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

Dark clouds had crept into the sky. A storm was coming. The end was coming for me.

I turned the boat with the steering as I ended the call. I was returning to Zula. I started the engine again and like a curse it started. I had been trying to start it since it refused but now that I had decided to go back it accepted to start.

The boat rowed gently and steadily until I was brought back to the beach.

On the way, I let my mind remain blank. There was no point in talking too much or thinking too much about myself. I had to do this for my family. I had to do it for those who believed there could be a better future for Aromes. I had to do it.

There really could be a better future for Aromes. If the people that I would be saving could speak to Zula and maybe find a way to stop this ritual once and for all. I couldn't imagine another girl going through what I had gone through and what I would still go through.

Xena: The End