Arms of Destruction

It was dark and late. From a distance, the dogs howled and elsewhere the owls hooted. In the sleeping village of “Green Maiden”, a door of a hut opened. A short shadowy figure appeared on the doorway. The shadow lit a lamp and held it high. The face of the figure was seen. The face of a young girl. But instead of childhood, there was a different expression on her face. From behind her, another figure appeared. It was a young boy of five or six years. There was despair as well as anger in her eyes. Her tensed eyes then scanned the whole village which was dead. No one was snoring or dreaming. Infect they were all in deep slumber, a sleep that could never be broken. No one could awaken them. They were all resting in peace and the girl knew that very well.

She marched forward, followed by her brother. At the gate of the hut, she kicked something lumpy and heavy. Without looking at what it was, she looked at her brother Sonu. Her brother looked at her with wide eyes. They didn’t speak. Their eyes made all the necessary communication. Seema could read her brothers mind. At the moment, they shared the same psychic bond. They stared at each other for a few minutes and looked down at the body. They knew very well who it was. The man lying dead had live with them till then, worked for them and loved them dearly.

Someone, somewhere a shot rang. Their father ran out of their house with their only gun in their house. He had told them to remain hidden under the bed or under the table, anywhere undercover. They both had run immediately under the bed. Breathing heavily, they had waited for the violence to end. Finally, when no sound, no soul could be heard, both of them decided to come out of the hiding place.

Both of them walked forward silently hand in hand, looking for a living soul. But they found none. They stopped after visiting the last house. Each and every member of each house had been killed, shot. The whole image flashed back into her memory. The sounds of screaming women, shots of bullets and howling children rang in her ears.

“What shall we do”, the shaky voice of her brother awakened Seema. She jerked herself to focus on her brother Sonu. He had spoken for the first time, scince the incident and she felt the pain in her heart, the heart already pierced by the sword of sorrow. She had a brother in her hand and no one to look after them. Hot tears gathered in her eyes. She bent down and hugged her brother. “Nothing will happen. We are going to be all right”. She wanted to say but the words would not come out. For a moment everything was silent and a moment later, the whole village blasted once more for the last time. The village was silent again but not the difference was that no sister was tensed and no brother asked “what shall we do?”. The only thing that lived was “Death” and “Only Death”.