the buildings. There was hardly any wagon due to the size of the streets, perhaps except on the outer area where the farmers live.

It used to be a calm village before civil war took place and spread even to this village. The rebels erected camp nearby the village and started training their soldiers. Many of them came from the mainland, only a few came from the area nearby. Quiet nights turn to dangerous time for children and adults alike, with fights broke on streets and robbery took place at the area nearby the camp.

She was about to take a turn when a gunshot halted her in her track. The girl took a deep breath before she could scream, covered her own mouth and immediately took a step back to hide on the corner of the building, hoping that whoever was fighting didn't see her yet. She could feel her teeth clattering and her feet betraying her, her heart was pounding as if trying to escape her ribcages and tears began to well up on the corner of the eyes. Slowly she lowered herself and prayed hard nobody saw her.

Another bang and she covered her ears. It came from the street she was about to take a second earlier, the only way to home she can take. She inhaled deeply and took a peek, hoping her ear was fooling her but alas, there they were, standing a few meters away from her. A boy and a few men surrounding him. One of them seemed to have been beaten down.

Quicker than a running squirrel the girl pulled herself back and decided to wait while praying. The men are royal guards and the boy seemed to be one of the guerillas. He wouldn't stand a chance so she thought the fight should be over in no time and she can ran home afterwards.

It hadn't even been another minute passed before row and row of gunshots echoed through the stone alley. The girl covered her ears and squatted down, but she still could hear yells and something heavy falling on the street. The gun shot stopped and for a while there was only silence. Someone spat loudly and she could hear heavy footsteps trodding the street along with strings of curses. Lucky for her the sound grew weaker and there finally was nothing else she could hear except her own heaved breath.

She leant forward to check on the surrounding, making sure everyone had gone and it's safe for her to pass. It was rather hard to see with the weak illumination on the street and the fog which had seemed to rise from the ground since the last snowfall in the afternoon. She stood up and looked around. She tried to see past the shadow of the building surrounding her. She tried to hear as many sound as possible before began to made her way through the narrow path.

The girl began to walk down the street, eyes still watching her surrounding when they fell on the place where the fight took place. She gasped and stopped on her track, her eyes widened. For some reason the soldier didn't bring along the boy they killed but rather left him to die on the street.

The girl was about to leave when she noticed the boy's chest was still moving. She moved closer, ignoring the tightening senses around her stomach and touched the boy on his forehead while looking for any sign of life. Turned out he was breathing weakly, still jerked when the girl touched her, and was shuddering due to the biting cold. It was winter but all he had was a thin shirt with no coat on.