Hello! Bailey here with a new story. I feel like I have thousands of unwritten stories on my computer. Half of them are just a couple of paragraphs. There are a few in there that I actually like and these are them. All if these have no ending. They are just ideas that I write down but never finish or even really begin. I take OCs! The chart is below. This is chapter one, or story one.

-X-

An arrow, a single arrow. It was all I saw. I didn't know at the time what this arrow would bring, it had just confused me for a moment, shaking slightly, lodged in the wood of my door frame. Tipped with flint, two feathers striking down the body of it and a small initial carved into it. LJ. LJ for what? I wondered briefly, staring down at the arrow.

Then someone screamed and realization rushed unto me. We were under attack, of course we were. I ran into our small wood and cobble house, tripping on the ledge on my way up, my movements clumsy under the panic that was steadily rising in my chest.

"Mama!" I yelled, my eyes darting wildly around the kitchen area. It was empty. I raced across the oak planks to the open door of my parent's bedroom. Empty.

"Ebony!" My sister's shouts came muffled from under my parents bed. Not empty.

"Maisie," I say, a small amount of weight being lifted of my chest. My little sister's brown eyes were filled with tears and her chin was trembling.

"Somebody screamed, Ebony, is somebody hurt?"

"Yes, I think, I don't know. I think it is the rebels." Pa said they wouldn't be this far South. I thought, panicky. "Listen, May, where did Mama go?" I ask, as another scream pierced the air followed by shouts. They were fighting.

My sister looked fearfully towards the door and answered, her chin wobbling, she was trying very hard not to cry. "She w-was going to-to g-get water. She w-went to the w-well. We w-were making a-apple tarts. She t-told me she'd b-be back." She was crying now.

Fear lodged in my chest, my mother was outside. I stood up and walked down the short hallway to a single chest. I undid the latch, my fingers slightly shaking.

"E-ebony!" Maisie called after me, crawling out from under the bed, her eyes still leaking round tears. I could hear more fighting now the sound of swords clashing together, and more screams.

I open the chest and take out two of the three stone swords. They were my father's but he had taught me enough to know how to use them. I set it on the ground and dug around; I find a leather armor jacket. It was big, there was one for my brother and one for my father. I take the one for my brother.

I turn around and face a set of wide eyes, Maisie was looking from me to the sword. "Did Pa or Eric return from the mine?" I ask.

Maisie shook her head and threw herself into my lap. "Y-you c-can't go out there, t-they'll hurt y-you. P-please Ebony." Her kid hands clenched tightly around my waist her fingers digging in so deep it hurt.

"Shhh May," I say, patting her head and trying to unwind her arms from me. I succeed and she looks at me, her eyes ever producing tears and snot running down her nose. "Listen, I need to go get Mama, then we can come back here and get you," That was my plan, then what? I ask myself. "Then we can go get Pa and Eric from the mine." We won't be fast enough, I think as I say the words; still, I would let Maisie believe it. We will have to…What? Run, leave them? "After that we go someplace safe," I tell the fearful eight year old face. "While I go get Mama, you need to stay here, turn off the lights and stay under the bed all right?"

"No! Stay with me, Ebony, I am scared."

"I'll be right back; it will only take a second." Would it? I pushed my doubts away, yes it would.

"You promise?" She asked, her wet face drawn in seriousness.

I chew the inside of my cheek, a nervous habit. "Yes, I promise." I take one of the stone swords and hand it to her, hilt first. Her eyes flash with fear.

"You'll be right back! I don't need it!" She shrieked, almost convincing herself.

"I know," I say, trying to make my tone calm even though my anxiety was only getting worse with every arrow that I heard pang outside. anyone of them could hit Mama. No. "It is just in case, just hide and they shouldn't find you." Suddenly doubt clogged my senses, should I leave her, what if someone finds her? If I ran fast, I could find my mother, I know I could.

Maisie took the sword as I stood. Then she dropped it with a small thump and hugs me, her face buried in my shirt muffling her words. "Come back." She says softly.

"I will." I tell her.

I was wrong.

-X-

I stepped outside, equipped with my brother's jacket and one of the stone swords. Nothing was happening in the ally between my house and my neighbor's house. I could hear fighting though, and it was close.

I jog to the street, towards the Well ignoring my fluttering heart and desire to stay and hide with Maisie. I see arrows everywhere, sticking out from fences like warning signs. get out of here, danger. The sounds of fighting were coming closer and I see a body. Laying there was Mrs. Larden and cradled in her dead arms was her new baby boy. Someone had stepped on him though, and his skull was smashed. I thought briefly of the night my mother helped Mrs. Larden with him. I choke back my horror and the memories of Mrs. Larden and continue on.

As I crossed the street I saw chaos. "Notch help us." I muttered. Children ran from house to house. Mothers and fathers alike screamed for their children. Men in black iron armor and iron swords fought everywhere, smashing and burning the houses. On their chest was a single black X. The mark of the rebels. They were swinging their swords, killing any that crossed their paths, some of them laughing as they did so. People were running, trying to get past them. Sometimes when they got close to the fence of the village one of the men would take their bow and shoot them down, an arrow protruding from their backs. One marked LJ?

I skirted around the houses, hoping to avoid them and the fiery madness. I ran quickly and turned the corner. I gasped. Hattie Shire, the miller's daughter, was shoved up against the wall, one of the men in the black iron, had one of his hands running up her leg while the other one silenced her screams. He was completely focused on her and it made me sick. I was never friends with Hattie, two years older and a hell of a lot prettier, our paths didn't often cross. Still, her head was turned to me, her baby blue eyes filled with not yet fallen tears and horror. Her eyes blinked once as if to tell me to go, to leave her. My feet lurched, I'd like to say I was a courageous hero, that I killed the man with hardly a second glance and saved poor Hattie. That I saved her from something that made her wish she was dead, but I didn't, I turned and ran. I left her, just one of the many things that would come back to haunt me was that moment and that man and Hattie Shire, the miller's daughter.

The ally ways I was running behind were burning, I dodged the flames, trying to remember which turns to take to get to the Well quickly. Up ahead, I saw what had been causing the flames, a man in black iron with gleaming flint and steel in his hands, he was burning a garden. He saw me and sneered, at least, I think he did, I could only see his mouth and bits of his eyes from his half helm. I felt a race of panic, knowing if I ran behind me I'd be greeted with flames and eventually, Hattie Shire. He came at me, sword swinging. I chose to run left, the opposite way I needed to go, but if I could lose him. I could double back around.

Unfortunately, the thought was lost. I felt him lunge for the back of my shirt and his fingers grabbed at me, bringing me down face first in the mud. I turned on my back, my fingers reaching to grasp my sword that had flung just out of reach.

He bent down and his fingers closed around my neck. His breath was hot in my ear as I tried in vain to squirm around him but his knees were pinning my wrists, his ankles holding my legs down. "You deserve this," He hissed. My lungs where screaming, my neck sore from his clenched fingers. "Loyalist like you should have a fate worse then yours girly," Dark spots clouded my vision, closing me in, my heart hammered desperately, fear and panic shooting it into cannon-like thrums. I could see only black and his voice echoed in my ears, "Say you pledge to the true King David and I will let go." My eyes fluttered in panic, he chuckled, crushing my throat. "Go on," He said through gritted teeth, "Say it." My fingers flailed around, digging into the dirt, in one last desperate attempt my fingers closed around a wooden hilt. My heart thrummed painfully, my lungs on fire, burning me from the inside out. I gave it all I had and swung the sword up, begging Notch to let it hit home.

Air.

It was my single thought. The air choked me almost as bad as the rebel man's fingers had. I sat there coughing and wheezing, my lungs seemingly never getting enough air. My throat was swollen to the touch, my throat was on fire but I had air. And even with the ashes mixed into it, it had never tasted so good.

But the air was getting heavier, the houses were completely in fire and if the fire had spread…Oh Notch no. I got up, my mind racing. I chewed the inside if my cheek, glancing towards where the market should be and the Well in the market. What are the chances of finding her? I thought. And then the fire roared and caught my attention. Please don't tell me the fire has spread. I took off towards our house.

Taking the alleys back the way I came wasn't too hard. I avoided people and braced myself when I rounded the corner where Hattie should be. She wasn't though, she and the man were gone. My mind was in panic because I could see smoke coming from my street. My mother forgotten in the fear grasping my head.

N,o no, Maisie no.

I turned the corner and realized a person was on my tail. I ran, my footsteps hammering the gravel with every step. I pass Mrs. Lardon, wincing as I heard the person behind me step on her. The fire had gone all the way down here. I take the turn in my street and see the house. Or more accurately, what was left of it. Notch no, Maisie no.

The roof had collapsed, the orange flames licked greedily at the wood. The wood was cracked and blackened. I remember how scared Maisie was. Would she have run? But at the same time I knew she hadn't. I knew she hadn't because I told her to stay and I promised I'd come back.

I promised.

The words were blackened with guilt and grief. It choked me, made tears run down my eyes like rivers, hot burning rivers of guilt. It hurt. Maisie hurt more. My thoughts echoed in my head. Why did you leave her Ebony? Why? You killed her.

"No." I said, my voice cracked and swollen. Suddenly the weight of the world seemed impossibly heavy and the thought of jumping into the flames still burning the oak planks of my house didn't seem so crazy. The sound of a sword being unsheathed was probably the only thing that stopped me from doing it.

I faced the person behind me, the large X marking the chest. It was a woman. I hefted my sword, the need for revenge suddenly undeniably great. Her figure was blurry from my tears. I blinked them away and charged.

Seconds later my sword was through her heart and she was no longer moving. I had killed her and yet, I felt like I was the one who died.

I promised.

What a stupid thing, a promise. I felt like it was meant to be broken.

Why didn't you come back Ebony?

I did.

Too late.

I know.

Why did you leave?

Stop.

Why am I dead?

Stop

Ebony don't go!

Stop.

Silence.

Oh Notch, I promised.

-X-

Thanks for reading! That is the end of this story, no continuation. This will probably not be updated regularly. As promised, the OC chart:

Gender:

Personality:

Description:

Backstory:

Age:

Interesting quirks:

Weapon (optional)

Skills:

Reviews are always begged for!

-Bailey