Spirit of war

At last my brother is asleep - it felt as if the iron bars that caged me had vanished, crumbling before me and the ominous cloud of dread and fear shook of its chain on me and rumbled away. Relieving myself of the heavy, deafening silence I felt my free will as I tugged at it, stretching its hands towards me like a game of tug of war. But this time I won.

There was no harsh, croaky voice biting my ear and squeezing my arms of sweat. There were no red scars embedded into my skin which slowly rolled up like a scroll with no scarlet paint spilling over it. For once in my life my vision bared no sight of him, my ears were stripped of his voice, my body was not clamped by an agonising cage. The only happy thought that hid in in the deep, dark crevices of my mind. At last a thousand burdens had been tipped of my shoulder. Under my chest I could not feel his restraint clenching at my heart with an iron vice. I could feel a free heart pumping freedom through my green veins.

Yet the evil presence of war pulsed through the roots of which weaved through the ground like a needle spreading fear.

Glancing at Nick and Carrie, their blue eyes staring back into mine, I could feel the pain that they had been through and how they must feel as strangers to our alien world. But I knew they were still not safe, and neither were we.