"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..."
Two infants cried as they heard their mother's desperate voice. The woman's tears fell on the infants' faces as she embraced them both tightly.
The flames surrounding their house worsened by the second, making the woman look around for possible exits for their escape.
"Where are you, you damned woman!?"
When the woman heard the angry voice of the man who vowed to kill her, she panicked, her eyes watering as she looked at the unconscious man beside her. She cried once more as she put her babies down and held the face of the unconscious man.
"What am I going to do?" she whispered as she looked at her crying babies once more, unsure of what to do.
The woman heard faint footsteps and she slowly looked back, with a fierce expression on her face replacing the distressed one. She wanted to put up a brave front in order for her to mask her cowardice.
The woman in ragged clothes looked at the man condescendingly. Upon inspecting the man's face, his flesh was already showing due to the burns he got from the fire.
"Go away!" the woman said sharply, but the man just shook his head then looked at her like she had said something stupid.
The man laughed evilly then he aggressively kicked the woman in front of him, making her cough out blood. The old man bent slowly, grabbing the woman by the hair, making her face him head-on.
"What are you going to do? You betrayed me!"
There was sarcasm and anger in the man's voice. Despite feeling pain and sorrow, the woman spat on the old man's face. The old man released the woman's hair and gave her a hard punch on the face, making her lie on the ground.
He was ruthless. Merciless.
"Do you want to lose everything!?"
The man pointed at the crying infants, ready for an attack as he held the handle of his sword tightly. The woman's motherly instinct kicked in as she sensed danger coming from the enemy. She stood up and went in front of her babies, protecting them.
"No, stop! What more do you want?!"
Hearing the desperation and fear in the woman's voice, the man let out a menacing laugh as he walked slowly towards the unconscious man, lying on the burning house's ground. He stepped on the man's chest, then stared at the woman with angry eyes.
"Choose between them... as you did with us."
The eyes of the woman widened in horror.
"What!? H-how could you let me do this?"
The woman cried once more as she took her crying infants in her arms. She embraced them tightly, scared that the mad man might kill them.
"No... how could YOU do this to me?" the man said, disdain and rage etched in his voice. He tightly held his sword and he pointed at her, then back at the unconscious man he was stepping on. "Choose someone to kill as a sacrifice... and I'll spare whoever you chose. Him, or your children?"
The woman could no longer control her tears. She wailed as she embraced her babies tightly, looking at the unconscious man on the ground.
"Well!?"
The man's voice roared inside the burning house, forcing the woman to rush to a decision. The woman looked at her two beautiful babies, then back at the unconscious man. Her heart started beating uncontrollably fast as she found it difficult to choose.
The woman slowly put the infants down and stood up, facing the man. She approached the man then she slowly got the sword from his hand. She had already decided who to sacrifice.
The woman walked hesitantly, stopping in between the unconscious man and the two crying infants who now find it difficult to breathe because of the smoke. Tears escaped from the woman's eyes once more as she rose the sword shakily, ready for a deathly strike.
"It has to be done," the man reminded her and the woman closed her eyes for a moment.
"Ha!"
Overcoming her uncertainty and her woe, the babies were silenced in one strike. The blood of the babies pooled on the ground, making the woman succumb to her knees and drop the sword.
With shaking hands, the woman held their bodies one last time as she closed her eyes shut, feeling heartbroken to have chosen their deaths. With despair and at the same time determination, she looked at her babies one last time.
"Wait for me... I'm sorry."
***
"Ah!"
The red-haired girl fell from her bed, waking her up from her nightmare. She panted as she sat on her bed, calming herself down.
She clutched on to her chest, feeling every heartbeat as she felt fear. Soon after, the lamp on their bedside table lit up, giving their room some light.
"Aranea, what's wrong?"
Groggy, the blonde-haired girl approached her sister. She was rubbing her eyes as she waited for her twin sister to speak.
"Elenea... I had that dream again," Aranea answered and Elenea looked at her with concerned, worried eyes.
"I'm worried... you've been having that dream since your 15th birthday. It's been almost four years. We have to tell mom," Elenea suggested and Aranea just shook her head.
"Not now... tomorrow," Aranea whispered and her sister nodded.
"Now go back to sleep. It's three in the morning. We might wake mom up," Elenea whispered and Aranea agreed as she laid her head on the pillow. Elenea turned off the lamp but Aranea still stared at their ceiling.
'Why do I keep having that nightmare? It's so frustrating!'
Aranea sighed, feeling exasperated as she embraced her spare pillow tightly. Before she knew it, she had already drifted back to sleep.
However, the woman in her dream kept echoing her last statement inside Aranea's mind, giving her discomfort the whole night.
'Wait for me... I'm sorry.'
What could that mean and why was she dreaming about it since her 15th birthday?
As the girl grew up during those four years, it made her think that maybe the dream is telling her something.