Chapter Seven

     By the time she spat those words out, the woman already knew something's wrong with Méah. And her thoughts of earning big benefits through her was replaced by full disappointment.

       'Useless crap.'

       Unlocking Méah's arms around her, she left the room with no words, banging the door heavily from the outside.

       "Wait! Where are you going? Let us play!" Méah blurted out.

      Tears started forming on her eyes, she started throwing tantrums.

      'I just wanted to play with her! Why did she left me? Did she hate me?'

        "Blonde Fairy! Don't leave yet! I want to play with you!" she squealed between her heavy

       "Hmm..."

        Méah refrained from her petulant act when she heard someone groaned...from behind her. Wiping her tears before it fell down, she turned her neck where she heard that from.

        A man? Her eyes scanned him for a few seconds. When her mind seemed to flash blurry images of the same person, a sudden realization hit her.

       'It was him?'

       A pang of pain drilled her head. She could even feel it throbbing. If she could freely move her body, she'd bang her head on the stone wall—it was literally skull-splitting. She really badly wanted to!

       Méah's body bounced when she fell on the feather-soft mattress. Another agonizing pain stung on her back and another one on the  side of her stomach and chest and head—everything seemed to hurt so much! Curled up in pain, she held on to her head—the part that hurts the most, scrapping off the thick bandage around it without knowing.

      No other words escaped from her mouth. Just pure heavy breath out of the pain's bliss. It was like her mouth had locked itself, shackled in chains.

       All at once, a blast of scrapped memories deluged from her mind. Familiar voices reverberated in her every nerve endings. No matter how she shrugged it off, it was useless.

       'You can't cry, Méah.'

        'Don't cry, Méah.'

        'You are so special. Never cry on worthless things, my child.'

       'You can run, but you can't cry'

       'Méah, run!'

       'Remember...don't cry!'

      'Stop it. You're too old to cry.'

      'I told you to be careful. It's not my fault anymore.'

      "Hey! What's wrong?"

      "Are you okay?"

      "Hey! Can you hear me?!"

      Méah took a heavy gasp for air and bolted from the bed, sitting. She held unto her knees tightly, eyes shut. It was like she'd been drowned in the middle of a vast ocean for hours. It took minutes to recover the normal pace of her heartbeat back.

      "Are you...o-okay?"

       Méah raised her head up. The man! Right. She had forgotten him. But why would she have memories of him? There's no way she had got close to a stranger before! Her parents had forbade her to stay away from anyone except them.

       "Mother..." She started counting her fingers, "father..." Her eyes turned to the confused stranger in front of her.

      Méah scanned his face carefully, trying to recall who he was.

      A mole near the right side of his nose bridge. Thick, straight eyebrows. Round, hazel eyes... small face...

       "No! I don't know him. He must be here to kill my parents..." Her hands trembled its way to her mouth. "I can't let that happen. Yes! Let's take his head off first, Méah! Just like what they did to mother and father!" an innocent laugh broke out her convulsing mouth.

        "What are you talking about?!" he asked, perplexed.

        Instead of responding, Méah's eyes searched hungrily for something and at last, had it fixed at a certain direction. His eyes followed hers. Before she could sprang off the bed, the pain on her wounds burrowed again. And he had already taken it.

       She growled in silence, falling back to bed. Her vision swirled harder that made her more immobilized.

        "What the fuck were you trying to do?!" he cursed under his breath, suiting his back on the rough, bumpy wall behind him.

        He literally didn't understand what this woman were up to! Why would he kill her parents?! For goodness' sake, he didn't even know them! She's definitely crazy! If only...if only it wasn't because of... he would have—

        Another loud bang made him jump for a bit. The door opened in a wide arc. It must've been a sturdy kick. He could tell by the way how it almost got separated from its hinges.

      "Throw her out!" the woman yelled.

       Two big men filtered in, walking straight towards Méah who was now fighting for her breath.

       "Wait! What are you doing?!" He rushed towards her trying to shake the two men's hands off Méah's shoulders.

        But man, they're like giant statues! His unrecovered strength was of no use against them. With a single push, he already rolled on the boring gray floor. He could only cough dryly as the sudden bolt of pain splattered from his back.

         His eyes widened the way the men effortlessly dragged Méah out of bed like a sack of rice hulls. He certainly knew that Méah had passed out before they lift her off the bed. Now her body's wobbly and numb and pale as a ghost.

         The scene was too cruel for him. He knew he didn't wanted to take her in first but no one deserved to be treated like that! And she's a girl after all! If he could only stand...if he could only fight them!

        "Where are you taking her?! For fuck's sake, she's dying! You heartless morons!" he screamed with all his might, fists firmly balled.

        But he was surprised that they just ignored him like they heard nothing.

      "Hmm, I almost forgot about you, lad," the woman said softly but with full of authority. "You've got a little girl's mouth over there, huh?"

      Chin held high, behaving like a dangerous, beauty assasin, twirling a streak of hair on the top of her forefinger.

She's of a middle-aged figure but still had the charms of her teenage years. Elegant and classy. If only not because of those weird stuffs clinging around her neck and clothes.

       "Who...the hell are you?" He raised his head to meet her gaze only to find her holding a sharp dagger teasingly.

          If he was in a good condition, he'd already ran away. Why were there so many people trying to kill him? He had done nothing wrong!

         "Well," she turned around facing the door, flapping the dull cloth of her black sleeve, "there's no need for you to know."

        She quickly faced him with a mischievous smile and started walking towards him. Sitting down in front of him, she slowly stroked his chin up to his swollen cheek with the dagger.

        He went mute of a sudden, bobbing his throat even though it had went dry for how long that he couldn't remember. Frozen and feeling the delicate caress of the sharp, cold object on his numb flesh.

His grip tightened on the thing that he's holding from behind him.

        "Hmm...seems like you just need a little touch up. In a day or two, you'll be ready." She stood up with a victorious aura hidden behind her strict face.

       For him, life had been playing with him. It had been throwing him a lot of confusions nowadays. He don't know what people are up to with his life.

       But he couldn't deny how he released his breath with great relief when she made her way to the door.

      Just as he thought that everything's over,  the same two men went in. Barely pulling himself up, he slammed himself backward into the gray wall, trying to keep them from drawing near him.

      "What are you gonna do to me?!" He frustratedly squealed, clutching the piece of a sharp-edged, broken wood behind his shaking hand.

       The same thing happened. Neither of them spoke a word and instead dodged even closer to him.

       Precipitously, the image of the girl flashed in his mind, looking at him intently. He tried to blink a few times trying to shake her out of his mind but it's of no effect. His breath became wild when she raised her arms to him as if she's going to hit him. She's holding something but he can't clearly see it. It's more like a dark shadow or a smoke.

       "No!" He screamed, frightened.

      Before he knew it, the image had disappeared. And...and...

       There he saw his hand covered with blood! And the piece of wood on it, buried deep into one of the man's chest. His knees weakened.

       "No...no! It wasn't me!" he unbelievably muttered.

       He's never killed anyone before and he never will!

      The man fell on his knees, spitting a crimson liquid on his mouth before completely falling to the floor.

       "Brother! No!" the other man shouted out of grief, finally spoke up.

       He watched the man with anguish in his eyes, who was now extremely affrighted, checking his lifeless comrade.

        In no time, the man sprinted in front of him enveloping his neck with his enraged palm. The man raised him with a hand, aiming to break his windpipe.

         He choked and seizured once his air tunnel was blocked. Everything went blurry. He could feel the red veins in his eyes puffed.

         "Your life wouldn't be enough to pay for my brother's!" the man said almost in a whisper but full of imponderable anger, jaw clenched.

        Regardless of what the man said, he continued to find a way to escape. He tried hitting the man's wrist but in what way could he hurt injure him so that he'd put him down? He seemed unstoppable! And he's to weak for him now that his breath was running out.

        He felt the cold crept throughout his body. His toes and knuckles went numb. Palms were white. Veins were tired. Soon, his heart stopped beating. But before his vision went pitch black, a familiar voice interjected.

        "Bronx! Echag! Take her to the graveyard. Make sure she'll never get out of there. Alive," Lady Shiah ordered and headed back to the healing cave.

       The two men, dressed old and shaggy in slave clothing, nodded, obedient as they should be. They're in-charged of throwing the useless and dying ones to the graveyard.

       Before they went on their way, they checked her pulse in the neck. She's not breathing anymore.

       After that, Méah had the bumpiest ride of her existence. Grabbed on both sides of her arms, her lifeless body juggled roughly on the jutting rocks along the steep trails  towards the resting place of the dead.

      At first, their pace were fast as she was light as a feather to be dragged. Whistling on their way and talking about the things in life, they suddenly froze, unable to take another step forward. As though their feet were nailed on the ground where they were standing, they slowly sank down halfway through their legs. Like something  They couldn't lift them like something was holding them underneath the sun-baked but pale earth.

      "What's happening?!" the older one with a long scar horizontally drawn on his forehead, panicked.

      "I don't know either! Just focus on getting ourselves out!" the other man with an entirely white eye on the left and a normal one on the left, shot back.

       The more they struggled, the faster they're mired down. Now it had reached on their knees. Weird that a dry ground could do such thing, not to mention the strikingly hot, mid-afternoon sun.

       They lost grasp on Méah's arms—no, they've forgotten about her. All they thought was to get themselves free!

         A strong wind crashed by, bringing uprooted trunks of trees, broken branches, rocks and dirt. For they weren't able to run, all they did was to duck to protect themselves from those things in the air that seemed to have swooped down on them purposely.

          And then, a moment of silence passed. Fixing themselves up though still unable to get out, a whirling hush from their back caught their attention.

        To their surprise, the body that they're about to dispose flung in the air. Under her was a black smoke twirling as if sending her into a levitation state.

         Horrified, the two men screamed their lungs out but not a whisper escaped from their mouth. Never in their whole life  they had witnessed such spine-chilling scene.

         And then, glowing purple and white cracks crawled throughout her whole body extinguishing black smoke. Hand figures slowly formed in its edges, reaching out to the two living men who were left helpless.

        They wished to escape from their situation but how? Whispers of horror and grievance brought by the black smoke fought with their consciousness. Those hands, those hands caressed their mired bodies eerily. And without a signal, slipped heedlessly into their noses, claiming their blood, flesh and soul.

        And no traces of them were left but cold, pale bones draped with lowly slave clothing, planted on the coarse soil. 

        Méah's body fell freely as the flesh of   the two major cuts on both of her feet sealed themselves, little by little.The impact ignited her awake and sat down gasping heavily for air as though she'd been released from being strangled. She could feel the unclean air filling her nasal. Regardless of how blurry her vision was, she could see the blinding light wherever she looked at. When she finally redeemed her normal breath back, she fell back on the hard ground.

        The blazing rays of the sun hovered over her bare face sending her a sizzling thrill. Though it wasn't already at its peak strike but her body seemed to be overacting on its touch. Endless blue sky extended behind it like heaven's ocean.

        Méah just laid there in the middle of nowhere, hollow-minded, staring emptily at the bleak sky. She couldn't recall what had happened. However, the heavy feeling in her chest was undeniable. It had been lingering for such a long time. And it was the only thing that was left familiar to her. She had lost all the peck of strength left that even rolling her eyes had her exhausted. Everything in her became unresponsive.

       Warm air entered her half opened mouth of which was vertically adorned with small red cracks, thirst tickled the drought in her throat. But she couldn't remember the what it felt like when her thirst were quenched and the satisfying caress of water down in her throat. Or she's just too tired and too empty to remember at all! 

         Her breath only grew shorter and shorter as the sun slowly slide down its designated path. She just remained in there laying like a blown down scarecrow.   Minutes and hours passed, the sky's color gradually tinted with pale orange patches just along the line where the sky and sea meets.

        Unfortunately, Méah was unaware of these. She's awake but her mind had stopped working leaving the rest of her body immobilized. Since when would she stay like this? And her promise...what about the promised she made for her parents? Will she be able to live up to it?

        Now everything's impossible for her. Everything's lost because she's completely lost, too...