**Chapter Three: The Spiral and the Flame**
318 Words
The mark burned for three days.
Awele kept it to herself—didn’t even tell Toba.
She didn’t have to.
When she got back to the village, she felt different. People were looking at her in a new way. Not scared, but careful, like a calm before a storm that might erupt again.
She kept quiet, barely ate, and slept even less.
The spiral on her chest glowed a little when she was alone. She wrapped a cloth around herself to hide it, even from her own eyes.
What scared her most wasn’t the mark but what it meant.
The voice had said: “Two paths. Two fates.”
Which one was she on now?
And what had she left behind when she stepped into the spirit realm?
---
The red moon was getting closer. Every elder had their own stories about it. The priest wouldn’t open the shrine. Villagers stayed away from the stream after dark.
Then the animals started acting weird.
Awele noticed a goat standing for hours at the edge of her yard, just staring at her door. When she stepped outside, it turned and walked into the bushes. The next morning, they found it dead—eyes wide open, legs burned.
No one had an explanation.
The villagers said the gods were upset.
Awele didn’t say anything.
But the stone Toba had given her started to hum.
---
On the third night, she had another dream.
She found herself in a dark field under a red sky. Fire floated by, like leaves in the wind. Far away, she spotted a big tree—twisted and burned.
Tied to the tree was a figure—a child.
She sprinted toward it.
The wind howled around her.
Just as she reached the tree, the child opened its mouth—
And Awele woke up, screaming.
The cloth around her chest was singed.
The second spiral had appeared.
- Writer
