Thread: Love, War, and a Lady's Innocence (Raivh and Adorable)

Gunshots and shouts rang out into the night air. It was cold, the wind was blowing, and he was beginning to feel the after effects of yet another day of slaughter. His hands quaked as he stared at the blood that stained them. This time the victim had been a young child, a girl, but it hadnt been he who had fired the bullet that ended the girls life. No, it had been his best friend, and then he had been felled as well, left to rot, a corpse among corpses. Ever tried finding a body once it was doused in gasoline and burned? Its impossible. All that remains is ash. A few more hours and not even that would be leftblow away with this damned wind. Flinching when a cold drop of moisture hit him square in the eye, he glanced up at the dark sky. The moon was clouded over, explaining why it was particularly dark tonight, particularly gloomy. Snow had started to fall, the first official sign of winter and a tougher war to be fought against disease, against fever. Already he felt like one was setting in. His body was hot, and despite the frigid temperatures hed been enduring all night there was a glisten of sweat on his forehead and beaded at his temples. Wrenching the automatic from his back when he saw a flash of movement, he gave a shout and pulled the trigger. A bomb went off somewhere nearby and lit up the sky, one of many explosions that darkened the night while brightening it. He could hear the screams of innocent people not far off, knowing that they were going to die, to face the same fate he had brought to so many. How many had he killed? Hed lost count. Too many to number on his fingers. Scanning the hillside still ten yards away, he knew what he was going to have to do when he reached that house. There was a woman inside, hed been informed, a young girlhed imagined her to be about his sisters agecaring for a group of orphans, at least twelve of them. When he reached that shack at the top of that hillhe wiped his mouth that had long since dried out from nerves, and took a deep breathhe would have to kill them all. This war was ludicrous, unnecessary. Why did children have to die? And why did he have to be the one to kill them? Clenching his jaw, he trudged on, over bodies and severed limbs, toward the hill. It was sometime later that he reached it, the so-called sanctuary for abandoned children, little ones that were to be cared for by the church in the good name of God. If this was some act of the Kingdom, all of this death and destruction and chaos, he wondered how these peoplehis gaze passed over a couple beheaded nuns and he nearly lost his stomach. He wondered how these people could still have their faith, could still rely on something unseen and unheard. Wheeling around at the small clatter of a rock or stone or stray bullet, he fixed his eyes on the only door still partially intact in the place. Lord have mercy on his soul! His duty was not his own but that of some madman, and if it wasnt completed his own life would be at stake. Slamming the bottom of his foot against the door, it flew open. His eyes searched the darkness for something, a shadow or a body, but he saw nothing. Slowly, cautiously, he entered the room. The crucifix was front and center, no doubt some priest had prayed in front of it no more than an hour ago. The blood pooled on the floor was still fresh, though no body remained.