-2-

"When I say so, run towards the door and don't look back for me. You got it?" I didn't give her time to answer before I bust open the door and began an attack on the stranger. I threw a punch, he threw one back. I'm not even sure if it was a he. I heard the light footsteps of Jess running towards the door and then they stopped. The only thing that followed was a large thud. When I had been able to push the man to the ground, I looked over to where I had heard the thud. I saw the lifeless body of Jess, laying in a pool of her own blood. Her attacker, her killer, had rounded the corner.

"Maxwell? What are you doing here? What did you do to her?!" I screamed, sprinting over to her body. I picked it up an held it in my arms, allowing her blood to spread all over my arms. "Answer me, dammit! What did you do?!" I screamed, louder.

"Well if you haven't figured it out, she's dead. Pretty dead by the looks of it." He scratched the side of his head with his blade and smiled. "Would you like to join her?" He pointed his blade at me and charged.

"Stay away from me! Don't you understand she loved you?!" I dodged his first swing. Luckily, I took some martial arts classes before the portal.

"What? That's disgusting! Why would I ever love her?!" He acted as if he was about to vomit. I took this opportunity to charge towards him, knee him in the neck, and run out the door.

The entire village had turned to chaos. The houses were on fire, the animals from farms had gotten loose, the well was broken, and the trees surrounding us had taken a tumble. I looked to my right to see Lilac and Kara running my way. "Rea! Help us!" Lilac ran quicker and quicker until she had wrapped her arms around my hips. I threw my arm around her and my other around Kara.

"Kara, what happened? What the hell is going on?!" I screamed over the cries of the villagers.

"I don't know. We need to find mom!" She yelled. We all began our frantic search. We looked in the remaining houses, we searched the safe points, we even checked in the burning houses, which did cause a few burns and scars on Kara and me. We couldn't find her. We couldn't find my mother. I had already lost one parent, I would not lose another! But, life just doesn't work that way. After the fire had burned down most of the village, we found our mother's body covered in the scorched debris of the market. Kara went to investigate while I held Lilac back. I couldn't let her see mom like that. I picked Lilac up, allowing her screeches and cries fill my ears and carried her to one of the safe zones.

"Moms dead..." Lilac whispered the obvious to herself when she gets nervous or upset.

"Not dead, but somewhere better. She's with dad now." I held Lilac in my arms as we waited for Kara to come back. She didn't come alone. Behind her came two guards. One was a guard we recognized. Vance, Jerick's son and another, we didn't recognize.

"Turn yourself over to us or Kara dies," Vance said. I hadn't noticed it before but Kara had a large spear pressed to her back.

"What's going on? What are you doing? What about the people who were killing everyone else?!" I turned my question to Vance and held onto Lilac tighter to the point where she started whispering she couldn't breathe.

"You caused this. This is your fault, Rea. Now, either come with us willingly or soon, both your sisters will be with little old mom." I sighed and released Lilac fully. They pushed Kara away and grabbed my arm. "I'll make sure you pay for this." He was right, I would pay for this. But it wasn't with my life I would be paying with.