Tears of Leyden Read Online Free

throw him at the opposite wall and feel alarm fill my being as he hits it. He tries to rise from the ground but his palms slip against the dirt and his side once again meets the defeat of the floor. He tries but once again he fails.
    I sob in protest as they kick at his stomach and he rolls and grimaces, hugging himself and lying wounded and defeated on the ground.
    I see the Spaniards helping the one on the ground to his feet and want to spit at him, to beat at him; but I know my place here is lesser, and I know I have to keep my family above that.
    “Did they intrude your policy…?”
    “Are you alright?”
    “Where are the others…?”
    “Who started the fight…?”
    They all murmur questions to him. For a while, I think he is too beaten to direct his answer anywhere, but then he turns to me and, breathing hotly from his bloody mouth, points and indicates his surroundings. They turn to me and my family still standing out of the scene.
    I shake my head and feel myself repent, but I cannot speak…I must not speak…I see a couple men head for moeder and Meyleia. “No!”
    The one holding me suddenly jerks me out to face him, slapping me hard against my face and causing me to crumple to the ground. I hit it with a smack and the last thing I see is the man who had cornered me being lead out to the house with a limp and a bloodstained hand over his mouth. My head splits with an unreal pain and I close my eyes, feeling black envelope and pull me down into darkness. I pray to God for light. I feel someone picking me up and my vision starts to swirl back in. That’s when I hear it.
    I turn and see moeder and Meyleia being pulled apart and grabbed. Meyleia is crying and screaming for moeder and I hear moeder sobbing pleads and swears. I fight to get to them but I am weak and beaten. I hear the pot burning on the stove. I ignore all else but moeder and Meyleia. I swing and kick, hit and claw, but the one who holds me forces me back. I start to cry, sob like bloody murder.
    Then another blurry figure steps into the spinning room. I can’t hear anything over the blood pulsating in my ears. The man behind me is pulled aside and I nearly slam into the ground from my leaning position. When I process the liberty of my body, I use it to my advantage.
    I race to my family. I scoop Meyleia into my arms and bury my face in her small, warm neck in assurance that I am here, that I won’t let them take her, and that I won’t leave her. All too soon, however, my promises begin to break. I am grabbed.
    I revolt, backing into the far side of the kitchen knowing I am no match for the men around us. I hear another male voice amongst the rest of the commotion.
    “What happened…?”
    ……………………..
    “No…”
    ………………………………………………………….
    “Stop.”
    It comes soft at first, as though a gentle command.
    When no one follows it, it is less gentle.
    “Wait…stop! Stop now! Rest! I said NOW!!”
    The room falls quiet apart from Moeder’s shaking breaths and Meyleia’s delicate whimpers into my shoulder. I draw her in against me and she clings tight to my neck, her legs locked unbreakably around my waist.
    “They belong in the slums…”
    “Protestors…”
    “Pests…”
    “No…” comes the new voice.
    I groan out as they start to take Meyleia from me. I tremble out of rage and unbearable trepidation. I am forced to fall to the ground, taking her down with me and draping around her to protect her from their harmful touches. I am pulled to my feet and the floor scrapes at my dress at the knees. I fight to hold on.
    “I said let them go…” They continue. “I said leave them be! Don’t. Move. Her!”
    They all stop. So do I. Meyleia half between my arms and the rough hands of the men surrounding us.
    “Nadeje…she’s in fault for this…”
    The young combatant raises his hand in a signal of silence and the one informing him stops abruptly.
    I shake my head and pull back