Liz
A sharp crack split through the air. I jumped. For a fleeting second, I thought someone had dropped a crate or snapped a thick piece of lumber in half. Then it came again. And again. Crack. The sound echoed through the marketplace, followed by a cry that made every hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
The smile slowly slipped from my face. The joy I felt just a moment ago when I was handed the bag from my very first purchase ever had faded away faster than I could blink. I looked toward the center of the town square where the sound had come from. People were beginning to drift that way. Some hurried. Some merely glanced over before returning to whatever they had been doing.
A merchant continued arranging apples into neat little stacks as though he hadn't heard anything at all
