Crimson Trails Of Blood

It was a cold night, the winds seemed to be telling Claudius something, he had a gut feeling that something bad would happen, so he hurried back to his village. Claudius Hart was a 17-year-old boy who lived in a town formed by his own family, only the Hart family lived in the Vain village, but near this village, another village wanted to spread their land because of overpopulation—the Orlo village. At the time, Claudius was rushing home with a pile of firewood on his back, his father made a living out of selling firewood and cutting wood, and Claudius helped, but as he got nearer and nearer to the village, he saw crimson trails of blood, giving a stark contrast to the white snow. He started shuddering at the sight, but he had to return home, so he quickly ran over but soon, his steps slowed down and his breath hitched in his throat. "Mom… Dad… Uncle… Auntie…?" He called out.

There was blood all over and some houses were on fire, Claudius went further into the village and almost screamed, there stood a pile of dead bodies and the top ones were on fire, the flame was slowly engulfing the bodies on the lower part. It was a horrifying sight, Claudius froze in his place when he saw his little brother, Charis, on the lower half with his hands cut off and eyes rolled back. Claudius fell to his knees and cried quietly right there, he knew that the Orlo village had something against them, but to resort to such measures was low, even for them. The fire enveloped the bodies and the sun soon started to shine, but the clouds stopped its rays midway, just like how the Orlo village stopped the generation from blooming midway, Claudius didn't know what to do now that he was the only living human in this village's premises.

He hid behind a wall, waiting for some Orlo citizens to enter the area, he had a log of wood in his hand, and his eyes were gleaming with unshed tears. As he heard some noise, he got ready for strike, a man came near the wall he was sitting behind so he grabbed the man and tied a cloth around his mouth all in one swift move, basing the man's head in with the log in hand. He killed 3 women and 18 men one by one, doing the same as the Orlo village did, piling the bodies and setting them on fire, he just needed a few kids to complete the pile but the other civilians started to notice some people were missing. They all thought that they had gone for a stroll or were exploring the area so they let it go, and now, something happened that was bound to happen from the start of this day, Claudius was surrounded by the people of the Orlo village.

He had nowhere to run, nobody knew Claudius was even hiding there but they would get to know he was if he stood up now, so he waited for the perfect time, when the people would be out for lunch. Just as he thought, the people returned to their village for lunch a few hours later, and Claudius slowly emerged from behind the wall. He held the jute sac of firewood in his hand and set the pile of dead bodies on fire, he watched as the dead bodies burned but there were no screams, Claudius realized he liked this, he wanted this silenced violence. He stood there for some time but ended up running away in the end, he ran until the snow was forming blisters on his foot, he wanted to get as far away as possible from the villagers, he wanted to remain uneen.

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