ella

El Silencio nev

to my skin, thick and sticky. I stood barefoot in the kitchen, boiling water over the fire, Em

eek. She always hummed when she was nervous. A low tune, off-key and

t boy again. The one wh

r ring left as a message. And in thi

fall," I said softly, not

bullet into the chamber and clos

the firs

-

- sharp, high-pitched,

a c

ist tearing the earth apart. I jumped, clutching E

e outside the window. I heard the animals scream. I didn't know goats c

d, grabbing my arm.

?!" I yelled, m

old the

I'm

behind us blew apart. Wood. Fire. Smoke.

r slamm

e was

-

unger. Barely a man. His hands trembled around th

oked

w Emi

d faster than I

der. The boy jerked backward, blood spla

ll hell br

he air. Windows shattered. More men were coming. Shadows in the fog

dn't

ng I couldn't hear, bu

u

I d

-

woods, feet slipping on the wet earth. Emiliano c

My lungs burned. My legs felt

t - the mome

tight inside my che

ching my son to me, gasping

was

ng inside m

ike g

e b

nt. Unf

ed him in a hollow beneath the roots of an old tree.

whispered, kissing his f

I sto

d back towa

-

d was limping, clutc

killed Clara. I r

't hes

from his belt and dro

ed my face. He g

t even

-

member eve

fla

y hands - swinging

tch - I buried a ha

ckled him into the coals of a burning hut. His sk

fear. They exp

done bei

hunting a g

hting somethi

-

ow how to fight. But th

th kitchen knives. Mothers shielding the

e, they j

Their screams tore through the fog. W

't feel the burns on my arms, or the blood in

a. R

thing, whose lives depe

not fa

-

n I faced t

My legs burned, my breath came i

raised. "I didn't know! I

aus

or a m

here was a chil

esit

at was

hroat with C

the smoke rising behind me like a fu

-

l Silencio wa

d was littered with bodies

fa

e tree where I'd

he light, wrapped in smoke-

led hi

as w

iv

illage. My dress was torn. My hands were cracke

agers wa

said

hen I

-

here," I said, my

speakin

peaking

andro A

ho ran from

a coward the moment

everything

htened arou

ill make you pay. I will bu

y, the sun barely ris

e doing it..

-