Chapter 57: The night is long (three)

Neither of the two men was from this country. 

The moment her mother saw her, she only spoke one word. "Run."

But Leilis was too afraid to run. And when she finally understood the situation and gathered the courage to do so, someone grabbed her from behind. Shivering, she looked back and it was another man in uniform: the third man. The moment their eyes met, the man grinned in a very not too manly manner and ripped off her wet clothes.

Water dripped from her bare body as she shed tears with a scream. She tried to struggle but the man was just too strong. 

"Not bad for a kid," he said.

Her mother screamed loud and struggled to get to her, but the man near her slashed her throat and started to enter her lifeless cold body. 

"This isn't as fun as I thought." One of them laughed hysterically.

"Yeah, you just had to kill her. It's been three years since I last enjoyed some fun you know." The other man said. 

Both were inside the dead woman at the same time.

Leilis didn't know what was going on, but her pain was real. She was bleeding too. Both inside and outside. She was defiled. Her sense of morality had shifted. 

She screamed as loudly as she could but nothing changed. Her screams didn't bring back her parents and it didn't ease up her pain either. Her scream didn't bring a hero to save the day. Her scream didn't bring back the dead. And her scream certainly didn't save her. 

"Leave some for us too."

"Hey no fair. I wanna have some fun too." Both of the other men were done. 

"You already had your fun. Let me have mine." The man behind Leilis chuckled. 

All the colors were gone. All the sounds were gone. Everything was in black and white. And Leilis felt nothing. Her mind had went blank. She was helpless and alone in this cruel world.

Was she even alive?

As her body swayed back and forth with the rhythm of the man, she noticed a shard of broken glass beneath her feet. Her lifeless eyes registered that as her only means of survival. 

'I want to live.'

'I want to live.'

'I want to live.'

'I want to live.'

'I want to live.'

'I want to live.'

Her mind played those words over and over again. Until something cracked inside. She wanted to live and no matter what he wanted to live. 

Nothing in this world mattered anymore. Her parents were dead and no matter what she had to survive. 

She wanted to survive. She wanted to live.

She picked up the shard. 

The man was very close to his edge so his guard was down for a second. "Huh, what are you doing?" Before the man could recover his strength and restrain her, she got out of his grip and cut off his privates: she also cut her finger, but it was of no consequence. For a small girl, she was fast. And considering, the fact that she was still bleeding, she was very fast. It was as though she experienced no pain. It was as though nothing mattered other than her survival. 

A wild beast is a dangerous one, perhaps the men had forgotten this. 

"ARggh" the guy screamed his loudest and fell on the floor. Was it luck or was it something else? Leilis didn't know. But she knew he had to survive. 

The other two men still chuckled and walked slowly. "Easy now, we don't want to hurt you." But their vulgar grins weren't fooling anybody. They still hadn't grasped the situation. They thought what could a little powerless bleeding girl possibly do with just a single shard of glass?

The man on the floor had a gun with him. Leilis never even saw a gun in her life let alone knew how to use it. But she knew about it from the movies and shows she saw with her father. Her mother was against watching those violent movies and yet, this was the only reason she even recognized the gun. 

She quickly grabbed the gun and shot the first man who was about to grab her. A ball of light went through the man's chest and he fell on the floor, dumbfounded. Meanwhile, she was sent flying back in air, because of the recoil. She never expected it to be this strong. Actually, she didn't even know there was a recoil. She bled, she shed tears. But it didn't stop her from pulling the trigger again. 

The other man was just about to pull the trigger of his own gun while simultaneously firing off an ice spear. But he was a second late. He was a trained professional but the lapse of his judgment in reaching for his gun would cost him dearly. 

Another ball left Leilis's gun and pierced the man's head. She was shoved-back yet again, but she got without a doubt.

If he'd opted to use his powers instead of reaching for his gun, things might have turned out different. 

The ice spear had grazed her ear and half of her ear was missing. But it didn't matter. There was another one alive after all. 

Two dead and one was writing on the floor, grabbing his leaking privates. The man was in tears. "Please… don't kill me."

Leilis had no emotion to show the man. She just pulled the trigger. 

But now that everyone was dead and she was all alone, naked, bleeding and almost dead, what now? She dropped the gun, fell on her knees. Reality was cruel, and it was the survival of the fittest. But was she really fit? Did she really need to survive this? Did she really need to go through all this?

As she pondered over the questions, everything became red around her. The bodies, the colors, the world: red. Sound came back. And instead of the peaceful sounds of the fields, she heard screams. The screams of her own.

Her consciousness faded as she looked at the dead bodies of her parents. "I'm dying too?" It was the only question she could ask herself. 

"We were too late!?" She heard screams but it didn't matter anymore. She was deep in sleep. 

***

Sigh!

Leilis was back in her room. Her head stung a little. Did that guy really have to hit him with a guitar? 

'But I did the same thing they did to me, huh?' she didn't realize that she was doing the very same thing to Helio that she herself despised. 

Every night, her vampire self took over more and more of her mind. She acquired this power forty years ago, and ever since then, this was harder and harder to control. Though she wasn't completely in control, this still wasn't something she should have done. 

Maybe her own ideals had corrupted over the years. 'Maybe I'll apologize. Wait, he wanted chocolate right?' She smiled faintly. She knew she'd done something unforgivable, as she still hadn't forgiven the three soldiers she'd killed. And she never planned to forgive them either. So she couldn't just ask for Helio's forgiveness. 'But I should.'

Sigh! 

She lied on her back, a hand on her forehead. 'Will he forgive me?'