Dandelions For Ezra

She hears her heart thwacking hard against her chest. Her pulse was thumping lightly through her veins, the blood rushing within. She was terrified. With her quivering hands, Ezra concealed herself even more with the black, woolen cloth draped over her. She clutched around her slender legs tightly with firmly bonded, bare arms in dread. Her stomach clenched into a tight fist, the anxiety slowly conquering her body. Her conscience and hope collapsed heavily at that minute. It was over. It was done.

She rocked herself back and forth, huddled deep behind a tumbled cabinet and slanted shelves which formed a shelter around her. They were so breached and unstable in their state that they could have easily fallen with the vibrating noise of a rifle. But they were her only haven at this moment. Tears trickled down her pale, flushed-out cheeks from sobbing and panic, some of them slid onto her florid, red lips in which she gulped in unawareness.

A sudden rivening bellow of a reverberating machine gun thundered and tored apart the steary silence and still air. Disrupting the one-so depressing, dreadful atmosphere into a violent catastrophe. Ezra was gradually dying of fear.

She was a victim. A victim of war. She was soon to be a prey of molestation and anguishing brutalization.
The terrorizing sound of pummeling hoofs and cackling laughter filled the air. 

They’re here, Ezra thought.

They’re here, and they’re coming to get me.

Her heart now fastened a pace and she now was in terror of them hearing her thumping heartbeat rather than anything else. She was horrified and afraid to death that she may be found. That she may be seized by their arms and assaulted to fatal prosecution and that her virginity will be raw-devoured to carcasses for the others to feast upon. She was afraid that she will be killed, maliciously.
Her attention was suddenly grasped by the loud, pounding footsteps against the ruptured floor. She peeked through a small opening gap in the shelves and saw velvet-black leather boots pass back and forth across her hiding place in infuriation. This was it.
I’m dead. Ezra held her breath, not even making the slightest noise.

I have to do this. I know I can make it.

“Yey stupid men” a growl broke the air. “Go and search very thoroughly and make sure no one’s aeh hiding their butts out there.”

She gasped. Her heart now lunged like a dam burst, the blood rushing out to her nerves. Her feet were so jittery at the soles that she couldn’t bear but move them. Her eyes were shedding so much tears that she let out a few sniffs and sobs caused by her crying, but then halted. Ezra was scared that her noises might arouse the men of her hiding place.

“Is anybody out there?!” a sneer roused in the silence which Ezra so well preserved. “Hiding their toes behind some furniture?”

“They’re too scared that we might see them!” another familiar voice taunted, adding to the remark.

I have heard that voice before, Ezra thought, searching in her memories of any trance for the spoken voice. Then suddenly it hit her. He, the owner the of the voice, was no other than the  one who she had seen, the one who was harassing with Aunt Ruddy. She had managed to go unseen and escape his clutches but they would find her….soon.

She only thought about his lustful glare and mocking smirk when he had hauled off Aunt Ruddy’s nightdress, slashing it into shreds with his ogre-like hands. She thought about his rather-large nose, it looked like it was falsely pasted on his face, but it was part of this ugly birth.

“Nicki, I’m sorry,” Ezra mumbled quietly under her quivering breath. “I couldn’t save myself, I had no choice.”

I have no choice, I have to do this. Ezra wept, and then let out a mild snuffle. That was enough to wake the keen, voracious pack of wolves.

One man started sniffing like a dog, thrusting down remaining furniture and utensils.

“Oh, oh….!” The man inhaled to his greatest breath, enjoying the womanly savor that filled the house. “I smell….” Sniff. Sniff. “Oh, I smell a woman!” He snarled.

Screeching laughter bursted in the air, with the men holding their guns and shooting them at broken and fallen clusters of furniture. They wore their disciplined uniform of army, but yet they held no meaning to it.

Ezra felt more tears flood her eyes and scorching fear erupting in her nerves.

If she was caught, she was dead. If she was dead already, she wouldn’t get caught and die a brutal death.

Tears rolled down her delicate, wet cheeks. Ezra cupped her hands over her mouth and runny nose, afraid that any more sniffles would arouse the soldiers even more of her haven. 

I’m sorry Nicki, I’m sorry. Ezra gasped a breath then wiped the tears off her face with her frail hands and remained stern, not releasing anymore emotions.

I’m sorry too, mom, I can’t take this anymore. I will be beaten and raped severely if I remain alive any further. I cannot take this. I am losing myself every second. Sorry, mum.

Searching through the dress she wore, she grasped a knife that she had placed in her dress pouch aligning the waist. It was a lovely dress, she thought. Aunt Ruddy had given it to her before she went outside to seek for Nicki. She said it was the most splendid clothing she wore in her young youth and that it would look marvelous on her.

What good use was it now? Only the sharp blade she held was to rescue her now, which Aunt Ruddy had given to her to cut the vegetables when she came back from her trip. But now, it held a brand-new meaning of a less-tormenting death.

Sobbing silently, but holding her hand over her mouth in fear of being heard, Ezra hoisted her wrist to her sight. It was a pale wrist, with the light green veins showing slightly underneath. With one last mournful thought, she ran the blade across it, holding the handle so tightly for relief of pain and courage.

She had slit her wrist, the bright red blood oozed underneath her vicious cut. Ezra watched in throes as the blood slowly streamed off her pale, soft skin and dripped to the wretched floor, creating a puddle of dark red.

She whimpered and shed her tears of throbbing discomfort and mindless, hopeful decision.

I’m going to die. What have I done? Oh, Nicki! Look what this dumb friend of yours has done again!

Don’t you dare be angry at me after my death. I had no choice…….this is it Nicki!, tell my mother I love her and live a pleasant life!

Ezra wept her solemn tears and held them back before it could be heard to the men.

I had no choice Nicki…..

Please do not come back! A sudden thought hit her, the though reaching out her mind, a fear formed.

Oh! Please do not be caught by those callous men! Please stay wherever you are now and do not ever return. Oh!, do not ever return till’ the sky is bright orange, Nicki and the war is done!

Ezra wept in desperate hope and extreme agony and soreness. She could feel herself going unconscious every second. A new kind of drowsiness and relief was taking over her. She could feel her body go numb and felt herself faint.

Please do not come back Nicki…….

Ezra collapsed heavily to the ground. Her hair was thrown violently across her face, leaving a mess of a crumpled heap of hair, hiding her beautiful yet miserable eyes. In her right hand she clasped the knife in a firm grip, its blade covered with trickling red liquid.