"But Astraz doesn't have such desert. Could it be a foreign country?" Resita asked anxiously.
"Where to?" Diana inquired.
"It seems like it could be the kingdom of Erimos."
"Aren't they the ones who consider themselves the children of a half-scorpion, half-human woman?" Nuka asked.
"Yeah, their language is really weird as well. I'm afraid we won't be able to communicate with them..."
"Hey you."
I looked at Diana.
"I've been wanting to ask you this question for a while. What is that under your coat?"
Following her words, I lowered my head and looked at my coat. There was a bulge in the front.
"I don't know..."
I reached into the hidden pocket of my coat. With the touch of an object, I realized what it was.
"Oh..."
I pulled Nuka's camera out of my coat.
"Haha, why did you put this in your secret pocket?" Diana asked with a loud laugh.
"How on earth did you fit it in that small pocket?" Nuka also inquired, laughing.
In the meantime, Resita was laughing the hardest, nearly running out of breath while speaking.
"Damn, hahaha I was curious too; I thought you were hahaha pregnant."
I looked at them with a poker face.
"Well, I didn't want it to get damaged..."
At that moment, the perveret had taken hold of me, so for preventing him from taking it from me I put it in my pocket.
"Hahaha, you're so funny, girl. What's your name again?"
"Angela."
Resita wiped her laughter tears.
"Oh my God, you're really something."
I gave a faint smile. It had been a long time since I felt this kind of attention. I felt a sense of great victory.
'I hope this attention lasts.'
Suddenly, things around me became glitchy. I didn't feel my leg and fell on the ground. I couldn't move my leg anymore. I was a bit scared, but then I composed myself.
"Well, it seems like my body has got numbed. Guys, can you wait for me to..."
I looked up. They had all moved several meters away from me and were laughing together.
"Hey, where are you going?" I shouted.
But again, without paying attention to me, they moved further away.
Further...
And further away and further...
Scared, I dragged myself on the sand.
"Do you want to leave me here?"
Again, apart from the sound of their laughter echoing in my head, I heard no response to my words.
'No, everything can't go back to the way it was, not in this situation. No... no... no...'
"Please pay attention to me,"
I screamed with all my might, saying something I never wanted to say. But... it had no effect.
I pinched my legs tightly with fear. I couldn't feel anything. I had never experienced such condition in my previous life, nor even in this one. Despairingly, I looked at the three of them who, in my gaze, had become small dots in the distance.
I stared at my legs again.
'Is it really numb?'
I hit it with my fist.
"Hurry up..." I muttered under my breath. I still felt nothing. I hit it again.
Again...
And again...
"Why?" I said in disbelief.
"..."
In anger, I hit my hands on my legs with all my mighy.
"Damn it... (I continued with a scream) Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!!"
'I don't understand. I don't understand this situation. Am I not human? Why does everyone treat me like a church statue that no one is going to visit anymore? It's as if there's an eraser in their minds that as soon as my name gets etched in their thoughts, they quickly erase it, and the shavings from the eraser become the only trace of me in their minds. Where's the problem? Is it me? Is it the people surrounding me? Or maybe the problem lies in this world?'
Frustrated, I buried my hands in the sand. My mind couldn't grasp anything anymore.
'How am I supposed to reach them with these legs?'
A feeling of exhaustion consumed me from head to toe.
'I can't reach them...'
I slumped down onto my legs.
"It's better if I sleep a bit to feel better."
They will probably notice my absence and look for me... probably...
*20 minutes later*
"Those bastards aren't coming after me, are they?" I shouted.
My legs were still in that state and wouldn't move. Thirst and hunger consumed my entire being.
"I shouldn't wait any longer..."
I dragged myself to the ground, heading in the direction they went.
"Why don't you give up?"
I looked up. Did I know her? Absolutely. Because the person in front of me was myself. But she was the real Azima. The Azima of the past. The Azima of a previous life.
I squinted my eyes, but her face was still blurry to me.
"A mirage? But I'm not that thirsty and tired."
The Azima in front of me would occasionally glitch and emit a strange sound. The sound of a crashed computer.
"Your life's notebook has been finished for a long time, Azima. The dead aren't supposed to flounder in the world of the living."
I pulled myself over the sand and passed by her. But she appeared in front of me again.
"What are you going to do with that paralyzed leg of yours, Azima?"
"It's none of your business."
I continued moving.
she snickered audibly.
"Stop trying, Azima. The path behind the tree in front of you is full of houses. By being alive, you're only ruining Arina's new life."
I stopped moving. In silence, I stared at the sandy ground in front of me.
"In your previous life, you thought you could change something. But in the end, it was you who changed. Azima, you're a big loser!"