1349

The city of Paris, which was usually filled with the lively laughter of a city growing in population and significance, was now a prison filled with death and fear. The Black Death had reached the city, hitting the population harder than anyone could have ever expected.

On the streets lay the dead and the dying, the latter still moaning from the excruciating pains they had to endure during their last minutes in this life, many of them begging the Lord or the few to pass by them to end their suffering.

But the few who did pass only increased their speed and did not spare one glance on the humans begging for their help. For the harsh truth was that no matter if you were friend or foe, no one truly cared anymore. Families abandoned their sick relatives as everyone was desperately trying not to fall ill to the devils' evil and simply stay alive.

The young girl walking in the shadows down the street, a child of only five, had already lost all of her family in the terrible plague and now had no one to care for her. No one dared to take her in, for they knew that either the child was going to get ill, or she had to be protected by the devil himself, otherwise why was she the only one of her family who had not fallen ill from the horror which had been sent by Satan himself?

The young child clutched the thin blanket she wore over her tattered dress as she kept away from the few people who dared to leave their homes and enter the streets as she pinned on her little legs into an ally, her bare feet making no sound at all. The nauseating smell oozing from the withering bodies in the summer heat, along with the waste from the houses around her, was something she could barley smell at all, her body having adapted to the fumes of this stinking hell long ago.

The young girl did not even cast a second glance at the dead bodies around her, she was already so used to death that sometimes she wondered if one could become immune to it and if this was what had happened to her.

Exiting the ally she came into an empty street, looking around as she moved as silently as she could over to one of the fine houses laying only a few feet down the street. Careful not to make a sound she slipped through the shadows until she reached the back door which lead to the kitchen and here she waited, remaining in the shadows. After a few minutes her worn face turned into a smile as the door crept open.

On her bare feet she ran over to the door to see the older boy who had come to show her mercy in these horrid times. The blond and blue eyed boy, whom to her appeared to be her very own angel, had offered her his help when he had seen her on the streets looking for food. In the beginning she had been wary of him, knowing how cruel fellow humans could be, but he had only kindly given her some spares, talking to her for a little while before telling her that if she wanted, he could help her.

After that day she had visited him two nights each week ever since and he always gave her a good meal in secret, his family not knowing he had taken the young child under his wings.

Now looking up at him where he stood in the doorway however she felt her heart stop in her chest for the boy looked worn, there was sweat on his forehead and she could see a black bubo on his neck. Feeling terrified she drew in a large breath as tears started to well in her eyes and she could see the boy in front of her look at her with pain, a reaction which turned into fear when she did not run away, but instead threw her thin and tiny arms around his legs.

With force the boy prayed her arms away from him and looked at her with a mixture of fear and anger, it was the same look her mother had given her when the girl had insisted of nursing her mother, the last member of her family, till her last breath.

"Petit what do you think you are doing?!" The boy shook her slightly as he spoke the words, his blue eyes full of anger. The tears streaming down her face however had nothing to do with fear of him, only fear for him.

"Monsieur you are ill, you cannot leave monsieur, you are far too good to leave." The boy looked as if he was about to cry, his blue eyes filling with tears of his own for knowing he would have to leave this already lonely child in a world which now held nothing but death and despair.

Why had he taken pity on her in the first place? There were many abandoned children in Paris, still it had been something about this child which had tucked at his heart and forced him to help her, to make sure she at least would have a chance of surviving.

Now he hated that decision, for he would now only cause her more suffering and pain, and most likely she would die because of him as well.

"You are not to be alone when you are ill monsieur, I will make you better." At the determined look in the child's eyes, he felt his heart break for this poor creature, but at the same time he felt amazed by this young child's faith and hope, so against his own mind he did not stop the child from entering his home.

The next morning the young girl left the house with new tears streaming down her face, the little food she was able to carry safe in her blanket. Before entering the ally she looked back at the house which for a short period had been her safe haven, but now was empty and cold, before she melted into the shadows once more, feeling her little heart break even more when thinking of the now dead young man, who had been so handsome in life, no longer being alive to be her golden angel.

The first chapter of a few, leave a review and say what you think! Good, bad or both? ;)

/Lysistrate