4 The Pinkish Cloud

I never found a way to fill all the silence. In the weeks that followed the greatest tragedy of my life, I jumped from my bed every morning, donned my pink sneakers, a black leather coat with a hood and went out of my dark room. Every morning, I would do a step-by-step move on the winding stairs and look at the paintings hanging on the wall.

Whatever I would do, I could not forget my parents. Everything seemed gone from me: my happiness, my courage, and my weaknesses had scattered. The kind of life I had was meaningless; it did not had any destination; it was just flying with the cold breeze.

Sitting on the concrete stairs in the front of the mansion, wist deep in thought because if I'd think of my parents, I didn't feel so alone. Looking at the groves and copses of trees came whip-crack sounds as the slight breeze moved their icy branches.

The sunsets had changed. They were not as beautiful as they looked before. I had memories of my parents being everywhere around the mansion. I did nothing all day but to reminisces those good memories.

I knew I was living in a part of the country where throughout a year meant ice, snow, and cold weather. That was why I always wear my parka every time I go outside the mansion.

All those days, every sundown, I sat down on the piles of snow and remembered the way my parents hugged me, the way we'd throw snowballs at each other, the way they'd teach me how to build a snowman, and the way they'd glanced and smiled at me.

Night had gathered within a few short minutes; still, I was looking at the black-and-white world of smooth, dark roads, snowy roadside fences, and the tracery of trees.

Amara got out of the mansion and walked towards me. She was wearing a white shirt with a blue collar, a black leather coat striped with pink thread in the center, and long pants were fastened around her waist and hanging down loosely to her legs. Her hair was tied by pink bands into two portions were both bouncing as she walked. She halted beside me and looked at the fireflies were spreading their intermittent light and flying around the foliage of trees.

"Don't you want to get inside?" Amara asked. "It's cold here."

I took a snowball and threw it to the groves then told her, "I'm just fine."

"Fine? But it's been many days since you haven't eaten well or slept well, and look at yourself: you're not the Kaila that I knew." She sat down beside me.

"It's not your business; I can do anything I want. Just leave me alone!"

"Not my business? Your parents told me that I must take care of you whatever happens, and now you're telling me to leave?" She queried. "You forsook everything: your schooling, your friends and yourself. Your parents won't be happy if they sees what you're doing."

"My friends? Do I have friends? Everyone leaves me behind, even my parents. I'm alone in this cruel world!" I cried.

"Please don't cry. I'm always here for you. From now on, you can consider me your best friend." She wiped the tears diffused on my face with her pink handkerchief. "I'm going inside to prepare your dinner, and please eat it because I don't want to see you become a skeleton."

Amara stood up and walked down the wide entrance between the aligned lampposts. I saw her entering the wide door of the mansion. She continued walking until I saw her diaphanous silhouette passing by through the window made of glass.

In a few moments that followed, I saw a dark moving shadow, taking the walkway several feet away from where I was. After some seconds of looking at it, I recognized it was a horse attached with a carriage. It halted in front of me and an old woman stepped out.

She was wearing a leather coat and long pants. Her long, curly hair was spreading around her back. I was not sure, but she was an ugly old woman who looked like a hag. She walked towards me and stared at the mansion.

"I can hear the whisper of sorrow, and a heart shouting for justice," she insinuated.

I didn't know what she was talking about. She might be a crazy passerby. As I stood up and turned to leave, I felt a cold hand which seemed to be a hand of death that held my arm.

She whispered right through my ear, "Do you want to get revenge on those merciless people who killed your parents?"

I noticed, her voice wasn't totally a voice of an old woman. It was a little melodious and she talked normally as if she were a young woman. Perhaps she was joking when she asked if I wanted to exact revenge on the people who murdered my parents, because I knew an elderly woman like her would simply collapse under a bullet of those criminals. However, I also knew there was nothing to lose if I'd talk with her.

"How did you know that my parents were gone?" I queried.

"It's been many years since I started watching you and your family; I also knew those cruel people who killed your parents."

"Who?" I asked. "Please tell me, I need to catch them, so that they can pay for their sins, and I can also give justice for my parents' death."

"I will only tell you if you'll promise me to retaliate against them. You will kill them as what they did to your parents."

"But how can I kill them if I'm only sixteen and I don't know how to use a gun because I haven't touched one since I was born?"

"Trust me, I will give you power, so that you can kill them without exerting much effort," she responded. "Do you want to have it?"

"Power? What kind of power?" I asked. "Of course I want."

She opened her mouth, and there was something jumped out. It was a pinkish cloud that floated towards me, it entered my nose and mouth, and because of that I could not breathe well, I lost consciousness.