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 could hear Xena's screams from the store where I had been searching if I would see any weapon. A bat, gun or anything at all that I could use to protect her with.

My heart pricked and I ran out of the store as the thumping of my heart resonated above her screams. I couldn't begin to imagine what might have happened. I only knew one thing, I would never forgive myself if anything happened to her. She had totally refused to come here but I had led her here still. Now she was screaming.

I got to the parlour and I was about to take the stairs when I saw her dress flash to the ground. My heart reached my throat as I feared she might have collapsed. But as I took the bend to the kitchen where she was —in fact standing, I couldn't get through.

"What the heck!" I cussed as I tried to push past the barrier I couldn't even see.

"Xena!" I screamed at her but she didn't even move a muscle in my direction.

Rema: The Dead Body