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

The cackles of the walkie-talkie long forgotten in my bag extracted me from my shock.

"Kelvin!" I whisper-yelled as I clutched the device to my ear.

"Xena! Xena, are you alright?" The sound of his voice awakened a smile on my face.

"Kelvin, I am fine. Where are you? Please come and get me. Zula will kill me!" I cried to the device.

"Zula will what? Why? Who is this Zula?" He asked I could imagine him frowning at the entire name.

"Zula is the spirit of the Ocean. She is very powerful. She is the spirit god of Aromes. I can't beat her but I can run. Please come get me out of here!" Tears were all over my face as I cried into the device. The whole situation was finally just getting to me. I would not be able to go on like this. Especially since I knew what exactly this Zula wanted to do to me and what she was capable of. How could I even imagine standing up to a spirit when I am just ordinary?

Xena: Survival