CHRONICLES OF AADYA

Episode Nineteen

AADYA

A day turned into a month and a month turned into a year, that became my life in the dungeon. My young self clung in the darker area of the slammer, supposedly used to its darkness, the cold air wafting from every corner of the tiny space, and she prayed to the gods' no one would come for her, then she could finally end this painful existence she had never asked. It was very wrong that sometimes, in those my very weakest moments, I had prayed for death more than I could count. And those prayers grew louder in the silence of the dungeon as the day went by.

I pursued Father into the open, and a bright light suddenly strikes my face the instant I footed, it was so bright that I had to shield my face with my palm and when all cleared out I saw little Gunnar, he was about a year when Father eventually allowed me out of the dungeon. He was so tender with big brown eyes, his little laugh was what kept me going after all the torture unleashed on me by Father. And I came to realize that Nana had passed away during the time she quit coming down to the dungeon. The gods knows I had no concept that she was sick all those time she had visited.

My constant nightmares began a few days after I was let to live a normal life again, perhaps I was never meant to live a normal life. By the flank of my bed, I watch as my younger self continued to waken from diverse terrifying nightmares over and over again. But of course, it never ended there, strangely those nightmares became difficult to tell apart from what's real. A sudden scream led me to focus on the direction it had come from.

“No! No, no, no, no...” My arrows and bolt were discarded on the ground and my hands were covered in fresh blood and before my younger self was the lifeless body of Mother. Everything wasn't real, but to me, they were, and it tormented me. I turned again to see my terrified self fall to the ground, panting and trembling, fearfully shifting away from the animal I had killed, only that that animal appeared to be my mother. They were all illusions or perhaps just a frightened little girl’s mind playing stunts, though I was personally losing my forms gradually as those memories flushed into me. Sweat poured down my body as I tried to stay as still as possible.

I heard a high-pitched scream; which I didn’t realize was mine until much later, my younger self was nowhere in sight. The blood on the lifeless body became the blood in my hands like I was living the memory again. A feeling of dread instantly crept up from the pit of my stomach and my heart began to beat forcefully. “No, no, no, no, no... Not again, no not again!”

I tried to wipe off the stains but the more I tried the more bloody my hands became. “I shouldn't have given birth to you...” Those words brought my head up, Mother? She was covered in blood and her face was terribly shattered.

“M-mother?” My voice was barely a whisper as it withered even before the words were let out.

“You took everything from me”

“No, mother”

“Everything I did was to protect you... You're evil” the last words came from behind me and I quickly converted. “You’re a cursed child”

“Mother please!” I cried out as the pain from her words went through me like a spear, I began to get more disoriented from each pain and curse that left her mouth. Hot tears hurried down my cheeks, I was shaking from the torment those words induced, although I tried to focus on something other than her words that kept coming like heavy rain that gradually turned into screams, I still wasn't competent. My breathing turned shallow and a high scream from the deep of my belly escaped my throat and when I peered my eyes open I was alone, panting.

Soon a shadow appeared and when I looked closely the man I hoped never to see again was before me, Ragnar Olaf. My scream never left my throat as his large hand gripped around my throat, the determination in his eyes feared me, this could be my last breath. Unexpectedly, I was shoved under water and my lungs began to fight for air.

I struggled for air and soon I felt his hand leave my throat and my body helpless began to push deep into the water while his face gradually faded away. The surface kept distancing as I continued to sink deep into the depth of the water, my mind expressing a silent farewell to the awful life I had lived. Bit by bit all became peaceful and dark before my foot faintly touched the ground again.

There in the dark, I stood barefoot, I could feel the thin water under my foot. Although I wasn't sure what I was searching for I began to trace my way through the darkness that surrounds me. The glimpse of a fella caused me to shudder slightly yet I began cautiously thrusting toward him. I was only a foot near him when he turned to face me, a spear dug into his chest and blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, my eyes grew wild in shock. “H-help” He slurred while blood kept on pacing from the cut.

The more he tried to draw near me, the more I took small steps backward, my very breath was sucked from my mouth by terror. Here before me is the same man I had burned alive. “Please aid me”

I wanted to help, perhaps this time I will do it right, I cautiously reached for the hand he had stretched forward. Regardless, a tiny flame emerged the moment my finger touched him like one who lighted a fabric, and disseminates to him, it grew to the rest of his body, and his scream filled my ears, almost shattering them. “Witch!” The word surfaced from the dark. “Witch! Witch!... Burn her...” Those words kept arriving like rain.

“She is evil, Colette. I don't need a child like her... A demon... She has dinned with the devil... A monster!... Burn her!... You killed your mother... You killed her!...”

“Enough!!!” I cried out barring my ears. “Enough... Please...” But still, the words kept coming, more like they were in my head. Disoriented, I was covered in sweat, and my heart once quickly beating was now slowing in tempo. I was suffocating. I could hold the heartbreak no longer, I fell to the floor in a disheveled heap as my grief poured out in a flood of uncontrollable tears. “Please...”

“Lier!” The voice caused my eyes to rip open, that was because I recognize the voice, Gunnar.

“Gunnar? Gunnar!...”

“You're no sister of mine...” A stabbing pain came with those words and paralyzed my legs, holding me captive. And from the shadow, my young warrior materialized. “You’re a lier!”

“No... Never...” I bite back. “Gunnar-”

“Call me not! You're a monster!”

“No-Gunnar...”

“You kill everyone around you... You destroy everyone and everything around you. A demon who unleash terror...” No, no, no... Not you Gunnar... Not you. To his words, my pain came back tenfold, I tried to speak but my words came out incoherent as I choked on my breath. I was failing to speak to him like I used to. “Monster!”

The word shattered my heart to no return, that I felt it being ripped out of my chest, faces began to appear, they were those from the day I was to be burned alive and more, cursing and rebuking me. They were so many that their voice came up too loud like a screaming rain lashing in me from every angle it sees pleased. A few disoriented steps backward ushered me into a deep hole, I kept falling until I reached the bottom and instantly, I was pulled in various angles my some hidden faces, a terrifying sight. Abruptly a hand yanked me away.

“Look, look... You're giving in to your dark memories” The unfamiliar male voice pieced into my mind, I felt both arms cupping my trembling face. “None of these are real, Aadya. Look at me, this isn't real” The voice was settling though keen. “You have to listen to me... Fight it, it's not real” He appeared about some foot taller when I finally looked up at him, though I wasn't familiar with the face, somehow I felt safe watching his amber eyes gazed back at me, so determined.

“Look, they are not real, if you succumb to them you will be trapped here. Fight it... I will be waiting” His voice slowly faded and so his body before me, and I was left alone in the endlessness space.

I turned over to figure out if I do see him but the surrounding instantly changed to a field of dead warriors outside of Zoyidel. The ashes wafting in the air brought in the unmistakable conclusion that they were all killed by fire, a vital force to be able to go this far and consume a great number of warriors. I could recognize some of the dead men as people of Zoyidel, it was a war, a war between the people of Zoyidel and some unbeknownst realm.

And then my eyes laid upon the same fella that had just called me out of my Terrified state. “Aadya!” He called “Aadya!... Aadya!” He upheld as he wove his way through the hip of dead fellows. He looked like one who was about to cease to function, behind him was Lady Harmonia also calling out my name.

“Any sign of her?” The male shook his head in response and continued to go further calling out my name. My body suddenly moved, aiming to get to him before the scenario altered. There, a young maiden sat on a throne, dressed in some black and red clothes, her moon shadow black hair flowed over her shoulders, beside her stood a towering male in a black and purple fabric and a black hood fur over his head that made it difficult to have a clear opinion of his face. In his left hand was a black staff with a skull-like dome. Everything in view was utterly destroyed beyond anything I have ever glimpsed nor imagined. Strangely she sealed eyes with me and her eyes glowed red before I felt a push and I found myself back and struggling on the surface of the pond.