My whole life I'd been told stories about my family, about how my father was lost in battle a few months after I was born, about how my mother had to take extra job hours in order for me and my brothers to stay alive, and how my father became a legend for the village after his tragic disappearance.
However, the story I heard most of all was about my older brother, Karl. I had always been told that he had been given the great honor of crewman, how he was forcefully taken from my mother and how my mother had wept in protest. People have been reminding me of my brother's heroic sacrifice ever since he disappeared. I was only six at the time, but I remember it quite well.
It was a warm summer morning on Karl's thirteenth birthday. It was on that day that he received his assignment. I remember my oldest brother, Henry, helping my mother with breakfast and getting our little house ready for the leader, who was coming later that day to have his talk with Karl. I remember the wonderful smell of the fresh bread which had just come out of the oven, the sound of my mother, quietly chopping up the warm, sun-kissed strawberries she had been growing in our little green garden. I also remember Karl anxiously bombarding Henry with question after question, and Henry answering each one with an exhausted smile plastered on his face. Henry and Mother kept glancing at each other with every passing minute, their nerves slowly growing despite their cheerful expressions. Karl wasn't nervous at all; he was actually quite excited unlike Henry was on his big day. Karl came into the living room where I had been waiting, a huge grin spread on his face. He sat beside me on the floor, brushing his dirty-blonde hair out of his eyes. "Hey, kiddo," he whispered, "Shall we play?" I grinned at my brother, nodding vigorously. Karl and I have kept many a secret from Mother, Henry and Chief. None, however, were as big or important as our 'Second Sight.' 'Second Sight' was what we called our gift; you see, Karl and I shared a rare and special ability: we were able to transport ourselves into other people's minds and see what they hear, smell, feel, See and taste. We could hear their thoughts like whispers in our ears and we were also able to transmit telepathic messages from great distance to the person of whom we were thinking. Most of the time, we would have long conversations without even opening our mouths!
Karl and I would always have great fun with our secret. Karl always said we should control ourselves and never let anyone find out we had these powers. Karl's powers eventually began to fade. Mine, however, are still just as strong as they were when I first discovered them.
As that fateful afternoon approached, my mother and Henry grew more and more nervous, both anxiously pacing to and fro in our little living room. Then we heard it. A faint, rhythmic knock on the little wooden door. Karl froze, his large mischievous grin fading into a small grimace, "mum I'm scared." He had whispered.
"Don't be." Henry then replied.
"May I come in?" A soft, masculine voice had asked. Karl, wide eyed with fear, opened the door.
"Hello, Father, I am ready for my assignment." Karl managed to whisper. The old man smiled, he was a friendly man, always smiling and treating his people with kindness and love. "Karl, if I know you correctly, you are one of the bravest young men in the village." Was the first thing he had said. Karl nodded, and just for a moment, his large grin had reappeared. Karl was one of the only boys in the village who knew what terrible creatures lived beyond the forest border, as he was one of the only ones brave enough to go there. "Yes, sir, I suppose I am. But what does that have to do with anything?" He had asked, concerned. The elder nodded, "Then I have chosen correctly."
I remember my poor mother, her grey eyes widening at the realization, and her rosy lips beginning to tremble I remember her turning to Henry, who looked at Karl with such pity, grimacing. I remember Karl, confused, looking from Henry to Mother, his breath quickening and his entire body quaking, not fully aware of what horrible fate had awaited him. Mother wept for a reassignment for Karl. She and Henry both immediately knew that those words meant that Karl was chosen as one of the few who took canoes up the river to find other tribes, fight off the Water Weevils and ween off the magic that lay upon the darkest parts of the jungle. Henry and Mother knew that it was a journey from which most people never return.
"No, NO! Please, no!" My mother had screamed, falling to her knees at Chief's feet. Giant tears began welling in Karl's blue eyes and he began breathing even more heavily, "Mother?" Karl mumbled. Tears began falling down mother's rosy cheeks. "No! I won't let you!" She had yelled.
"You've no choice," the leader said calmly, his expression unchanged, "you're going to have to."
"Mother, what is all this nonsense?" Henry demanded.
"Nonsense? I see no nonsense." Snapped the elder.
"Then what is going on?"
"Your brother was chosen, just like your father once was, to be crewman."
"But-he can't- he's only thirteen- just a boy- please!" Henry protested.
"Mama, I don't understand." I whispered, suddenly.
"I wouldn't expect you to, little one." My mother replied sadly, slowly stroking my head.
"Karl," said the elder, "you will leave day after tomorrow."
Ever since that day, that horrible, terrifying, fateful day, my gift had lost control; I could hear the voices everywhere, all day, taunting me about my brother.
He's the chosen one. The voices had told me that since the day he left, and since that day they wouldn't stop bothering me:
'My brother was the chosen one.'
Chosen for what?
'For a deed.'
What deed?
'He's a crewman.'
What does that mean?
'It means he is to die, fighting for our village. For justice.'
THAT'S A LIE!
'Oh, but it isn't.'
YES IT IS! THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT IT IS, A FILTHY DOWNRIGHT LIE!
'Think what you will, but you know the truth. You know his fate is to die'.
OH SHUT UP!
'I'm not lying. You know this.'
Leave me, LEAVE ME!
And they did. They left and didn't come back.
Not until now, nearly seven years later, my thirteenth birthday right around the corner. The voices started to come back, even worse, they sounded like his. What I'd previously always considered a gift and a blessing, I now only saw as a curse and a threat.
Little did I know…
Little did I know just how vital the voices would be. Little did I know that it would be these voices, my power, my curse, that would define not only my fate; that of the entire village would lie on my shoulders.