GRIEVING NEWS

Many people died that night. It was chaotic. No body was informed nor warned about what was coming to them. They thought it was their usual peaceful night, without the rain pouring and the thunder rumbling.

That night Emma had just finished reading a story with her mother. A story about a beautiful princess that was prisoned in a black castle by a dragon. Her favourite bed time story.

"Mama, what if the dragon come back and take the princess away again from her prince?" Asked a twelve years old Emma, she did not like the story had end. Even though it was a happy ending, her mind refused to accept that the story end just like that, without continuing the princess's life after being rescued by a prince.

Emma's mother shook her head in frustration, but she smiled to her daughter — who had such a broad imagination. Every single story that she read for Emma since she was young, had no satisfying ending for her daughter's imagination. Sometimes, she was trying to prolong the story to the point where it seemed to be endless for her own entertainment. "Em, the writer would have to write another book about it. Maybe one day you can write the continuation of the story."

"Can I, Mama?" Emma's eyes lit with excitement.

"Of course, my dear. Now go to sleep." Said her mother sternly but playfully, pulling the blanket on top of Emma. Being stubborn, Emma pushed the blanket away.

"It's too hot, Mama." Emma grumbled, wiping the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand. "I don't need blanket tonight."

It was true. The usual cold night had suddenly turned hot.

Knowing that her daughter was speaking truth, Emma's mother quickly went to the fire place that was still lit with fire. She took the shovel that stood against the wall next to the fire place and began to scoop the ashes, putting it over the embers to smoothen the fire. She did not want to completely extinguish the fire, in case the night turned cold again later on.

"You shall be fine-"

Before Emma's mother could finish her sentence, the door of Emma's bedroom was flung open. Came in her father who looked frightened and hysterical.

"Matilda, Emma, we shall leave now. Hurry!" He commanded urgently. His voice was rough.

Emma's head snapped to his father sudden coming. She looked at her father worriedly with her eyes wide open.

"What happened, Papa?" Emma quickly jumped to her mother side.

"The village is under attack. Fire is raging everywhere." He answered. "Hurry, we have no time."

Three of them quickly rushed out of their house, leaving everything behind. When they stepped outside, everything had turned into chaos. Most of the houses were burnt. People screamed for help, running away from the red flame that raged through the village, taking their happiness away.

Emma kept running, following her parents who started to run from one direction to another, trying to run away from the fire. It was like they were being chased by the fire: which ever way they go, they would be welcomed and attacked by the fire. Emma ran out of breath as they tried to escaped the village. She could see people getting lost, running anywhere without direction.

"Mama!" A child screamed for his mother, standing in the balcony of the burning house. He was crying and screaming for his mother, sweeping his gaze around the catastrophe.

She knew the boy. He was younger than her. The only son of Mrs. MacDonald, her nice neighbour. Where was Mrs. MacDonald now?

Emma halted her step, thinking about taking the child with her. But before she could step closer to the child, Emma was yanked away causing her to fall on her back. She did not flinch from the pain, instead she kept her eyes on the boy whose life was in danger.

The planks that were used to hold the house together, started to fall to the ground one by one in flame.

Horror was plastered on Emma's face, as she watched with her own eyes, when the burning plank fell right onto the boy, knocking the boy out and burning him at the same time.

"Noooo!!" Screamed Emma. The loud scream jolted her awake from her sleep. Her hands clutched her night gown around her chest, breathing fast. Her eyes darted from one corner to another, checking her surrounding.

She exhaled in relief when she was assured that she was in her room, the new bedroom at her new house.

Twelve years had passed, but the dream of that horrified night still haunted her. If she could have saved the boy, he would be one of the survivors now. Just like her and her family.

Poor boy, she thought.

Since then, most of the survivors had been forced to seal their lips from speaking a thing about that night. It was forbidden to do so. People continued their life, ignoring the loss and the pain the survivors feel about that incident. The Mayor and the council had announced that it happened because of a witch, who got burnt along with the innocent villagers in that land. Why did the witch had to kill the innocent villagers? No one knew the reason why. The only thing they knew was a witch would bring death upon them.

Emma and her family did not believe it. They believed that the witch did not cause the fire. But who would believe them?

After having the bad dream, Emma could not go back to sleep, but it was still too early to get up from the bed. She grabbed a book from her bedside table, hoping that she could relax her mind by reading. But the book failed to relax her mind. So, she decided to get off of the bed, washing herself and getting ready to start her day early.

At her new house, which was located two towns away from where she and her family used to live, Emma had managed to live a happy life with her parents. She earned respectable reputation by working as a governess for most of the elite people. Not to mention that she was the governess that the Mayor had chosen among other candidates to educate his only son, who would be the future Mayor. If he could make it.

Since her dispute with the Mayor few days ago about the abandoned land, Emma had decided to take few days off from coming to teach his son. Surprisingly, the Mayor approved it, saying that his son needed to spend time to with his family. At first, she thought that she would be fired straight away after her direct request was rejected impolitely. She was glad she got to keep the job still.

As Emma had got dressed appropriately for the day, she went out of her bedroom and walked to the kitchen, greeting the servants who were already awaken to prepare the foods for breakfast.

Upon hearing Emma entering the kitchen, the head of the servant bowed to her. "Good morning, Milady." She greeted Emma. "You got up very early."

Emma nodded. "I could not go back to sleep and it's quite boring in the room." Said Emma. She walked over the kitchen table — where few of the servants were busy cutting the vegetables — and peeked through them. She raised her brows at them and asked. "What's for breakfast?"

"Vegetables soup, Miss Emma." Replied one of them.

"Okay." Emma pursed her lips. She was not exactly unhappy with the menu that morning, but the food did not entice her appetite. As she did not want to offend the servants, who had woken up much earlier than her to prepare the meals, she asked the servant a request politely, "Would you mind to get me a cup of coffee with few slices of bread, please?"

"Of course, Milady." Came a quick answer from the servant, who immediately left the table and started to prepared what her mistress had requested.

"Thank you, Giselle. I shall have it in the dining room." Emma smiled at the servant, who returned the smile with a brighter one. "Oh, has today's newspaper arrived yet?"

"Yes, Milady. I placed it on the dining table."

"Thank you." Emma said lowly and left the servants to continue with their duties.

Just like what the servant said, today's newspaper was placed on the dining table, folded, right on the spot where she usually sat. Here, Emma was the only person who would read newspapers everyday. She did not want to miss any updates in relation to the land that she currently resided. It was from the newspapers that she found out about the council's plan to build a school in the abandoned land.

She took a sit on the chair as her hands unfolded the newspaper. It took her two seconds to notice the tittle of the front page headline that turned her body frozen. As her eyes focused on reading the article that got her face paled and her feet cold. Her eyes started to flood with tears as she kept on reading through it.

A boy was brutally murdered last night.