It all happened really quick, as if in a dream. Alma wished it was a dream. But, when she saw her surrounding, she knew it was her new reality, the reality she never thought would hit her like a punched on her gut.
"What should I do now?"
Her own first thought surprised herself. In the moment where she thought she was broken into thousand pieces, there was a part of her that still intact, and was able to raise a realistic question.
She looked around. The moon and the stars had disappeared leaving room for the mighty Sun. An eagle flapped his wings, while soaring to the source of light and the thought on how the bird could be burned into dust if it gets higher and higher hit Alma. She did not caught up in her thought for too long. The Sun's rays slapped her skin, and when she really awoke, there was nothing but emptiness.
She closed her eyes. There was nothing but the darkness. But, that darkness held all her yesterdays. Instead of getting afraid by it, as she used to be, she kept her eyes closed, and for the first time in her life, she realized, the emptiness and the darkness is not a same thing. You can find emptiness even if you are surrounded by the bright light of the sun, and you can find the treasure of your heart in the darkness, when you were all alone.
"What should I do next?"
The question rang from the intact part of herself, the part that could never be broken : her soul. She knew there was something inside, but she did not know that it could have a voice so calm and tender. As the boat swung by the ocean waves, and the breeze of the salty air kissed her cheek, she said to herself that being here and now is enough.
"I would sit still, like a person would do. Then, I will cry for my father and my mother. After that, I will pray so their souls will have a a beautiful experience in the spirit world… Then, let's see where the boat takes us."
The memory of her hugging her mother lingered. The voice of her father rang on her ears. If she could turn back time, she would hugged her mother tighter and longer. She would tell her that she was the most beautiful woman on earth, and the best mother a daughter could ever had. She would listen to her father's lame joke, and laugh louder. But, she could not. She is only a human being, small and easily conquered by the storm.
She let herself fell into the deeper darkness. Maybe, just a maybe, her parents was still with her.
**
Eyes full of terror, dark blood coming out of noses, a living body that all of a sudden turning into a stone cold corpse, all these images was running around Yakota's head while he walked into the river. His feet stepped on a yellow grass because he took a shortcut. The faster he reached the river, the better it would be because he felt like death itself threatened him with an unussual dark thought about his own death. There was pictures in his head, he, himself, slowly felt into dizzyness, and fell to the ground, in his farm house. Alone. But it was a good picture compared to another scenario inside his mind. He could went back home without even care whether or not he got infected by the malicious witchcraft work that he believed spreading through the air, spent his days as ussual, and caused a terrible deaths for everyone in the family if he got infected.
But, what if he was not getting it. Sometimes, the black magic targeted very specific victim who counted as the enemies. As long as he could remember, he never had any problem with his own people The Kalima. But, so as other people who died!
The clear running water looks like crystal. The death branches of the trees nearby floating upon it. Far from Yakota's sight, there were young girls carried their basket full of clean clothes. He thought of Alma. Before she was born, a psychic told him that his baby would be a girl, and she would not live in Kalima, but in a new island where her offspring would help build a new civilization. He did not believe in prophecy. He believed that everyone could be whatever he or she worked to be. Besides, he, himself is a proof. He was born as a slave, but he worked hard until he got his own farm land.
"Even if you laughed at this old man, Yakota, what was written in the stars will be written in the stars. Who could climb up into the sky and rewrite it?"
The old man's sharp gazed and deep voice strikes his heart. At that time, his fears came alive. He understood that if her daughter got a very good husband, he did not have to worry. His wife, the only person who was not born in Kalima, had been surviving the cold harsh wind having a great life. But, if it happened, his heart would still be broken. No matter how good her daughter's life would be, she would still be his daughter, and he would miss her every single day.
"What if this is how the prophecy would be fulfilled…?"
Feeling trapped in his own anxiety, Yakota sinked his body into the water. He could feel all his emotions getting cleansed up immediately.
**
"Do not make any noise while we leave."
"Why dad?"
"People could wake up from their sleep, and smell something weird. They could do anything to make us stay. It will be really difficult to explain that I made this choice because I have feeling that there will be more deaths coming."
Karuna listened to the conversation while looked around the house. Every furnitures, every cracked in the wood wall, every cratch on the floor tell stories. And, she was forced to leave it all behind by the unseen hands called fate.