Bring your daughter to the slaughter house

In a world torn apart by communal differences and blatant mistrust, wars are commonplace. Tyrants and dictators order their men into battle, yet do not directly take active part in it. A soldier may kill five people from the enemy camp, before he himself gets gunned down, yet the men he kills are armed and are looking to kill him as well. Still, to start a war is unpardonable. But somethings are more unpardonable than others. To slaughter and mutilate the bodies of dozens of unarmed, innocent children is an act so unforgivable that its very occurrence heralds an era darker than any.
And yet, in the face of adversity, in the midst of the most darkest hour, there is always a little pinprick of light, a wick bursting into flames, a hero rising. But for what cost?
A story based on a true incident.

Iledan enjoyed spending the evening under the trees at the edge of the forest, relaxing, and watching the bustling activities of the people of the village below wane away with the sun. The peace and quiet comforted him, and the soft wind that ruffled through his dark hair, and caressed his fair skin clouded his mind with thoughts of a short repose. Slowly, his eye-lids started to droop, and he let out a yawn. Then suddenly, a rap on his head made him start.
"Tag, you're it!" shouted Leyenna, as she ran into the woods, laughing loudly. She glanced back to see if Iledan was giving chase.
Muttering under his breath, Iledan brushed the dust off his black leggings, and ran after Leyenna. Her diminutive frame darted around trees and through bushes, always well ahead of him. She kept glancing back, and when she did, her long red-gold hair whipped across her laughing face, and he had a reason to catch up with her, and hold her. Her screams of joy filled the air, and he shouted out too, and put on a burst of speed. They went on, shouting, laughing, zig-zagging through trees, and jumping over bushes. The sun had almost set, and the forest took on a deep red hue.
They entered the deeper regions of the forest, and Iledan realized that it was steadily becoming darker. He stopped to catch his breath, and looked about to assess his surroundings. He had never been this deep into the forest before, and he knew it was a mistake to be there. The trees were closer here, and looked demonic in the fading light. Massive, gnarled shapes stood sentinel all around him, terrifying and intimidating. But there was something else that was more worrying.
There was absolute silence.
And suddenly Iledan felt scared and alone. He couldn't see Leyenna anywhere. He tried calling out to her, but fear had tied a rope around his neck, and her name came out like a whisper. The image of her face sprang up in his mind, red-gold hair streaking across it. He couldn't turn back, not without her. Slowly and warily, he moved forward, the thought of her keeping him company. Every deliberate step he took sounded as if it would wake up all the shapes around him, and he thought that at any moment they would pounce on him, and consume him alive. Then, after what seemed an eternity, he saw lights up ahead. A large shack came into view, old and antiquated. Flickering pale light emanated from its windows, giving it a ghostly appearance. He edged closer, wondering if the residents of the shack could help him. The dirty walls were scarred and a decayed wooden door, barely hanging on to its hinges, barred the way in. There were cracks in the door, and through them, he could see the room inside. Candles were laid in a circle on the floor, their flames flickering weakly. He couldn't see much in the dim light, but he could discern the silhouette of a large man. Across the room were doors leading off to other rooms. As he laid his hand on the door, to push it open, a shriek of absolute terror filled the air and Iledan recoiled in horror. More cries followed, all coming from within the shack. Cries of pain and fear, and Iledan stood rooted to the spot.
He knew that voice.
He wanted to run back and get help, but he also knew that it would take too long. The cries kept coming, louder and louder. And then, suddenly, the fear within him melted away. He wouldn't stand and wait, nor would he run away. Crouching low, he moved ahead, going around the side of the shack, towards the back. There was a window on the side, dirty and fogged up, and he couldn't see anything through it, but he could see the shadows that played across it, a large one moving back and forth across it, vigorously. And the screams still went on incessantly. Shutting it out of his mind, he ducked under it, and reached the other end of the shack.
The fetid stench hit him hard, almost overpowering. Everything seemed to be spinning, and bile rose to Iledan's mouth. Steadying himself against the wall, he vomited onto the hard earth. He looked around for the source of the foul smell, but all he could see were bags strewn all over the place, small irregular shapes. There was a door leading into the house, and he moved towards it silently.
Crack
Iledan started. He bent down to pick up the hard object he had stepped on. In the pale moonlight, he could clearly see the object, and his eyes opened wide as disgusting realization dawned on him. Sticky crimson marks stained the corroded bone, and violet arteries wove webs around it, embedded in its rough white surface. Quickly he dropped it, his heart beating faster, and then it seemed as if his surroundings had grown brighter. Again he looked around him, and this time he saw what he hadn't seen before. Hideously mangled bodies lay everywhere, the tiny limbs twisted at abnormal angles. They were mutilated beyond recognition, but he knew that they were the children who had gone missing from the surrounding villages, children of his age. Strangely immune, and emotionless, he took in the horrific scenes around him. It was like he was in hell, and the desecrated bodies were the souls of the inhabitants of hell. Only that these were innocent when they were still alive. In some of the bodies, there were gaping holes in the chest and stomach. Intestines leaked out of the dark emptiness inside, long and slimy tendrils. Huge, black rats scurried around in and out of the bodies, gnawing at the dead and dried skin, making abhorrent squishy noises. Some of the bodies had been completely scavenged, and all that was left was the skeleton, dark because of the thin crimson film smeared over it. The empty sockets in the skulls, where the eyes should have been, stared back at him, and white maggots emerged from them. Remnants of the brain could be seen through the sockets, a mass of purple flesh plastered against the inside of the skull. Hands and legs decorated the earth, looking as if they had been forcefully ripped of their respective bodies, and torn muscles and tissues stuck out from the joints. Ants crawled everywhere, boring holes into the flesh of the bodies that still had it, giving them a terrifying cratered look. The screaming in the background added to the horror, and he thought that the bodies would suddenly come back to life, the devil's minions in the flesh, and take him with them into the blood-soaked earth. Leaning against the wall and breathing deeply, he closed his eyes and shut out the scenes, leaving him in darkness with only the screams.
Then he opened them wide.
The screams had stopped.
With grim determination, he hurried to the door and yanked it open. He didn't think there could be anything worse than what he had just witnessed, but when he walked into the room, he knew he was wrong. Dull flickering light from candles cast eerie shadows everywhere. Long chains hung from the ceiling, wicked hooks at it's end glowing red in the dim light. Some of the hooks had bodies impaled on them, drops of semi-coagulated blood dropping from where the hooks had violated the body. On one of them, the torso had separated itself from the neck, possibly due to its weight, and the head remained spiked on the hook. The defiled torso lay below in a pool of viscous blood, part of the spinal cord jutting out of the severed neck. Numerous organs decorated the red floor, livers with green bile oozing out, and stomachs with acid dripping from the holes in them. Deflated lungs lay amongst the decaying organs, and crimson hearts that looked like they were still beating in the inconsistent light. Across the room was the door that he had seen from the front of the shack. He made his way to it, trying hard to avoid the organs that littered the floor.
The door banged open, and a huge figure emerged from the room beyond. It stopped abruptly, and Iledan froze in his tracks, staring at the massive man. Low, rumbling laughter from the man sent shivers own Iledan's spine.
"What a lovely surprise," the man said, his hideous face breaking into a smile, revealing bloody teeth. "Unfortunately, i am done for the day. I will have to save you for later." He put on an apologetic look.
Iledan's eyes darted around the room, searching for a weapon. All emotions had died away, and now he was filled with a desire to extract revenge. He wanted to kill the savage standing before him, and he wanted to see the look in his eyes when he did. He wanted the man to scream, for all the screams he had extracted from his numerous victims. He wanted to hear the man pleading for the life that he did not deserve, an he wanted to stand there in front of the man, and laugh as the man died.
In one of the corners of the room, he saw a bloodied axe, old and blunt. He sprinted across to it, before the man could react. But the axe was too heavy for him, and as he struggled to lift it, the large shadow of the man loomed over him.
"Tsk, tsk. Such disobedience. Didn't your mother ever teach you how to behave nicely?" Massive hands caught hold of the axe and yanked it from Iledan's frail grip. He backed into the corner, suddenly afraid again. The man raised the axe high above his head, and Iledan closed his eyes and covered his face with his arms. The scenes outside flashed before him, and he knew that he would join those dead bodies. He waited for the end, for the axe to crash down on his skull, and kill him. But he wouldn't plead for life, he wouldn't give the man that satisfaction. He wouldn't make a sound.
And then painful screams filled the air.
But they weren't coming from him.
Fire erupted from his hands, dark blue flames striking the man in the chest, and burning a hole right through it. Skin, liquefied by the heat, dropped to the floor, sizzling. Flames sprang up over the man, reaching his face. He continued screaming, clawing at his face, and desperately trying to cover the hole in his chest with his hands. The axe dropped to the floor and he fell down with it.
Iledan stepped back from the flames, staring at his hands with horror. The fear came back, debilitating. Everything he had just witnessed, the blood, the pain, the screams and the deaths, was just too much for him, a thirteen year old. Faces flashed up before him, blood-stained expressions, brutally damaged. He saw a child walk towards him, innocent and untouched. And then suddenly the child started falling apart, pieces of flesh falling off, and blood gushing out of perforations in the child's body. The torso burst open, throwing out ruddy organs, an the face disintegrated. And all the while, there was frightening laughter in the background, and a huge shape overshadowed everything. Then flames sprang up everywhere, and the laughter turned into hideous shrieking. and through the flames a face came into view again, red hair whipping across it.
The man was completely incinerated, and the walls were starting to catch fire. Blinded by tears, Iledan stumbled through the room towards the door. Everything was spinning, and smoke filled the air. He couldn't see clearly, everything was blurred and red. The visions kept playing in front of him, over and over again, and every time, it ended with the red hair.
And then he saw Leyenna on the floor. Her clothes were torn and bloodied. Dropping to the floor beside her, he picked her head up. It was covered in blood, and her eyes stared back at him expressionlessly. The tears were flowing freely now, and he lay down on the ground. Flames crept up all around them, and the heat was intolerable, yet her body was so cold, so lifeless. The visions came back to Iledan again, but this time, the child walking to him was Leyenna. Painfully, he witnessed her destruction.
The room was almost completely burned up.
And then everything went white.