The Sinister blade

S I X T E E N : T A L O N

Tonight, is exactly 20 years ago since it happened. I was 5 years old when I was laying down next to my parents. My father was reading a short story. I loved to hear those stories from him. I loved the happy endings he told, and the wisdom he concluded out of the sad endings. 

Unlike my baby brother, Kusta, who slept every time before the story is finished; I stayed up and couldn't blink until I know how it ends & find what happens. That's how curious I was. My parents loved that about me. They kissed our forehead every night before they turn off the lights. They kissed our forehead that night as well.

Suddenly, the door slammed open. Giant men attacked us. I didn't know what was happening, I never lived such event. I didn't know those guys as well. I saw my parents and how they panicked. For the first time, my father who always found solution and knew what to do, he was clueless. 

I watched my father hold me up, while my mother held my little brother. He threw me off the window to fall in between trees outside. I waited for them to come to me as well, but they didn't. I could only hear mom's screams, dad's shouts, and my little brother crying. I looked at the window all the time, waiting for them to jump off as well. But I only saw the giant silhouettes' shadows, and how they attacked my family.

I stood on the tree clueless of what just happened. My body was too little to move anywhere. I couldn't bare the voices I head nor I could bare the scene I see through the shadows. I looked down and covered my ears with my hands. Hoping I won't hear anything. 

I looked down and I saw the same giant monsters breaking into every house of the tribe. The screams stopped, but that muted image of raid was worse than the sound. I closed my eyes and cried, knowing I just had the last kiss from my parents. Feeling something which I've never experienced before, fear.

I woke up in a room full of lights and colours. Covered with a fine duvet. As I tried to get up, my head started spinning. I held it to find a bandage wrapped over my forehead. I looked around me and I saw other people laying down in their beds. I looked around me again and I thought maybe this is the happy ending I was hearing about in stories. 

I walked towards the window; everything was white. The snow covered all the trees & the entire surface. The place was too silent but I would still hear the screams of my family. The entire scene was playing in front of me over and over again.

I closed my ears but the sound wouldn't stop. My hands started sweating and I was having palpitations. That moment, I could hardly breath. I looked around me and I tried to leave the room panting. The door seemed locked at first. My little body didn't have enough strength to open it. It felt like choking, I had no solution but keep kicking the door and screaming. 

Everyone in the room woke up, but no one of them moved to check up on me. No one of them talked to me. They blankly looked at me.

I couldn't stop the voices I heard, nor could runaway from this room. I felt so weak and fell down. That moment, a strange man opened the door.

'' Are you okay? '' He asked me. Holding my face between his palms.

I had no energy to respond to anyone. I had no energy to fight the sadness which was swallowing me. All I knew was fear in that moment. And it was fear which I wanted to get rid of.

As I cried silently, the man held me between his hands and moved me to another room. I was too weak, too tired, too broken to notice anything around me. We arrived to an isolated room, away from everyone. It's just me and the stranger now. I have been told to do not speak to strangers, do not trust them, in this world, everyone who asks for something its for a reason, my mother said.

'' Do you feel better? '' The stranger asked.

'' What do you want from me? '' my voice was still shaking.

'' How about you tell me what you want? '' The stranger looked into my eyes. He seemed like he understood me. More importantly, he seemed like he understood what was happening.

'' You cannot give me what I want. '' I was too young to understand what I lost. But the way the man looked at me told me that its something I can never get back. '' I want my family. ''

'' Would you accept to be part of my family? '' The stranger offered for me to have a new family. New parents. I couldn't know if it would be the right thing to do if I accept his suggestion. But I knew that it'd be better than staying alone. I nodded to the man with tears still streaming down my face.

That time, accepting his offer felt like betraying my own family. That moment, I wished I could play the entire scene backwards. I wished I could wake up and realized all of this is a nightmare. Maybe it's one of the ghosts & raid stories which my friends told me that has affected me. But that was real. Everything that happened was real.

As I couldn't understand the feelings and thoughts I had. The stranger held me in his arms again, taking me to his vehicle. It was too cold to feel anything outside. I numbly looked at the place around me. The snow. The umbrella held by guards on top of us. Whoever this stranger was he was my saviour. He was my hope. And I needed a sign of hope to hold on to. 

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Hey guys! Hope all is well 

so sorry for the delay, was quiet busy with studies & life...

I would be delighted to know what you think of this chapter and Talon's history xx

The Du Couteaux