Emse: A Deadly Departure

Crashing to the floor after the deadly blow had been delivered, Esme was left unconscious on the ground, this would be where she remained until somebody found that it was time for another beating. It had not been her fault, not this time, she had tried so hard to please them but the guilt still weighed down upon her shoulders. She wished for her husband... Her little girl, this time it was Esme that needed protecting. She understood that this wish would never be fulfilled, she had watched him die, the pristine blade of the dagger puncturing his heart. She saw her husband fall to his knees, his courage still shining in his golden eyes. Bravery was a trait they shared, never once did he break his expression, if it weren't for years of marriage she would have thought him to be made of stone, but Esme knew better than that. Laying with her head in the mud she caught his eye as he fell, she did not want to be seen this way, but she was no able to overpower the four men fighting over her, so she stayed, unmoving, sharing a silent farewell with the husband that knelt, dying before her. A secret had been shared between the two of them, a secret that restored their faith right until the end; their daughter was safe.

Since the day she was born, Isla was beautiful. Esme could remember the first time her eyes had landed upon her face, drinking every detail from her thick, black eyelashes to the soft wrinkles that bore into her face from 9 months in the womb. Every part of this face was angelic. Just moments after her birth Esme knew that this little girl was special, those eyes, resembling a river of gold shone in the face of beauty and already, the curiosity of this child was well known as she gazed at her mother's face with quizzical and curious eyes. And a tiny baby she was, petite, like a pup, yet with a will stronger than the strength of a king's army. And that smile, the smile of her beautiful daughter could melt even the hardest of hearts. She was a goddess, reincarnated and blessed to these two newlyweds.

 The flame of hope that was once illuminated so brightly in heart was beginning dim, slowly, each day the flame grew smaller, more insignificant, further and further away from her soul and it did not take one of high intellect to know that one day soon, the light would be distinguished completely. Her dreams were haunted of the day she had been separated from her lovely, little family, how the men had pushed her to the ground with rough, unrelenting hands and forced their bodies onto hers. The pressure of their talons, pinning her arms to the ground making escape an impossibility. She shut her eyes, and waited for the horror to subside. The dirty, warm breath of an unhygienic man grazed her face with each body movement and it took all of the strength inside this woman not to wretch there and then. The murder continued around them as she lay there, helpless on her back, imaginary tears making a wet path down her face as she refused to allow the men to see her fear and upset. When the slaughter of the innocents had finished she was hauled up into a wagon and forced to watch the town in which she had grown and loved so dearly slowly fade away into the distance, leaving the souls that she once knew and loved to decay and eventually become a part of the earth on which they lay.

As they came closer to the final destination at which Esme was to spend the remaining years of her life, her hands began trembling, fear was an alien concept to this valiant woman, a feeling she did not welcome with open arms. She registered the place to which the wagon was entering and a shiver rushed down her spine. It was at that moment that she awoke from her unconscious oblivion, thanking God for suppressing the painful memories once again.