Misery

A vien had been watching his dad. He turned around to check out the alleyway. Stopping in front of it, he stood there trying to see what had made the light. He noticed a bit of smoke curling itself through the air coming out of the darkness. He was a little afraid of the darkness now. He could not see anything between the two buildings, it was too dark. And he did not want to walk any farther, so he gave up and turned to walk back to his father. He gasped. Something had grabbed his arm! He jumped, and wanted to shout out, but something grabbed his mouth to….and both were pulling him backwards! He looked at his dad…standing just yards away, trying to shout to him, but it was hopeless. Someone had a hold on him and he could do nothing about it…his eyes were pleading, and he struggled against the person holding him. Suddenly he was forced to turn around, facing the interior of the alleyway and several dark shapes were brought into view. He realized the alleyway had several people in it, what he could not see before. One of them stuck its face into his and jeered, “Having fun lad?! Heheheeeee!” He coughed out the words and screeched at him with a maniacal laugh that made him shiver. His breath reeked and made him want to cough, if he could have with the hand over his mouth. What now!? He thought to himself desperately. The man holding him whispered to his fellows, “What we should do with him, do you think?” The others looked at each other wildly and began to debate.

“We can beat him!” suggested one nasty man in the corner next to a large wooden barrel. The others seemed to like the idea. Avien’s eyes widened with fear and he struggled harder to get free of this nightmare. Another man got up from where he was sitting and walked over to Avien. Standing a foot away, he swung his fist back to hit him. Avien froze in terror.

The dull thud of skin and bone hitting skin and bone could be herd. Pain was all Avien knew in that horrid second that the man’s fist contacted his face. Then he found himself back in the situation he landed himself in. Except that, everything seemed to dance back and forth. He could not think straight. He could hear the men around him laughing and walking around him. He was no longer looking at any of them, but keeping his eyes shut, hopping against hope that it would all stop. His cheek burned and stung where the man had hit him. Then footsteps. Avien opened his eyes slightly again. The nasty man was coming up to him for his turn, Avien guessed. N-noooo….He did not want to feel that again, it still hurt bad enough now that he was afraid he’d faint. He struggled and squirmed, but it was no use. The man holding him was too strong. The man walking towards him was getting closer and closer. He now stood in the place of the other man that had hit him. Now he raised his fist too. Avien flinched, for he knew what was coming. His heart sank, and he felt himself falling…falling.

* * *

He felt cold ground against his bruised cheek. His limbs ached because of the amount of time he had stood with them straining against the man that was holding him before. It took him a few seconds to remember that he was in danger. And finding himself free, regardless of his aching body, he lifted himself a bit. As if suddenly, hearing came back to him. I must have fainted. He heard movement behind him, a scuffle. He looked around; there in the entrance to the alleyway he could see his father. Three men surrounded him, each trying to hit him. But amazingly, his father dodged and weaved around their fists; and instead, he was landing his fist on all three of them, knocking one straight off his feet. Avien could not stand seeing his father by himself, and he was trying to protect him! He jumped up and ran over. The man his father had knocked away was getting back on his feet to head back to the fight. Oh, no you don’t! He thought fiercely. He had to jump over several bodies as he made his way over…bodies knocked out cold. The other man that had just got to his feet noticed him running his way, and turned to face him, “think you can beat me do you?!”

He did not care what the man said to him. He swung his now clinched fist back and landed it on his face as hard as he could. A dull crunch! It was hard enough to send him stumbling backwards a few steps, but nothing like his father’s. He was back up in seconds, and rushed to counter-attack. Pain again! The man had hit him around the hip. He was sent sideways, almost hitting one of the two men still fighting his father. But it did not hurt nearly as much as before…when it was his face. In fact, he did not really feel it at all. He more like sensed it. He was angry that they would dare try to hurt his father, much less him. Crunch! He had hit the man again, this time in the face instead of his chest. Holding his nose, the man stumbled back. For some reason, the man ran down the alleyway, away from Avien. Avien looked around at his father’s fight. It was now moving out into the street, and people swarmed around them. His father’s face was bruised and he was limping whenever he had to walk. But he was still fighting savagely. Avien hurried through the crowd to help. Reaching the edge of the fight, he was just in time to see one of the two men snatch out a knife…Avien screamed out in fear, “WATCH OUT DAD!” An alarm bell rang out the somewhere in the town….…guards could be heard yelling at the crowd to move out of the way…….Avien froze, not believing what he just saw……The man had swung the knife at his father, stabbing him in the chest. Then the other man hit him around the head; and father fell to the ground.

“NOOOOO!” Avien yelled. He ran over and jumped on the man’s back that held the knife…the man jerked, but Avien held on tight. He could see the knife in his right hand…red with blood…his father’s blood. Avien was filled with bubbling anger. The knife came up to meet what would have been Avien’s face, except he had thrown out his hand to catch it in mid travel. He grabbed the man’s hand and yanked at the knife until it dropped to the ground. The other man tried to pick it up, but the guards had finally reached the scene…..and one lunged out with his spear, catching the man in the chest before he could reach it. Avien grabbed his man around the throat and held him there. He coughed and spluttered, and tried to pry Avien’s hands away, but did not succeed. One of the guards grabbed Avien and pulled him off the man. The other guard grabbed the man and threw him to the ground. Avien escaped the guards grasp and dropped near his fathers still body. Crawling towards him, he wiped the dirt out of his eye. His father’s eyes were closed. No…it can’t be! He felt his chest. There, on his left breast was the wound caused by the knife, positioned right over his heart. He could not feel it beating. And he was not breathing…..Please no…No… “NO!” he yelled the last word aloud.

* * *

He laid there starring into his dead father’s face. Why? Why does this have to happen now? He was crying. Tears were rolling down his bruised cheek onto his father’s wounded chest. Trembling from head to foot, his mind jumped to his mother, how would she react when she heard that father was dead? Would she cry? Would she want to know how it happened? Would she even blame……him? She would be right in blaming me...it’s all my fault! I didn’t listen to him when he told me to stay with him......and now he has had to die for me! To protect me! He was suddenly afraid to go home, to confront his mother. He did not want to go home.....but he did want to get away from this town, and forever. He got up and ran to the edge of the crowd. Pushing his way through he fought his way out and ran as fast as he could towards the gate...then he remembered that it was shut! He couldn’t get out that way! But no...there was a ladder there, hanging on the wall of the tower next to the gate. The guards must have left it there when they came down from the tower! Which means that he could get up, and hopefully over. Quickly he climbed up the ladder to the very top. On top, there was an area of floor with a trap door in the middle of the small space. But there was nothing to climb down on the other side of the tower when he looked. He had not thought of that. Looking around again, he found a small leaver, the leaver to the gate. Hurrying over to it, he pushed it down. A noise from below told him it had worked, and he bolted to the ladder again. On his way over, he spotted a guard running over to the tower yelling, “Hay you! Get down off of there! You’re not supposed to be up there!” Reaching the ground, Avien hurried off under the gate, just as it clanged shut again. There was a loud ‘clunk!’ when the guard ran into the gate, trying to chase after Avien.

He ran down the road thinking miserably about the horse, his father, and the merchandise he was leaving behind. Oh, this is horrible! He thought as he continued to pound down the road. But there was nothing he could do now about it. He was fighting for breath now because of the furious pace that he was tearing down the road. There was a lake on his right, and he thought to rest by it. So he turned that way and found that the shore was completely traversable. And he realized it would be safer to be on the other side, farthest from the town. Tired though he was, he continued until he could not anymore. He found an oak tree that he dropped to the ground in front of, panting. He had gone only a quarter of the way around the lake from where he first started. I’m a wimp. If I wasn’t such a wimp dad might not even be dead....Tears sprung to his eyes again, and he sat there crying under his tree for a long time.

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