Part Four  

Posted by The Alchemist in

In the darkness not far from where Anias slept, two lives were about to end.

“Hannah, Hannah wake up. Get your things, we have to go.”

In her bed the child moaned softly.

“Mother what is it? I’m tired.”

That was the same question Leda had been asking herself. Five minutes ago her husband had come at her from behind with a rolling pin, shouting and snarling. Now he sat in a catatonic state in the middle of the dirt floor in the next room, drool running down from his lip. Leda thanked the gods above for the darkness, she didn’t want Hannah to see the blood running down from her wounded head. Uric had always been kind to her, but lately he had been acting strangely. Two nights previous he had become furious at dinner and thrown his bowl across the room at her. Immediately after he apologized saying that he knew not what had come over him. He also seemed to be tired and irritated. Over the last week and a half he had taken to sleeping till noon, and frequently napped. He spent more time asleep then awake. Leda thought he was just coping with some illness, but there had to be something else wrong with him. Some times he would stare at her, so hatefully that it made her weep when he was gone. Now it had all culminated in this. The man in the next room could not be her Uric.

“Just get your things dear, we’re going to stay at Rebecca’s house for a while.”

Rebecca was the daughter of her best friend and Hannah’s play mate. Leda did not know where else she could turn.

After Hannah had gathered up her doll, blanket, and extra pair of cloths Leda took her by the hand and led her past her husband in the next room.

“Momma” Hannah whimpered, “What’s wrong with daddy?”

“Come on Hannah” Leda said, nearly having to drag her child away from her father. “We have to go!”

Leda had just made it through the door when she heard a snarl come from behind.

“Where” Uric growled, “do you think that you're going?”

The only thing that could escape her mouth before Uric fell upon her was “Hannah, run!”

If the child had ran right away as her mother had instructed she might have escaped, but she was unable to move as she watched horrified while her father battered her mother with the rolling pin.

Hannah turned, weeping, and fled for the forest not fifty feet away. She had made it to the tree line when her father caught her, and drug her kicking and screaming back to the house. The sobs and screams of the two women did not last much longer that night.

In the morning the villagers found Uric in his house, rocking back and forth, with his daughter and wife cradled in each arm, tears streaming down his face. For a small community such a loss was bitter indeed, but the grief of Uric was the bitterest of all for he could not remember what had happened to his family last night.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 30, 2007 at Friday, November 30, 2007 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

3 comments

Wow, dude, getting a bit dark there now aren't we ;-). ~sniff~ Poor Hannah...

December 1, 2007 at 11:12 AM

Let's remember that your is possessive and you're is "you are."

February 5, 2008 at 3:29 PM

Oh don't worry I do it again later too, in part four of the midworld writings.

February 5, 2008 at 5:59 PM

Post a Comment