The Secret

I'd written the following story for a competion in college, so i'll have to warn you, its not one of my better stories. That's because i feel that stories should be written only when inspiration strikes ;-) but in a competition you're given a topic and have to build on it.....in this case, i was just given the title "the secret" ...... well i did what a could and this is the result. for those for you who have been reading my stories since high school, please read the note on the right(hey there..) the rest of you folks can just continue with the story......

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“Mother and Father looked so nice together didn’t they?” asked Lily, pointing at the family photograph on the wall. “Yes, they did”, replied her older sister Elena. “I wish they were still alive Elly, then I could play with daddy just like you did”’, said Lily. Elena wrapped her arms around her little sister and whispered in her ear,” I wish they were her too. You always were their favourite you know.” Lily smiled and then ran out to join her friends in the garden. Glancing out of the window, Elena could see her ten year old sister laughing and playing. She marvelled at how quickly eight years had gone by. Her eyes were drawn again towards that old black and white photograph in the wall. She let her mind drift back to what seemed like another life.
They’d been a happy family, her parents, her brother Mark and herself. Her father was a farmer, and though they weren’t very rich, they were happy and contented. Lily’s arrival into the family had just increased their happiness manifold. Her father would work in the fields all day while she and her brother went to the village school. After school, Mark would lend his father a hand while Elena helped her mother with the baking and the meals. Theirs had been a happy life.....until the war. Over the radio, they heard the prime minister urging all capable men to fight for their country. Father enlisted himself in spite of Mother’s repeated protests and pleas... none of them could dissuade him. “It’s the least I can do”, was what he said.
After a month of anxious prayers and waiting, they received a letter saying that Father had been grievously wounded and was being sent back. Elena could vividly remember the day Mark and his friends had carried Father into the house on a stretcher. Elena rushed to her father’s side and held his hand. But though he looked the same, he seemed different, distant.
Her father was a changed man. He recovered from his wounds quickly but all at home could sense the difference. Father no longer smiled and joked like he used to. He no longer went out to the farm. He just sat in his chair and stared out of the window all day long, as if he was afraid of someone coming. They often heard him screaming in the middle of the night, checking all the locks. The doctor said that the war had affected his mind. There wasn’t much they could do.
Elena shuddered as she recalled that dark night that changed her life forever. The enemy had attacked their village that night, setting fire to the houses and shooting the unarmed villagers.
Elena grabbed Lily from her bed and ran into the hall. Her father stood there with his rifle aimed at Mark’s chest. He was shouting and ranting insanely, believing that his own son was his enemy. Mother lunged at him and tried to wrestle the gun from his grip but she was no match for him. Elena watched, shell-shocked as her father shot her mother and then trained the gun on her. Elena stood frozen with fear, carrying Lily in her arms. “Elena, run! Take Lily and go!” Mark screamed. He pushed her out of the door just as Father fired again. Mark slumped to his knees, looked at her and pleaded with her to get away.
Elena looked at him one last time and ran. She joined the other villagers who were running away. They reached the next village where they were given shelter. Her mother’s brother came for them the next day. They lived with him now.
Elena never told anyone what happened that night. Everyone believed that her family was killed in the war. She didn’t want to tarnish her father’s memory. She knew that the monster who killed her mother and brother wasn’t her father. Her father had died in the war, it had destroyed him.
As Elena watched Lily playing, she vowed that she would never tell anyone what transpired that night. She would take that secret, that nightmare with her to the grave.