Burnt Down House

Somewhere in the Kingdom of Boly, there is a worn-down house in a worn-down town, known to be the worst side of the country, where all criminals reside and the most inferior commoners live.

In this house lives a single mother and an 8-year-old child named Zac.

Zac was a starved child, and his mother would work day in and day out to make ends meet.

At such a young age and to have lived without a father, Zac had to make himself aware of that truth and become more mature to make sure he could help out as much as possible so that his mother's health doesn't get affected.

Zac would steal, work, and beg to earn just a few Solars daily.

When Zac is out making money doing what he can, his mother, known for her beauty in the whole area, would sell herself at a brothel, pub, or any other dirty place that would hire her not for talent but for her body.

Coming home from yet another day after work, Zac's mom enters the cold house. Having nothing but only a few pieces of furniture to fill up the seemingly empty place. The three lanterns that barely lit up the room could do nothing about the freezing cold, making the place feel like it had no walls or ceilings.

*Creak*

The door behind her creaks. Startled, she turns around to find the only thing that makes her feel warm, the only light she needs to see in the dark, and what gives her dark clouded eyes a clear sparkle so bright, like a star. Zac, her son, steps in all muddy from his ventures of doing whatever he can to make their money in his own way.

She smiled, knowing her son was always by her side, and Zac looked up at her bright smile with puppy dog eyes in an attempt to get out of whatever scolding she might have given him for being out late. "Let's get you out of those clothes and get you washed up." she grabs Zac's torn and dirty clothes to take them off while he raises his arms without a word coming from his mouth.

"So, what did you do today?" She scrubbed Zac's back with a cloth from behind as they sat in a bucket filled halfway with lukewarm water.

"I played with my friend," Zac replied with a lie.

"Oh yeah? And what's your friend's name?" Zac's mother said with a smile.

"His name is Jayton," Zac said while grunting lightly at his mother's rough scrubbing.

"Is he a nice kid?"

"Yes, I like playing with him a lot!" Zac said in a more excited tone.

"Oh, that's good." She replied, retracting any further questions she may have had.

"How was work today, Mom?" Zac said excitedly, finally able to ask her a question.

The smile immediately turned into a straight face, turned into a frown, and stopped scrubbing afterward. "Mom?" Zac was confused as to why she didn't speak. Her tears slowly ran down her face as her breath became shaky. "Mother?" In an attempt to turn around and see why his mother had suddenly become weird, she splashed him with the water in a playful way to avert his attention while immediately wiping her tears and putting her smile back on. "It's nothing, sweety, here; let's get your front and head out for bed." Her unnatural behavior could have been suspected if it weren't for Zac being so young, but they eventually got out of the tub and headed to bed."

~ [The Next Day]

Zac says goodbye to his mother as she heads off to work. The day went by like every other day; the mother had done her job, she emptied her emotions, and filled her quota, and at the same time as usual, which was 8:00 pm with the shame she holds for herself, she can only gladly head home so that she can be with her son, or that is what she thought would happen, but as she arrived to her home she'd encountered her door knocked open while hearing faint sounds of people moving around from the inside.

Scared and bewildered, she went in to make sure Zac was okay.

"Find the boy!" A man yells from inside the house.

Approaching the door more quietly, she sees ten knights breaking things and looking into every room.

She froze in terror but still understood that she must protect Zac at all costs as the only parent.

"May I help you?" Zac's Mom says as she starts to shiver from fear.

She stood at the door, watching as all the knights broke everything that they owned.

Wanting to run away, she still loves her child more than anything; Zac is the only person left that makes her feel like wanting to live for the rest of her remaining years.

So while still in fear, she determines to stay in hopes to figure out what is happening, why it's happening, and above all else, to make sure Zac is okay.

The Knight Captain stops what he is doing and turns towards the door in confusion.

"We came here for a boy; he stole 20,000 Solars off of one of my men!" The Knight Captain says.

All the Knights gather around in one group while waiting silently as the Captain begins to Speak to Zac's Mom, While a few Knights are confused about the situation that's happening right now.

"That's Impossible; my son would never do such a thing!" She yells at the Captain. All the Knights then start to get fidgety because no one has ever talked, let alone yelled at a Knight-Captain in such a manner.

"You bitch!" The knight captain would yell back. "Are you accusing me of being a liar?"

The Captain looks back at his men and notices that they are all getting fidgety.

So then, to maintain his pride as a superior and his inferiority complex, he gets more hostile towards the woman before him.

Zac's Mom looks around the room and looks at the expression of everyone.

She understands that she messed up. But, to not escalate the problem, she knows there's nothing more to do than apologize and wish the situation settles down.

"No, I'm sorry I didn't mean to imply that."

"There's no excuse!" The Captain starts walking towards the woman.

He was looking up and down at her. He smirks.

"The boy who stole from us looked too young to be able to make up a plan to get that money from us, so you must've had a hand in it!" Accusing her of theft, he would then point his sword at her.

She trembles at the sight of his sword, not knowing what to do other than hope that she can talk her way out of this crisis.

"That's simply not true."

"Are you calling me a liar again?" the Captain would swing his sword back as if he were about to cut her down but then wavers as he thought of something else. Ultimately, the Captain puts his sword back into his sheath.

"As I've said before, the boy was too young to have taken our Solars right under our noses. You will pay back in full or get beheaded along with your son!" The Captain threatens the mother.

"No, please, I'll do anything, just please leave my son out of this." Zac's mother starts to shed tears while hanging onto the Captain's shoulders as she begs for mercy.

"Anything?" The Captain would once again look up and down at her beauty and smirk.

"Very well, you and your thieving son will be forgiven."

Letting out a sigh of relief, she had thought that he wouldn't threaten hers nor Zac's life.

"Thank you so much." Zac's mother was beginning to cry tears of joy while still hanging onto the Captain's shoulder.

"But, we both know stealing is a capital punishment, especially stealing from a Knight above all else." The Captain starts to hold her chin up, looking straight into her eyes. In a state of shock and fear from his words, she would back away gradually from his grip.

"You're a beauty, and what else should thieving beauties do?" The Captain's smirk starts to get larger and broader while eyeing at her breasts.

"How far are you willing to go for your son?"

Still disturbed, she knows what he means all too well; after all, she has learned to survive through awful work to make sure she and Zac would be able to have food on the table.

"I understand." Zac's mother says in an unwilling voice.

She soon then starts stripping her clothes off one by one.

30-minutes have passed when all thought to be over.

"Now that we finished, please-"

"Now hold on, missy, my boys have wasted much of their valuable time to be here looking for your boy; I believe you owe them compensation?" The Captain would interrupt as he zipped up his pants, and his smirk was turning into a full smile. The group of Soldiers then start laughing and slowly start walking towards her.

She would then start crying in hatred and terror, knowing what would become of the situation.

Taking a few steps back, she trips over all the knocked-down furniture. Pleading for forgiveness over and over again as the knights got closer and closer.

~

As the night gets colder, Zac's breath starts to show.

He dangles his head out from a dark alleyway, Zac checks to make sure no one has followed, or if anyone is around, feeling safe, he starts running. Gasping faster than usual, he rushes home, worrying that his mother would scold him for being out past dark. Finally, after running and hiding for an hour, he sighs in relief.

As Zac nears his house, he sees his door cracked open.

With nothing on his mind but a potential scolding from his mother, he starts to slow down, trying to catch his restless breath as he finally reaches the door. Immediately hearing the sound of many laughing men and a loud continual moaning coming from the crack of his door.

Pushing his face against the door and crack, he finds himself watching something gruesome.

What he saw was never seen before throughout his life, but it was something he could not revert away from, as chills run down his spine, eyes wide open, and shoving his hand to his mouth as not to make a sound.

Zac looks at a horrible sight that would soon become the only sight in his mind to plague him forever.

After trying to understand the situation before him, his mother would endure such an unspeakable moment of her life.

Zac then slams the door open in a panic to save his mother.

Every Knight would then pause and look towards Zac.

"Get away from my mom!" Zac would scream, emptying the room that was for a moment filled with the sounds of horror.

"That's the boy!" The Captain yells as he guides his finger towards Zac, indicating that the knights must apprehend him.

Beaten, bruised, cut, and mysterious white liquid mixed with blood running down every part of Zac's mother, kneeled at the floor, unable to stand up, mumbling underneath her breath. She would plead for Zac's safety as the Knight-Captain had promised.

"You whore." The Captain says as he looks down on her.

"You believed I would keep my promise to a filthy slut like you?" The Captain would speak with an intense and hateful voice.

"You're not even worth 20,000 Solars, not even If I sold you."

As despair began to overtake her, all she could do was sacrifice herself to save Zac.

The Captain would turn to Zac speaking, but it all sounded like background noise as Zac's mother discovers one of the Knight's swords lying on the ground.

She hurries to grab the sword, planning to attack the Captain.

"RUN AWAY, ZAC!"

Mustering up all the strength she could, she then lunges the sword at the Captain.

...

Zac could not hear a sound nor move once as he witnessed the Captain dodging her swing then stabbing his mother in the heart, putting an end to her life.

Feeling powerless and afraid, he stands there with no purpose to live.

After pulling the sword out of her, the Captain begins to look at Zac and grin while he orders his men to tie Zac to a stable, dragging his mother's corpse next to him.

Putting up no resistance, he stares at his dead mother while they proceed to pour oil all over both of them, running it all over the house.

"20,000 Solars is a lot, and it compares nothing to your pathetic lives." So the Captain would say as he kneeled facing Zac's emotionless eyes.

He then stands back up, and without saying another word, all the knights leave the house, lighting it on fire.

Ignoring the heat and smoke, Zac would stare at his mother with no thought in his mind other than feeling hatred for the knights and how he could've avoided it all if he hadn't stolen from them.

Unfortunately, the smoke would soon fill the room, making it impossible for Zac to breathe correctly, eventually knocking him out.

Chapter End.