62

*trigger warning*

3rd POV

The young boy wailed loudly, his cries not just for himself, his tears burning as they ran down his stinging, dirty cheek, still throbbing with the pain of the woman's slap. He's crying for more than just that. He is remembering the day his mother was taken, forcefully pulled away from her family. She wasn’t alone. He and his father were walking back home with her after making a rare visit to the beach to collect shells. His father thought it would be safe since we were together as a family, the path cutting 15 minutes off their walk home. That shortcut cost more than 15 minutes of their lives. It cost his parents everything.

The guards took her, ripping her clothes from her body as they dragged her into one of the buildings to take down to the cellar. They had hurt his daddy when he tried to save her, breaking both of his legs and leaving him outside the building with his own measly knife he tried to fight them off with, forcing him to listen as they brutal