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

"Xena!" He choked and I stopped trying to turn the steering and dropped to my knees.

"Rema, what is it?" I screamed with a shaky voice. My entire body was on edge. This was a nightmare in the real sense of it.

I reached for his right cheek and held him. He was burning hot. He leaned into my hand and he looked like he was struggling to say something but he couldn't. I swallowed my silent sobs and sniffed. "Rema, what's wrong?"

"My chest is burning." He managed to breath out.

It was like a lightning had gone ablaze in my chest. I felt empty but I refused to break. I had to be strong for him.

My hands went to his shirt and just on impact, it was certainly hot. He was indeed burning.

I tore the shirt open as I couldn't even consider taking it over his head but the sight of what was beneath his t-shirt brought tears to my eyes.

I shrank back in shock as tears filled my eyes.

Xena: Broken