13

Elder Rose

I sent out Roy a while ago. Yet, he still has not returned. Has he killed them, and is just struggling to bring them back? Or did he fail and they killed him?  I think as I place luke-warm, wet rags  on Toby’s wrist. I watch as it sucks up a lot of the blood. 

         When Roy left I hit Toby across the head as hard as I could without killing him. The head trauma should cause memory loss. I will tell him that I am the only family that he has left, and that we are responsible for all the dirty work for this village. He will do anything I ask of him just because he will think that we are related. 

     Not only that but then I will not have to worry about him telling anyone in the village about how I truly run this place. 

      I grab a syringe filled with something that should help him wake up a bit faster. I’ve brought an old wagon into the cottage earlier so it's easier to move him around. I grab his side and roll him over until he goes over the edge and into the wagon. I grab the wagon handle and drag him up the stairs, and into the spare bedroom where I will leave his body until he wakes up. 

      I take the old wagon back outside and leave it behind the cottage. I then walk back and take a chair from the kitchen and into the spare room. I close the door behind me and lock it. I sit on the chair next to his bedside and sit down and look out the window. Now all I can do is wait. I turn back to Toby. I grab his less injured wrist and place two fingers and check his pulse. It is still irregular. 

        I take a deep breath and relax myself. I close my eyes and think back to my past. When I was his age, I would be sitting with the village elder. They would tell me who would need to be taken out next. When I was old enough to understand things in our small village I was taken to the elder, or leader, and was told that I will be passed down the secret ways of our small village. I remember how they explained that the deaths not only helped keep the population at a decent number so cost and supplies never had to become higher, they also helped me to understand medicine. 

         Before my elder died, they taught me everything that they knew, and told me that I must go and start another village. I left the village at the age of twenty. However, only I knew of the village's ways, no one was fit  to become the new leader. Therefore, I was left with no choice. I took some supplies for myself, as long as village building plans, and then I poisoned everything that was left. Everyone, even my parents, that once made up my very first home, died, but it was all for a good cause. 

       My elder taught me the importance of this way that was bestowed to them the same way. In order to survive, sacrifices must be made. All of their deaths helped me learn new medicines for me to later pass on when I am near my death, however, I have some time left. Maybe, maybe… I open my eyes.  Maybe, I could pass it all down to Toby, if things go well that is. 

    I close my eyes again and feel myself unwillingly drift off into another world . The darkness of my mind takes over and I fall asleep thinking about the past.