Chereads / Melanie's Adventures / Chapter 14 - Darko's flashback

Chapter 14 - Darko's flashback

Darko stomped away painfully from the gory scene. This was his second experience of near-death even though he had been in the army several years. You can imagine the emotions hanging over him. His resolve was shaken but still rooted.

Under a wild tree, Darko gripped his injured arm with his remaining strength in the other hoping to stop the oozing blood. After a lot of melancholic thoughts, he tore part of his shirt with his teeth as cat does to meat and ties it around the wound. Pain poured out whenever an attempt was made to move his arm. He was helpless at the moment and all he could do was hope that the impact of the accident has not raised meddling eyebrows.

As he continued to lie down, the pain he felt brought back an unwelcome memory of even more intense pain. His first near-death would have gotten him spick and span of not for someone. That someone took the fall for him.

Darko had a rough childhood. To be honest, rough is quite the understatement. His parents weren't exactly kind. They were abusive. The only role Darko's mother played was breast her two children but even that, was forced on her. For his father, he couldn't even be bothered to name his own children. He was a pathetic miser and a violent drunkard who didn't even know how to sustain his habit of drinking. He just stole from his wife and confiscated whatever earnings the children had gotten from begging.

How did such a pair come to be? They were forcibly married to each other by their families to cover up the shame instigated by teenage pregnancy.

Darko, as he was called by the townfolk because it was his father's first name and Aku, her elder sister, had each other's back and no one else's. They didn't really have a choice. Everything was a cycle for them like a hamster in a wheel.

Their day started by getting up early after barely getting enough sleep before their mother would come around flogging them for being lazy. They would go out on the streets on an empty stomach from dawn till dusk. However way that they fed, only God knows. They probably begged for food too since they couldn't use any of the money they made from begging. Their money always complained that the earnings were too small no matter how abundant the givings were that day.

When the day was over, the pair walked back home from the city where if they were unlucky enough, despite their situation, their father would beat them up for the money then their mother would later come and deliver the finishing blows when she finds out they don't have the money.

All this at the age of eight and six respectively. Darko grew up thinking that Aku was his actual mother and his actual mother, a mean old hag. Anytime her brother fell ill, it was she, Aku, that sought help from the villagers to get herbs for his treatment. She was young but her mind was well beyond her years and she prayed that none of them would turn out like their parents.

The pair grew up and grew inseparable. When Darko was matured enough, he vowed before heavens and the earth that he would do everything in his power to change their lives for the better.

Years later, Darko thought of something. Why hadn't they thought of it before? It was so obvious. It could change their lives if executed properly. Aku knew trouble was brewing but after hearing her brother out, she also concluded that it was worth the risk.

They would save part of the daily alms until it was enough to send far, far away. When they were finally away, they could start a trade to sustain themselves.

They embarked on this journey, taking the beatings from their mother without fail. Gradually, the children had been able to save almost up to their target and they were sure everything would be alright.

But one day, the drunkard father came home with bruises all over after he could not settle arrears the drinking spot owner. He never slept in the children's room whenever he was drunk but this time was an exception.

He slept his heart out and when he woke up, he just felt repulsed by the clean and tidy room so he started crashing things over. It was through this that he discovered the hidden stash of cash. Darko felt ecstatic and heard the drinking spot calling out to him like a siren. He snatched up the money and squandered it all on alcohol.

The children came home early that day in hopes of leaving there early with the amount they had saved but they were met with disappointment. The once tidy room was now scattered with clothing and underwear. The hiding place of the money left vacant. Aku was shocked but she couldn't ask anyone. They weren't supposed to be keeping the money anyway. Darko was equally shocked if not more but he couldn't keep quiet. His teenage hormones would not allow it. His anger would have come out through his ears if he didn't act.

He rushed out of the room only to meet the man he dreaded so much walking into the house in a staggering manner.

"Where is the money?"

"Hmm?", the drunkard said trying to process what was just said to him.

Spontaneous rainfall began to fall and it leaked through the roof.

"I said where is the money?", Darko repeated while doing his very best to restrain himself.

"Money....money. Which money? Ahh, yes. That money. I spent it and I had a lot of alcohol today."

The odour from his mouth made Darko only angrier. With one fist-full punch, the drunkard was sober.

"Is it me you laid your filthy hands on?", the father yelled after feeling his face.

A fight followed and Darko was still no match for his father who was only at half-strength. Aku who had been watching the agonizing drama from afar decided to separate father and son but she only ended up being a third party to undeserved beatings. Their father eventually grew tired and left the boy alone but not before landing his last blow on the boy's head and at that moment, the rains struck its last lightning.

Darko felt humiliated, angry and sore. He got out of the dreadful place he now couldn't escape and ran towards the forest. Aku followed behind but Darko was just too fast for her. She got to the forest but there was no sign of Darko anywhere.

"Darko!! Darko!!!", she called out her brother's name and silence replied her.

CRACK

After walking through what seemed like half the forest, she finally found him sitting under a strangely burnt tree.

CRACK, CRACK, CRACK

"Darko!!", Aku ran like never before, blitzing through the air and on the wet muddy ground like the heroine she would soon become.

She pushed her brother out of the way and the tree found its pointy branches in Aku's insides.

After Darko grasped the whole of reality, he came down on his knees and tried to lift the deadly weight off her sister, now a bloody sculpture of an abused maiden.

"No, no, no!!", Darko did not want to accept it. He could not accept it.

"Darko", Aku mustered all her effort but it still came out softly, "Darko, promise me that you will be better."

The volumes of pain could be heard and what she had kept in for so long started to consume her.

"Anything, I'll do anything. Anything at all, just don't die, please.", Darko pleaded with death but nature had to take its course.

Darko turned to get help but he stopped in his tracks. It was as if a shockwave had passed through his being. Like his lungs had ruptured and he couldn't breathe. Like his stomach had turned inside-out.

Aku was already gone. She had been relieved of her earthly burdens. She was now at a place of perfect tranquility. Apla e of blossoming trees. The place of eternal peace, Nirvana. The place where every soul longs for.

Darko was broken. He was beyond broken. Nothing was audible to him now.

"Promise me you'll be better. Promise me you'll be better"

Those heavy words hung from heart on a hook. He started to shake uncontrollably almost like he was convulsing. A part of his soul had been stripped off of him. He sat near the smiling corpse with tears in his eyes, guilt and blood on his hands.

"I killed her....I....killed her" were the thoughts that were running in his mind now. He sat there for a while and realizing that this wasn't a game they used to play as children and that she wouldn't come back, he left her side and slowly walked towards the village.

He walked with an aura of gloom. Nobody had to ask him what was wrong. It was written all over his face with dried up tears.

Darko's mother happened to be walking on that road and met her son. Her mother instincts kicked in and she knew something was wrong. She tossed away her load and rushed up where Darko came from.

When she got there, her heart clenched and her body refused to move. She fell to the ground but she was not dead. Death despised her.

Just now, she realized she had a daughter but now she runs cold. Darko flashed through her mind and she made a covenant with the unseen to mend her ways but Darko only saw her the same way when Aku was alive.

Aku wasn't even given a proper funeral. The village heads declared her death an omen and so her body had to be incinerated. Rituals were done to ward off gloom-insatiated spirits.

As her body was being exhumed, Darko repeated the words to himself.