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

(ON A DIFFERENT ISLAND)

"It doesn't make any sense Dad! You can't keep her there! You are supposed to protect her and not abandon her!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. "I will get out of here and I will go to her! I will do what you are too scared to do!"

"You do not know what you are saying. You have lost your mind from the dose given unto you and until you behave accordingly, you won't leave this cell!" My father, the mayor said in a loud but firm voice. He wanted to make me scared so I could forget about my plans but he was wrong, nothing he would do or say to me would make me change my mind.

He walked away from me immediately and I could hear the sounds of his shoes on the floor fade far away from me.

I considered screaming but that would be of no use. I had done a lot of that already and nothing changed. I needed to keep my strength and find a way to get the hell out of here so I could go safe Xena.

The Rest of the Town