REDEMPTION

CHAPTER 2

I nearly fainted from the stench that met my nose.

The safe house was like a metal box with no way out except the elevators. People were crammed in with barely any space to move. Just enough oxygen were provided by the ventilators to keep us alive. No more no less. The stench of sour sweat, burned flesh and blood made me gag.

We wove our way through the crowd and I suddenly heard Azure make a sound halfway between a choke and a sob. I turned around and saw Azure's little brother, Andy, lying on the ground.
He had brown hair like his sister’s but black  eyes like his mother’s. Andy’s left leg was half gone and his face was so badly burnt, you could barely tell his eyes from his nose. His breathing was very shallow and every now and then, he made a weak moan. Azure started shaking beside me and I had to keep her from crashing to the floor.

We knelt beside Andy. Azure tried to touch him but I could tell she wasn’t sure if that would hurt him even more. Azure’s father, who was once very handsome, looked shaggy and old. He had bags under his eyes and he looked worn out and so very tired, but he was relieved to see me and Azure in one piece. He wasn’t hurt that badly but he had a very swollen face. Azure’s mother had died giving birth to Andy and it was only the three of them.

Azure picked up Andy’s hand and started stroking his forehead while I tried to comfort her father who was silently sobbing. I remembered when two weeks ago Andy received his Iris bracelet. He tore open the parcel that contained his bracelet and read with pride the standard letter from the Protector congratulating him on completing ten years of his life. He was so happy and excited. Seeing him now, with his burnt face and eyes from which all the life and happiness had been drawn out, I felt my heart break into a million pieces. I couldn’t stomach to see someone so close to me dying.

My eyes burned with unshed tears. I silently got up and started searching for my grandfather among the lifeless , worn out faces. I was nearly to the back of the room and still hadn’t spotted my grandfather when someone grabbed my hand from underneath. I looked down and saw my neighbor, Mrs. Shirley, the widow.

“Reyna, thank goodness you’re okay!”, shrieked Mrs. Shirley. She pulled me down into a tight, teary hug.

“Mrs. Shirley, do you know where my grandfather is?”

“Oh Reyna, I’m so sorry, but he died in the bomb raid. He was out trimming the bushes in your garden and I was sitting by the window, stitching. He waved me hello and two seconds after that a bomb dropped from the sky out of no where right in the middle of the street.” She was sobbing uncontrollably now. “ I watched the place explode and the flames engulfed everything and suddenly I was lying on the ground under a pile of rubble. I had lost my glasses and everything was a blur and my ears were ringing so loudly. A young man extracted me from the rubble and when I got up, I saw both of our houses were in ruins, burnt to the ground. Me and the young man searched for your grandfather but we couldn’t find him. Then as we were about to leave, I saw a hand sticking out from underneath a slab of concrete, it  had your grandfather’s topaz ring on the middle finger. I cried and screamed and then the young man dragged me away and I ended up here.”

I listened to her account in silence. For sometime I couldn’t register what she said and then suddenly my head started pounding and spinning and blood rushed to my ears. I felt a scream clawing at my throat. There were pinpricks in my heart and my chest hurt so badly and the next thing I knew, I was crying and screaming and Mrs. Shirley held me to her.

Eventually I passed out from crying. My dreams were filled with memories of my grandfather. The first time he took me to school, the first time we had a serious fight and I refused to talk to him for days, the time when I received my Iris bracelet and turned ten. My thirteenth birthday when he gifted me a silver bracelet that had a charm  shaped like a leaf, which had belonged to my mother.
After a few hours, which seemed like an eternity to me, Mrs. Shirley shook me awake.