Chapter Sixteen: "Failed mission"

Alex Mendoza.

(The year 1395, the year in which Alex must fulfill his mission to kill Karla)

I've heard stories of her, of when she takes control of her and Karla disappears. She in human eyes she is just a teenager, a girl with a subhuman beauty and an innocent look. The phrase that I have been hearing the most during this year has been that she seems from another world and more than one affirms that she receives jewelry and money from kings, soldiers; anyone who has seen her has wanted to win her heart in any way, although none have been successful.

I have traveled all over the world trying to find her because no matter how much information they gave me, they never knew exactly where she lived and my superiors did not want to help me any more than they have already done.

"Figure it out on your own, boy," more than one told me.

After an exhaustive search, I found the famous Spite Village. A village exclusively for those misguided of each of their species. In that village, you can find both ancient witches, vampires, and even some fallen angels. They are those who, due to any conflict they may have had, are no longer accepted by their peers and have been forced to seek refuge in the crowd. Many species have been in continuous confrontations for centuries, but in this village they are neutral. A vampire cannot fight a demon, no matter how much his own are. After all, they stopped being considered as such a long time ago.

As I am getting closer, I hear voices in the distance that alert others to the arrival of a foreigner, an intruder. I try to take cautious steps and be as silent as possible but it is quite complicated with the dry leaves that are scattered all over the place product of autumn. With each step I take the voices and steps become more nervous and I can decipher the occasional phrase.

"Who is it?"

"Does anyone know what species he belongs to?"

"His energy from him is unstable but intense and powerful."

"I'm afraid..."

"We will have to attack before he does."

"I have heard that the grim reaper is coming to exterminate us all for deserters, murderers, and for fraternizing with the enemy."

That last comment causes the already persistent nervousness in those inhabitants to intensify to unsustainable levels and some of them hide, lock themselves in their respective houses, I can hear the primitive locks closing, the doors slamming, and some who simply stay watching the show that is to come.

"I didn't come to hurt anyone!" "I try to calm the spirits of those who can hear me, and those who cannot, I etch it in their brains."I'm just like you. I'm looking for shelter and a good bed to spend the night in."

Even if I don't need any of those things...

When my eyes finally hit the village, the place is desolate, with no soul in sight. My shoulders sag in hopelessness and a long, heavy sigh leaves my lips.

I approach a bonfire that has not yet been extinguished and I trust that my actions will make them put aside the fear of the unknown and that they welcome me as one more. I will not be able to obtain information if I have no relationship with any of them if they turn their back on me or try to kill me for the same reason.

I bring my hands to the fire and pretend to warm them. I can't tell if the temperature is lower or higher than zero. It could be fifty degrees below zero and it would be a walk of roses for me. There is no one with whom I can compare the outfit and I do not know if I am too uncovered or too covered.

As a last hope I look around again in search of someone and shortly before I give up, a snow-white mane catches my attention. I frown and squint, hoping to see his face and make out what species it is. Her attire, from a distance, is not very helpful to me either. The only thing she is wearing is a simple yellowish corset and a skirt that falls in such a way that she dragged the leaves in her wake.

Her body is small and fragile but her gaze is the opposite. Purple eyes greet mine with excitement and irritation, which baffles me a bit. When she gets a little closer to my position, my body reacts on its own and gets up to receive hers. Her height is quite shorter than mine, but I feel smaller than her. Her magnetism dazzles and paralyzes me and the moment she takes a step towards me I am unable to move a finger.

"Aradia has told me what you're trying to do." She continues speaking to my silence. "I thought we could help you."

A genuine smile forms on her lips and leaves me totally disarmed.

"Try to focus on feeling like a human would." She holds up her hand until her fingers vaguely touch my arm. "Feel the warmth of my hand against yours, the contrast of the difference in temperature of both, the direction my fingers take, the intensity of the same. Try to figure out what shape I am drawing without the need to look at it. Now, look at the swaying of the leaves at the top of the tree. "

By sheer inertia, I look up at the sky and look up at the leaves above. Her body approaches mine and I stop noticing the contact of her skin against mine.

"Look at the direction they take, the intensity at which they move, listen to the sound they make when they collide with each other. And now close your eyes."

Her words are like orders to my body. At that very moment an alarm goes off in my head because I am no longer the one who controls my body, it is her. She decides what to do next and the feelings she provokes in me are so contradictory that they make me dizzy. My head is racing, trying to regain control, but my body feels relaxed, my heart beats slowly and calmly.

Her voice resounds in my ears and a chill that is as pleasant as it is painful runs through my entire body.

"Everything you just felt, my hand touching your body; what you have seen, the leaves move; and what you have heard, the sound of the same leaves colliding with each other. Now imagine all of that in your head at once. " Her voice drops a few decibels as if she's telling me a secret. "Imagine that my touch is the wind, the sound is the bonfire burning the remains of wood, and watch the fire burn to unite all that. My touch is cold compared to fire, the intensity it has when burning the wood is a thousand times greater than the effect of the wind on the leaves, the vision of seeing it burn is more beautiful and hypnotizing than what my voice does in your mind and body."

My gaze goes from observing the fire enraptured to her, to that contradictory, hypnotizing gaze. The effect of the power emanating from every pore of her skin is overwhelming and intoxicating.

"My name is Karla," she says, breaking any mental connection and smiling in the most innocent way I've seen in all the years I've been wandering the Earth.

And in a second those innocent purple eyes begin to change color and look at her. A celestial blue color replaces that lilac and in the whitish part of the eye, a blackness like a night without a full moon engulfs it completely. A smile that I had not seen in her forms on her lips and the voice with which she speaks again is no longer fine or calm.

"I'm Aradia." One of her eyes closes in a seductive and playful wink.

One of the two — I'm not quite sure which — holds out her hand and I stare at the softness of her pale skin. A surge of power fills my body and is responsible for my vocal cords working for the first time and my body coming to itself.

"I like it better that way," Aradia's voice whispers when she sees the changes she has brought about. " I want you receptive."

"I-I am Alex."

I respond to the handshake and a spark goes through me, turning into a chill that I am sure I will never forget.

"I hope to see you again, Alex."

I nod stupidly about everything I've felt and noticed in these five minutes, and they turn around and gracefully walk away from my position. I feel that whatever effect they may have had on me, it fades in time with her footsteps. I stare at her body moving away and the nostalgia for everything she has made me feel in a few minutes. I want to feel warm again, to decipher incoherent figures on my skin, to hear her whispering voice, to see those unique eyes. That little moment could have turned into years, decades, centuries, and it would have felt like the blink of an eye.