Unknown

Smoke and Shadows

one... two... three "Fe, fi, fo, fum!!!" the group of children shrieked with glee and scattered. "I smell the blood of an English man!!" his playful growls and exaggerated giant stomps shook the turf. " Be he live or be he dead!!" scooping up the little girl with his large hands and loving smile on a face she couldn't quite see. "I'll grind his bones to make my bread!!" tossing her high into the air she felt like she could touch the bright blue sky. With the sense he would catch her she was not afraid. Falling back to earth, floating with the breeze, she closed her eyes.

She fell and fell. Taking a deep breath in she could smell burning flesh. She kept falling. Steel grey eyes wide open now in terror as the bright blue became blighted by inky clouds. Like sheets of black satin they moved inwards and around her swirling, snapping. Falling down in to black nothingness. Her long hair whipping around her face stinging her eyes and leaving welts on her arms. Her favorite purple skirt shredding and tangling in her legs. She reaches for anything to catch her but there is nothing to grab but slick, rich, mist. Her heart racing and pounding she falls back opening her mouth to scream...Anna bolted upright grabbing the nearest item to her. Her mother's bouquet.

She had fallen asleep in the warm afternoon sun. Huh, guess I was tired after all. Swallowing gingerly, her throat felt like someone had torn her voice from her, she must have screamed on this side of the nightmare too. Taking a deep breath to calm herself she focused on what was around her. Tall grass hid her and kept her warm. She could see the sky had turned to dusk. Raising her head, she slowly turned around to see a dark plum rising from the forest. Odd, didnt think there was anything out there. Mother is going to be so mad. I could taste smoke in the air and hear...

"Anna-Lea!!! Anna!! Where are you?!?!" her father's panic stricken voice called out to her.

"Annie!!! Annie!!!" her brother Petir joined in. She turned to the direction their shouts came from, they came from the south end of the meadow from home.

"Petir! Over here! I'm sorry I-" she quickly responded stopping to take in her brothers ragged appearance. He grabbed her arm to keep going but in her confusion she planted her feet.

"Ouch, Petir, take it easy. What is going on?" questioning her brother. It has been a long time since she was taller than him she thought as he doubled over holding his side. Petir tried to catch his breath while sweat and grime streaked his face. His shirt plastered to his back.

"Hush Anna! We have to run! Dad is coming behind us. Come on!" he tried to get her to follow him.

"Anna! Petir! We need to keep moving! Go. Go now." her father boomed at them, the urgency in his voice was a contrast to his methodical nature. He limped toward them, blood and perspiration dripping from his face. His shirt torn from collar to cuff and his pants shredded on the left side barely held on. Grime and blood made a muddy mess of his clothes.

"Dad!? Where are mother and Elze?! What is going on?" she peppered her father. She and Petir came to each side of him to help him stay upright.

"We have to go now." pointing in the directions she blanched.

"But... Mama... I'll go look for them..." she took a step back as if to go to the house and her father put out his good arm grasping her shoulder. He shook his head with tears in his eyes; streaks of them had already marred his handsome features with pain. He pointed again. Westward. Shaking her head, terror and sadness reining in her mind. First the nightmare now this.

Petir took her free hand and her father keeping his hand on her back rushed her toward the edge of the meadow. The trees were dark streaks against the orange-scarlet clouds. Flora and fauna made a dense carpet adding to the gloom. Her father wanted her to go in there. Wanted her to go where she was forbidden to enter; the birds didn't sing there, animals didn't scurry to and fro. She dropped her mother's bouquet as they went into the woodland...