Xing Kai howled as he saw what had become of his precious village and the people he knew.

The ground was several inches deep in blood, and formed streams down the sides of the square. Blood dripped down from bodies hung from tree branches. Men, including boys and elderly were battered, naked, and covered in cuts, with barbed arrows puncturing their chests. The red glow from the burning village added dark shadows to the countless dangling corpses.

Women were stripped naked and queues of savage men stood before them, as little girls and old ladies were all pressed down to the ground. The more barbaric among them chose crueller methods of satisfaction; the scenes were unthinkable. Xing Kai and his friends, could not even begin to understand the despicable actions of the men. The men did not look much different to the ordinary villagers, under the blood they were covered in, yet they were so cruel. Could ordinary people be so vile?

All these images blended together in Xing Kai’s mind, and he felt like his mind was splitting. One corner of the square he could not bear to look at was where a pile of women several meters high, had been formed, after going through the men’s torturous pleasures. The haunting red glow revealed nightmarish marks on the piled up bodies of women.

Gang Wei screamed, which under all the other noises of burning and screaming, could barely be heard. He got up suddenly and charged over to one of the women.

The woman he ran towards was being jabbed at with spears by a group of 5 laughing men.

Xing Kai could barely move, as he saw Lo Yanmei desperately tried to hold him back.

“NO” screamed Song Ping. She shot off in a different direction, to the not-so-distant pile of female bodies. Xing Kai felt a faint warmth trickle down his legs.

“Arrgghh” cried Zhang Lei. His voice broke under the screaming and he tore hair off his head in fistfuls. “MAMA” he screamed. His simple appearance was replaced by a raging, grieving madman.

Zhang Lei looked around through his streaming, crazed eyes and found a sharp and jagged splinter of wood. He grabbed it tightly between two hands, and charged like an ox at one of the men who was currently pressing himself against a woman. The woman had stopped crying long ago, and just looked over to the side with listless, empty eyes waiting to die.

“Hey there’s a little brat over there”

“Gang Wei, WATCH OUT” screamed Lo Yanmei. Her eyes were completely red and her lips were oozing blood from biting them so hard. She had gotten off of Xing Kai’s back and stumbled over to the edge of the square. Each time she felt her heart was tearing when she couldn’t stop the others from running off. She felt tortured that she tried to stop them going to their parents, when she too would have done the same.

However there was no trace of movement or understanding in Xing Kai's eyes, except for horror and

fear.

Gang Wei ran past a group of men, barging past them in his fury. However, one of the men in the queues casually lifted his bow and fired an arrow straight into Gang Wei’s knee.

“Arrggh MOMMY” he screamed. He stretched out his hand desperately towards the woman, as he fell into the pool of blood.

“XIAO WEI?” screamed the woman in shock. She looked past the men standing around her with spears, at her son 10 meters away. “Xiao Wei RUN” she shouted. One of the men lunged forward with the spear and buried it in her mouth.

The Gang Wei's mother screamed, choking on blood, but refusing to look away from her son.

“Grab the boy haha, we’ll show them a good time together.”

One of the men grabbed Gang Wei by the scruff of his neck and threw him beside his crying mother. He scrabbled over to her side, but all of a sudden a spear rammed through his stomach, pinning him to the ground, just out of reach of his mother’s hands. Gang Wei screamed and clutched the spear in his stomach, but one of the men kicked him in his face.

Gang Wei’s mother spat out her teeth and blood.

With unnatural strength she pushed the man beside her, away from her son. However as she stretched out to embrace her dying, howling son, the men grabbed her by her limbs and spread them out. The man who had been pushed aside, then grabbed a spear and grinned at Gang Wei’s pleading mother.

In this moment, Xing Kai saw the man’s eyes clearly from across the square. Those dark, evil eyes, gleamed with laughter and excitement. Xing Kai watched as the man rammed his spear between Gang Wei’s mother’s legs, until it emerged from her throat. Xing Kai could see Gang Wei freeze as he saw the life leave his mother’s eyes and then he too was sent to reincarnate, with another spear thrust from the man.

This...this is..

Xing Kai jerked his head away from Gang Wei's dead eyes, only to find that men had gathered around Song Ping and had tore the clothes of her; they were taking turns with her. One of the men had noticed that Song Ping’s hand was disfigured so they evened it out on the other hand.

Xing Kai looked down and noticed he had wet himself. He couldn’t remember when it had happened. A metallic taste filled his mouth, and his throat burned with pain.

“ZHANG LEI” screamed Lo Yanmei.

She was yanking at Xing Kai’s shirt, pointing to Zhang Lei who was already half way across the square. The men in the queue waiting before Zhang Lei’s mother laughed and slowly raised their bows.

“MAMA, WAIT I’LL RESCUE YOU”

Zhang Lei charged through the pool of blood, leaving huge ripples. As he neared his limp mother, he swung the jagged piece of wood at the grunting, blissful faced man.

He had not swung too far before shrill whistling sounds filled his ears.

“Big brother Lei” croaked Xing Kai. His voice was now barely above a whisper, as he had screamed his throat raw and dry when he saw Gang Wei die. Xing Kai raised his arms weakly as he cried out to the distant Zhang Lei, who being struck by arrows. His shoulders shook violently as he sobbed, and his hands hung out in the air trying to somehow embrace his friend, as Zhang Lei fell beside his mother.

Xing Kai’s big brother Zhang Lei was covered in arrows. His back was oozing out blood, while the arrow tips emerged from his chest, raising his body slightly above the blood covered ground. He had collapsed before his dead-eyed mother, his jagged piece of wood leaving only a scratch on the grunting man’s cheek. The man didn’t even bat an eye as he ferociously attacked Zhang Lei’s dead-eyed mother.

Xing Kai stopped breathing and his arms fell down limp, to his sides. He turned his head away from that nightmare only to see Song Ping again.

Song Ping had screamed and screamed until her throat was raw and she coughed out mouthfuls of blood between her cries. However the man who current straddled her, a bear like man with a hulking frame, was striking her repeatedly between his thrusts. Song Ping very quickly became unconscious, but the man continued hitting her. After a few minutes the man roared with passion and struck her one final time, incredibly hard. The man then threw her defiled and beaten body onto the pile and was jokingly cursed at by the other surrounding men for being too rough.

Song Ping lay broken and battered like all the other women on the pile.

“Xing...Xing Kai” cried Lo Yanmei. She pulled at his arm trying to get his attention. “We need to leave” she shouted. She appeared to be pulling Xing Kai away from the square. “Xing Kai, please move.”

Xing Kai’s throat croaked horribly every time he breathed. He watched the horrors around him almost absent-mindedly for a few seconds. The infernal appearance off the square was already burned into his mind, and he hadn’t seen either his or Lo Yanmei’s parents, but he still felt such overwhelming fear that standing up and leaving was like asking him to lift up the sky.

Suddenly laughing sounds could be heard from behind one of the burning buildings nearby. Lo Yanmei crawled over to hide behind a burnt door quickly, while dragging a slow moving Xing Kai with her. As the laughing sounds neared the door Xing Kai felt himself overcome with monumental fear and snapped back into attention.

The men walked past the door lying against the alley wall.

Xing Kai breathed a ragged sigh of relief, which one of the men heard.

Please no…I don’t want to die

One of the men walked back and noticed Lo Yanmei’s ponytail. Xing Kai’s heart beat felt painful and he wished it would just stop already.

“It’s a girl”

A man of around 50 years grabbed Lo Yanmei from her hair, not noticing Xing Kai in the dark. Lo Yanmei, in the instant she was pulled away screaming, looked at Xing Kai. A chill ran down his spine as he locked eyes with her.

Her small, bright eyes that were red from crying, changed between defeat, sadness, anger, and disappointment, to regret.

Lo Yanmei was pulled away by her ponytails, kicking and screaming but not once revealing Xing Kai, who was beside her only moments ago just watching her being taken away.

Xing Kai felt utterly relieved that he was not discovered, and loathed himself for thinking like that. He dug his nails into his legs as his heart felt such pain and disgust at himself.

She didn’t call my name…she saved me while endangering herself

“Looks like we've got a good one here, hahaha”

The men pulled her to a side of the square and pushed her down into a deeper pool of blood. Xing Kai moved his head around the burnt door and saw through the gap, as her clothes were torn off her back and she was grabbed by all 3 of the men together. They were not going to take turns.

He felt the world become quiet, as the crackling sounds of the fire and the screaming faded away.

“I...I ca-can’t...need to l-leave”

Xing Kai’s voice was so hoarse and rough that he could barely speak at all. He crawled out from behind the door and stumbled through the alley, on his shaky legs. He walked faster between the burnt homes, and then began sprinting through the flame lit alleys and ash covered herb gardens, stumbling and falling as he went.

Xing Kai wheezed and gasped as he ran straight out of his village. Fortunately he was not seen by any of the men who destroyed the village and he slipped away successfully. He ran through farmland wildly, eventually reaching the forest near his home. But he noticed the same red glow in the distance. Xing Kai ran even harder until…

He saw the home he lived in all his life burning.

What if my parents are already…

The little hen hutch he cleared every day, during the earliest hours of the morning. The tree in the back garden he climbed and swung from. The tool hut he hid in when he was smaller, when he used to play with his frien—

Immediately Xing Kai blinked his eyes hard and stopped the memories. All of it was on fire. Xing Kai pushed his way through the bushes near the forest edge but then stopped.

A hammer fell on his soul.

His heart clenched and twisted.

There were 4 men of varying ages. One was just over 20 years, while another was perhaps 30. The other 2 men were older and more towards the half century mark. The 20 year old had braided hair down to one side, while the 30 year old was missing most of his left ear. The two older men had grey hair and foul, fat faces like greedy pigs.

“N-no…no…no” croaked Xing Kai. His dark eyes watched with horror, as the savage men dragged his kind hearted, young mother around the burning home to the pig’s water trough. His father was brought as well, with his hands tied behind his back and with a ghastly, large wound on his head.

“Hey little weakling, we’ll be nice to you”

The men dropped Xing Kai’s father to his knees and made him face his crying wife. Xing Kai’s mother was being held by the youngest man, and she was on her knees. A blade was placed by her throat, by one of the pig faced men.

“Beg me to kill your wife” said the knife holding man. His mouth was twisted into a grin with sickening glee. The other men around them laughed in agreement.

“YOU COWARDLY BASTARDS, IF YOU HAVE ANY REAL STRENGTH AND HONOUR FIGHT ME” roared Xing Kai’s father all of a sudden, into the clear night.

Xing Kai felt a piercing chill run through his soul.

Dad don’t…you’ll get hurt…just beg for mercy

“As if the world works like that” said the man with the missing ear, as he sneered at Xing Kai’s father. He slapped him around the face brutally.

“Now listen carefully...” said the grinning man with the knife. He walked over to Xing Kai’s mother, and pushed his hands down the top of her dress. His mother's tears and stifled cries sent sharp pain through Xing Kai’s heart. He dropped to his knees, feeble and weak. He felt like his mind was breaking.

Xing Kai suddenly recalled painfully, how Zhang Lei and Gang Wei both ran immediately to their mothers, even when there were so many men there. Yet when Xing Kai thought about facing just 4 men, he trembled and just felt indescribable fear.

“YOU BASTARDS” roared Xing Kai’s father. He struggled furiously but couldn’t free himself.

“Leng stop it, that’s enough” cried Xing Kai’s mother. She shuddered from the man’s rough touch, and begged Xing Kai’s father to stop struggling. Her face was twisted with grief and but she held back her tears as best she could.

“Fei Fei NO” roared Xing Leng. He thrashed about wildly, using every bit of his strength to get closer to his wife. Xing Kai shook violently and uncontrollably, watching his mother being groped even more openly, as his father struggled. His father fiercely struggled, screaming and cursing, before Xing Kai’s eyes.

However Xing Kai’s mother kept begging him to stop.

“I...I’m so sorry, forgive me Fei Fei” cried Xing Leng suddenly in defeat. He bowed his head as he couldn’t bear to see

his wife molested by another man. “Do it” he muttered between sobs. His broken voice hurt Xing Kai so much that he simply couldn't breath anymore. He tightened his fists but fear held him so tightly in place that he could almost feel the hands that made him kneel and squeezed his heart.

“What did you say?” the man goaded. He slipped his hands down Xing Kai’s mothers back, as he squatted down to their eye level. “I want you to look at her as you say it.” The man's eyes were like a vulture eying a wounded animal.

Xing Kai felt his world dimming, his vision narrowing as he suffocated with fear. He could only see his mother's tortured, tearful appearance, and his father's broken, slumped body.

Mother no...no, please...somebody do something…why is nobody stopping this...

“I BEG YOU TO KILL MY WIFE” screamed Xing Leng. His sorrow-filled, insane howl rang out for miles, and completely embedded itself into Xing Kai’s mind. Xing Kai shivered down to the bone and whimpered soundlessly at his father’s broken appearance.

Why is nobody helping us? Why are they doing this to us?

The men grinned and shared a look of success. Like they had won a bet.

Suddenly the pig faced man lifted Xing Kai’s mother up and tore the clothes straight off of her. In an instant Xing Kai's and his father’s eyes were widened until they cracked at the corners and bled.

Xing Kai watched as his naked mother’s head was pushed into the pig’s water trough and the old man pushed himself into her. The water writhed as his mother thrashed about, and bubbles quickly rose up as his mother screamed into the water. She was being drowned and violated at this very moment, before Xing Kai’s eyes.

Xing Kai felt his heart seize.

The world around him darkened.

He collapsed to the side, as he faintly heard the haunting howl of his father, blood bursting out his mouth like a red spear into the fiery sky, as he was stabbed in the back by the men that held him.

Xing Kai saw his mother struggling against the men’s grip in the water. She was getting weaker and struggling less as she drowned, while the old man hammered into her with savage intensity, while roaring with laughter and pleasure into the burning sky.