Read Online Heartfelt Sounds by C.M. Estopare - Free Book Online Page B

weapons.
    “They're here—they're here and I knew it would come to this.” Shanti looks at me with wild eyes. Glistening. Glistening with tears. “Akane—I'm taking them away. I'm hiding them.”
    Akane yawns. Sits up and lets me go. “What do they want?”
    “They're going to take them. I know they are. I know what they're going to do—Akane, you need to help me save them. I'm not letting them take my sisters again. I'm not!”
    Shanti trembles. Wrings her hands. Lashes out and grabs me by the wrist. “Come, child. Come— come now. Veah, I'm not letting them take you. I'm not—I'm going to be a good sister this time. This time— this time I'll protect you! ”
    We gasp—we jump—when jars crash to the floor. When the table downstairs shrieks and the men are screaming—screaming something about up the stairs.
    I think they hear us.
    “Right.” Akane sighs. Moves to separate Shanti's hold on me. Beckons to Chima with a hand and she comes to stand behind Akane. “I know what to do.”
    And she backhands Shanti across her cheek. She draws blood.
    Shanti thumps to the floor. Lifeless.
    The woman turns.
    “Both of you,” she tells us—her face iron. “I love you. You're like the children I could never have.”
    I take a step back as boots slam upon the stairs—as steel clamors and jitters and Akane—
    In an instant—a moment—a second of air.
    Inhale.
    Exhale.
    Akane rams her knee into Chima's stomach and the air leaves her. Rushes from her as she collapses to the floor. As Akane moves to slam her heel into the back of Chima's head.
    “Stop!” I scream.
    But I'm too late.
    I'm too damn slow and there's a sickening crack. Multiple. Fractures. Fissures. Chima's limp and there's blood— trickle, trickle. Pooling. There's teeth.
    Akane rams her heel into the girl's head again and again— slam—slam— crack.
    And Akane changes her target. Moves to stomp savagely on the girl's neck—but she's already gone.
    She's already gone.
    I lash out—grab Akane's shoulders. I look into her eyes—but it's like she's not even there.
    “They can't take you.” she whispers to me—shoves me. Wraps her hands around my throat. “I won't let them.”
    The corners of my vision fade.
    As men pour into the room.
    As a man knocks Akane onto her back and I fall to the floor.
    And she strikes out at them—weaponless.
    When steel flashes in the darkness—peeled from a scabbard as I blink—gray levels with her neck. Makes contact with her skin. Slices. Bites through bone and comes away bloody. Red. Crimson.
    Wet gurgles. Steel slides through tight flesh and her head's gone.
    I fall to my hands and knees. I vomit.
    But the soldiers take me as I am.

12. Rose Blossom Snow
    They march me through snowy streets.
    A sharp wind whips past my face—it burns but fear has made me numb. Sorrow has made me a husk. Still, I tremble. I hug my arms around myself as I am met by a crowd of others. Men. Screaming—crying—fighting as they are pulled from the warmth of their homes as I have been.
    Behind me, I hear the soldiers talk.
    “We got the Kokoros boy.”
    A hrumph. “There were two.”
    “About that…er—,”
    A throat clears. “Did the family commit…?”
    I shiver.
    “Yeah.” the soldier behind me swallows. “All dead.”
    “He said they'd fear conscription…but…”
    Silence as the wind howls. As men crowd around me—frightened. Hugging themselves. Calling out into the starless night. Asking the Fates for deliverance. Some walk stone-faced—accepting what the Fates have gifted them. Others cry. Some are no taller than me—little boys. Children.
    And a scream turns into wet gurgles from my right as a man rips a sword from the scabbard of a soldier. But a dagger appears in the soldier's left hand—rushes across the young man's throat before I can even blink. He thumps to the white ground. Red blooms around him. It stains the snow as the blood pools, blossoming around the body. Opening like a rose as a woman