It was a calm night, i was walking, following the path with my younger bother, both defenseless we were afraid, fearing that some wild animal would hear us and attack us, which wasn't so rare to happen to people we know, others we knew. We were walking slowly, without hurrying, avoiding to even talk to one another, or to make any voice that would give away our location to any other wild creature. I was determined that if something attacks us, i was going to defend my brother no matter what. Not only that day but everyday we used to walk on that path this late at night, i would keep swearing to myself that i will protect my younger brother, no matter what, even if i need to be sacrificed for his sake, or even if i need to sacrifice for his sake. We were both young, we barely knew anything about the world but we still had to live in these harsh conditions, we were used to it but we still couldn't hide our fear from each other, fearing that our lives as we know it now can be ended in a matter of seconds. At that particular day my brother was returning from school, which was miles away from home. I didn't go to school, i skipped it this time, i didn't have a reason to go to school, maybe i was just too lazy, or lacking a reason to go, either way i had to pick up my brother and spend the whole night going back home. School sounded useless to me, i learned two languages but never understood why and where to use them, i learned to read but i never held a book, it was all our teacher teaching us how to read from the big blackboard we had, the only one in the entire school. The only way someone could read a real book was by the one and only book we had in our school, which was a religious book, and only students who were excellent in everything and never skipped school or complained could even look at it. I usually wondered "Why was school in the middle of the night anyway?". "Couldn't it be in the morning so we could avoid getting hurt on the way home? Why do stupid rules like this exist?". Whenever i said that to my teachers they would look at me weirdly, almost in an ashamed expression and avoid answering my questions, with the excuse "we will tell you about everything when you grow up". This answer never satisfied me, why when i grow up? why not now? Is there something wrong with who I am now? 

 While walking we noticed a light coming from our path, it was so far off that we could barely see it, but it was definitely there, the pitch black night was making us see this light miles away. We were both so relieved, "There are people there!" my brother said to me happily, not everyday we could feel so safe, with the excuse that, if something chases us we can just run towards the light and they would rescue us. We both knew that if something attacked us now we would be able to make it to the light, but we were only looking for excuses to not be afraid. We continued our journey, the lights, which apparently are torches held by the many people there, were clearer now. The people were so loud that we could hear noise from where we were which didn't bother us of course, it made us feel even safer. We got a lot closer to them, I estimated that in 5 minutes we will have met them already, they were riding horses, there were a lot of them, it was then that i started to feel that these people aren't the heroes we think they are, I dragged my brother and hid in the tall grass and told him not to make a sound. My brother was confused but he did like i told him, he trusted me enough to not ask why. 

When they were close enough i could see them clearly, they were warriors. I had never seen warriors then. As much as I wanted to talk to them I was scared of getting out of our hiding spot. I could never forget a single word from these warriors conversations. One of the warriors said "watch closely, the Atsornian school is somewhere near here" i guessed they were talking about our school "These Atsornians never give up, they think that by making their language and beliefs survive they can retrieve what they call their land". Another so warrior replies to him in a sarcastic tone "So scary! A few homeless and forgotten people will beat us to death for revenge!" everyone laughed so loudly before another warrior says "They want their land back, they are trying to create an army, so don't let your guard down" I felt scared, i knew for sure that they weren't our friends. My brother whispers to me with noticeable fear in his voice: "They told me about them at school, they are the Hafigans, all i know is that they told us not to-" While my brother hadn't even finished his sentence they all went quite, somehow they heard us, they dragged us both out and looked at us in disgust. "They probably are from the school we are looking for" says one of them, he grabs my brother and put his sword to his neck. "You!" he shouts to me "You looked like the old one here. Guide us where your school is and we will let you both live, if you don't you won't even get to say goodbye to your dear friend"I could hear some of the warriors laughing and making fun of us in secret. Most likely they knew that i could hear them, they just wanted to show me my position in this situation. I had to protect my brother i couldn't get him killed, I swore to protect him after all "Leave him alone! i will show you anything you want just don't hurt him!" I said after gathering every drop of courage i have into this one sentence. They all laughed even louder, dragging my brother and making me lead them where our school was, making sure that i can feel the tip of their sword touching my back. They didn't need to tell me that if I made any move they didn't like i would be dead.

We arrived to the school that was nothing but a really small building that couldn't even be an appropriate home for 1 person. I expected no one to be at school at this time, it was more than 2 hours after school had already ended. However, I was clearly wrong, apparently the teachers slept at school, I felt responsible for what was happening to them, they were looking at me in a really betrayed expression as if trying to ask "why would you do this to us". As guilty as I felt my brother surviving and living all was all I cared about this time. The warriors killed every teacher in front of both my brother and me. My brother was too scared to even scream, he looked terrified, I guess he considered himself responsible for what was happening to his teachers. Not only did they kill every last one there in the most cruel, painful and slow ways possible, but they stayed overnight waiting for the students that were coming the next day. I can't forget the look in my brothers eyes when he saw his best friend's head fly right in front of him, at which point he had already given up fear, he was shattered to pieces, he could only look at his best friend in sadness. 

After a day which seemed like years passed, and our only thing our parents asked us to take care of and never give up on was destroyed slowly in front of us. The warriors decided to have some fun with us, they gave my brother a small knife and said to him "We will let you live happily as a proud Hafigan, if you kill your dear brother right here and now".

 I couldn't accept sadness like my brother did, I was furious inside, I wasn't angry because of what happened to my school, I only cared about what they did to my brother and destroying our parents wishes for us. I looked at the ruins of what was once my school, and the bodies that were once my teachers and friends but I couldn't feel anything. This feeling of emptiness gave me greater guilt than the whole situation I put them in. Even though i killed them myself, i couldn't even feel sad about them. I tried to attack a warrior earlier which was probably why they wanted to get rid of me.

 I screamed at my brother "kill me! that's the only way you can survive!" my brother, crying and looking at me with visible pain in his eyes screaming "I can't do that to you!". He was a smart guy, he knew that the only way one of us could be spared was for me to be sacrificed. "Live, and take revenge for me" i said "That's the only way we can keep justice in this land" i could finally convince him, he started to approach me with the knife and he strikes, screaming "Sorry! Sorry!".