The King and I Chapter 2: Taken Away

Your heart beat increased, and as you heard the distant cries of the Karasunites invading you ran from the room to get your ma.

“They’re here,” she said in a shaky voice, eyes wide as you came running into the kitchen.

“Come, ma, we need to hide,” you said quickly, grabbing her hand and leading her to the back room.

Your dad had already squished himself into the hole he had dug and he stretched his hand out for your mother’s hand, and with you behind her, you helped them fit in there.

“Wait!” your mother said in a panic as she looked back over her shoulder at you, “there’s not enough room for Y/N!” 

“Ma. It’s ok, ma, I need to hide you, you need to be safe.” You purposefully didn’t include your father in your sentence, you couldn’t have cared less about what happened to him, but unfortunately, he had proceeded to protect himself first- as you had expected he would- then he cared next about his wife… and then you…. 

No, let’s be real here, he didn’t care about you at all.

“No!” she wailed, tears suddenly cascading down her cheeks as she struggled to get out of the hole and pull you in in her place, “I need to save you, you are all I have ever cared about, even when you were born I swore to protect you with my life!”

“Ma! No,” you said, tears springing up in the corners of your own eyes as you fought to keep her in the small hole, “I can’t let you be seen, they will kill you if they see you.”

“My beautiful Y/N,” she wailed, “don’t let this happen, don’t do this!”

“Stop being irrational!” you father snapped from behind your mother, grabbing her arms and pulling her back, “we have no need for this disgrace.” His angered eyes bore into your teared up ones.

“May your horrible words turn upon you as a curse,” your mother spat to your father, tears still clouding her vision.

The panic and pandemonium outside the house was increasing as screams and yells got closer.

“Ma, I promise you, I will live. You need to trust in everything you have worked for. You have blessed me with life and your hard work will not be thrown away,” you said sternly with as much conviction as you could muster despite being on the verge of a breakdown.

Your mother’s eyes shifted to the door and she conceded a little as you father pulled her back and you started to pack bricks over the hole to hide them.

“Y/N, promise me,” your mother sobbed, her terrified face imprinting in her memory as you walled her in, “promise me you will live a full life. Come back to me. I love y…..” the last part of her sentence was muffled by the final brick being set in place and yells of the Karasunite soldiers shouting outside your door.

Wiping your eyes and running to the kitchen, you grabbed your head covering and ran for the back room again, hiding behind a large vase.

No sooner had you settled in place, you heard the front door slam open and you jumped violently.

“COME OUT!” a loud authoritative voice called into the quiet house.

“Oh, yeah… that totally worked,” a second voice sassed the first.

“Shut up, Tsukishima,” the first snapped, his loud footfalls entering the house.

“Oh, sorry, oh great Tanaka, I’ll let you do your thing, keep calling, maybe someone will show themselves,” the voice of Tsukishima replied sarcastically.

“It’s empty,” Tanaka said, after looking in the kitchen and the main room.

“Of course it is, since you only checked the two rooms of a 4 room house,” Tsukishima said again, sarcastically, a third voice snickering in the background at Tsukishima’s salty remark.

You heard more footsteps as Tsukishima took the lead and walked into the other rooms, checking each before finally entering the room that you were hiding in, (as well as your parents, in the wall).

You closed your eyes and prayed, asking for the cloak of invisibility to be placed on you…. But your prayers were cut short as the vase you were hiding behind, exploded in front of you.

“Ohh?” hummed a sadistic sneering voice as you were revealed hiding behind the vase.

“Did you find someone?” Tanaka called from the doorway.

“Amazingly,” Tsukishima quipped, “since the house was empty… according to you.”

“Male or female?” Tanaka asked as he walked in and stood beside Tsukishima.

You looked up slowly, tears still clouding your vision.

The three soldiers were in a black and orange uniforms with brass protective gear and you froze in place as you stared at them.

The soldier with short cropped hair blushed when your eyes met his and he covered his face a little with his hand.

“T-Take her out to the uh, the uh, uh…” he stammered.

“Easy, Casanova, you’re gonna hurt yourself,” the other taller blond solider said as he reached out and grabbed your arm while the third quiet guard with freckles giggled, “I’ll take her to the wagon,” he added.

You were dragged to your feet and, stumbling and falling, followed the soldiers reluctantly out of your house and onto the street.

The sights you saw as you were taken to the wagon would haunt you in your sleep for the next few months. People you knew, and people you loved, lay sliced open and dying in the streets, houses were on fire and mothers were wailing as their children were ripped from their arms and taken away.

Numbed by fear, you were forced into the back of the enemy wagon with many other young women you knew.

You clung together and sobbed, closing your eyes and blocking your ears of the horrifying sounds outside the wagon.

After an unspecified amount of time passed, the wagon started to move, jolting you as it took off.

“Where are they taking us?” the woman you were holding in your arms asked you.

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” you said softly in the most calming voice you could muster, “but I’m here, don’t worry.”

She smiled at you through her tears and clung to you.

“I’m glad you’re here, Y/N, you’re so beautiful. If I’m with you, they won’t harm us,” she said

You smiled again, not feeling as confident in yourself as you were making out to be, but feeling like it was a necessary lie to quell the fears of the other girls with you.

The wagon bumped along and you snuck a peek out the flapping animal hide covering.

“We’re no longer in the kingdom of Nekoma,” you thought as you tried to see if you could see it in the distance, but all that could been seen was sand and rocks.

<<< The King and I Chapter 1: War

The King and I Chapter 3: Safe For Now >>>