A Nightmare (1)

 REBORNED

  Episode six

“Dove, is that you?” suddenly, a voice I have been waiting to hear ring through my ears. I swipe my neck to the source. There was Gladys standing in her glory with a smile.

‘Yeah…” I answered.

“I went to your place and Nona told me that you left. I had a feeling that you might be here” Gladys said.

“What is wrong? Why do you look so enraged?” she asked as she sat on a rock beside the stream.

“It is Nona fault, she made me angry” I said. Wait, why am I talking like a baby?

“She doesn’t want to leave, she said she would rather stay than leave this forsaken place” I spoke angrily. Great! Nona has turned me to a babyish adult. Just great!

“This led me asking, why doesn’t she want to leave? I mean the ultimatum is in two days and she needs to leave or else it would be bad”

“She believes the house remind her of her late husband and I don’t see anything that do” I said and felt a sharp pain on my head. Yeah, Gladys hit my head. She is lucky she is my friend or I would have beaten her up and thrown her into the stream.

“Careful Dove, just because Nona was too kind to pick you up and nurse you, years ago, does not mean that you get to criticize her feelings” Gladys said. Oh! What wise words!

“Think from her perspective, if you lost something so dear to you, you have to appreciate what reminds you of them, no matter how ruined they are” Gladys said and her eyes widened.

“Oh sorry Dove I didn’t mean to say to you. I wasn’t referring to your family and I was just scolding you. And I wanted to bring you back to your senses so that you and Nona would understand each other and would not have to fight again.  And you don’t…: Gladys wanted to continue.

“I understand, Gladys” I said and stared at my face on the stream. The death of my family is still a sensitive topic and I haven’t given up on finding my way out of here so that I could exact my revenge.

The fact that I have forgotten the face of my family doesn’t mean that the pain is gone. But, I like the pain, you know? It reminds me of my family and I am not ready to let go until I see the culprits in blood.

“By the way, I thought you left” I said

“I ran off”

“Oh… wait what?” I screamed dumbfounded.

“I also had an argument with my parents” she said and I didn’t need to ask her why. There is something that I didn’t tell you about Gladys. Gladys has different eye color from both eyes and it makes her feel left out among her siblings. Her parents didn’t love her since she was a baby and it makes her the black sheep of the family. Her parents are too superstitious for her liking and they believe that she comes from evil. But that is not all; I heard they planned on leaving her own here to fend for her.

“I think they left already with the money…” she murmured sadly.

“What are you going to do now?” I asked.

“I have saved money with me and plan on going to the city soon” she said and smiled.

Stupid girl, your parents left you and you are smiling. She is very strong.

“By the way, I happen to stumble upon a piece of information about the visitor” she said and my ears perked up.

“I heard he is a politician and lives in Lucknow. He used to be a small time politician. He also has a seat in the state council that represents Lucknow” She said.

 Lucknow was where I lived with my parents and from memory, there was Mr. Rogers who was small time politician before he elevated to a full politician the same level to my late father and he hated my father so much. They were both aiming for a seat in the state council and just after my father death, it must have taken years for him probably earn a seat in state council.

This is not a mistake; He is Mr. Rogers, the man who assassinated my family. After so many years, he chooses to show his face here and he made a really big mistake. I gritted my teeth in anger.

“Gladys, this is not a mistake or a coincidence, he is the one” I said and gritted my teeth in anger. But I didn’t hear Gladys reply… I looked to my side and found Gladys standing few feet away, her back facing me. She was staring at smokes that were rising to the sky and it seemed to be in direction of the village.

Fear gripped me, I never had good experience with fire, and it was like a trauma activator. For me, whenever there is fire, it means something bad…extremely bad. All of the sudden, I ran with all my strength, I don’t know how my legs began to move on its own…but now is not the time for that. I continued running. Do you know the feeling of wanting to get somewhere faster but the source of transport seemed slow? I have that feeling. Despite that everything was slowing down, I still continued running with the thoughts of someone in my head.

‘Nona’

‘Nona’

‘Nona’

By the time, I came out of the forest, I ran home. I didn’t care about the people running away to safety, never cared the houses burning down.  The only thing on my head was safety of Nona. I prayed that Nona was fine. I am so foolish, why did I leave Nona? God help me, if anything happen to Nona.

As I reached home, I gasped in shock. The house… was burning and I didn’t waste in running inside. I ran inside without caring about the heat scorching my skin.  The furniture and others were on fire but where is Nona?

“Nona, where are you?!” I screamed with the hope of seeing her and hearing her. I didn’t see her, not even her body.

A beam wanted to fall on me and I happen to dodge luckily. I continued screaming for Nona. I ran into the kitchen and looked around. I didn’t care about my clothes that were almost burnt down as I continued searching for her.

Then…I saw her. I sobbed. I haven’t cried in a long time

And I did.

“Nona!!”