Descent of The Lamb

1. Principio

Heat, pain, fear. They were the first sensations I felt as my eyes burst open, unable to be drowsy. There was no sunlight in the room, and the lights were all out, but my room was illuminated by crimson light. The air was scorching hot, layering my skin in a burning pain, accompanied with sweat all over my body, and it smelled of burning wood.

I sprung from my slumber to see fire coming from my parent's room and quickly invading my own. The fire was unnaturally hot, almost as much blue at the base as there was yellow on the top. It moved in jagged bursts, as if it had an attitude of its own. There was still enough of a pathway to get out of my room, but as all the shock and rush of emotions set in, it became harder and harder to move.

What caused the fire? Why is the fire so hot? This couldn't be real could it? Were my parents okay? Are they alive? Am I alive? What about my sister? Has the fire spread downstairs? What would I do if all of them were dead? What would I do if I am dead? Is this hell? What did I do? How'd the fire start? Could it be arsine?  If my family is dead, should I even try to escape? What would be the point?

A thin offshoot of the fire grazed the edge of my blanket, and without thinking I finally leapt from my bead, out of pure survival. I sprinted through my collapsing doorframe, and stopped when I saw that my parent's room had been burnt to a crisp, and only a few pathways weren't engulfed in fire. If my parents were alive they definitely weren't in their room.

Parts of the roof began to collapse, and I could feel the smoke poisoning my lungs. I knew I didn't have long before I passed out and died, so I ran straight down the stairwell, to check my sister's room. As I barged down the stairwell, I began to hear voices underneath the bellow of the flames.

They are alive! Why didn't they try to wake me? Did they leave me intentionally? No, it doesn't matter. They're alive and so am I, that's all that matters right now. There must be an explanation for all of this!

However, as I descended, the voices were unfamiliar. They were all young males. One stood out. There was something piercing about it, and the others seemed like thralls in relation to it. My processing of the sounds ended quickly however, as they came into view. The owner of the piercing voice was tall, blond and pale. I tried to look at the others, but I could only count that there were three others before the tall one met my gaze and locked eyes with me. I stopped in my tracks, wondering who these people were.

What are they doing in my house? Where is my family! Did they cause the fire? Did they kill my family!

Within seconds of processing the situation, I ran down the stairs to them, screaming.

"What are you doing here? Where's my fami-"

I collapsed. I couldn't believe what I saw as tears welled in my eyes. My body began shaking frantically as the tears burst out, like an arrow that had been lodged inside of me, being pulled out. I felt like I had been shot and began to bleed out.

There right in front of me, and at the intruder's feet, were the decimated bodies of my parents and little sister. They hadn't even been touched by the fire. Stabs and cuts covered their bodies, with an obvious attempt to make their faces unrecognizable. I tried to look into my sister's eyes, hoping to see some form of life, but all I saw were blood covered gouges encompassing her face. From the floor I could see what I couldn't see from the stairwell. The men were all holding large bronze scissors in their hands. One of them had detached the scissors into two daggers, like kitchen sheers. They weren't normal scissors though. They were clearly designed as weapons, and although it seemed grim, I couldn't help but think how effective they were in my family's slaughter. I wanted to react, to attack, to kill, but I just felt numb. This was all a horrible nightmare, it had to be!