21
I opened my eyes. I was in a blank room. Pure white. The roof, the floor everything pure white. The room was totally empty with just three chairs in it. On one I was sitting and in front of me were Irena and Dad.
Déjà vu.
That's the first thing which came to my mind.
I was back here. Again. What was happening?
'The past dream about Ethan was not just an illusion? A dream. Why the hell am I back here?' I thought.
I pinched myself and it hurt. This was all real. All real, again.
'Dad, what's happening?' I shouted.
He remained silent. This was strange.
'Irena die we die?' tell me.
She was also mum. I kept calling them for a while and got no responses. All they did was look at me with blank faces.
I was confused. And trapped. I rushed towards them. But I just went through them. I tried again but the result was the same.
Are these two just holograms? What was happening here?
Then suddenly dad spoke.
'Son I don't have much time remaining. You will be seeing the truth shortly. Just promise me to watch till the end,' he said.
'Adam! I don't know what will you think of me after knowing the truth but remember that I had always loved you,' Irena said.
Both of them then disappeared.
'Come back both of you. I want to know what happened?' I again called for them but they were gone.
Suddenly a screen came out of nowhere in front of me. The entire screen was black and suddenly some words appeared.
"The story of the village: Zest"
Visuals started to show up.
* * *
Zest lay 100 km away from Arcvale on the bank of the river Zoln.
The village which was roughly established 1000 years ago was one of the oldest villages in the country. The other name by which the whole world knew Zest was "The Village of Life".
This title was bestowed to Zest by the ruling king in the year 950.
The reason was pretty simple. All the individuals in Zest lived up to 100 years. This did not include the brides who came into the village from other lands. But all the children born in Zest lived up to 100 years.
The rules were very strict in the village.
No couple were to have more than 1 child. All the children born in Zest had to forever live there. The residents were never allowed to leave the village.
It all dated back 1000 years back when the founders established the village. They created the temple of the God of Life and asked for His blessings.
The villagers were blessed with longevity but the founding priest laid down the most important condition. "No resident of the village is to ever leave it. If not, then oblivion will follow."
All villagers wholeheartedly followed the rules and the village prospered.
* * *
August 2006:
It was a usual day in the village.
Everybody had just completed the morning prayer and it was time to receive the blessings of the two head priests.
'Maria! It's our turn now to receive the blessings,' said the young boy.
'But I am so sleepy. Why do we have these morning prayers? I just want to sleep,' she said.
'Shhhhh! You are the daughter of the head priest. You will be punished if they hear you,' he said.
'But Adam, our fathers are the two head priests. Why do we have to stand in these stupid lines?'
'It's because everyone in Zest is equal. Isn't that our village's motto?' he said.
'Come on kids,' my dad called us.
Maria and I went to them and they patted our heads.
'May the Almighty God keep both of you healthy and well,' said Maria's Dad. His name was Erwin. He was the kindest person I had known after my dad. They were best friends and they were chosen as the two priests by the villagers.
'Dad! We are done. I'll go and play with Adam now,' said Maria.
'Haha,' laughed Kelvin (Adam's father).
'So Erwin, it seems that your daughter doesn't pay much attention to the rituals.'
'Yeah, that's true. She has always been a tomboy. But either way, it's alright. She can't become the priest because she is a girl so I don't force her to learn our ways. But you have raised your son well. Adam is only six and unlike Maria, he is so religious. I can see that he will eventually become a head priest.'
Oh God! I just hope the two children get married and I can be carefree,' said Erwin.
'I also hope that happens in the future,' said Kelvin.
22
The day passed by and it was night. Both the priests were sitting in front of God's statue. A couple came to them inside the temple.
The man greeted them.
'Great priests please accept our salutations,' the main bowed to them.
'Are you again expecting David?' asked Erwin.
'Unfortunately, yes sir,' he replied.
'You know the village rules right?'
'Yes sir we know.'
'Then what is your decision?' asked Kelvin.
'Sir, can't there be a way to sort this? Please we want to have this second child,' he said.
'Listen both of you. You only have two options. Either you let us take away this child or all three of you will die right here at this spot,' said Erwin.
The couple became scared to death. They gave in.
'Please sir, do as you wish,' said the man.
Both the priest placed their hand on the woman's stomach. Their hands started glowing and the child disappeared from the mother's womb. She fainted on the spot.
'Don't worry. She has only fainted from the shock. Take her back,' said Erwin
The two of them then left.
'This is the third time this month,' said Kelvin.
'I know. But it's good for us. The Lord will be happy.'
'Yeah, that's true.'
Both of them prayed in front of the God's statue and a light orb appeared in front of them.
'Oh great God of Death please accept the life energy of this unborn child and keep blessing our village,' said Erwin.
There was a small rock beside the God of Life's huge statue. It transformed into a statue and the light orb vanished into it. Then it came back to its normal rock form.
'God has accepted our offering. These days the government has become strict and we are getting a lesser number of children from the dealers,' said Erwin.
'I know. We will have to revise the contracts of those bastards. We can't afford to make God unhappy. Else death will fall upon all of us,' said Kelvin.
Both of them prayed again and then went back to their homes.
This was the dark reality of the village.
The whole world knew Zest as the village of Life but in the underworld, it was known as "The village of Death".
Erwin and Kelvin bought 100 children, less than 15 years of age on a monthly basis from human traffickers. Then all these children were killed on the night of the new moon in the name of sacrifice.
It served two purposes.
The life energy of the sacrificed children was distributed among the residents which was the cause of their long lives.
This same energy also boosted the magical powers of the two priests. These two were the worshippers of the God of Death and had a mastery of black magic.
The worship of the God of Life was just a façade to please the outer world and attract rich tourists who helped the village's prosperity. But deep down it was these two men who were controlling everything. Until that certain day.
23
A few months later, as usual, Kelvin came back home from the temple. It was nighttime. Adam was already asleep.
He came back and sat at the dining table. His wife brought him the food. She looked tensed and nervous.
He ate the food quietly and spoke after finishing the meal.
'I know why you are so tensed Ulva.'
Her face became pale with fear.
'You are pregnant aren't you?'
'How do you know dear?'
'I know everything. I am the head priest.'
She was fearful of what was about to come. Losing her child is the greatest pain for a mother and it was now her turn. Or so it seemed.
'You have made me the happiest person in the world Ulva,' he said with a big smile.
She was shocked. She couldn't believe her ears. The guy who had killed hundreds of unborns was not going to kill his own.
'But aren't you going to take him away like the way you always do to the others?' she asked.
'No, my dear. Those other kids are just the kids of the common villagers. We are special. This kid is my child. The child of the great priest. He will live.'
'But how?' she asked.
'We will run away from here. We will do it this Sunday before anybody notices that you are pregnant.'
He then came near her. Closed his eyes and murmured something. 'I have cast a spell of protection. Just never tell anyone about this. Just nobody.'
She believed him.
Kelvin went to his veranda for a short while before sleeping.
'The spell of evasion I created is cast. Now even Erwin won't be able to tell that Ulva is pregnant with his naked eye. I need to move fast. This Sunday we will be out of this wretched village.' And he went to sleep.
* * *
Then came Sunday.
Kelvin came back to his home in the evening. He was ready. But when he opened the door, Adam and Maria were playing together. He was shocked. He was running out of time.
'Dear Maria, why are you here? It's so late already,' he asked.
'Oh yes. You are correct uncle. It is so late. Dad will chew me out for being this late.'
'Don't worry child. I'll take you back home.'
She agreed. She waved to Adam and said see you tomorrow. Adam also waved back.
But the irony was that the day when these two would meet again would never come.
Kelvin quickly dropped Maria at her home and came back in a hurry.
He had already wasted time and now he was out of time to tell his plans to Ulva and Adam. He needed to sneak out as soon as possible.
He came back home and both Adam and Ulva welcomed him.
He was out of time. He murmured a spell and both of them fell asleep.
'Now these two are asleep, I need to move quickly.'
The head guard knocked on his door. He welcomed him in and asked him to carry the two to the car. The guard did as told. They then took off.
'I am so grateful to you, sir. We were so tired of being in this prison. The money and the house you have promised me are blessings that will help us. I always felt so jealous of those rich bastards visiting the village who had those high-tech gadgets. I had to always kill my desires for the village. But now the head priest is supporting us. I feel so blessed. I fear none.'
Kelvin just smiled back and they reached the village's exit. The guard came out and went to his car where his family were already waiting for him.
Kelvin took control of the steering and the two cars took off from the village. Someone had left the village for the first time in over 1000 years now.
They had only been a few kilometers from the village when Kelvin stopped his car. The other car also stopped at a small distance from them.
'Sir is there a problem?' shouted the guard.
Kelvin came out of his car and murmured a spell.
The guard's car exploded. All of them died right on the spot. Kelvin laughed aloud.
'You lowly bastards are going to escape with me. No way you fools. I am the head priest. Only I am the chosen one. Not some pathetic villagers.' He then went back to the car and drove away to Arcvale.
24
The very next day there was a news that shook the world.
The river Zoln changed its course for the first time in a thousand years. As a result, it flooded many nearby villages.
Almost all the villages experienced severe damage but luckily not a single life was lost. Not a single person died in such a massive flood was unheard of. But Zest had a different story to tell.
Zest was completely wiped off the map by Zoln and all the villagers were reported dead or missing. The village of Life which had stood for more than 10 centuries was no more. The punishment from the gods was severe.
In the meantime, Kelvin and his family came to Arcvale in about 3 hours from Zest.
He moved into a hotel room with the two of them. They slept the night in the hotel and then the morning came. The news of Zest's demise reached the world. Kelvin also saw it on a news channel.
Ulva was scared. She blamed themselves for the village's destruction. Kelvin pretended that he was also emotional about the village and false tears came out of his eyes.
Amidst all this chaos there was a strange incident.
'Adam was still asleep. The effect of the spell should have been over by now,' thought Kelvin.
'Ulva was all up and talking. So what happened to Adam?' he wondered.
'It's already 10 a.m. Why is he still sleeping?' he asked Ulva.
She came to Adam and tried to wake him up but he did not get up. She tried multiple times and still no response. She understood that something was not right now. She started crying and called Kelvin for help.
He came in rushing and understood the situation from her. He also tried to wake him up but the result was the same.
He then checked Adam's pulse. There was no pulse. He checked his breathing. Adam was not breathing at all.
Kelvin immediately murmured a spell to heal him but to his surprise, he couldn't remember the spell. He tried again but the result was the same. His memory completely betrayed him.
Within the next 2 mins, he went through the spell repository in his mind and to his surprise he had forgotten all of his spells.
The color of his face now disappeared. His face became white in disbelief.
'What happened to Adam?' Ulva asked him worryingly.
He did not have the courage to tell her.
'He is not breathing,' Kelvin whispered.
'What?? What nonsense are you saying dear?' asked Ulva.
He rushed to a nearby phone and called the hospital. Ulva finally realized what was happening and fainted. Both of them were immediately admitted.
It was only 3 days later that Adam opened his eyes. But he had lost his memory.
He couldn't answer very basic questions and he even forgot his name. He couldn't identify Ulva and Kelvin and was marked as a major case of Amnesia.
Ulva on the other hand was admitted for being in shock and she had a miscarriage. The unborn child was lost.
Kelvin was dead inside. In a single night, he had lost everything.
His son had amnesia, his wife lost his child for whom he had great plans and he had lost his village and his friends and family. But all of that was secondary.
What mattered the most was that he had lost his powers. Even after days of refreshing his memory, he was not able to recall a single spell.
From being a famous wizard to now a useless mortal. He had fallen. His life was over. Years and years of his hard work ended up in nothing.
* * *
It took a few weeks before they accepted their new lives.
Kelvin had joined a construction company under a friend whom he had blessed when he was still the priest.
Ulva overcame the loss of her child to care for her child that was alive. And Adam, he still couldn't remember a thing about Zest and his past 5 years of life.
Ulva and Kelvin decided never to tell him about it as well and Zest's existence completely vanished for Adam.
The screen then vanished.
25
I was at a loss for words.
The father I always thought was a hero was actually a cold hearted mass murderer who murdered hundreds of children and other people. My eyes were still in disbelief.
'Was all of this fake?'
My heart wanted to believe that. But my mind knew that it was all correct.
Maybe this was the truth that dad wanted me to see till the end. I was the child of a murderer. Had things been the way they were supposed to then even I would have become a priest of Zest and continued those mass killings.
I was ashamed of my family.
The thought to search for dad's killer now completely escaped my mind.
I did not want to think a second longer about dad. A monster who lived in a human's hide. That's all he was to me now. But then I remembered something else.
What happened to Irena? Did she survive the fall or did she die? What was her truth? Why was she also here in this white room?
I believed I was dead. I thought that maybe this was the afterlife. But my heart still longed for her. She had been my strength and support for all this time.
And suddenly the black screen reappeared. It showed the words:
"The story of the girl who leapt through time"
* * *
Maria was sleeping soundly in her room. Her only living relative was her dad as her mom had died during childbirth. Both of them lived happily in their house in Zest.
Suddenly Erwin came rushing to Maria's room in the middle of the night.
'Wake up Maria. Wake up,' he shouted.
Maria woke up. 'Dad why are you shouting in the middle of the night? I need to sleep before tomorrow's morning prayer.'
'My foolish girl, please wake up and look out from your window.'
She looked out. Her small eyes opened wide. The road in front of their house was flooded. There was water everywhere. She started crying.
'Dad what is happening? Are we going to die?' she asked.
Erwin had no answers. He just hugged Maria.
Like Kelvin, he also was not able to recall any spells. In the face of the biggest catastrophe, he was helpless. He couldn't do a thing for his only child.
'No matter what happens I will be with you till the end,' he said to Maria with his eyes wet.
'Did Adam also die dad?'
'My daughter, I don't know. I can't contact anybody. Kelvin is also unreachable. He is like a brother to me. I wish he were alive but most probably he might have also drowned in this flood.'
'But why is this happening dad? Wasn't our village the blessed Village of Life?'
'Maria, the only reason could be that somebody went outside the village of their free will. I will hunt that bastard at all costs. I don't know how they snuck past those guards but now because of them everything is finished.'
His words made Maria lose her heart.
Suddenly there was a big noise.
A huge wave was approaching them destroying and engulfing everything in its path.
Erwin just enveloped his body around Maria and the wave struck them. Everything was destroyed. Both of them died on the spot.
Or they should have died.
* * *
Maria opened her eyes. She was not dead. She saw a ceiling over her head. She then looked at her surroundings. It was an unknown room to her.
The room, the bed and the accessories really looked expensive and were filled with things she had never seen before. She tried to get up and stand. But her body felt weird. It was as if she didn't know her body.
With her tiny body, she looked at herself in the dressing mirror and she was shocked.
She couldn't believe what she was seeing.