"Well, then you, little Shasha, where is your home? I bet you aren't from here as your clothes are absolutely different from us!" I heard Rion saying that to me and then....!
Booooooohhmh!
After that I couldn't hear anything!
I felt like someone was choking by my neck at that moment and I couldn't utter a single word.
Just like how sand under my feet would leave the salty water in the sea beaches, I felt like the ground was leaving my feet too.
I wanted to lift my legs up and start to run, but I couldn't! I felt like a magnetic force was keeping me at that place which was slowly cracking and soon would engulf me...
Home?
My Home?
Where is it?
I was prepared for many questions to be asked like where did you come from? Why do you wear this type of clothes? Why are not being protected by a Shan or your tribes?....
Just like how the female lead was questioned in the novel.
But never in my wildest dream did I imagine they would ask where is my home?
I felt my eyes were burning along with the skin of my body, along with my heart... Soon I felt wetness on my cheeks.
I subconsciously moved my hands on my cheeks and felt my tears. It brought a little relief to my eyes and heart.
Soon many tears flowed down and I felt a sudden warmth enveloping me.
I looked up and met the hazel eyes of the woman from earlier. She was hugging me and patting me while saying something but I didn't know what was it.
I felt something cool near my lips. I turned to the side and saw Kyle was holding a coconut shell. There was some water in it for which I felt the coolness from earlier.
I drank that water which he fed me as I closed my eyes.
While drinking, I had observed from the corner of my eyes that all of them were looking at me with concern. There wasn't a single pair of eyes that looked at me suspiciously. Even though I felt a little warmth inside me, I wasn't comfortable with these kind of eyes.
I was immune to those mocking and judging eyes filled with curiosity of me.
So when I opened my eyes again and was about to say something, I was cut of by Lisa, "You should take rest, dear Shasha. It's okay if you don't say anything at the moment. It must have been hard for you!"
I also heard Simon's voice from above, "Cub, you should take some rest first. Everything else can wait! Since you're already in our tribe, you'll protect you! No one can harm you here."
"Yes, yes!" I heard Kyle's concern filled voice from my side.
"Just keep yourself warm and safe. Those who have harmed you will surely pay for this!"
"You just get better first! Health is the first priority!"
All of them were coaxing me in their most gentle voices, and as one of the readers of the novel, I know how difficult and awkward was it for them to use that voice, as the males here don't coax anyone other than their woman.
For the first time in my life, I was treated with such gentleness. And I didn't know how they came up with this idea that I was attacked and all, I decided to come clean. As in the future, if I show some unnatural things to them, they might get suspicious of me and could even misunderstand me.
A certain part in my body didn't want for that future to come. It didn't want me to lose this warmth... ever.
So, when I felt that Lisa was about to break that hug and would leave soon, I held her nearer hand.
"I-I want to tell you a li-little about m-me. I ha-have been living alone for mo-more than te-ten years now. My fa-family, my home.... I-I"
I couldn't finish it as I felt that the heavy feeling that I was struggling with a moment ago took over me, as I only saw everything white... then dark grey .... and then everything became black.
*********
((Third person's POV))
"Today I'm going to give them a big surprise. Oh! I'm so excited to see how they all will react!" A sweet voice of a young girl was heard near the facade of a two storeyed house. The girl looked around the age of 14 and 15.
Despite that, her facial features appeared to be much more matured than her age. Her jawline was sharp, her eyes were speaking of maturity and how she was carryinh those tons of things in her thin hands, one could easily tell she's much stronger, even stronger than those men out there.
And her height was already 5'3". Only by her voice, her actual age could be told and the way she's so excited, she's now truly giving out the vibe of a teenage girl.
She took long steps towards the house, by easily carrying those things. She entered the ground floor after unlocking the door with the keys in hand and placed her shoes at the corner. She took careful, silent steps while climbing up the stairs.
Soon she reached the door on the first floor and was about to knock on it, when she heard a woman's angry voice. It was dripping of venom and thorns that directly stroke her in the heart.
"What? Don't you believe me? Then go and look into her room. There are tons of expensive things lying there. Where did she get them all if she's not fooling around?"
The little girl felt like she was thunderstricken at that momemt as a small, terrified whisper came out from her mouth, "Mom?"
Followed by that woman's voice was another woman's voice that appeared a little aged, "Hmph! What a burden! She might have already threw dirt on us, on our family by now! What a shameless wh*re! She must have been unsatisfied with the little money that we gave!"
"Grandma?" A whisper filled with sadness and pain came out from the little girls's mouth who was shaking outside the room now where the discussion was happening.
"I had told you to leave her in hospital at that time, but you all didn't listen! Now pay the price! What else?" An angry roar of an elderly person was heard followed by a heavy sound of a thick stick hitting the floor.
"Grandpa? You too? Didn't you use to protect me from their scoldings? How could you too....?" The little girl outside the room was covering her mouth now with a hand while her eyes had long started to shed the tears. The things from earlier were still intact in her grip of the hands, which showed her true strength of power. But her heart was stabbed repeatedly at the moment that it had long gone weak.
"Well, I had even told this woman to abort it long ago... we didn't need a burden with us right after the test results. But she kept it in fear of committing a crime. What else-"
"Dad-"
A man's voice was heard which was cut in the middle with a youth's angry voice.
But the girl outside was completely broken with repeated stabs. She silently placed the things in her grip near the door and turned around. She started to walk out and as soon as she was out of the house, she started to run, not knowing where but she started to run.
Run away from all of these!
Run away from this unbearable pain!
And then a motorbike that was coming from a corner hit her, making her passed out on the spot....
*********
"No!" I screamed out loudly in fear as I woke up from that nightmare.
That nightmare... that nightmare that I had almost forgotten....
The nightmare... which was once a reality....
My reality.
I felt a warm embrace on my body as I looked up and saw Kyle's worried face. I hugged him back... tighter.
I.... I didn't want to be alone... right now.
Those memories... those nightmares... they were haunting me now...
"I don't want to be alone. Can you hug me for some time..... please?"