"There are two druthers in a war, Run It or Ruin It"
A devilish smile is on her face like she has been to the underworld and she is well aware of the fact that she was the dictator there too. Her lips are stained blood-red and a ferocious third-eye resides on her forehead alongside the dilated sapphire pupils. Her body is smeared inky like the dim-lit night sky and her rage is furiously depicted through her thick-lashed eyes. In the midst of destruction, there she is with the sky a boiling potion of witch and the ground drenched with rivers of blood oozing from the deceased. There she is, covering her breast with the garland of skull and a skirt of ruthless hands cover her bottom. She screams like the eruption of a volcano and flinches a three-edged sword towards you. Before the hurling sword can thrust, eyes shut out!
*****
In terror, cold sweat drenched the forehead of the young lady - Hazel Erso, who in her nightgown on her bed, gasping with sudden fright by the nightmare she has vision. She could not understand it to a point of belief. Yet, the dream had managed to terrify her to the roots. The book she never admired has open the last page of its life for her.
"Why are you not asleep, yet?", asked her father who had seen her through the window of her room. The outside is dimly lighted and why it won't be, it is the middle of night. She pulled over her blanket,
"Nothing, my throat got dried", she rubbed her throat and it really was dry that her voice become cracky and kinky.
"Fine, but don't stay up late, okay? If your eyes are darkened, you won't find a good groom", he advised and her daughter nodded awkwardly being occupied by the peculiar dream. Her father went on his own way to his room and once hearing the door shut, she sprinted out of her own room and dashed to the kitchen, nearly dabbing her head against the door.
She gave herself a leisure of water and then peeking around like a thief, she jumped off the window over the utensils that reflected the perfect moon being swallowed by the foggy upset clouds. She dashed out without shoes on the barren sandy soil. It was a crystal night for the benefit of the full moon but constantly obstructed by the gloom that is nurtured by the futile tries of clouds to engulf the moon.
She hitches up her gown and straddle even faster before approaching a wooden house similar to her own. Not knocking the door but peeking through the window, she spots someone sleeping. It is Reshep, her childhood friend whom she seeks in her trouble time. She grabs a stone and flinches it on her hands before climbing to the window blocked by iron bars and closing her eye and like an eagle, dashed the sharply edged stone straight at the forehead of Reshep. With the outrageously agonizing groan of Reshep, once the stone has hit him, Hazel learnt that she should have picked a smaller one instead! Rubbing his forehead, he spotted Hazel through the window and beside her the full moon. To Reshep, the moon was shameless to stand against her beauty. Suddenly, the door to his room flinches and enters his worried and hurried parents.
"Are you okay?", his father enquired, worried to hell.
"Why did you shout?", asked her mother, placing her hands to her heart.
Luckily, Hazel had slipped down the moment the door flinched and her parents were only to soothe by the blooming of moonshine and the baggy explanation of their son who is covering his wounded forehead idiotically,
"Nothing... just a bug!?", he stammered but his parents believed him because this was not the first time. This is an occasional act for them to witness.
"Fine, sleep well or you won't be able to chop the woods", his father, a little frustrated went outside the room.
"Make sure to you don't spend the whole night with her", Reshep's mother taunted sweetly, knowing that he is to visit Hazel.
But he had not known of it and his eyes swelled with confusion, "But how did...?" before he could complete, his mother gave him a soothing smile that silenced him.
"I am mother, I know everything", she stated and then through the drape of the door, his fathers head peeked out, "If mothers know everything then do fathers are run by bullock-carts?", he questioned mockingly and then gave him a smile, which was rather terrifying to Reshep on his wide face.
"When are you going to propose her?", his father asked him.
"None of your business", he gas-filled his cheeks and folded his arms with a frown dangling on his forehead. His parents chuckled silently and went outside muttering to themselves,
"He is just like you", his mother stated to which his father was astonished and asked loudly, "How it can be?"
"Well, you took five years to propose me, that too when you were drunk..." their noisy chattering fades and Reshep walks out through the door of his house. When he shuts the door behind, she founds Hazel on a small rock glaring the moon. Her back his facing him, drenched in murk and her hair softly flung by the tender breeze. He walked to her peacefully uncovering his forehead, now swollen like a baby tomato. Sitting next to her in his down button white shirt and brown pent matched with high boots and a green rope around his waist, he looked at her in eyes. Hazel flipped her head to face him, to her horror, greatly surprised by the tumour on his forehead,
"What the fancy are you wearing on?", she inquired rather horridly.
He rubbed the wound softly and calmly threw a sarcastic reply, "Just your present"
"My present?", she was puzzled but then abruptly realised that it was the stone that hit his forehead,
"Oh, look at the full moon. It's milky white!", she stammered and pointed to the sky absentmindedly trying to drift the topic off with sunken ships. He rolled out his hand and altered her hand to where the moon is hinged on the sky that to which she grinned spookily.
"Spot calling me on night, K?"
She hang down her head to the cliff in farther distance. After an endless paused, she silently nodded.
"You are a demon", he commented coldly and turned to gaze the few stars in the sky. He was frustrated for hitting him on the forehead and now being silent. If he missed his precious sleep, he would be sleepy whilst chopping the woods.
"Indeed", she added to his statement which felt odd to Reshep.
"What's wrong?", he asked her with concern sprouting on her face.
"Remember", she said with a dim mood and her gaze on the ground, "The book of Judgment?"
Reshep crossed his arms behind his head, "Yes, the picture book with images of deadly woman"
"Yes. I had a dream of a woman or more like a devil. She was similar to the one I had seen on the last page of that book"
"Really?", he asked gazing on her with concern, "Then spot reading bullshit. You better learn the etiquettes of a lady to find a good groom", he advised her. For a lady in Cordonia, the biggest aim of life is to get married to a wealthy husband that would let her live a peaceful life. But Hazel is one of the subtle rebellions but as of her condition now, her shoulders are shrugged with perplexing emotions.
"Listen," he placed his palm on her shoulder, "Don't give in some darn dream, okay?", there was a joy on his face which he wanted to infect Hazel too, but to his astonishment - It Did No making his face shrunk like a roasted eggplant.
"I want to reread that book", she put her heart out and causes Reshep's jaw to half flung out.
"Like in the morning?" he asked, hoping not for a dreadful demand.
She shook her head, "Now!" and stood up. To this, Reshep stood up too with a clenched fist and gritted teeth,
"You are gonna get us in jail for trespassing the great library at midnight and besides you have to select a groom tomorrow!", he shook her shoulders to awake her but she slapped her hands and brutally stated,
"If you want to come, then come. If not, then put your lazy ass to sleep", she moodily dashed out her tongue and mocked him, before straddling away barefoot.
Reshep sighed in disappointment, with his shoulder once high as tides and then low as coastal waters, "What a demon...