The Watchers’ War

“Rendaya, I want you to get in your best hiding place, okay?” her mother said. She was sniffling now, desperately trying to hold back more tears. The panic returned, and Rendaya began crying again as well. “No, momma, no!” she cried. Outside, there was the sound of her father yelling—and then abrupt silence. Her mother gasped and jumped to her feet, letting Rendaya fall to the floor. “Momma!” she protested. Her mother turned to look at her, her face like a wild animal. “Go now, Rendaya! Hide!” There was the sudden hot trickle of urine running down her legs. She screamed and pulled back her father’s wolf-fur chair to get behind it, glancing back once to see her mother peering out the doorway, and then her disappearing out the door. Rendaya got into a crawl space behind the cabinets. The spider webs usually scared her, but she slid back as far as she could against the wall without any regard for them. She pulled her dolly close once again, got very still and waited, her breath the only sound she could hear. Could she stop breathing so as not to make any noise at all? She tried to hold her breath, but she couldn’t do it. Her heart was racing. Suddenly, the house door crashed open, immediately followed by the thud of heavy feet. A gravelly voice called out, and then there were the sounds of animal claws ticking on the planks of the floor, furniture scooting around or falling over, and panting and huffing. The panting grew closer and louder, and then there was sniffing that turned abruptly into a loud howl. Rendaya wanted desperately to scream, but she put her hand over her mouth. Without warning, the entire cabinet pulled away from the wall, and over her crouched a manlike creature twice her father’s size holding the whole cabinet in one hand and reaching for her with the other. Though his red eyes appeared more annoyed than angry, her scream came now involuntarily. Behind the creature was a black dog as big as a cow. It started barking savagely at the sight of her. Its fur stood up around its neck, and it lunged for her, teeth bared. The manlike creature snatched her up just in time, but when he tried to stand up straight, he struck his head on a ceiling rafter. The dog snapped at her dangling feet, and the creature made a loud noise that sounded like something between a yell and a bark. He squared his shoulders to the beast and waited, almost daring it to attack. Rendaya had dropped her dolly and was screaming at the top of her lungs. When the hound cowered down and turned its head away from him, the creature huffed, and then he turned and snatched up the dolly off the floor. He crouched through the doorway and went outside. Swinging in his hand, Rendaya caught a glimpse of her parents on their knees outside their house. The man-creatures had hurt them. She wanted to yell out to them, but her voice was gone. More of the man-creatures appeared to go on forever in every direction, encircling a sedan chair carried by eight of their kind. Rendaya’s captor stopped at the sedan’s enclosed carriage, and then his deep voice bellowed forth again. From within, there was another voice. It terrified Rendaya, but the soldier opened the door and abruptly dropped her and her dolly on the floor inside, closing the door behind her. She flung herself on the door, trying to figure out how to open it and escape, but unable to do so, she parted the curtain and looked for her mother and father. “Mommy!” she screamed. A voice from within the darkness of the carriage cabin said, “Kill them!” The man-creature took a spear from one of the others standing by and walked toward them. “Rendaya! Don’t look, Rendaya! Turn your head, baby!” She did as her mother said and hid her head in her arms, but fingers suddenly wrapped around her head, lifted it up, and forced her to watch the man-creature kill them. At that moment, something broke inside of her. She knew it was so because she felt it. She felt it snap, and then she felt nothing more. The fingers released her head, pushed her into the opposite seat, and then grabbed her firmly around her waist, pinning her there. Another hand of slender fingers pinched the little dolly from the floor and placed it in her arms. She clutched it but couldn’t feel it. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t even cry. There were no tears left. A sallow-skinned, bearded man leaned his face in close to hers. He was big like the man-creature, but his appearance was more human. His eyes began to glow red within his hooded cloak. “I am Broeden. You belong to me now.”