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 had just barely closed my eyes when I found myself in my house. I knew I was dreaming for I felt myself watching another Xena as she opened her eyes to a new day.

The strong pang of hunger hit her immediately. I realised that she hadn't eaten anything since the previous day. Suddenly we were one and I felt everything she felt.

I reluctantly dragged myself out of my room and down to the kitchen. I wasn't strong enough to make myself some real food so I opted for some pieces of bread and peanut butter as always. Pushing the dreadful feeling around me away.

This was just a bad dream. I would just eat and then go back to my horrible life. It was just funny that I was dreaming of my state. Weren't people supposed to dream of the future or the past? And by past, I mean long ago. Like maybe how this whole Zula thing came into existence.

Xena: My dream