"Speaking of Orion, are you sure he is a normal person?"
In the middle of the tea time they were held, Alicia threw a question to Latina as they spoke. It's a normal question but, hard for Latina to answer.
"I don't know,"
"You don't know?"
Latina nodded and said, "Yes,...."
"When we met, his condition other than dehydration was not that bad,"
"He's lying down, looking at the sky as if he was waiting for his end,"
"When I brought him to this house, he was in a coma for about six months,"
"After that, without prying about my past or condition, we lived together,.... It's like an unspeakable rule for us that we do not ask or pry into each other circumstances, that's all," said Latina.
"But,...."
Deep inside, Alicia wants to know something about Orion but her words are stuck in her throat. Knowing the unspeakable rule that Latina mentioned, she can't muster herself to ask another question.
Before Alicia continue her sentence, Latina cuts in and said, "You want to know why he didn't get affected by our curses, right?"
Hearing that, Alica nodded. She's curious, and she wants to know why Orion didn't get affected by the curses. The curses that the witches has was affecting all of their surroundings. They can't break free and will be shackled to the cruel destiny that they have.
"The only thing that we can do was waiting until Orion decides to tell us himself,..."
"But, how about us?"
"When we will tell him about us?" Said, Alicia.
Latina went silent, she knows that someday she should tell him all of it. But, she doesn't want him to leave her. For Latina, Orion's presence saves her from this madness. Slowly, not only Latina but also Alicia, Orion is irreplaceable.
".....Someday, when the time comes,"
"Of course, I will tell him everything," said Latina.
She paused for a while and added her sentence, "You also know why I can't bring myself to tell him about it right?"
Hearing that, Alicia, with longing eyes, stares at her cup and looking at her reflection. Looking at that, even without Alicia's confirmation, Latina already knows the answer.
"Orion is not stupid either, I'm certain he noticed about our curse right now. Especially after that,...."
After that conversation ended, the two of them went silent. The two of them, until the very end only enjoyed the time they had in silence.
Inside the forest, Orion pulled the chart with ease toward his usual destination each month. But, there's something different this time. From afar, there's a black jet of smoke hovering in the sky. The source of that smoke was from the direction of the village that he usually visited.
"It's from the village,...."
"Is there a festival or something?"
A long time ago, Orion remembers there was such a custom where people burn their farm waste like hays before plowing the field. With such hope inside his heart, he pulled the chart. Following the pathway to the usual village. But when he got to the front of the village entrance, a burning smell reached his nose. A smell of burning flesh and blood filled the air. At this point, the positive thought of Orion has begun to crumble.
There are no more lively activities in this village. The only thing that could be heard was a sizzling sound of fire from afar.
Orion takes a small step, steadily entering the village from the front leaving his chart alone. He's walking, following his instinct that leads him toward the sizzling sounds. There's nothing inside, only empty houses without a single life in it. As if the village itself devours its people in silence.
Slowly, the stench of roasted meat gets stronger as he walks toward the open field. When he reached the source of the stench, he halted. His eyes widened, his heart palpitating so hard that makes Orion hard to breathe.
With one hand on his mouth, he's committed the contents of his stomach, "UOORGHHHGHH,..!"
He slumped down, making one of his hands support the body and the other one cover his mouth.
After a while, when he regained his composure he take a look at the scene in front of him. The scene of bodies that pilled up until reaching the roof of average house height in this village. Blood was splatted everywhere in front of the piled-up bodies, there were thirteen stakes stuck on the ground.
On the stakes, there's a body without a head, but at the end of its stake was a head stuck on the top. It was an old man, the old man that Orion knows, the one that greets him when he passed the field with a bright smile on his face. But now, the old man's body was separated from its head, the bright smile can't be seen anymore.
On the other one, there's a kid's upper half body, the kid that usually roams around when he visited. Now he's slumped lifelessly on the stake.
Half of the piled-up bodies were burned, and the corpse can't be identified anymore. With trembling feet, Orion walks passing all of that, witnessing all of this bizarre tragedy in front of him steadfastly. But, all of that crumble in a second. On the center of the stakes, there's one particular stake with pilled-up ash under it.
His heart raced fast for the second time. In his mind, he's hoping that one certain person is not here. He's hoping that she was safe and there's no her's here.
The body was tied up with chains, on its back around the stake. She was standing still, her head looking down at her feet. Orion takes a closer look and notices there's a bracelet on her hands. The bracelet of a whole cat as the pendulum.
"No,..."
He's slumped on his knees, looking up at the stake in front of him with moist eyes.
With a low voice, he muttered her name in front of the burned corpse, "Sarah,....."
It was in vain, his hope that all this time he holds now nowhere to be seen. The person he was laughing together a while ago was on the stakes, standing stiffly there unrecognisable. The white skin has nowhere to be seen, there are only charcoal-like crumbs lefts enveloping her whole body.
Orion was there, mourning the tragedy in front of his head. On this day, Orion retained his home and add one person that can be called family but, at the same time, he lost one other thing in his new life.