The Leaves are Silent

Chapter 1

The Leaves are Silent

Chapter 1

It's funny the way things work out. One thing I learned from an early age is that they never work out how you imagined them. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.

There's one day in my life that I can still remember every detail. I was fourteen years old. I was in my maths class. The only thing I enjoyed whatsoever in that class was watching the ever changing tree outside the window. It was early November and the last of the Autumn leaves clung to the winter tree.

I was once again staring at the tree, when I heard them. The planes. They were loud and the floors of the classroom rumbled. My maths teacher stopped his speech, and everyone didn't dare to move a muscle. Then the shouting started.

I saw the teacher lose all the colour in his face. My classmates shared panicked and confused glances with each other. Then a uniformed man burst through the door. We all stared in shock at him.

"EVERYONE OUT!" he shouted at us. None of us moved. Too stunned to do anything. Mistake number one.

Anger clouded his features when he shouted at us again "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YE? MOVE!"

We all scrambled from our desks rushing into the halls where all the rest of the students were lined horizontally. We were forced to join them, being pushed by what seemed to be soldiers. Fear was clear on the faces of my teachers. All I could think was ' there is no way this is happening, this stuff doesn't happen here, not to us not to me'.

I stood among the rest of my classmates and beside my friends where I tried to give them a comforting smile. Soon a man I would say to be in his forties stood in front of us all. He strangely reminded me of a dictator. He walked down the line, his eyes flicking through our faces only to land on mine. He didn't move his eyes from my face and I felt discomfort creep up on me. He smiled appearing like the cheshire cat as he did so.

"Hmmm, well aren't you interesting" he spoke. I remained stationary while I felt everyone's eyes on me.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"L-lily" I stuttered.

His eyes looked me up and down and I felt violated, I wished to avoid his eyes but I knew if I made a move to evade them it would be an endangering mistake.

"Well Lily, I want you to come with me." he spoke nonchalantly. I gaped at him in return. I continued to gape at him before I began to giggle.

Yes, I giggled. Not the classiest move. Nor the safest to be honest.

My friend nudged me in the side with her elbow and looked at me with wide eyes which clearly said ' what on earth are you doing?'

The dictator was giving me a curious look as he stared at me. He then turned to two of his guards. " Take her."

As you can probably tell, my giggling didn't last much longer.

Two men grabbed both my arms so I was unable to move. They began to drag me away from the long line of students. I tried to struggle against the two guards as fear began to wash through me. When I felt it was no use I began to scream and cry.

I looked at my teachers, searching for some sort of comfort only to see that they were as terrified as the rest of us. I went limp when I realised my futile hope. I had rung my head and was being dragged further away when I heard a shout.

"WAIT! STOP!"

My head shot up when I heard the familiar voice. I searched the line for the perpetrator, only for my eyes to land on a boy from my class. Ian Hill.

The guys moved to drag me away once again before the dictator held up his hand to stop them.

"Wait, I want to hear what he has to say."

He turned to look at Ian, indicating for him to speak. Ian took a breath and then spoke with an impressive, unwavering voice,

" You can't just take her without any reason. I mean think how that will come across to your people. Just taking random girls for no particular reason will likely cause an uproar causing many of your followers to lose loyalty and turn against you. You wouldn't want that now, would you?"

The silence that followed was thick. You could hear a penny drop. The dictator was motionless for a few moments before a coy smile began to cover his face.

" You are brave but foolish. They won't turn against me because they are terrified of me, as you and everyone else here are. So trust me I don't need a reason to take her."

He let the words sink in before he spoke his next.

" Take him too."