Liberty Amidst Revenge: Ella and Patrick's Courageous Quest

The soft crackle of the fire was like a lullaby, and my eyelids drooped. I hadn't slept in days. But what choice did I have? There was no way I could leave those three kids in that hovel without protection. The men were always trying to get in, to rape them again, to beat them into submission. I could not let that happen.

The sun had set over an hour ago and the sky was dark, but still I waited by the entrance of the small shack. I sat on the dirt floor, leaning against the broken wall. A gust of wind blew through the hole in the ceiling, causing me to shiver as it ran up my back. Winter was coming. Soon it would be too cold to sleep anywhere except inside this hut, with its leaky roof and dry, cracked walls.

I sighed and looked around at my surroundings. The fire flickered light onto what was left of their possessions: a pile of blankets, some pieces of furniture, and a few wooden boxes was the extent of it. Everything else had been stolen or damaged beyond reparation. It wasn't much better for me either. My home had been ransacked once already and most of my possessions were either destroyed or missing by now. They had taken almost everything from me; my husband, my children - only one left alive now - and even my own name which they stole from me when they raped me and called me Ella instead of Marie...

Keeping watch on those awful men was exhausting - but I couldn't rest until they finally got what they deserved. What we all deserved...

My eyelids drooped again just as a loud creak met my ears. Looking up from the fire, I watched as one of the rotten boards gave way from the weight of a pair of boots walking across it towards me.

"C'mon Ella." The man said calmly, his voice sending shivers up my spine "You've been up here for weeks now." He stepped closer into the light near the entrance "Any longer and you'll be found frozen stiff outside."

I stood slowly whilst keeping an eye on him out of the corner of my eye as he slowly approached me "I ain't leaving until you do what we promised you'd do..." My voice shook but I steeled myself to continue "Until you kill them!" My voice grew stronger as I pointed behind him to where his two companions were sitting across from each other in front of another flickering fire "Those two bastards who took us all... Those children's fathers!" One had raped me, while another had murdered mine! And yet these monsters had somehow managed to convince everyone else that they were innocent... That we were lying! We weren't lying! How could we lie about such things? Who would make something like that up? We're poor people... We don't have any imagination! There's nothing else going on here! Why would we make this up?!

"Ella," The man groaned with heavy frustration "We've talked about this before..." He reached out to touch me on the shoulder but quickly retracted his hand after seeing my face contort with hatred at his approach "Ella," He repeated carefully "We need those two alive if we're ever going to get anyone else on our side."

"What good is that?!" I shouted "It's not like they're ever going to be able to look at us again after what you've done!" My fingernails dug into balled fists as I continued "They won't be able to go anywhere without being afraid anymore! You made sure of that by doing what you did!" Like so many other townsfolk, those two men were too afraid to leave their homes anymore unless they absolutely needed food or water... But no matter how hard they tried hiding from us, there was no escaping their crimes! We hunted them down wherever they went! And if it meant having them die at our hands rather than theirs then so be it! Better them than us! They deserve this much more than we do for being such cowards... And besides... It's only fair isn't it? They deserve this because they showed us no mercy either! They didn't care about our suffering or our pain when they did what they did to us! They didn't even care about our lives once ours began to matter less than theirs! Our lives didn't matter enough for them not to do what they did... So why should we show them any mercy now? Why should we spare them when they didn't spare us any compassion?! Why shouldn't we take away everything that matters most to them when all we have left is our revenge?! When all we've ever known is hate?! Our entire lives have been nothing but survival these past years... If there's one thing we know how to do well it's surviving! If there's one thing these scumbags taught us well then it's how not to be human anymore...