The Widow Among the Woods

The Black Line (part 2)

"They were what?"

Dr. Agatha stared at Christan in disbelief.

"Betrayed."

"But how? Did one of the people of Silva betrayed them? Like no one knew about it, so how?"

Christan sighed. The truth was as horrifying as it sounded. She hated this part of the story. She didn't want to say it. It was connected to her somehow. It was like she was part of that story herself.

"Christan, if you don't want to tell me that is okay. We can continue tomorrow sometime."

Dr. Agatha gave Christan a motherly smile. Christan soon realized she said that because Christan had started sweating. Christan garbed the nearest tissue to her and wiped her hands dry.

"Excuse me."

Christan stood and went the washroom. Pull yourself together girl, she thought. Everything will be fine. You got this. She doesn't know and she won't. It was kept a secret. Even Abby won't tell her.

After some time, Christan finally relaxed. She went to the living room and apologized to the doctor. She, then, sat down and began the story.

"The people of Silva never trusted anyone even the countries they provided their military force with. When our ancestors moved in with them, it took them 500 years to trust us. They-"

"WHAT! 5 WHOLE CENTURIES!"

Dr. Agatha put her hands on the table and moved her face closer to Christan's.

"Yes." Christan said as she placed her middle finger on the doctor's forehead and slowly pushed her back.

"It took them 500 years to build the trust of the Silvan people. Before the night of the festival, one of us found about it. The Silvan people placed that man under an oath to not tell anyone about it. But he broke the oath and told the King."

"The attack happened when all of the tribe was tired and ready to sleep. It was a nightmare. Edward's armies burned houses, slaughtered children and beat the elderly women. The men and the women would do nothing. They were too less."

"Right with ancient Hensberg, was a very dense forest. It was a wild area whose animals couldn't be tamed. Somehow, the creatures of the forest got along with the people of the forest. A small amount was able to escape. They fled and took shelter in the forest. The armies of Edward didn't know about it as most of the tribe was distracting them so the other could run."

"The armies didn't attack the people and children of our ancestors at all. Being amazing in reading faces, The Silvan tribe knew they had been betrayed by that man. Though that man realized his mistake as soon as the armies attacked, he wasn't sorry at all."

"When the armies left, the area was nothing but a river of blood. Our ancestors, at once, rushed towards the forest but in their path stood a pack of wild wolves. The animals dropped a piece of paper at the feet of one man and wouldn't let anyone go forward. The message contained only one line:

'We have been betrayed by your kind and if you proceed to find us, you will be killed.'

Our ancestors knew that the people of the tribe were people of their words."

"But that didn't stop them from trying to get to the Silvan Tribe. After sending 5 men to find them, those men vanished. After a week, those men returned. They were extremely pale and couldn't speak or explain what had happened."

"There were 4 attempts to find them but then our ancestors stopped for the fourth's dead bodies were returned by the animals. The animals had now became aggressive against our ancestors. The forest had gone quite. Unexplainable things started to happen and the tribe was nowhere to be found. 2 weeks later, the bodies of the death were gone. People assumed the tribe wanted their loved ones to bury so no one started a search for them."

"To keep us away from the forest, a black line appeared with a note to not cross the line. Then another line came which our ancestors marked. This line was 5 meters forward from the original line. It was to mark from where till where the hunters could hunt. The hunter only hunts the animals within that area. Sometimes animal attacks also happen in that area. We are supposed to stay away from the line at all costs. Only an idiot would cross."

Cool Christan. You just called yourself an idiot.

"So... What about the war?"

"Oh. The war. The western side and the neighboring country won. Before the war, they were extremely worried that the armies of Silva hadn't arrived. They received a message brought by an eagle which said that the armies would arrive when the war had already start."

"How many people of the tribe escaped?"

"115. 10 men, 40 old people, 30 women and 35 kids."

"So... did help arrive?"

"Yes. It did. When all hope was lost, they say that 40 warriors came out of nowhere and the enemies lost. They say those warriors were masked. People believed that was the last known sight of the Silvan people. Then there was nothing, as if they never existed."

"When did this attack happen? Like how many days before the war?"

"Two months before the war."

Dr. Agatha seemed lost in thought. Christan looked at her with sad eyes wondering if she knew the town's history at all.

Christan stared at the ceiling of her room. She had said goodbye to the doctor 45 minutes ago. She wondered what did the Doctor thought about her sweating so suddenly. She hoped that the doctor wouldn't look into it at all and stay away from Lupus. She sometime wished she'd escape from her past. To live again and freely.