The Silver Lining (Lunar River Series)

Chapter 1

CASSIUS

No no, wait...please. Stop! Mom...MOM!

"Baby be strong, stay strong."

"Mom, no they are going to kill you."

"My son, I love you, please just look away. Be strong for momma."

No, what are they doing to my mom? I look away from her like she tells me to but I can hear it. The sounds of them cutting her. The cracking of her bones and splashes of blood as her life spills. She is screaming so loud I can't hear my thoughts. I can't look. I don't want to look. The fear of what I might see is holding me back from witnessing what they are doing. With my eyes firmly shut, I rock myself. A song my mom used to sing floats into my mind.

No, that's not right. It's her voice. I can hear mom's voice singing to me. How can I hear her so vividly in my mind despite her screaming right now? I hum to the words flowing through my mind soothing my soul. I feel better but why does her voice sound weak now? It stops. The screaming is gone. The quiet is now louder than the sound of the boots approaching me. I open my eyes for the first time and look over my shoulder holding my breath. A bloody hand grips my shoulder.

I wake up from another nightmare. Its been over a decade and my memories of that day still haunt me. I relive it in my mind like a permanent resident too stubborn to leave. The scars are too deep to heal. They fester when my dreams take hold and imprison me within the confines of my mind. I wipe the sweat from my face, groaning at the shirt that now clings to my body. 

"It's hot in here," I mumble but that's not true. It's my body. The nightmare must have given me a low fever.  A growl erupts in my chest at not being able to get my mother's pained face out of my mind. I hate that it's the only way I can remember her but it's the last thing I see before her death. That face is the only one clear enough in my mind to not forget, even after all these years.

Thinking back, it was just past breakfast and mom walked with me to the woods to pick some wildflowers. At seven years old, they all looked the same so I grabbed a bunch. Little did I know they were mainly weeds but the yellow, whites, and blues mixed so well together. Who knew weeds could be pretty too? All I wanted to do was make mom happy by giving her something pretty to set on the table at home. Mom laughed when I handed them to her and patted my head when the sound of a branch breaking caught our ears. We run but the men behind us ran faster. I had then woken up to torture by these men and my mother drowning in the abuse. Every day they made me watch. I prayed for my father to save us. We had to endure for two weeks before they got the nerve to kill her. 

At such a young age my mind simply broke. While at first I was confused as to why it suddenly became quiet, I quickly realized with the blood on his hands that I no longer could call out for momma. I waited like an empty shell for them to unchain me from the silver. They placed me back in my cell and while the one that killed mom washed up, the other man came and touched me. I feigned compliance and like the pervert that he was, he enjoyed how easy I was being but the second I had a chance, I grabbed the knife from his unkempt holster and attacked him. I didn't stop until he ceased moving. 

Looking at the corpse in front of me I panicked. I stared at the crimson that bathed me but I didn't feel better. The revenge so quickly sought did nothing to alleviate the pain in my chest. So, I ran, I ran away and hid in the woods. I ran so that I could find a way to live. Horrible unspeakable things still bleed in my memory of my mother.

If I knew then what I know now, I would have tried to finish off the other man that had touched me. My young naïve mind didn't even know that those men and the ones around today are the same. They are hunters. Nasty, vile hunters that like to kill our kind out of ignorance and pure enjoyment. They treat my kind like game during hunting season. Another box to check off their list. Rubbing my face, I sigh away my heavy thoughts.