A grave loss

The village's security hurriedly ran to the location that was sent to them. Taking no risks, the chief had with him, twenty men. They had reached the fields but where shocked to meet the place on fire. He stared at the flames in horror.

"Who would set fire to the fields?" One of them asked.

"It isn't even spreading and is just burning in place." Another noticed.

"If the children and the men were here then it would mean..."

"Oh no. What will we tell the people?"

"Our first real emergency and this is it?!"

"No, I don't think the children were killed here." The head security officer said. To him, it made no sense to abduct a large number of children and just burn them down in the fields where anyone could have been watching. He had reason to believe the massive disappearance had something to do with the news of missing children that was rampant in the society. Word had gotten out that in the cities as well children had gone missing, but not as much as it happens in the villages.

"Search around for any clues, anything at all we can find. If not the children, then the men that sent out the messages. We should be able to find something." He ordered his men and they went straight to work, searching everywhere around the burning area to see if there would be the slightest clue as to what had happened. They stayed there the whole night and still found nothing.

"Sir, the search is futile. There's nothing here." His men reported. He had a few others search everywhere around the village, but none of them gave good news. This was their only lead and it bore no fruit. He stared at the scorched part of the field where the fire was once burning and moved closer. He searched everywhere, pulling up burnt leaves, trying to dig up even the slightest thing. That was until he saw something that caught his eyes, a scorched up, almost melted watch. He picked it up and looked at it.

"They, they really were killed."

********

Everyone returned to their homes that night waiting for news from the security about their children. Most of them were up all night, being comforted by friends and spouses. They got no updates until the next day. On the flat screen tvs for those that still used them and a small box like device that projects audiovisuals, at once turned on with the image of the chief of security ready with an announcement.

"Good day citizens," he began. "As we all know, after yesterdays event a total of sixty five children all within age range of five to ten years old went missing. Treating a matter of such scale as urgently as possible, a wide search was held. Still, the children were not found. We even searched outside the borders of this village, sending messages to the other mayors, who in turn informed their security, but none gave us news worth bringing our hopes up."

"However, last night, we received a tip on the whereabouts of the children. We were informed by two men of this village that they were seen deep in the fields on the outskirts of town and were been held by some masked men. Getting this message, we have reason to believe the same people responsible for the cases in nearby villages were also behind this one. Never did we expect the abduction of nearly seventy children at once."

"We got to the location given and all that was found was a burning bush. No life was seen."

Two women that had been crying their eyes out since last night wept even more as they watched the news. They stood outside a store where the news was been projected from a screen. They were on their way home from the station after reporting their missing spouses to the officers whom were available at the moment. They ad tried constantly to reach them but failed only to now hear the chiefs' next words, completely shattering them.

"All that was left was this." The chief said and the image of a badly burnt watch was shown beside him. "The communication device of one of the men that had sent out the emergency alert. Doing our best, we were able to track it to belong to a Victor Windham. The other man, Jack Sylvester, was also not seen. With a heavy heart I have to say this, both men and the children are gone."

As soon as he said those words, Justina, Malakai's mother collapsed.

"Justina? Justina? Justina!" Matilda caught her before she could hit the ground, calling her name whilst trying to wake her up. She was down to her knees with tears falling from her eyes. "Justina, wake up please!" People close by had rushed to help.

"My condolences to the families that had to go through this loss. Truly this is a sad day for all of us and the village as a whole will mourn the departure of every one of them." That was were the transmission ended. Every family whom had a child or more taken from them wailed in sorrow after watching the news. For some, it was more than one child, for others it was just one, while for two women, it was their sons and their husbands. They had gone and would most likely never return.

As the first one ended, another came up and this time it was the Mayor. He as well had to address the situation, promising a tighter security as well as sympathizing with the grieving. What an agonizing day it was. Even in other villages, not once did something of this calibre occur and now they had to experience it.

********

Couped up in different dark rooms, each having just a single window and bars like doors, were several petrified children. Most of them were curled up against the wall, shaking with fear as they heard the sounds of footsteps which eventually stopped. Muffled chattering followed by the sounds of doors unlocking reverberated through the building.

"Get in." The new batch of kidnapped kids where pushed into different rooms. All crying and extremely scared. They fought hard against their bodies, but it still didn't work. They wanted to run away, but all they could do they was walk into the rooms. They hurdled together crying their eyes out.

"Father, father," Malakai said whilst sobbing. He had his eyes closed shut as hot tears streamed down his eyes. Alfred, after been woken up, was still in shock. The image of his father burning to death kept playing in his head. He had his arms over his knees as he curled up by the wall next to Malakai.

"Welcome to your new home kids." The lady announced with a wide grin.

____________

Hello, author here, participating in my first WPC. Giving the world of revenge a try, so here's a story about secrecy, greed, power, bloodshed, gods and demons, and a young man who finds himself between them all.

I hope you enjoy reading.