Chapter II : let it all burn.

Peace is an illusion-- When you feel that life is getting tranquil, that is the time one must pack their belongings and make a dash for the door because peace will never come to the one who are most deserving of it. If we wonder how many people in this world are stuck in warzones and everyday they pray for peace but as sad as it is peace comes to the ungrateful ones who complain about it being boring- call it an Irony or misfortune, it's the ultimate reality that is both controversial and damning.

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Our village was small and the community was tight knit, one of those neighbors where in every events you would see the common faces until it got boring. You would wish for a change in scenery but that was about it, people rarely left the town unless it was to work in the next village or moved out of their homes. The houses were heirloom homes, passed down generations. Our humble abode was passed to my father by his father and great grandfather. I had a dream but seldom did I mention about it with the thought of offending my family and our friends. I wanted to go to the capital and work as a teacher. But the thought that my parents would disapprove of my wish made me guilty about having that thought, so somewhere deep down I had sealed that dream in my heart until it was long forgotten all I could imagine was what was life like in capital was like? I could only imagine but never dared to voice out my curiosity to my father - I was ungrateful about the life that I had that was because I wasn't aware of the constant war between humans and the supernatural creatures- call me oblivious or ignorant but that was how I was raised. Rarely allowed to leave my room and that too to help my mother set the table as my father returned from the neighboring village after a long and exhausted day.

I would spend most of my time in my room among my books and my pet cat whom I have named 'Janine'. I was lost in my own world unaware of the dark clouds looming over our heads. I was unaware of the fact that I was going to lose everything in the blink of an eye until that one night. We all were unaware of the danger looming over our heads, unobvious about the threat looming over our heads.

I was awaken from my peaceful slumber as I heard bloodcurdling screams followed by loud roars. Someone was shouting, someone was crying for help, one scream turned into multiple screams by different people - I sat on my bed trying to make sense of what was going on- sleep still there in my eyes, I was tired but struggled to keep my eyes opened as I rushed to look out of the window. Leaning against the cold glass covered by the cold condensation that was just sitting against the glass frame I looked outside and to my horror the scene in front of me had me shaking at my place, everything that we had worked for all our life was coming down in flames. figures wearing a grotesque mask went around killing people in their sight, some of them holding rods made of wood that was burning with fire, they torched people, buildings and animals in sight. The sight was gruesome and the massacres gristly- I just stood there at my place, unable to force myself to remove me from my spot. The banging of my room at my sight broke me out of my trance, my head whipped to meet my father's eyes whose eyes held moisture and his face was solemn- my mother timidly followed him closely.

"Father- " I rushed to his side. I grabbed onto his arm.

"We must hide-" I whispered.

"No running away is the only option we have now. "

"But father, what about rest of our family." I was holding onto his arm, he was standing firm while I on the other hand have gone pale. Were we going to leave everything behind? Everything that we worked hard for through out our life? Even if we escape where will we go? Never in my life had I felt this uncertain.

"God Forbid if we don't manage to make it out of this place safely than death is the only awaiting us- we must think of ourselves first before others. Don't you see outside Darling? Those bloody creatures are killing everyone with no remorse and mercy. Pack only the necessary things because we are leaving now!"

The parting is the most painful moment- every corner of this house and every object that we couldn't carry with us had memories attached to them , we were leaving behind jars of memories that I always wanted to cherish yet desperate time calls for desperate measures and for survival purpose my father was right we must leave these things behind even if it hurt us. We had a long and tiring journey ahead of us that wasn't lacking in any dangers- there were so many uncertainties, so many unknown dangers and a world at large that I never saw, this was the first time I was going to see the world outside my village. Not something I wished for but we didn't have any alternative. I packed some clothes, books with me, while my mother took hers and father's clothing items, whatever money and jewelry we had along with food and water bottles. My father took his gun with him for safety purpose.

I looked at my home for one last time and gazing upon our burning village we made our way to the woods. From where we will start our journey but little to my knowledge we were only walking to our misfortunate paths because our destiny was sealed.