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 Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 7:33 pm
He Came On A Dark Horse
"He wanted to buy our land. I do not know if I handled it properly, but I turned the man down. Berlitz was his name."
Henrik sounded confused as he sat at the large table in his brother's cottage. He glanced out the window towards his own home; ever since the man had left, there was an uneasy weight in the pit of his stomach.
They Woke Choking On Ash
The smoke was so thick that he could not see, and the heat that came from the burning wood of his cottage walls was almost unbearable. Henrik stumbled out of bed, choking and gagging on the thick acrid smoke that filled his lungs. His eyes were watering, and it ached to breath. The hot air seared his chest as he attempted to inhale.
He stumbled to the door.
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 8:40 pm
He Came On A Dark Horse
"Why would a nobleman want our land?"
Kevin studied his brother, a politely puzzled expression on his face. Their land did not contain any valuable minerals, no swathes of untouched forest ripe for the axe, no game for the hunt. Nothing a noble would want.
"It is very good land, of course, but that is strange."
With a shrug, Kevin turned back to the little seedling tray on the kitchen counter. Short sticks were planted in orderly rows. Clippings from a valuable rose bush. It was always tricky, growing a new plant from a cutting of the old, but with time and care the delicate little things would take root and flourish.
They Woke Choking On Ash
Kevin was restless that night. Tiny sounds, stealthy sounds, troubled his dreams. The plants outside his window rustled softly, yet no wind stirred the muslin curtains over the window.
Fire gusted up the wooden walls of his small house with a cheery crackling roar and Kevin leapt out of bed. If he had been slower, he would have been dead. By the time he reached the front door the smoke was thick and the wood of the door itself burned his palms. He staggered out, his eyes streaming from the acrid smoke. Two more massive fires lit the night like beacons: Henrik's house. Their parents' house.
In an agony of indecision, Kevin stood frozen while his house collapsed behind him. At last he started to run towards their parents' house. As he neared it, the burning timbers sagged inwards, the house collapsing in great billowing gusts of smoke and sparks.
Morning
The ruins were still smoking. The smoke was white. Rain came with the morning, sending steam up from the heaps of charred timbers and ash.
They were too late.
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 9:18 pm
He Came On A Dark Horse
Henrik watched his brother thoughtfully as he sipped from the cool glass of lemonade that chilled his fingers. It had been his favorite drink ever since Alec's last visit, and when he drank it Henrik felt as though it brought him closer to the redhead - even if they were miles apart.
"It does not matter. I do not think he will be back. I did not even mention it to father."
It had just been so strange, and Henrik did not know if he would ever shake the way those golden eyes had made him feel as though he were less than nothing.
They Woke Choking On Ash
Finally the door gave way beneath the force of his shoulder, and Henrik stumbled out of the cottage. His eyes were watering, and it made it nearly impossible to see. He fell to his hands and knees in the dirt, gasping in deep, rasping breaths of air. The quickly burning remnants of the home behind him singed his back, and Henrik crawled forward.
In a moment of pure chance, he turned his head to glance to the side. Ravenous, billowing flames consumed both Kevin's home and the home of his mother and father. He could see a shadow, familiar and tall, running towards their parents home.
Kevin.
With a low, animal-like cry, Henrik rose to his feet and ran after his brother, towards the home of their parents.
Morning
The scent of charred wood mingled with the cool taste of rain.
He could still hear the screams of his mother ringing in his ears, the choking coughs of his father - until there was nothing, nothing, nothing.
The Nail In The Coffin
These would be the the last coffins they would ever build. There wasn't much left to put in the solid pine boxes. It didn't matter.
Erich and Greta Kaspar were dead.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 5:45 am
They Woke Choking On Ash
Relief: Henrik was all right, Henrik had escaped.
Their parents were not so lucky. Kevin heard the screams, the coughs, but the heat radiating from the house was too intense to approach. The door itself was blazing, the paint warping and blistering like a wound as the fire seared it away. If Kevin had been alone he would have been tempted to charge in anyways in a fit of suicidal bravery.
But Henrik was there. Kevin knew without a doubt that anyone entering that house would die trapped just like their mother and father. Kevin wouldn't let Henrik burn too. He grabbed for his brother to restrain him, to try and hold him back.
"It's too late! You'll die!"
The Nail In The Coffin
Kevin had always liked sanding coffins, running the sandpaper over the wood in long sure strokes until the pine was smooth. Sanding these coffins had an air of terrible finality to it.
When all was said and done, he looked at his hands. They were no longer a gravedigger's hands or a gardener's hands. He didn't know whose hands they were.
Next
Raw earth covered the graves.
"What do we do?"
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 6:52 am
They Woke Choking On Ash
Henrik was filled with an amazing surge of strength, but it was tempered by the strength of his brother. He could hear their screams, their coughs, and then he could hear nothing at all, nothing except the sound of the hungry fire.
He fell to his knees, one hand gripping his brother's shirt like a lifeline. Even from here he could feel the hellish heat of the fire as it devoured everything within.
Tears tracked down his sooty cheeks, but he remained silent.
Next
Henrik was silent as he stared down at the churned earth, the small markers, the final resting place of his parents. Together in eternity; it was some sort of small solace.
Henrik's voice was hollow.
"Sell. What else is there to do?"
Options
The woman that was sent on behalf of Lord Berlitz was pure professionalism, and the transaction was completed with crisp, cool finality. They'd settled for far less than they'd have received if the land had been unblemished by fire, but nothing could replace what the brothers had lost - and it was nowhere near enough money to start fresh.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:22 am
Options
They had each other, but not much else. The money would run out. Money always did, but before there had been work, there had been the land. Now there was nothing left. Kevin's skin crawled as he thought of the dank streets of the inner city.
"I'm not going to live in the alleys," he said flatly. "Could we find farm work?" The life of a migrant laborer did not appeal, but it was better than the thought of skulking into the city to beg for odd jobs and handouts.
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:35 am
Options
Henrik was silent for a long, long time.
"We could join the military. I have friends there."
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 7:44 am
Options
Friends were good. At that moment Kevin felt like his only friend in the world was Henrik.
He slung his arm around his brother's broad shoulders. "Let's do it."
Setting out
The enlistment process was smooth and painless, and by the end of the day Kevin was dressed in a sharp new uniform. He looked at Henrik in his own crisp uniform and the ghost of a smile flitted across his face.
"You look like a bear in a suit."
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Posted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 1:41 pm
Setting Out
It was a struggle to hold back the tears. He'd never wanted to be here, dressed up in his whites with knee high boots and straps. The barely-there smile that flickered across Kevin's face helped keep the tears at bay, though, and with a wet laugh, Henrik drew his brother in for a hug.
We still have one another, the hug said, and I will always look out for you.
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