Bleeding Expection by Ada Andrews | #TheWattys2023

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Kalavrita, 1943

Two years earlier...

There was smoke and panic everywhere. Houses were being set on fire, mothers were screaming, and gunshots were being fired by the Greeks and the Germans. Fear of death seeped through the Greek soil. Women were running to take shelter in the school, carrying their little children. The traitors spoke and the Germans' revenge was looming in the form of retaliation against the Greeks' attack.

So much blood was unjustly shed. Never! Never, even after many years. War was the food of the dominant ones in order to destroy the weak. But the Greeks wouldn't perish. Theirs was Olympian blood; they stayed immortal in history. Their stories blazed a trail for posterity. "We are brave. We never get down on our knees," they said when asked.

Stergios, kneeling before his wife and children, had his rifle at the ready, hanging from his shoulder. They were on Kapi Hill, just a few minutes away from the heart of Kalavrita. "Aglaea, take Olga, Calliope, Matthew and Aaliyah and leave Kalavrita," he ordered her. "Don't hide in the school shelter. Even if it's still standing, you'll be arrested by the policemen," he explained.

"What about you?" she faltered in panic. Behind her, the smoke in the town was growing thicker, blackening the pure sky over Kalavrita. "What are you going to do here, Stergios?" she asked as tears trickled down her cheeks.

"Go, Aglaea. Hide. Don't come back to town if you don't hear from me," he commanded. A group of Germans were nearing the hill. "Run!" he yelled. "Protect the children, Aglaea."

"I love you," she bade him farewell and kissed him for one last time before she turned her back and started climbing up the mountain.

The gunshots grew louder. She didn't look back. She promised him. Even if they killed her, she had the duty to protect her children as a mother, to keep them away from the taint of war.

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