We buried the Emperor, his Empress, their five children, in a shallow mine shaft. Mud covered the cold bodies and snow covered the mud. The country knew they had gone but not where, not the details, and parents could tell their little children that the royals had gone on a long holiday. But we knew what we did. The Emperor deserved his dead, as did the Empress, even today I have no doubt of that, but the children and their servants did no wrong. Certainly not deserving of the things we did to them.
Natural to assume that the earth would keep their bodies and their secrets contained, but foolish. Acts evil as ours cannot pass through the world without disturbing it. There has to be consequences.
Come spring, we returned and found the mineshaft empty and the bodies gone. Looters or fanatics, we assumed. How wrong we were. For all of it.
It began with the Colonel. We found parts of him all over the camp. Following the tracks and blood trails, the murderers convened and walked together into the forest. There are many enemies of the revolution, but the details of the mud tracks were curious. Bare foot. Two adults, five children.
Paddy Dobson
31st October 2023
Suitably spooky 🎃