Using the doorknob to help me up, I stood, leaning heavily against the doorframe and brushed back the loose ends of my hair that had freed themselves from my thick braid. Slowly I cracked the door ajar and squinted at the bright ray of sunlight that flooded in, revealing the layers of dirt and grim covering my clothes and me. Waiting just long enough for my eyes to adjust from darkness to the sudden light, I pushed the door open the rest of the way.
I had barely taken a step when I abruptly halted, feeling the vile taste of fear and horror rise in my throat. Shock filled me and I shakily dropped to my knees. Leaning my forehead against the cool grass, I waited until I was sure my stomach was empty. How could they do this? We were a peaceful village. None of these people had ever done anything to anyone. How could someone just slaughter them like this? The tears rolled down my cheeks in floods and my body shook in grief as I just lay there sobbing for what felt like hours, for all my people.
When I finally pulled myself up, the sun stood straight over me. I forced myself to check each one of my now dead friends, and their smoldering homes; I had escaped death, perhaps someone else had too. Barely keeping myself going, my hope dwindled with each body I checked, dragging them over into a large pile. After the cremation, I would have to find a way to mark their mass grave. It wasn’t much, but it was the best I could do for my lost countrymen.
In one of the houses a slice of bread was set out for someone’s meal. I nibbled on it, but quickly set it aside as my stomach threatened to rebel once more. “Only a few more to go,” I told myself as the sun neared the horizon in the west. Then they could all rest in peace for eternity. Too bad I wouldn’t be joining them.
Knowing I wouldn’t be able to stay in the village, I chose a tough pair of soft brown pants and a heavy off-white shirt, along with a hardy pair of boots, only a little too big for my own feet. Then I went down to the river and found a shallow place to bath, surrounded by tall reeds to protect my privacy, should anyone happen to come by. I scrubbed and scrubbed my hands and face clean of the blood and grim that had coated them, trying forget the feel of it at the same time.
Finally, being as clean as I was going to get, I dried myself on a clean patch of cloth from my old dress and put on the garments I had found. Then I came to my hair, still down from my cold bath, and hesitated. It wasn’t proper to keep it in the traditional braid of my ancestors while wearing the garb of a warrior or a man, but to wear it any other way…It didn’t matter, I told myself firmly. I’d leave it down as a reminder of the atrocities that had happened to my people, and I would never let someone else end up as they had. I would stop more whole villages of people being slaughtered. I would find away. Whether I had to hunt each individual down that had done it, or if I had to fight with the villagers, I would do it. With that silent vow I returned to watch the funeral pyre for my own people and was finally able to drift off to sleep.
