Birth of the Queen

Chapter Nine: Relief

Tristan P.O.V.

Next day, entering the class I saw her at the same seat. I sat beside her. She turned towards me and I saw what looked like a hint of a smile but it vanished as soon as it appeared. She was not a people’s person, I got that. I tried to start a conversation. “Hey.” She answered with a wide smile, “Hey.” I was surprised for a bit, then I smiled back. It was hard not to smile back at her. She had such a beautiful smile. I plucked up some courage and said, “I’m Tristan.” I moved my right hand forward and she gave her hand and said, “Prita.” The moment her hand grabbed mine I could feel everything around me shut off and I felt like I was at peace. Then the melancholy came back as we drew our hands away. I could not believe my eyes. She was the Eterna. She must be. The Council said I would know when I met her. Now I had to let them know that I had found her. But, Wait. Did she know? I was staring at her all the time and when I realized she was feeling uncomfortable, I averted my gaze. The rest of the day went in a blur. We didn’t speak all day. When school was over, I rushed to the Council and made a special request to meet the High Members. I told them about her. One of them asked, “Are you sure?” He put his right palm on my head and closed his eyes. I was scared because I thought they were going to punish me, only they didn’t. the man looked towards the others and said in a surprised voice, “It’s true.” They all looked at me with sheer surprise and a woman among them said, “As incorrigibly useless you are, you have done a good job. Now, don’t go around wasting this opportunity like your worthless father. Protect the girl until it’s time.” I asked, “Time for what, may I know?” She gave me a smug smile and gritted, “A prudish one. Aren’t you? You don’t need to know. Do your duty. You’ve done enough damage to the society. Now, pay back. And don’t kill anyone like you killed your mother.” I felt my ears heat up. Yes, every time. Each time I came here I was humiliated like this. The neighbor who was supposed to take care of me, these people didn’t even let him. They accused me of my mother’s death. My eyes started stinging. I wasn’t even trained in a group. They didn’t let me do proper practice. They wouldn’t let me join other young keepers. Times like this made me feel the urge to kill myself. But I couldn’t. Instead, I hurt myself and I planned to do that right now. I was walking home but something told me not to go home. I turned back and walked towards the part of the town where I had never ventured before. I turned towards a street and stopped in my track when I saw her. She was standing there with a bag buying something from a stationary shop. She finished started walking. I took big steps to reach her. I called her, “Hey.” She turned back and was surprised to see me. She answered awkwardly, “H..Hey. Do you live nearby?” I stuttered and lied, “Yeah. A few blocks away.” She gave me a small smile and carried on. I started walking behind her. She turned back again and asked with a little frown, “Are you going somewhere?” I didn’t lie, “No. Not really.” Her frown deepened. She asked slowly, “Are you like following me or something?” I was going to say Yes but I figured that would sound weird, so I lied with a chuckle, “No. I was just taking a stroll.” She kept on frowning as I continued, “Umm..I don’t really feel like going home.” Her face relaxed and she asked, “Do you wanna come to my house? It’s just there.” She pointed her finger to a house nearby. I was glad and surprised because this was the first time anybody had ever invited me. And I couldn’t deny. I smiled and said, “Okay.” A genuine smile broke through her lips. Man! I was growing fond of that smile. It was genuine and pure, something that was extremely rare these days. She started speaking, “You’ll love ma. She’s super awesome and she loves to feed people.” She looked at me with a playful smile and continued, “Don’t say no to her food.” I chuckled to see her excited. Moreover, I really wanted to meet her parents. I wanted to see the people who gave birth to the famous Eterna.

Her mother turned out to be truly amazing. She kind of reminded me of my mom. She had a warm smile and an excellent mastery of cooking. All the while they kept talking and I gave small answers. This was new for me. one thing I realized was that they were simple people. Simple humans. How could the Eterna be born from a human? Everything was going well until her mother asked me about my family. Prita looked at me with enthusiastic eyes and I couldn’t lie. “I have no parents”, I said dryly. I saw Prita’s eyes change and she had tears in them. I was surprised. Why would she cry? She said, her voice moist with sorrow, “I’m sorry, Tristan. I didn’t know.” I could see her mother nudge her but tears didn’t stop. Now, I was confused. She said, in a low voice, “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m crying. I can just feel your pain.” I didn’t know what to say. I just kept looking at her. “My Goodness! Is she that much tender? She doesn’t look like she is pretending. Or, is it something else?” my thoughts were cut down by Prita’s hand. She was touching my hand again. Everything around me was peaceful once again. She was saying something but I was so relaxed that I didn’t want to listen. I just wanted her to keep touching me. But, she removed her hand in a bit. The pain came back. I didn’t want to sit there anymore. So, I bid them goodbye and walked out.

We became friends very soon and realized we had many things in common. Meanwhile, I tried to contact the council but they wouldn’t let me in. it turned out that Prita liked retro ways of communication. She didn’t have a cell and we would not communicate much in class. So, we resided to writing letters. Boy, did she write amazing! There was a time when we became fans of each other’s writings. Being with her made me forget all the difficulties in my life. She made a few friends in school but the number didn’t cross four. It wasn’t like people didn’t want to be her friend, but she herself didn’t allow many. Our stupid classmates started asking questions about our relationship. They started it with me and I had only one answer. “Are you mad? Me and Prita? She isn’t my type. We’re friends.” Some boys were very interested in exploring our relationship, one of which watched Prita like a hyena. Prita clearly felt uncomfortable. I would have gauged his eyes out if Prita wasn’t involved. As days passed, I realized Prita wasn’t the tender type. But, I still couldn’t explain her reaction at the news of me being an orphan. One day our PE teacher scolded Prita for no reason and she protested, “I don’t know where the mat is. I saw it with Bridge last week.” And many knew she was telling the truth. But the teacher ended up punishing both of them. She was fuming on her way home. I told her, to calm her down, “It’s okay. Mr. Shattock is like that only.” But she was getting angrier each second. Then, stupid Bridge walked past us and then smirked at us, saying, “That’s what happens when you’re friends with a weirdo, Prita.” That was it. Pri, then, did something that I didn’t forget till date. She shouted,  “I’ll kill you. You bastard!” she ran to him and grabbed his collar. The moment he tried to remove her hand, I could see red fumes emanating from her hands. Bridge started to scream, “What are you doing?” I couldn’t understand what was happening. Pri kept her eyes fixed on Bridge and the flames rose higher. He was about to burn. I came to my senses and drew Pri away. She was struggling and tried to push me away. Her body was heating up. Her touch no longer  soothed my pain, instead I felt like she would burn me down too. She screamed, “Let me go. I’m gonna kill him.” On the other side, Bridge was literally burning. I left Pri and rushed towards Bridge and brought out my water bottle and try to stop the fire but he screamed and ran. Pri was still screaming and I could see red flames in her eyes. I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. She clearly wasn’t herself now. I grabbed hold of her and shouted, ‘Pri, calm down. Please, calm down.” She wasn’t listening. I cried out, “Pri, please.” Her gaze was averted to my eyes and the fire started disappearing. Her eyes closed and her body cooled down. Her body collapsed in my arms. I couldn’t feel her breath. I was nervous. “No. no. no. She can’t die.” My mind screamed. I called out, “Pri, wake up. Wake up, please.”  There was no one on the street. Our school was far and only thing I could think of was taking her to the Council. I kept calling her name and sobbed violently. I lost track of time. Then, she stirred and opened her eyes, still laying on the road. Then, she sat straight up. I was so relieved. She stood up and asked with a frown, “What the hell did just happen?” I frowned back, “Seriously? Do you really not remember?” She looked at me with confusion. She, then, lowered her gaze and said in a low voice, “I have to go home.” I didn’t ask her any further. I realized it wouldn’t be a good idea to pry. I told her to hail a cab but she insisted on walking. I walked her home and for the first time in months, I saw Pri walk in without saying bye to me.