Isolation

Nicole~

Three days before the cave incident

We were woken up by the soft playing of our traditional tunes, angelic voices could be heard at every corner of the room. The twenty of us were taken to the end of the island, where the isolation facility was located, this particular facility was close to the goddess's cave. We were all placed in a large room with ten beds at each side of the room.

Only women were allowed in the isolation facility and unchosen women, who we called failures, were the ones who ran the facility. We knew they were unchosen because the high priest specifically handpicked the women who would work at the facility and since the choosing was not age specific, they needed ways to know which woman would never be chosen in her lifetime.

Some of those unchosen women lived their lives in the village, at pointed fingers and shame, but some were chosen to be caretakers of the isolation center, to at least serve a purpose. Each of us were assigned a helper, mine came to my bed and helped me wear my slippers as I got out of bed.

"Follow me." She said with her head was bowed. I followed her as she led me out of the room, the other chosens were also led out of the room by thehr helpers. My helper was a young woman with a sullen expression on her face, she had red hair and green eyes. The tiny dots that spread across her face was known as freckles. It was rumored that freckled women were the most beautiful and the most holy so they were always bound to be chosen but to have someone like that in the isolation center was shameful. It was like the situation of the ugly duckling.

She led me to what looked like a dining hall and gestured for me to sit on a chair, I followed her every word and soon after, breakfast was served. Twenty women emerged from a door that I suspected led to the kitchen, they were all holding up a serving tray with covered plates. One of them dropped the tray on my table, she also had her head bowed. Once they had all dropped the trays, they left the room in an organized manner.

My helper served my meal and presented it on a small bowl on the table. The way everyone moved was so graceful and elegant that I was overwhelmed, I did not want to seem like an uncultured swine and this kind of classy attitude was not really something that was done in the village, it was a foreign behavior to me. In an attempt to mimic their gracious style, I spilled soup on my white nightgown.

I looked at the other chosens and while some also tried to mimic the classy behavior of the helpers and the servers, others just decided to be themselves and eat however they could. After all, it was just food. I let go of the mimicking idea and enjoyed my breakfast. It was porridge soup.

After breakfast, the helpers escorted us to a huge inbuilt bath. There was steam everywhere in the room and the water looked warm and comfortable. It was my first time seeing something like that. Back in the village, water was boiled on the stove and mixed with some room temperature water before baths could be had but this inbuilt bath was hot on a steady, without the need to boil water on stove. And it was very large, large enough for the forty of us to enter there would still be room for more.

My helper wanted to help undress me but I clutched my clothes tightly to my body. She was going to undress me? There? In front of everyone? I felt shy and embarrassed, I didn't want everyone to see me naked and some other girls shared my sentiments.

"You have to be pure before you go meet the goddess. This step is necessary." My helper said, not once meeting my eyes.

I took a deep breath and stretched out my arms, giving her permission to undress me which she did with gentle touches of her fingers. Once I was undressed, she led me to the water and I took a soak in the comfortable and relaxing water. She washed me as I was in the bath and once she was done, she led me out and tied a towel around me.

"Is this what we're going to do for the three days we'll stay here?" I asked her as she went through a series of robes for me to wear but she didn't answer. She decided on a robe and helped dress me. I thought she didn't hear what I asked the first time.

"How does the goddess choose people that would serve her? Do you know what kinds of tasks she would give? What are we doing once we get to the outside world?"

Still no response, I guessed she was not one to speak leisurely but I thought she would know some things since she worked so close to chosens.

I was taken back to the bedroom, some chosens had already gotten there, I went to my bed and laid down to sleep since talking to other candidates was a taboo.

To meet the goddess, you have to be the purest form of yourself.

That was the teaching I was given, so the bath seemed reasonable. They were washing out our impurities or something like that but the next event was kind of absurd.

Hours after lunch, just minutes before dinner, the helpers all came into the room each holding a cup, mine reached my bedside and offered the cup to me. I looked at the cup and discovered a red liquid that was a bit too sticky to be wine, it sort of looked like blood.

"The blood of the goddess. To wash away the impurities you have inside you." A woman announced, she was at the edge of the room, just behind the door. I recognized her as the woman who had come to my house the previous day to collect me.

Blood? They expected us to drink blood? How old was this blood? How did they keep manufacturing it?

Unless the goddess specifically gave them their blood every year during the festival, this whole situation would be disgusting. I raised up my hand as I needed answers.

"Go on, child." The woman said.

"How do you get the goddess's blood. And how fresh is it?" I asked and she frowned, some chosens laughed and my helper snorted, but like, in a demure way.

The woman did not answer me, she just looked at me with disdain like I asked some kind of abominable question.

"Drink and become pure." She said, completely ignoring question.

The chosens drank one by one, reluctantly. No one would be thrilled to drink blood, especially not blood that looked like it had a dozen bacteria in it. This thing was supposed to cleanse me of impurities but it looked like it would give me impurities.

I reluctantly gulped it down and afterwards, I felt like I was going to puke, it tasted like...well...blood but like in a bad way. The helper collected the cup from my hand and without a word, she and the other helpers left the room, along with the grumpy woman.

Soon it was time for dinner and the entire breakfast scenario repeated itself. It had been almost a day since we were brought to the isolation center and not one out of the twenty of us had attempted to speak to another chosen. I did not know why it was a taboo or how talking to our fellow chosens would make us impure but it was tradition and we could not fight tradition.

Later that night, I found myself laying in bed, dreaming about how the outside world would look like, how my mom would react to seeing me, how we would explore together, how we would come back home to visit dad and Trish, but in secret of course, how happy everyone would be. I even imagined that dad would want to leave the island but since it was forbidden for men to leave the island, I thought it would be only fair to sneak him out, and maybe Trish, if she decided to come with.

Such thoughts kept me company and I found solace in them. I fiddled with my nightgown as I yearned to have a walk. Staying put in one place was just not my style so I got up from my bed and walked towards the door. But before I could open the door, the lights were turned on and a roaring voice yelled, "STOP!"

I froze in my tracks and looked back to see that there was someone with us in the room, someone who was not a chosen. Someone who was probably kept there to keep watch over us, it was my first time noticing her.

"Trying to flee?" She asked. At this point, some chosens were already awake and while others were not sleeping at all, no one tried to intervene, understandably so, it was tradition. The rules of the isolation center was clear, do not talk to anyone, do not roam about, stay put in a place and have a gentle behavior at all times. But I literally just wanted to take a walk.

"I just wanted to stretch my legs. I'm sorry. I'll go back." I hurried back to my bed and covered my head with the sheets.

Shortly after, the lights went back off. The sikence was killing me.