No matter how fast I ran the guard seemed only a foot away. The metal soles of the twenty guards' leather combat boots made the floor feel as though it was shaking; which made my ability to run much harder. It didn't seem to matter how hard I pushed myself. The faster I ran, the faster they pursued me. Even trying to lose them down winding hallways that never seemed to end and the dark, wide, stone staircases were met with no success. I began to lose track of where I was in this castle. Every wall was lined in the same deep sinister blue with grey walls covered in thorny vines climbing up. Reaching the high rise ceiling that seemed an eternity away. The dying vines clung to the walls, reaching the high rise ceiling which seemed an eternity away. The veins looked as if they grew out of the marble stone floors. However, the labyrinth hallways didn't make my head spin. It was the vengeful whispers that caught my attention.  

"You failed us" the voice rang over and over in a voice I swore I have never heard before, yet why did this shatter my heart and make me want to fall on to my knees and cry. Luckily I didn't fall to my knees. Lucky I was arguably smart enough to keep going.

"I knew you could never do it" another more angry voice chimed in

"Look at what you have done, this is all your fault" That time I did recognize that voice. The voice that seemed the most disappointed, the one that I could hear weeping through each word. It was the voice of my mother. I barely had time to comprehend her words truly before I felt a hand grab my ankles and yank me back. My knees hit the marble floor so hard I thought it was shattered. I yelled out in pain as I tried to yank my leg away from whoever grabbed me. But, when I turned around what I saw that grabbed my ankle wasn't exactly a who... wasn't a what either. What held me defenseless against the quickly approaching guards was a shadow. The black see-through fingers gripping my ankle at such inhuman like strength no matter how hard I tried to pry away its fingers or jerked my leg away it persisted to stay locked on my ankle. Keeping me in place until the guards surrounded me.

I wanted to look them in the eye, tell them all to go to hell with a single stare but when I looked up all their faces were blurry. I couldn't make out eyes or a mouth it all just seemed blended together. The sea of soldiers divined and there stood another blurred face man but this time an urge to reach out and hold him overwhelmed me. He took large steps towards me, his dusty blonde hair swaying slightly with each step. I think he tried to speak to me but all that came out was muffled sounds that I couldn't understand. As he spoke he began to tower over me. Hovering as if I was a meer insect and he was the owner who was deciding to exterminate me or not. The man reached down with a black-gloved hand to touch me I heard a voice call out to me and everything froze in its place.

"Cyra!" The man's hand froze inches from my face, the armies blurred stares locked on me, even I felt like I couldn't move an inch "CYRA!" the voice was yelling louder, more desperate this time.

My world was plunged into cold darkness "come on Cyra! Wake up!".

My eyes shot open and I launched myself out of my blanket; knocking down my younger brother Efrain in the process "hey watch it" he whined up at me but I was unable to reply. I rushed over to the window and whipped it open sighing as the cool breeze spread across my hot and sweaty skin. I pulled back my raven hair that was plastered to my face. I was sure the dream was real. I was also sure that I was about to die. I had to keep reminding myself that it was a dream...even if it felt real and every emotion felt justified it was just a dream. I felt my younger brothers eyes lasering in the back of my head and I let out a low groan

"What do you want dweeb" I turned my head around to look at the green-eyed boy.

"You've been staring out the window for like fifteen minutes, are you okay? You're skin in a lot paler than usual. I didn't think that was possible" Efrain mumble the last part to himself as if I wasn't two feet away from him. Though odd as it seemed, his question hit me a bit. Was I okay? It seemed I couldn't even answer that question for myself. Something about that dream seemed...foreshadowing.

I nodded my head slowly, my younger brother didn't need the stress of what discussion I was having in my brain. "Yeah I'm fine just a simple nightmare" I took another deep breath before I officially felt calm. I actually took a glance out the window to see the world outside and it looked like every other day. The farmers in the corn fields while their wives cleaned the house. The kids that could afford school walked down the streets like a parade; flaunting their school uniforms to those that couldn't even afford to learn to read. I peered into the house next door to see if anyone had begun to walk up. Leillan sat near her nightstand finger brushing her light strawberry blonde hair into her bonnet, about ready to head out. Crap! That meant I was already running behind! I ran over to my clothing pile that laid on the wooden chair in the corner and ripped out my uniform " get out get out get out!" I urgently yelled.

"But this is my room too" he protested

"I'm already late for- nevermind!" I stormed out of the room and into the bathroom. I was late most days to work so getting ready fast became a talent of mine. It seemed within seconds I had my beige nightgown on the ground and my floor length plain black dress on; it had many sporadic multi-colored patches that I had sewn on. I tied my white apron around my waist and finally pulled my black curly mane of hair into a bun before sliding my bonnet on. As I walked around the house Efrain followed behind me almost like a lost puppy. Though he made annoying noises like an irritating fly; too bad I couldn't smack him with my shoe like I do the insects. He wetted his lips with his tongue before popping them together right behind my ear. When I turned around to snatch him he ran just out of arm's length, a wide smile of success pooled across his tanned face. After a few times of him being a complete pest, I gave into his games and chased after him.

After I managed to catch him I took another look outside. I saw my older brother Taj helping some of the other local farmers herd their cattle. shoot I was later than I thought. I raced to the front door that seemed ready to break free from its hinges "Bye Efrain! Mom and Taj will be home before I will so don't do anything stupid" I howled from the doorway as I laced up my boots. I didn't wait to get a response from him before I was out the door. We were one of the many families in this colony that weren't able to afford school so my brother wouldn't be part of the crowd of kids heading to the school, he most helped my older brother Taj with his work at the farm when he could sneak him in or stayed at home. My mother taught us how to cook, clean, win in any argument, and any basic skill you needed to survive but not how to read and write. Though most people around me don't so I had a feeling I wasn't missing out of a lot. I stopped by leillan's house on my way to work since we lucky worked together. Working as maids for sir Blaize Certax since we were the age of 9.

leillan's Twin brother Quillian sat on the porch step, looking up at the sky as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. Which in our colony that wouldn't be wrong. I knocked on the wooden posts of their gate and his dark sapphire eye snapped over to me

"Well if it isn't little Cycy" he said with a slight smirk on his face. I simply rolled my eyes

"Last time I checked we were almost same height Quillian" I argued back. Our families have lived next door to each other since before my mother was born. So naturally, our families became close. "So where is leillan?" he didn't say anything just nudged his head inside. I sighed 'looks like we will both be extremely late' I thought to myself. Quillian went back to cloud watching and I tried my best not to stare at him like a complete creep so I looked down at my very worn down, slightly falling apart black boots.

"Has my sister told you about our pro-" before Quillian could finish his sentence leillan popped her head out the door and stared daggers down at her brother. I could feel an unknown tension from the fence so I decided not to ask what he meant but that wouldn't stop me from wandering. I cleared my throat to gain her attention, leillan slowly looked over at me "we need to go before Certax's decides he doesn't need two very tardy maids". My tone told her there was no room for discussion so with a nod of her head she jogged over to me. I waved goodbye to Quillian as we walked away from him.

We didn't exactly run to the mansion but we didn't walk either, more like a slow sprint, but eventually, we made it. We got to the mansion to see the head of housemaid Mika looking so mad at us I swore I saw steam emanating from her body. She tapped her black heels against the newly painted staircase. The staircase that leads to the enormous house alone was large enough to fit our entire house in them. So seeing Mika's petite frame stand against the vibrant red house made her seem small, almost childlike. But, her deep wrinkles and nearly all white hair told me otherwise.

 "Do I ask much of you?" her tone sharp and dangerous, as if we said the wrong thing it would be off with our heads. When I answered 'no' leillan thought it would be a good idea to say 'yes' which a proud smirk on her face. God that girl was always looking for a fight; especially from those who told her what to do. Mika's face went bright red as she looked between the two of us

"Cyra head inside and start your work while I talk to this one alone, I'll get to you later"

"Yes miss," I said simply. I couldn't afford to argue or sass her, I needed this job to help support my family, I needed this job to survive. I gave leillan a small supportive smile before heading up the wooden stairs to go inside. I knew this house like the back of my hand. I knew each room and what exactly was in them. I definitely knew each hiding spot in the house that Certax thought was secret, Leillan and I went exploring the first week of working here and found every single one. I made my way to the kitchen to start cleaning up after Certax's breakfast.

I picked up and washed all the dishes that were sprawled around the kitchen and dining room, swept next mopped up both room, whipped down almost every surface I could reach in the kitchen then finally polished all the woods and silverware. Cleaning went a lot faster since I didn't have leillan distracting me or convincing me to do something we weren't supposed to do every two seconds. When I was finally done cleaning I took one final look around to make sure I didn't give Mika another reason to yell at me. I found myself subconsciously looking out the sizably grand window that to see if I could catch a glimpse of leillan getting scolded. Though I had to keep reminding myself to stop checking up on her I eventually finished the kitchen.

The wooden floors and large oval table shined, the white countertop looked absolutely spotless, all the utilities could be mistaken as brand new. The only thing left to do was to dust the large crystal chandelier that hung in the middle of the dining room but it was too high for me to reach by myself so I hoped that if I asked one of the butlers nicely as I could and batted my eyelashes they would do it for me. When I decided this room would satisfy even the most critical of people I moved on to my next room. It seemed no matter how hard I tried or how intensely I worked Micka always had something to yell at me for.

I was able to finish through two of the guests' bedrooms before I saw leillan. She was laying in one of the beds in the room that Certax's oldest daughter used to stay in. leillan looked incredibly small as the pink ruffled comforter swallowed her up. Her eyes were closed and breathing deep if someone who didn't know her came walking in they would think she was in deep sleep but I knew her so I knew her tricks on how. I picked up the pink flower patterned pillow that was near me and walked over to the side of the bed she was sleeping on then smacked her in the face with the pillow; not with enough force to exactly hurt her but enough to 'wake' her up. It worked successfully, eyelids flew open and she let out a small gasps

"Wow and I wonder why Mika calls you lazy," I said sarcastically with my hands on my hips.

"Yeah yeah say what you want Cy but you had cleaned four rooms while I got a nap and at the end of the day, we get paid the same amount sooooo who is the real winner here?" that earned her another smack in the face by my lethal pillow. We laughed for a bit before we started to hear the cities bells, warning bells. The bells that announced the arrival of Vinick troops. Vinicks were powerful dark magic users that bullied everyone below them for food, money and took lives from anyone that challenged them; they considered the slightest dirty glance or raised tone a challenge. We were the people below them, all of rycline was below them because we had no magic or tools to defeat them.

"Come on Cyra let's get to the safe room, I don't want you stuck up here when they come to ransack the house again" leillan jumped off the bed and grabbed my hand, she tried to drag me out of the room but I slipped out of her grasp

"I can't go" my voice quiet but strong enough to stop leillan.

"leillan my brother! I need to go get my brother" my heart began to race as I thought about him all alone. No mother, older brother or older sister to defend him and definitely no safe room to help keep him safe.

"I can't let you go Cyra!" she sounded scared. The bells got louder, meaning they were getting closer.

"I'm not asking you to let me go! I'm telling you! I'll go get him and bring him back here I promise."

"Pinky promise you'll be back!" she yelled. God, we didn't have time for this! But if it meant it would get her to release me from her iron grip then okay. So I wrapped my pinky around hers

"I pinky promise I'll be back" when she was convinced she let me go and the moment her finger was off of me I took off running down the hall. I ran as fast as I could down the stairs, even lifting the front of my dress a bit in the front. When I got outside I saw how hectic things were already getting. People knocking people over just to the nearest shelter. People throwing others out just to get the room for themselves. But I couldn't focus on them, I had to focus on Efrain. I pumped my legs even faster when I saw the sky turn black. The air turned so cold I could see my breath and ice quickly formed on the streets. The ice-covered so quickly I was barely outrun it. At the end of the of the street, I saw some figures dressed in black suits of arms with red outlining their body. I locked eyes with one, a large smirk grew on his ghostly pale face. He raised his hands towards me and soon my throat closed up as if someone's hands were trying to squeeze the life out of me. All the air escaped my lungs as I began to panic, I dropped to my knees and tried to claw at my neck to try to break free of whatever the pale man was doing to me.

As he got closer the grip tighter and the harder I tried to claw. My chest felt like it was burning from the inside. My world began to turn black. I saw men in black suits set fire to a building, raid field, rob families and businesses. Then I saw a woman in a black suit with unnaturally red hair walk over to my house. I tried to scream but all I could do was collapse to the grown and watch through fading eyesight as she raised her hand and set my house ablaze. That was the last thing I saw before my body finally gave up. I gave into the darkness.

Efrain

My home

My memories

All those were gone and it was my fault. My brother trusted me to protect him and I failed him. I couldn't fix this mistake Unless I somehow figured out time travel or this was so elaborate prank. I highly doubt either of those options were possible. The imagines of Efrain's face flashed through my mind. Him smiling, laughing, and even crying. The slow glistening tears streaming down his tan freckled face. Light green eyes were glazed over. Those eyes have seen so much pain and suffering yet he had witnessed so little of this world.

{Wow! thank you for reading the first chapter! I what do you think of the attack? how would you guys react?}