I Would Rather Die

I could barely hear anything apart from the rush of blood in my ears, as my hands shook around the glowing wood. 

The smile on his face dropped, and he gave a different command this time,

 "Kill all the men." 

His eyes ran down my body in the tattered and dirty night dress. It felt like bees crawling down my spine. 

 "Separate the young women from the old hags, and bring me the redhead."

Two massive rogues immediately approached me, snarling. 

My heart stuttered in realization.

They were going to take me away from my family. No. I would rather die. 

Alarm burst through my body as I twisted back, taking several steps away from the monsters approaching me.

 "Stay away! Stay away from me!!" I yelled, hatred and anger impregnating every harsh word that tore out of me. 

I tightened my grip on the piece of wood, panicking as they got even closer, leering at me suggestively.

I would rather die.

All around me, the other rogues were tearing through the villagers, ripping the men's throats out, yanking young girls out of the grips of their sobbing mothers and carting them away like looted goods. 

Blood flowed in rivulets down the floor of the cave, an elderly lady had been pushed into the remnants of the fire, and now she was screaming as her dress lit up like a torch.

The combination of such horrified and tortured screams resonating through the cave made my ears ring all the way into my brain.

I blinked the cold sweat off my eyes, and stepped back again, bumping into Mother. 

I realized she was holding my arm tight as if begging the universe to save us, with my wailing baby sister forgotten in her other arm.

 "I'm not going with you!" I screamed past the approaching rogues and straight at their commander. "I would rather die."

To prove my point, I twisted the smoking wood to face my belly. 

It's sharp edge glowed with heat, promising a very painful stab wound. 

I definitely did not want to die, I still had my mother and Lilac to protect, but I was desperate. Anything to not get separated from my family.

The rogues paused, exchanging wicked smirks.

 "Scarlett." Mom whispered in terror. 

I didn't move an inch, even though I was trembling badly. 

She cried out at their commander over the noise. "You can take us! Both of us, as your slaves, anything! Please don't take her away, I beg you!" She fell to her knees.

Rage filled my veins. 

 "Mother! Don't kneel to these demons!"

The commander let out a roaring laugh, which then turned into an evil glare.

 "Bring. Me. The. Redhead."

He turned around to leave, stepping over the blood and dead bodies littering the cave floor. 

The rogues charged at me with inhuman speed. 

I screamed and swung the wood at them, but it was knocked out of my hands in a second. 

The next thing I felt were claws tearing at my dress, lifting me against a grimy male body.

 "Mother!"

 I shrieked like a rabid animal, kicking, scratching, anything, anything to get out of the monster's grip. 

My voice cracked, as tears slipped out of my eyes. "Mother!!"

 "Scarlett! No, don't take her!! Please! I beg you in the name of the goddess, please!!" She grabbed my hand desperately, her knuckles white.

The pure terror on my face, as she imagined what would be done to me wherever they were taking me…

I could see her mind collapsing in pure despair.

 "Please!" She begged, nearly tripping on herself as she stumbled after us, sobbing. 

The rogue had flung me over his shoulder, and pinned my body so I could not even move. 

 "Please don't take my daughter! I have already lost a child, please!!"

 "Let me go! I curse you! I curse you all!" I wailed, grabbing mother's hand tighter, even though our fingers were slipping away. 

What would happen to her and Lilac? Not knowing was what drove me absolutely insane.

 "I curse you all—!"

 "Quiet, you pest!" A growl drowned my shrieks. "Get that old hag off!!"

The other rogue grabbed mother's hair and yanked her back roughly, slipping her hand away from mine. Forever. 

My eyes widened and I didn't even feel the scream tearing out of my throat as I watched her collapse to the bloody cave floor, barely protecting my baby sister's head from bashing into the stone.

No… No. No.

I was still trying to register the fact that I might never see my family again, when something hard hit my head, and my entire vision suddenly went black.

**

The tangy taste of ash still remained in my mouth by the time I regained consciousness. 

My entire body throbbed with pain. 

I shifted, and realized I was in a sitting position, leaning against some wooden object. My legs were sprawled in the dirt, and the cloth around my injured feet was dirty and falling apart. 

I was slick with grime, unwashed for two days, and stained with blood and brains. Sweat made my hair stick to my skin. It was hot.

Blinking my crusted eyes, I realized that it was still nighttime, and a gigantic fire was somewhere near. And it was noisy. Very noisy.

Celebration.

Rogues were celebrating. 

I jolted up, swallowing the pain in my throat when I remembered that I had been captured by the rogues.

Taken away from Mother. 

A fresh wave of pain stabbed me so deep in the heart, I nearly died right there.

Oh, mother. 

The image of her falling to that dirty floor, screaming for me and crying with a tiny baby in her arms…

 She couldn't survive out there all alone with a screaming baby. I had to find her.

I moved to get up, only to find out that I was chained to the wooden pole behind me. 

Panic blazed and I struggled harder, eyes wide and breaths heavy.

The drums, howling, yelling and celebrating suddenly stopped, and a roaring laugh punched through the air. 

It was the commander that had ordered for me to be taken. He was shirtless, holding a massive cup spilling with alcohol, and that cursed meat cleaver was still in his other hand.

 "Oh, sleeping beauty is finally awake!" He laughed. "How do you like this place?"

I looked around, heart pounding. 

It was obviously a war camp. 

To my horror, I realized the tents were made out of a patchwork of human and werewolf skin, but it was the hundreds of rogues hanging around, sneering and staring, that made my blood run cold. 

They were all unhinged. Lunatic castaways banished to the ends of the earth for a reason. Something vile ran in their veins instead of blood, like other normal creatures.

 But I would rather die than show these monsters my fear.

 "You'll all burn for this." I spat as loudly and viciously as I could. "It doesn't matter if you have the Alpha King, you'll lose."

More laughter from them. 

The commander walked closer, flashing his fangs across his terrifying, pock-marked face.

 "We already won, redhead human. Can't you see it's a celebration around here?"

I glared at him with hot hatred.

 "All I see is a graveyard, and a couple of dead rogues."

The smile slid off his face, and murmurs of anger rippled through the crowd. 

He snarled, and splashed the alcohol in his cup all over me. It drenched my entire body, burning my eyes and choking my breath. 

I felt the growls rising all around me, thirsting for my blood. Dying with the urge to murder me on the spot.

 "Give me permission to light her up, commander! That human pest should burn for her insolence!" A rogue growled thirstily.

I almost expected to be killed right there, but then the commander let out an evil cackle. 

 "No. I have a better use for that mouth of hers."

I looked up, and to my abject terror, he was loosening the strip of leather around his pants.