Loss

The children hid in the shadows cast by the roving flames.

The eldest daughter of the family, had two younger siblings, a boy and his twin sister. The eldest was seven and a half years old. The twins would be five next monday.

They were scared of darkness, the twins. And yet as their elder sister dragged them by their arms into a narrow crevice, and they had followed. For what they were experiencing now was beyond fear.

One fears the unknown. Nothing was unknown now. They did not know why, but they knew what.

The eldest daughter was shivering. She was old and could fool herself. The twins had not yet learned the art of self deception. They knew what they had seen. They did not understand it. But they knew what had happened.

While the eldest daughter strove hard to erase the images burned into her mind by the orange light of the fire as it devoured their home, the twins looked on to outside. The moving flames cast shadows and gave them life. No the humans seemed like stones and wood. But the shadows seemed inviting, soothing against the harshness of the light.

There were jarring screams as people noticed the absence of the children. The battue began to chase the children and any others, out. With fire and sword and dagger crags were looked into and set ablaze.

The twin sister saw the flame first, her brother felt the steel and they heard them coming.