Afflicted

Chapter 14: Mercy (Part1)

"Your kid will be spared. He will be sold to a nice family in the next city over. But you know too much about who we are and will tell the guards where we are going. I cannot let that happen. Hand her over and I will make your death painless and fast."

"What are you doing?" Hari blurted out angrily, watching the sword glimmer in the obscured light of the sky. "You said no one would get hurt. You promised." 

Hari had let his tone run wild, and the words came out in a crackly snarl. 

"Do you want to burn to death?" Simba snapped back, keeping his eyes locked on the woman who clutched the basket tightly. His voice was stern but hollow; Hari could tell he didn't want to, but he was on a mission- he wouldn't stop just because he had made a promise. 

"She's going to go back and tell the guards where we are. If she does that, it's over for us, Hari. I'm not going to let that happen. It's best for both of us. We are a team now- what's best for me is best for you."

Hari watched as the woman stood with the basket close to her chest, not wanting to give it up. Her eyes flashed around, knowing there was nowhere to run. She would be struck down no matter where she tried to go. She was a sitting duck and she knew it, and that's what Simba planned.

"Hari, take the kid and get in the carriage," Simba ordered tensely. "She can't run anywhere. If she is a good mother, she will give up the kid before I have to kill them both."

Hari felt himself saunter forward towards the woman who glared at him fearfully. He gently took the basket from her, her fingers lingering around the child's hand who reached for them until they were snatched from his reach. There were tears in her eyes that now flushed red, swollen in hopelessness. She knew better than to beg, for they would be a wasted last breath.

"Make sure he has a good life- please!" she pleaded with a raspy voice.

Hari looked at the rivers forming down her face, nodding compliantly as she began to break into weeping, falling to the dusty ground on her knees. Hari turned before he began to cry too, walking towards the carriage as Simba prepared to do what needed to be done. He felt so powerless and weak not able to change the outcome, knowing in his heart it was wrong and that Simba also knew it was wrong. 

But there was no way to change an Adofo's mind, not without a fight. Hari had no ability to fight, sword or not. It was hopeless. He could do nothing but make sure the child lived a life his mother wanted. He had wanted to live at whatever cost, but he wasn't sure if he could live with the price now that it was presented to him.

Simba wanted to wait for the carriage door to close before he would strike the mother down. It was painful to wait for the click of the closing door behind him, watching the mother face him feebly and with the last of her pride. He took everything from her to prevent everything from being taken from him. It was an injustice, but he couldn't let the rug be snatched from under him. 

It took his whole strength to stand in wait for the door to close, because the second it did, he would have to kill an innocent woman who did nothing wrong but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. She lived her life the best she could only to end up as a pawn in a war she had no business being part of. 

But the door never closed.

Hari ran across the grass that snapped loudly under his sprinting feet to stop between Simba and the woman, facing his partner in crime with the spare sword from the carriage's hidden drawers, the child safely in the carriage away from the face-off. Simba squinted at the pitiful display of Hari trying to properly hold a sword to defend a pawn in their plan. But the forest dweller had a determined fire in his eyes, the spark of hope turning turbulent and passionate.