Lilian_Nkunga

"Kelvin... If I leave, Zula will kill everyone," I said in a shaky voice, before breaking down into sobs. I closed my eyes and allowed the tears to flow freely. If I were to leave, then my previous experiences would come to pass.

"What are you saying? You don't have to be a hero! Someone else can do that!" His voice was already rising. "I don't need a hero... I-I need my sister," he pleaded in a small broken voice. 

Hearing his pained voice shattered my bruising heart into a thousand pieces.

"I love you all," I managed to say.

"What? NO!" he screamed but I cut the connection.



***



A ritual has governed Aromes since its existence.

Every fifty years, the first born child of a family has to face Zula and die.

This year, Xena is chosen.

The morning after her eighteenth birthday, she wakes up to meet her home island devoid of all its inhabitants; including her family. She searches everywhere for all the people but she is unable to find them anywhere. The situation is hard for her to comprehend. At first, she thinks its a joke. She hopes its a prank. She refuses to believe that she has been abandoned. Until she finds the first dead body. The dead mutilated body of her father.

Then she starts hearing and seeing things that aren't meant to be. Horrifying screams, a manic creature, a cloaked figure that only comes when she takes off her glasses.

Only then, does she realize that there is no escape and her inevitable death patiently awaits her.

ALONE: Retold

Then he turned his face to me.

I flinched back at the horrific sight in front of me. My heart shook in its cage and I felt like crying at the pain of disappointment that ate at my insides.

The person in front of me had empty holes in the sockets that should have held his eyes. But that wasn't the horror.

The empty sockets were leaking dark substances and its face was morphed into a sad feature.

I took a step back and covered my mouth to swallow the sob that was threatening to escape due to all the pain I felt inside.

This was my captor's way of breaking me, and I fell for it.

I struggled to put my trembling body into control. I had to stay strong. I had seen everyone dead by now. Rema's image shouldn't break me like this. Fisting my hands, I took another step back and cleared my throat.

Pain of Disappointment