Back to the village

Nicole~

Sunlight was warmly welcomed on my skin as I stepped out of the cave. Everything that happened in the cave seemed so distant, so foreign but it happened in a mere matter of minutes.

I had killed someone. Three people. My breathing slowly became raggedy and unsteady, I clutched my chest tightly, it felt like it was going to explode.

They're dead because of me.

I felt lightheaded as I tumbled around and all of a sudden, something moved up my throat. I crouched down and vomited onto the sandy ground, with tears falling down my eyes.

I had to stay strong, I couldn't waver. It was self defense, they wanted to kill me first, they tried to kill me first. In a daze, I rose to my feet and continued walking towards the direction of the village.

No, it's not my fault. It's not my fault I survived. I'm not a monster. I'm human. I killed them out of fear for my life. I didn't get satisfaction out of killing them. I didn't.

But I knew the truth, something else had come upon me the moment I got enveloped by that blue light. I lost control of all my emotions and there was a voice whispering to me to kill them. I felt absolutely no emotion but superiority at that moment, and the way I murdered them.

I felt a wave of nausea rush over me and I crouched down again to vomit. Yes, it was self defense but I enjoyed killing them more than I would have liked to admit. It was almost like the bloodshed made me ecstatic, it was an inhuman response. But I was human, I was not a cold hearted monster, I was human.

And these powers, these ice powers. Where did they come from? Why did they awaken at that moment? I had never heard of people having powers, the only time I ever saw ice was during winter, when everywhere would be covered in snow and the small lake in the center of the village would usually be frozen solid. But I could generate ice from the tip of my fingers.

I held my palm up and stared down at it, I tried generating a little block of ice on my palm but nothing happened. I had used those powers so easily back in the cave but now, nothing was happening. I tried expelling frost like I did when I created the wall of ice but still, nothing happened. I gave it a few more tries but when nothing came of it after a few more attempts, I gave up and continued my dazed walking.

I wondered if my dad would be happy to see me. I felt embarrassed, I had left him using the excuse of trying to save him when in reality I had just wanted to pursue my selfish dreams of leaving the island and now I had lost both.

I hoped he was safe. I did not know if I could pray or who to pray to because I was not even sure if the goddess existed. After what seemed like an eternity of walking though the forest path, the village was in view. I heaved a sigh of relief as I walked faster, almost running to the direction of my village.

When I reach the village, Trish will rush into my arms for a long embrace. When I turn the familiar corner, my house would be in view and my dad would be in the kitchen like he always was, preparing dinner. He would be surprised to see me but happy nonetheless, he would laugh and hug me, he would cry tears of joy. He would never let me go again and I would never separate from him ever again. We would be happy together once again. Forever.

Finally, I was at the edge of the village, just one step and I would be in the village, just one step and all my questions could be answered. But I couldn't take that one step, I felt like I was forgetting something important. Back in the cave, as I was crushing their bodies, I wanted answers, answers to why we were lied to and why we were led to dead, I wanted to know if our so called tradition was nothing but a well crafted lie or maybe it was a one time thing.

I wanted to know, my mom had been chosen years ago. I wanted to know if she was also made as a snack for that monster or if she actually is out venturing on behalf of the goddess, if there is a goddess.

I came back to check on my dad and to get answers, and to make the instigators of this tradition pay, to make everyone that was involved in the incident pay. And to do that, I needed answers from the wisest and most trusted person in the village, the village chief.

But before that, my dad came first, I was not going to leave him hanging a second time, I absolutely could not do that. With determination, I stepped into the village and made my way to my house.

In the back of my mind, I had not actually expected to see him, not after what happened at the isolation center. I knew they were not going to let him go easily, not even if I was a chosen. I knew but still I made the decision to enter the cave, I made the decision to desert him.

The house was empty but full of furniture and a warm radiance that made me feel warm. I was home but the person who made it home was not here. I did not want to jump to conclusions yet, maybe he went to the market. I knew he didn't though. I went to my neighbors to ask if they'd seen my dad around. They knew I had been chosen so they were quite taken aback when they saw me but they denied seeing my dad since the previous evening when he left abruptly.

I was about to leave when one of them asked a question.

"Did you reject the goddess's call?" I could hear the mocking tone in her voice. They knew what it meant to 'reject the goddess call'.

If only they knew.

"There is no goddess." I said and left them exchanging glances and trying to hold in their laughter. In their minds, they thought I was foolish, why else would I be back on the island if I didn't reject the goddess. They thought I would die in seven days, they thought that decision itself was stupid to make.

Which made me start to wonder, why do those people who reject the 'goddess's call' die without fail in seven days. I pushed the thought at the back of my mind, I needed to find my dad before anything else.

The island had a small holding center where petty criminals were kept, I assumed that was where my dad was being held captive so I found myself going to the direction of the holding center. It was already getting late and I was tired and exhausted from the day's stress but I had to keep going. The village was not particularly big so I was able to get to the holding center in a few minutes. The guards that were usually stationed there were not at their posts so it was easy to get in, I was right. He was there but his back was turned to me, he didn't notice me.

The first thing I noticed were his handcuffed hands, the helpless sillouette of his body, lying on the cold cemented floor, his back was scarred, it looked like he had been beaten. My heart hurt while looking at him, all caged up.

He still hadn't noticed me.

"Dad." My voice was low, my brows were furrowed. He flinched and then quickly turned to look at me, his eyes lit up with happiness, and it was like looking at me made all his worries disappear. He rushed to the iron bars, I moved closer and he cupped my face, tears streaming down his eyes.

He was smiling, his eyes were smiling, but his expression, his expression said something different. He looked sad, relieved.

"My baby." His voice was weak but filled with emotion, he was happy to see me, he was relieved to see me. "You're alive."

"I'm alive, dad." I held his arms and let tears fall freely from my eyes as we embraced each other, with the iron prison bars in between our father daughter reunion.

He broke off the hug and turned me to check if I was injured or bruised but apart from the torn cloth, I was completely fine. He pulled me back in for another deep hug as soon as he was done assessing me and after minutes of not breaking contact, he let me go.

"You knew, didn't you?" I finally asked him, it made sense, the reason he broke all the island rules to get to me that night was because he knew. He nodded, confirming my suspicions.

"How long?" I asked. "How long have you known?"

He took a deep breath, "I found went over to you the moment I found out."

"And how did you find out?"

"Your mom told me."