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

I felt the rays of the sun on my face and my eyes stirred open. I looked around me trying to figure out where I was. I was no longer in a world with strange colors, I was back on the island.

I was by the beach, on the ground. The trees hovering above me were whispering incoherent words as the winds blew against it. I tried to listen to them but nothing meaningful came to me.

Suddenly, I remembered where Zula had taken me. She took me to see her older victims. She wanted me to see how they had failed. She was trying to tell me that I would fail too. But she was wrong. I would not fail. I wasn't Harley! I would not let Zula's torture break me. I am not selfish! I would rather kill myself before thinking or killing someone else.

I felt a cold breeze sweep pass me and my heart skipped a beat. There was evil lurking around. The sky darkened. It was like a strong rain was going to fall.

Stuck In Time