8 Saya

The war dragged the country into ruin. Then, the country lost the war. Such was the hatred of the victors that they even wiped the name of the country off the map. All that remained were skeletons, of the people, of the buildings, of the country. Among the ruins of the now nameless country, broken cities cropped up. It was a lawless jungle, where tribes ruled supreme, and the chiefs of the tribes were gods.

Saya was born into this dark world. The generation that remembered the country was gone. Saya was from the generation that only knew the new reality. She wasn't born into a family. She was a lost child, who grew up in the shadows of the back alleys, surviving on scrapes scavenged from the gutters. The only way she knew to survive was by turning to the blade.

She was reminded of those terrible days when she was always hungry and hurt all the time, as she ran through the narrow alleys. She had cased alleys before the job, so she could traverse them with her eyes closed. It was so much easier under the cover of the dark rain. Those searching for her, were still searching in the alleys when she had already left the alleys and crossed over to the area of another tribe. The alleys here were no different, but they weren't burning up with activity. She ran on, stopping in front of a cracked doorway with no door. Inside was an open courtyard, in the middle of which was the burnt stump of what used to be a tree a very long time ago. The ground was littered with fallen rubble that had long since turned into stones in the dirt. The courtyard seemed deserted, as did the small house across the courtyard. She walked over, stopped outside the thin door that she could easily break with her bare hands, and knocked carefully. It might not seem like it, but this was a clinic and inside was a doctor. Doctors were extremely rare, every one was treated with extreme respect.

'Come in,' came the reply in a tired voice. It was impossible to decipher the age and even the gender from the voice.

Saya glanced at her friends, and walked in. The doctor was a middle aged man who looked older by years. He looked at Saya's injuries, and showed her to a long wood table upon which she laid. He asked no questions. She offered no answers. Everything was done in silence. He treated her injuries, dressed her wounds. She left behind a heavy pouch, and disappeared into the night.

'Now, where?' Sara asked.

Celia ignored her. Saya snorted in disdain. Sara was stunned, lamenting about how Celia and Saya seemed more like twins.

'Rest first,' Celia said, as Saya nodded. 'When you're all better, we'll get our revenge.'

Their faces were dark as the two grinned evilly. Sara felt a cold tremor run down her spine. Whoever the target of their revenge was, was in for something nightmarishly terrible. It didn't matter to her though, for she would surely enjoy the show.

Saya seemed to feel no pain as she walked on and on, until the sky started to lighten, and then when the shadows were reaching for great lengths, she stopped in a tiny corner of an alley dirtier than most they had walked through in the night. She leaped over the short wall, that was actually short only for Saya and would seem a little too high to easily leap over for most others, passed through broken walls and arrived at a tiny crawlspace hidden underneath a thin pile of rubble. It was impossible to find unless one already knew of the crawlspace. The inside was wide enough to have a bed, which was a pile of fine rubble upon which was a dirty piece of cloth, and a few other necessities which over here were luxuries not just anyone could afford. It wasn't very tall though, Saya could only crawl on all fours.

'Home?' Sara asked.

Saya looked at Sara funnily. Then shook her head. 'Somewhere to sleep,' she answered.

Celia nodded. Sara looked confused, unable to understand what the difference was.

Saya laid on the bed, while the twins sat by her side. The three looked out through the opening they crawled in through, at the slowly brightening day. It was the most beauty that could be found here.