Short Stories

Justice is Served

"Please!"

The mother screamed, a broken body in her arms.

"Please! Bring him back! Bring him back to me!" Her hollow wails echoed around the forest, carried by an endless wind.

"Take me! Take me! Someone, please, someone bring him back!"

Hunters stood around her slumped body, their faces blank, and their clothes stained red. Their ageless eyes staring down at her, at the broken body she held so tightly.

The mother looked up at them, nothing but rage and endless sorrow in her red eyes. Eyes that once glowed with colour and life.

"You killed him, you killed him," She whispered, repeating the words as she looked around the circle, from hunter to hunter. Staring at each of their immortal faces.

As one they looked right back at her. They did not speak, mortal languages too short lived for them to bother learning.

Then they moved, a small gap appearing in their circle. A young maiden walked into the circle, escorted by another hunter who joined it. Closing off all chance of escape.

The maiden knelt in front of the mother, placing her small, delicate hands on the woman's tear stained face.

"Justice has been served. Your sins cleansed. You are free to go, continue living," The maiden said firmly, but gently.

"How can I live? Now that all I stand for is gone?" The mother asked, her voice raw from screaming.

"Justice has been served," the maiden said again, "Your crimes paid for, do not waste yourself in grief of something you caused."

The mother sobbed again, looking down at her child. The maiden followed her gaze, the mother's arms were covered in dried blood, her white dress now a vibrant red. She took her hands from the mother's face, hands now wet with salty tears. She looked at the child in the woman's arms without fear, without horror.

With gentle hands, she reached for the child, the mother pulled him close but didn't stop the maiden as she leaned down and kissed the child's bruised cheek.

"Forget this child, forget this forest. Your justice has been served, you cannot fight it, you cannot stop it, you can only accept it and move on," she looked down at the boy, his once silky hair, his slim, child's body, "Leave the child with me, I will protect him with my life, I will raise him as my own."

Newly formed tears appeared in the mother's eyes, she glanced at the hunters that stood around her, all twelve of them. Twelve hunters, to bring out justice.

Following her gaze again, the maiden said, "They cannot touch him, they can no longer harm him, he is under my protection."

A broken sob came out of the woman's lips, "I-I failed him, he was mine, and I failed him. Th-this is all my fault"

"Yes," the maiden replied gently, but not harshly, "Yes, it is. You did not think twice before committing your sins. Your mistakes caused you to be hunted, caused his life to end, do not lie to yourself and say otherwise. You must learn from your mistakes, grow. Your child may be dead, but this is justice, you cannot take more than you give and expect no consequences."

The maiden reached for the child, the mother held him close but let the maiden scoop him into her small arms. She held him for a few minutes, looking at the child's bloodied face. After a while the child began to move, his arms and legs stretching slowly, as if waking from a deep sleep.

A sharp, painful gasp came out of the mother at the sight.

"Th-thank you. Thank you. I – how – thank you," she wept, tears of joy spilling out of her eyes once more. She stared at the child moving, did not question how he was alive. She reached for the child, wanting to bring him close to her heart once more. But the maiden leaned back, turning her body so the mother cannot reach her beloved.

The mother froze in mid-air, arms still outstretched. Her face went slack, her mouth gaping at the maiden.

She looked the hunters, then back at her child. As if remembering the death they had caused to her babe.

"But they killed him," She whispered.

The maiden nodded, "They do not punish the innocent, the child will live, but not as yours. This is your payment."

"I-I, how- why?" The mother's arms hung motionless at her sides, her eyes filled with shock and pain. The maiden placed a hand on her shoulder, looking into her eyes with understanding. The mother was the one to break the gaze that spoke more than a thousand words, she, instead, looked her child, "C-c-can I hold h-him one last t-time?"

"No," The maiden sighed, getting to her feet. She stood, looking down at the woman on her knees, "No, you cannot."

"Why?" Betrayal shone on the woman's face, more than any emotion. Soon, she started screaming, "Why? He is mine! Give him back! This isn't fair!"

"No, this is justice," The maiden's face hardened, her gaze becoming unforgiving. She turned on her heel and strode out of the clearing, the hunters following her without a glance behind.

The woman continued screaming, even as the wails of a child echoed through the forest.

"Please!"