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 don't know where the strength came from, but I ran as fast as I could. My destination was the other road that led to the trees. Surely I should find help there.

My heart was in my throat and I had nowhere else to run but I kept going. I was alone and no one was going to help me where I was headed but I kept going. I might even find myself coming back to where all these started, but I didn't give up.

As I ran, I could see up ahead that there was a girl dressed in a white vest but it wasn't a normal one. It looked like something from the past. An outdated outfit. I should have stopped but the horror surely coming behind me wouldn't turn back till it had my head sawed off my neck.

Suddenly, I felt my legs seize moving on their own.

"No!" I screamed as I made the mistake of turning back to check where my nemesis had reached. He was almost at me.

"Help! Help!" I whimpered turning back to check the person with the outdated dress was nowhere to be found.

Two of Us