"MOM!" I shout as I hear her scream.

I hear someone yell something and a loud explosion rings out from outside. The shock from it blew open my window. I ran to the window to see what was going on. In the garden there were several fires here and there, everything seemed like it was on fire and even the trees beyond our yard were on fire. People were running toward the house! I can clearly see hey had weapons! Who the hell are these people?! An explosion erupted in the middle of a group of people charging toward the house, their bodies blown to pieces. I watch in horror as limbs are shredded and sent flying, blood splattering from the tumbling body parts.

"MOM!!! Where are you!!!" I shout out the window, but the commotion of battle was too loud for anyone to hear u less they were close to me.

Another explosion rocked the house and looking out the window I see more bodies flying through the air. Some are missing limbs, their head, some just chunks of flesh landing throughout the yard. That explosion was much closer to the house. There are lots of people yelling and screaming, and soon I hear the sound of heavy footsteps inside the house!

Suddenly my mother bursts into my room. She is bleeding from several cuts on her arms, and one to her head. Scorch marks marred her clothes and her skin. Beads of sweat forming all over her.

As soon as she sees me, she yells, "Christine! You need to run! Go no..."

Suddenly I get sprayed with something wet. My vision turns red. What... what is this! I wipe my eyes and I see my mother. She is halfway from my doorway to me. There is a large sword protruding out of her chest. I can see ribs and flesh rendered around the sword. Blood is pouring out onto the floor. My mother's precious blood! I look into my mother's eyes, and I watch the life leave them. The sparkle once there fades away leaving half closed, lifeless eyes.

"MOOOOOOOM!!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!!"

Tears start streaming down my blood-soaked face. I scramble trying to reach my mother. The man that killed my mother was just standing there, his sword gripped tightly, the lifeless body of my mother still impaled on it. He turns his gaze toward me and I back into the corner of my room, knees to my chest as though somehow my legs will protect me. There is nothing I could do to defend myself. He is an armored brigand equipped with a lethal weapon. I'm just a 5-year-old child in a shirt and a pair of shorts.

"Well, what do we have here..." the man says as though he found a valuable piece of treasure.

I feel his gaze fall upon me. It's cold. It's Lifeless. His eyes are seemingly devoid of any emotion. No, there is one emotion. Malice. This is pure unbridled malice. This is a man that only cares about himself, seemingly thrown away his humanity, and wouldn't hesitate to slaughter anyone even for fun. I'm frozen in terror. I can't move. I can't even speak. He starts walking toward me, the lifeless body of my mother is still hanging from his sword, but that doesn't even seem to register with him.

He is now a foot in front of me. I'm scared. I have never been so scared in my life. My concerns about my awakening and reporting to the government seem absolutely trivial in comparison to the danger I am facing at the moment. What do I do! He dumps the body of my mother in front of me, discarded like a piece of scrap mean. It's meant to terrorize me, and it succeeds. A wicked smile forms on his face.

I reach out to my mother's lifeless body, my emotions welling up, my soul crying out for help in hopes that my mother is just sleeping and will jump up and protect me at any moment. My outstretched hand touches her still warm shoulder.

"You will do nicely. You are coming with me!"

He grabs me by the hair and drags me to my feet. I squeal in pain. It feels like my scalp is being torn straight from my skull! He turns and starts walking out of my room, dragging me in tow by the hair. The pain in unimaginable. All I can do is slap at his fist to try to get him to let go of my hair.

As we get to the living room, he releases my hair and throws me forward where I fall to my knees, wincing at the abrasions that resulted. I look around. The scene is surreal. The house is trashed. Scorch marks, broken furniture, bodies, parts of bodies, and blood everywhere. A major battle has occurred. Did my mother kill all these people?! I had no clue she had such power! This place doesn't even resemble the living house it once was. Now it's just a grave, a place where souls will congregate with no place else to go.

"Hey kid! Look at what your bitch of a mother did to my friends!" My mother's murderer yelled at me.

The man picks me up my my hair again and thrusts me forward, forcing me to look at the carnage. The wrecked bodies and body parts of his comrades strewn about. After giving me a good long look, he lifts me up and brings me close to his face, his breath rancid from the rotting teeth in his head.

"You are going to serve us now. You have to pay your mother's debt! A dozen of my friends dead because of her!! Your life belongs to us now!!"

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My mother's killer throws me back to the floor where I crumple into a broken mess. Another man pulls me up by the hair again, then grabs my arms and ties my arms behind my back. My vision goes black as a bag is put over my head. Suddenly I feel something hard hit me in the head and I lose consciousness.

I don't know how long I was out, and I don't know where I am. I awaken to find myself on a dirt floor, in a tiny room, more like a closet than a room. My hands are still bound behind my back. My hands are numb from the bindings slowing my circulation. My scalp burning from being pulled around by my hair. My knees and hands bruised from being slammed into the ground. My head is throbbing. I still have blood caked on my face and clothes... my mother's blood.

I want to cry, but I don't even get the chance to when suddenly the door opens, and a burly man enters. He pulls me to my feet by my hair and marches me out to a larger room of whatever structure I'm now in. It's old, musty, and dilapidated. The floor is just dirt, the walls appear like hastily stacked stones with mud used as mortar. The ceiling is a basic thatched roof which undoubtably leaks when it rains. This building is of piss poor construction. The light is poor in here, but I can still see as light from a few candles are around the room.

There are quite a few people here. They all look and smell the same. Ragged, filthy clothes some stained with blood or God knows what else. Hygiene seems to be a secondary concern for this bunch. They look like a bunch who have lived a hard life running from the law and surviving away from society.

SMACK!

"OOOOOOWWWW" I scream!

My vision is momentarily blurred as one of the men in the room smacked me quite hard on the face. My already throbbing head just hurts worse.

"Hey! Pay attention!" He screams inches from my face. His breath is acrid and foul. I don't know what came over me, but I reacted without thinking.

THUD! The man doubles over as my foot makes a solid connection with his testicles. Others in the room start laughing at the man. That was a big mistake on my part.

"We got a lively one here boys!" Says someone in the room.

"FFFFFOOOOOOOOOOHHHH"

Suddenly I double over in pain, the wind knocked out of my lungs. The man I kicked punched me straight in the stomach.

OOOHHHBBLLAAARRGGHH!! Was the sound I made as the contents of my stomach violently spray from my mouth. I fall to the floor unable to breath, gagging on my vomit which erupts forth uncontrollably.

Someone stomps on the back of my head, pressing my face into my own vomit. The heavy foot grinding my face into the vomit covered floor. I'm still gasping for breath, my guts shuddering from the trauma they just received. My stomach feels like it is trying to force its way out of my throat.

"You fucking BITCH!! I should kill you right now!"

"Knock it off!" Shouts someone else.

"Fuck you! This little cunt has this coming! She should die anyway! You saw what this bitch's mother did to our group!"

"She is no use to us dead and you know it!"

The man stopping me from being killed on the spot is a voice I recognize. I won't ever forget that voice. It's the man who murdered my mother. It seems he is the leader of this bunch. He grabs my hair and picks my head up from the floor, vomit infused mud caked to my face. He leans in close, that foul breath singeing my nasal passages with its acidity.

"Listen here little girl!" He speaks.

"Your life is forfeit; do you understand that? You will serve us. You will do whatever we tell you to do. You are not allowed to speak; you may only nod yes. 'No' is something you are not allowed to say. You can only nod yes. Do you understand?!"

"Yes!" I answer, my head crying out in pain from my hair being pulled. The stomach acid from my vomit is starting to sting as it is starting to damage my skin.

THUD!

"BLAAAAA"

The man who was standing on my head swiftly kicks me in the stomach. A fresh fountain of vomit and now fresh blood erupt from my mouth.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO SPEAK!!" The man holding me up by my hair screams in my face.

"Now, do you understand what happens if you break that rule?!"

I nod my head yes. Tears begin streaming down my face.

"Fast learner, that's good!" The man releases his grip on my hair, and I fall to the floor, immediately curling up in a fetal position.

"Now, let me continue. You will do every task demanded of you without question! You will not look at whoever is ordering you to do something. Your head will remain bowed in subservience. Do you understand?!"

I nod yes once again from my fetal position on the floor. I have never felt this kind of pain in my life. I hurt everywhere.

"Do not try to escape! Do not try to harm any of us. For you will be severely punished. You think you are in pain now?! You have no clue what real pain is!"

"Now, clean up this mess you made!"

I nod yes and slowly pull myself to my knees. I wipe my face and look around for something to clean up my vomit and blood with.

"What the fuck are you looking for?!"

"Something to clean wi..."

THUD!

I am sent tumbling across the room as a boot meets the side of my face.

"I guess you aren't a fast learner are you. I said you are not allowed to speak you little cunt!"

I momentarily lost consciousness with that one. When I come to, I slowly pull myself back up to my knees and nod yes. I crawl back over to where my vomit and blood is and I start scooping dirt onto the puke puddles, mixing it together to get the dirt to soak up the vomit and blood. This made it easier to scoop up with my hands. I don't know where I'm supposed to dispose of this shit. The man giving the orders seemed to pick up on it.

"Hey, it's your puke; put it in your room!"

I guess the closet I woke up in is now my room. I crawl over to it and deposit my vomit-soaked dirt in the corner of the room. I make three more trips to get the floor all clean, and my puke back in my new room.

"Good. Now that I have explained the rules, and you have experienced what happens if you don't obey our rules, you will go back into your room. You will stay there at all times until someone comes and tells you to do something.

I nod and crawl back to my room. I curl up in the corner opposite my puke, and I cry. I'm still covered in my mother's blood, but now my own blood and puke has been added. My face and neck have slight burns on them from my face being pressed into my vomit. I hurt everywhere. My head is throbbing; the left side of my face is starting to swell up from being kicked in the face. My abdomen is the worst though. Any movement is excruciating. I know I'm bleeding internally since I puked up blood. That's not good. I sob uncontrollably for what seems like an eternity until I fall asleep.