It was my 10th birthday.
I don't remember much about what happened before noon, what I do remember is losing consciousness and waking up. To find my whole town brought down to ashes of the buildings, houses and trees that stood there.
I woke up on the ground and looked around. I saw no buildings nothing. I was so confused. The ground was littered with mutilated corpses. I stumbled back, terrified.
This is just a dream....yeah...it has to be.
Then I saw my mom lying dead near me.
I screamed. It was the most horrifying sight I had ever seen.Her face was almost unrecognisable, her beautiful brown hair had turned ash grey. Her skin had melted and her raw flesh was visible. Her whole body was covered from head to toe in third degree burns, and her eyes were full of horror and hatred.
I was still in denial, but this felt too real for a dream.
"Mom! mom, please just wake up...!"
I shook her, crying and begging for her to wake up and say that this was all just a joke.
"M - mom...who..? what's going on? Who did this...?! Mom....!"
My whole body shook from my sobs. Why ? why?! I walked around aimlessly seeing my dad, my family, my best friend, all the people I ever knew, dead!
I crumpled to the ground and cried in shock and pain and anger. I cried until no more tears would come and I had no energy left and the only sound in the air were my sobs.
Then I thought,
I hadn't seen Lily. I hadn't seen Lily! Could she be alive?
Part of me didn't even want to look for her. My little sister was just a newborn baby then.
I don't think I could have recovered after seeing her mutilated corpse. Who am I kidding? I've never recovered. Not really. Even today the memories of that day haunt me.
But another part of me wanted to cling on to that last shred of hope that she could be alive, that not everything in this world had gone to hell. So I got myself up and walked and walked.
The radius of destruction was so big! Who in their right mind would do this? What had I done to deserve this?!
I tried so hard to remember what had happened but nothing came up. The last thing I remembered was my body being engulfed in scorching heat. Maybe it was a good thing I didn't remember.
As I saw more and more people, children dead, my grief merged into anger. My whole life!
I didn't even care how tired and hungry I was, I just kept walking. And I'm glad I did. Because then I heard a baby's cry.
I ran towards it as fast as I could and I saw a baby in a basket. She was wearing the same blue blanket as Lily.It was Lily! I had no idea how we survived from what happened or how she got here but I almost didn't care. I picked up my crying sister, hugged her tightly and cried out in joy.
"Lily! Lily, thank god you're alive!"
I soothed her, and walked further. Help would be arriving soon... someone had to have seen this much damage.But what would I even do after this? My parents were dead. I was just a healer.I had no future.
I wish all of this was just a nightmare. Wouldn't that be nice? I would wake up any second now, back in my bed in my home, with mom and dad. It was the wishful thinking on my part.
Only if that were true.
I laid down on the ground with Lily and fell asleep. Shortly after, the rescue team arrived and took us out of there. Me and Lily were taken to an orphanage. That was 5 years ago. Now I was 15 and she was 5.I hated the orphanage.
That day, I swore to make the person who ruined my life pay. Maybe its wrong,but I want to cause them the same amount of pain that they had caused me. Next year I would turn 16 and Lily and I could get out of here.
And the first thing I would do was to find the bastard who killed my family.
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You can read more chapters on my book The Slanter!
