Chapter 2: The Meeting

Chapter 2: The meeting

I woke up in the early morning to the smell of smoke in the air. This couldn’t have been good at all. My mom never burned food. I went to my door to open it, but an armored man kicked it in before I could. He was standing there looking at me. He looked really strong and his face was covered with sweat. He seemed really angry and looked like a soldier, but he was strangely formed at the face. He finally walked towards me laughing. I started to panic and backed up slowly. My black bag was behind me, so I tripped. He reached out to grab me, but a sword came through his chest. As he fell, I saw my dad behind him.

“Riley, run!” he looked at me in alarm. He was breathing deeply and was sweating fiercely with soot on his hard face. He was still in his nightclothes.

I was astonished, but I grabbed the bag and ran past my dad pulling out his sword from the soldier’s chest.

“Find your mom and Robin. QUICKLY!” he yelled while I ran out the door to the porch. When I looked around, I saw dozens of men running around and noticed where the smell of smoke was coming from. My house was burning down, but it didn’t get in the house yet. One of the men finally spotted me and started to run towards me. Of course, I ran close to the wood line not looking back.

“NOOO!” I heard my dad cry in agony. He was running after the man who was chasing me. The man was getting close until dad threw him off with a rock. As he fought my dad, I strapped the bag around my shoulder and climbed the tree nearest to me. My dad dodged all of the soldier’s moves and made the soldier stumble back and fall to the ground. I gasped silently and my dad turned around from the sound. He looked up at me and put a finger over his lips telling me to be quiet. I pressed my lips together. He turned around and realized that the soldier was right over him. He tried to defend himself, but it was too late. The soldier stabbed him in the chest, and I heard a small shriek come out from his throat. I forced myself to stay silent and not scream. He fell with a thud that rang in my ears. I closed my eyes and hugged the branch as tight as I could. I let that soldier kill my own father.

More soldiers came to search for me, and I held back crucial tears until they gave up. My heart screamed in agony looking at my father lifeless just a few feet below me. It hurt tremendously to see the life leave him and not being able to go down there to help.  

“Come on, let’s go tell Logan that the girl has vanished. It will be our lives for this,” he told the group around him. He was obviously the head soldier of the group. I stayed in that tree for hours until I couldn’t hear a sound except for the random flames that burned down my home.  It was so quiet now. I fell to the ground gasping for air after the crying I had done. Desperately, I looked for the family that I had left. I held back the tears that were critically pounding into my eyes. There was nothing I could do for my father now. I passed his lifeless body and never looked back. I couldn’t bear to see him again like that. Then, my heart shattered even more as I looked towards our barn that was now crumbling to the ground from the fire.

She was just lying there on the ground. I wanted to hope, and I wanted her to be okay, but I knew it was too much to ask for. I ran towards her with the strength I had. My lungs were screaming, and my legs wanted to give in, but I fought against them. Soon, my legs won, and I fell next to my mother’s feet.

“Oh, please not my mom, please!” I screamed. My throat was dry from the smoke, but I kept talking to her like she was still with me.

“It’s going to be okay mom, I’m here now. Please don’t go!” I crawled to her innocent face that was covered in soot. Her big, brown eyes were open, but she still did not move. I picked up her fragile head and cradled it in my arms. In my mind I could not believe she was dead, but the blood that was flowing from her chest gave me the evidence I needed. She was really gone. Who could kill such a gentle woman? I gave in to my sorrow as tears flowed down my cheeks.

“Mama,” I whispered as I buried my head into her shoulder. They were both gone because of me, and I didn’t even know why. I sat up after serious sobbing and kissed my mom’s forehead. Then, I closed her eyes. It was all I could do. I stood up slowly and looked around once more. I cringed at the thought of Robin’s body lying somewhere. I forced myself to picture him dead. I didn’t want to hope anymore. Still, I couldn’t find him anywhere in sight.

Just last night I had hoped for adventure, but this was not what I wanted. These evil men wanted me, and I was going to find out why. The real problem was how.

Town was my best option now. Thunder rumbled around me as I limped tiredly through the streets to hopefully find someone, but the town was deserted. When I walked towards Mr. George’s store, I realized that he was gone too. It felt like a ghost town. I found an alleyway and cradled myself next to some broken crates. As the rain started pouring down, tears overwhelmed me once again as I thought about the tragic morning.

“Are you okay?” I heard a voice in my head and then felt shoving at my arm. Maybe it was just a dream and Robin was waking me up, but it wasn’t. I could hear rain fall on my head so I must have still been in the alleyway.

I hoped the voice would be Robin waking me up. “Robin?” I opened my eyes in hope and saw a little boy holding out his hand to help me up.

“No, I’m Gabe! What happened to you? You have a really nice bump there,” he pointed out my forehead. It must have been when I fell out the tree earlier this morning. I took his hand and just stood there.

“I’m Riley,” was the only thing I could say, and that was even weak.

“Hello Riley! You look unsteady. Maybe I should take you to see Jack. He’ll know what to do.” I looked at him in panic.

“No, no. It’s fine, really. I can get by. I’ve got to find Robin.” I took a step forward and being so weak, I fell. But someone caught me. It couldn’t have been Gabe because he looked about Robin’s age. He was too small, and this person’s hands were big and felt rough.

“Jack, you came just in time,” Gabe said in hushed tones. Jack picked me up and started walking.

“This seems to be a proper meeting. She needs rest before she knows” He had a deep, rough voice.

I was out before I could hear anything else.