Chapter 1: chapter 1

So this is my newest idea. Hope you enjoy and sorry for all the errors. I haven't edited it yet. Enjoy!

“Don’t let go of my hand!” I yell behind me.

I squeeze the little hand that is in mine. I start to run faster and drag the little person with me.

“I can’t run anymore,” the little girl yells.

I turn around and pick her up. I start to run with her in my arms.

“We’re almost there! Just a little bit further,” I yell.

I start to see a barn and thank God that I’m almost there. Explosions start to go off behind me but I don’t look back. I can’t look back. I must keep going. The little girl in my arms starts to sob, which just makes me run faster. I have to protect her. I think back to how I got her and my heart jolts a little. I was running like everyone else when I saw a little girl trying to lift a wall off of her parents. She resembled my little sister so I ran over to help her. Sadly, the wall was too heavy. The mother was already unconscious and most likely dead but the dad was just barely conscious. He looked up at me and gave me such desperate eyes. And he said,

“Please, protect my little girl.” And he died.

She started to scream for her parents to wake up but then I pulled her away and we started running. Everyone else was ahead of us. The battle behind us is coming closer each second and I knew I had to hurry. I kept running until I finally reached the barn doors. Right when I went in, the other people in there shut the doors. Thank God! We made it.

I go to the end of the barn and sit down. I have the little girl sit in-between my legs and try to soothe her as she cries. She wasn’t the only one though. I look around the barn and see almost the whole town here. Almost everyone was crying. They were crying for the loss of loved ones or their homes being destroyed or just crying, hoping to survive the day.

After many hours, the battle outside starts to quiet down. I look down to see the little girl sleeping. I move some hair out of her face. I smile. She really does resemble Kelsey. She starts to stir and I lift my hand away from her face. She opens her eyes slightly and looks up at me.

“Mommy?” She asks.

I freeze. What do I do? Do I pretend? Or do I tell her about her parents?

“Oh that’s right,” She looks down. “Mommy and Daddy are gone.”

I hug her. She was starting to cry and instinct just took over.

“Shhh, It’s going to be ok. I will stay with you. I will protect you.” I say.

She starts to calm down and we break our hug. She looks at me and gives me a little smile.

“Are you my new sister?” She asks.

“Sure.” I say.

“And will you stay with me forever?” She asks.

I don’t even hesitate, “Of course.”

Her little smile grows in to a big grin. She closes her eyes again and rest her head on my lap.

“Good,” she said before she fell asleep.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

2 years later

“CASSY!” I yell from the bottom of the stairs. I hear a few thuds and then footsteps as they hurriedly run to the stairs. A 12 year old girl runs down the stairs and collides with me.

“Come on. You’re going to be late to school again if we don’t hurry.” I grab her hand and drag her out of the little house and out to the road. We start walking to the school.

“So are you excited about the show?” I ask her.

“Ugh, no. I’m one of the main characters. I just wanted to be a tree in the background.” She whines.

I giggle. “Oh it can’t be that bad. Besides, you can show Jeremy how good of an actress you are.”

Cassy’s cheeks turn a bright red. She looks down.

“See, now it doesn’t sound that bad. Also, I will be watching. Don’t you want to show me your skills too?” I say.

She looks up at me and has a big grin on her face. “Yep!”

We come up to the school and as Cassy goes backstage, I find a seat right in the middle.

The show starts shortly, and it starts with a scene of a little girl at a bakery store. The store owner is the narrator as he tells the story of the little girl who becomes a princess in the end. It goes to where she has to make a delivery and finds a boy in a carriage. They carriage broke and the young boys guard went to fetch help. The little girl helps the boy and they play around for a while before the guard comes back. The boy leaves but promises to come back for the little girl again. It then skips to many years later, where the little girl is a grown woman. The woman takes care of a child (who is played by Cassy) named Clarissa. Clarissa is like a daughter to the young woman. One day, the young woman—

An explosion erupts at the back of the school. Everyone starts to panic and try to leave. Parents are looking for their children, others are trying to get out. I desperately look for Cassy until I see her under a table, sobbing. I run to her.

“CASSY!!” She looks up and I grab her.

I lift my pants and pull out a small gun. I drag her across the room, through the panicking people and to an empty classroom. I shut the door. I turn to Cassy.

“Cassy, go under the teacher’s desk and don’t come out until I say to.” I tell her. She nods and does as I told her. I peer out the window in the door and see most of the people are gone. I then see a few military men fighting another countries’ military men. I can see our men winning. Almost all of the other men are down except for two. One goes down, and as that one goes down, the other one aims a gun at the man that just took down the first one. I run out and pull out a small dagger from my sleeve and swing it at the second man. He gets hit right as the man notices him behind him. The last man is down. The man that I just saved looks at me and smiles. Everyone else in the room is just staring at me. The man I saved comes up to me and holds out his hand. I take it and shake it.

“Officer Jonathan Russell. Thank you for helping me.” He says.

“You’re welcome. You should really watch your back more carefully.” I say.

He stares at me for a moment before laughing. “I guess I should or else I would have been the one on the ground.”

“So what happened here?” I ask.

He looks around as he talks. “Well these guys were just trying to stop us from our mission.”

“What mission?” I ask, confused.

He looks back at me. “We’re trying to find someone. We really need that person on our side.”

“Well if it means they can help us win the war then I hope you find them.” I say.

“Thank you, ma’am.” He starts to turn when he remembers something and turns back to me. “By the way, I didn’t catch your name.”

“I’m Anna. Anna Berndt.” I say and turn around and walk back to the door.

I put my hand on the door handle when all of a sudden I feel hands on my shoulders as someone swings me around to look at the person. It’s Jonathan. He looks at me closely and looks like he’s debating about something. Then he smiles one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen and hugs me.

“What?” I ask, bewildered.

He let’s go and turns to his men. “Men! We’ve found the person we were looking for.”

All the men stare at me and have this look of disgust. Jonathan turns back to me and still has his smile on.

“Wait! I’m the person you were looking for?” I ask.

Jonathan nods.

“But why?” I ask.

Jonathan gives me a look. “Do you really not know?” He looks over at the guy I hit with my dagger and realization hits me.

“But that was pure luck.” I say.

Jonathan gives me another look. “We both know that was not just luck. Now, will you please come with us Miss Berndt.”

I back away. “I can’t. I have a little sister to take care of.”

He steps forward. “It’s alright, we will watch over her and protect her.”

“But she lost her parents. I’m all she has. If I die…” I don’t finish my sentence.

“But don’t you want to end this war once and for all? Then you and her can live together peacefully. Don’t you want her to grow up happy?”

I think for a moment. Is this the right choice? Would she be safe?

“If the war gets near here, will your men protect her?” I ask.

He looks me straight in the eye. “I will make sure of it. Nothing will happen to her while you are away.”

I look at the door and then back at him. I sigh. “Alright. I’ll do it.”

Jonathan smiles again and turns back to his men.

“Men, this is our newest subordinate. Her name is Anna Berndt. She will be our newest addition to the team. Even though the army only consists of men, please treat her warmly.” Jonathan commands.

I freeze. That’s why they all look disgusted with me. I’m going to be the first woman to fight in the army. I gulp as I see all the stares. This is not going to end well.