The Birth of Freedom

Of Dreams and Hope

AURORA

My eyes adjusted to the darkness as an unsettling chill ran down my spine. I was not supposed to be here, not that I knew where here was.

The ground beneath my bare feet was coarse but soft and yielding and the fine white grains covered the ground as far as the eye could see in every direction, stretching until it met the midnight sky on the horizon. I had never seen anything like it, small hills crested and rippled, breaking the wide-open space that boasted no sign of life.  

The landscape was unchanging; no wind, no rain, just stale raw air and the endless night sky alight with the stars; however, the sky was glowing with more than just pinpricks of light. Radiant iridescent paths of light cut through the sky as if a blade had cut through the blackness to allow the light to shine through the openings as they pointed the way to one beacon of pure white light, it was beautiful.

My feet moved of their own accord as I followed the paths in the night sky, unsure as to why I felt their pull so profoundly.

"Aurora" a gentle whisper floated around me and made me stop in my tracks and turning back around I saw I was not alone after all. A tall young man with red hair and mismatched grey and green eyes was looking right at me, and though the lines and time had been removed from his face, I recognised him instantly.

"Grandfather?" I asked in awe as I reached a hand out to touch him, stopping short of contact. A wide smile broke out across his face and my insides twisted at the unfamiliar sight because I had never seen him smile before and I marvelled at how happy he looked when suddenly blood began to pour through his teeth and down his face.

Recoiling, I watched in horror as his body began to age and fold in on itself before collapsing to the floor, unmoving, just as he had the day he died with his eyes wide and unseeing. Stumbling back, my feet caught on something, and I falling backwards I scrambled for my balance while looking down to see what bad caught my foot and a strangled scream tore from my throat. 

At first glance, the dead body looked like Rian, but with closer inspection, I realised this young man was not my brother. With darker red hair, mismatched grey and green eyes and a deep slit throat, I knew in my heart who this man was and a broken sob tumbled from my lips.

"Father?" I whimpered, too afraid to speak out loud as next to him lay more bodies of men and women, all similar in their varying shades of red hair and mismatched eyes, the same as mine.

The more I looked, the more corpses appeared, all of them were mangled or crumpled in some unnatural way as their blood stained the white grains red and their eyes all staring at me unseeing but screaming a thousand words.

I was hit with a wave of pure rage as I felt their anger inside me, I felt them all as tears began to pour from my eyes at the pain and the darkness that had ended them. I could feel their blood calling to my own, the blood of my ancestors, and suddenly I understood why. I was the blood of a people asking not to be forgotten.

The beacon of light in the distance abruptly moved closer, and I had to shield my eyes from the blinding light. Squinting, I made out a small child-like figure in the distance that came from the beacon and I made to move forward towards them, slipping over on the body of my Grandfather.

I tried to stand back up but couldn't find my feet with all the blood and gore so instead, crawling forward on all fours, I clawed my way across countless bodies as I tried to reach the child and the closer I got, the more I could make out the little girl with wide tearful blue eyes watching my struggle. I don't know why, but I knew I had to help her, maybe it was the look of fear on her face at seeing all this death, or perhaps it was something more, something I couldn't understand.