Caged Bird Screaming

Bittersweet

Axe cursed under his breath and hurried away trying to find Maze. Adrenaline flowed rapidly through his veins. He could feel it pounding in his temples as he ran past the huts. Another scream stabbed his ear drum and Axe winced in pain.

"Maze?" He yelled. "Maze!!!" Her screams were his only reply. Axe stopped in front of an old, broken and rusty hut in horror. Maze was in the hut screaming like a wild animal. He ran inside and pushed the door open. The smell of blood hit him like a hard blow. Axe forced himself not to gag.

Women filled the room humming and chanting. Their monotones voices made Axe's head swoon. Along with the stifling heat, he felt like fainting.

"Maze!" Axe cut through the crowd of women who yelled at him to leave the room. Axe ignored them. He had to help Maze.

"Good God." Axe covered his mouth when he saw Maze lying on a straw pallet, her small body twisting and turning as the pain over took her body. She was trashing wildly like a demon possessed child. Her eyes were rolling back inside her head. A large pool of blood surrounded her, slithering across the hard floor like a serpent.

"Maze." Axe shifted closer and bent down. "Maze." He removed a strand of her from her face and stroked her head tenderly. Maze stopped and looked at him.

"Axe? Axe is that you?" Her voice was raspy and her breaths were quick and short.

Axe nodded. "Yes Maze it's me."

Maze laughed as tears poured down her cheeks. She tilted her head to get a closer look at him. "I knew you'd come for me Axe."

Axe laughed bitterly. "I'm here now." There was no need to ask her what had happened. He already knew. She was one of the thousands of girls who were taken advantage off at plantations.

"I'm glad you're here." Maze smiled sadly and gently touched his face. Her touch was as light as a feather. "I'm happy you're here Axe." She laughed again and moaned softly. Her hand dropped and her eyes closed.

"Maze! Maze! Wake up!" Axe tugged her by the hair. She didn't wake up. At that same moment, a gush of blood ran onto the floor as Maze's child came into the world. It didn't move. It didn't breathe. It didn't cry.

Axe howled. He shook Maze trying to wake her up. She didn't move. "Maze! Maze!" He said her name over and over again but she just lay on the straw pallet...still like a sculpture. Axe took her into his arms and wept like a child into her hair. "Maze come back. Please come back." It didn't matter what he did or said; Maze wasn't coming back. She was dead and so was the child she had once carried within her.

The women in the room began to wail. Their cries filled his ears like the beat of a drum. He looked at each one of them. He hated them. If they had tried harder Maze would not have died. If they had protected her from their master none of this would have happened. Axe too hated himself. If he had hurried up...if he had put more effort into finding Maze... if he hadn't stayed at Tom's place, Maze might still be alive.

Axe kissed Maze's fore head and left the hut angry at what her master had done to her. Rage boiled his blood as he made his way past where the overseers stayed. He would kill the monster that hurt Maze. He would avenge her death.

Axe entered the house through the backyard. As he made his way past the kitchen, he stopped and grabbed a knife. The master had taken Maze's life. Axe was going to do the same to him. Axe would show his wife and children how it felt to have someone so close and dear taken away by their enemy.

Axe found him in the family room reading a newspaper. He looked up when he noticed Axe and smiled. "What do you want Negro?"

"You know what you've done." Axe said through gritted teeth. His hands shook in fury.

"What have I done?" Axe wanted to scream. The man had taken advantage of Maze and pretended he didn't know what he had done.

"You killed her."

"Who?"

"Maze. You killed Maze."

The man stood up with a smirk on his face. "And why should I care?"

"Because of this!" Axe threw himself at the man. Both of them fell to the floor. Luckily Axe landed on top of him. Before Maze's master could react, Axe plunged the knife in his chest. The man's eyes widened and he gasped in surprise. Axe watched blood gush out of the man's chest like a river bursting its banks and fell to the floor. Axe yanked the knife out of his chest and stabbed him again and again and again.

"Father." Axe looked up and saw a little girl with wide eyes standing by doorway. She looked like she was about to cry. Axe groaned. He didn't want to kill a child. He pulled the knife from the child's father's body and ran out of the house with the girl crying behind him.

The alarm sounded when Axe reached the slave quarters and he panicked. He'd be hanged if he was caught. Axe wanted to stop running. He couldn't see the point of running. He didn't want to run anymore. Both Three and Maze were dead. He didn't have a reason to live.

Axe snapped back into his world and resumed his run when he heard the blood hounds barking ferociously behind him. He sprinted past the slave quarters not caring who saw him. He stopped when he was far from the plantation and fell to the floor. He was a murderer. He had killed a man. For the first time in his life, he had ended a man's life. He looked at his hand, covered in blood and noticed he still held the knife he had used to kill Maze's master. He grunted, threw it on the floor and walked away. He needed to make himself disappear and fast.