BETROTHED ✓

21°

Larai's footsteps resounded in the quiet, lonely road. The rate at which her heartbeat, skyrocketed. She kept on swiveling her head in the hopes of seeing someone—anyone, but nothing could be seen, except for the bushes and trees of course. No birds were chirping and flying.

Just as she increased her pace, she heard the sound of another footstep shuffling behind her.

With her heart thumping aggressively against its confines, she turned around.

At the sight of a hideous being, whose face was completely battered, tears of blood flowing from its eyes and from between its legs, Larai let out a horrific scream and took to her heels. "Please save me!" She kept on screaming, as she ran as fast as her tired legs could carry her.

She didn't stop running until she arrived at the dead-end of a cliff. Her body trembled as she turned around, but surprisingly, the hideous being hadn't followed her. She inhaled and exhaled.

Her relief was short-lived when all of a sudden, it appeared again. "Nooooooo!!" She screamed at the top of her lungs and took a step back, then another, totally forgetting about the cliff behind her. "What are you? Please don't hurt me." She cried.

"This is all your fault!"  A familiar voice echoed.

Azumi? Larai's eyes dilated and she lifted her head. Sure enough, it was her sister. The hideous being had transformed into Azumi.

Larai took in a sudden breath. "Azumi?" She called and advanced towards her sister, but with each step she took forward, Azumi backed away from her. "Please wait! Where are you going? Why are you shedding tears of blood?" Larai's gaze then trailed to her legs. "Why do you have blood running down your legs."

"This is all your fault." More blood streamed down her face. "This is all your fault." She kept on repeating the words.

"What are you saying?" Larai stretched out a hand to hold her sister, but to her utmost horror, her hand went through her body. Bewildered,

Larai's heart plummeted and she let out a gasp. Despite how hard she tried, she couldn't wrap her head around the mystery right in front of her.

"I'm leaving and I'm never coming back. I'm never going to forgive you. I hate you!"

"Please don't say that, Azumi." Larai couldn't control her tears anymore. "And what do you mean you're leaving? We haven't fulfilled our dreams yet. I haven't even thought you how to knit, read and write, remember?"

"It's all over now. Goodbye." She closed her eyes and her body slowly began to diminish right in front of Larai's eyes.

"Azumi!" She screamed and raced towards her, but it was already too late. Her sister had already dissipated into thin air.

"AZUMI!!!" Larai screamed and sprung up from bed, sweating profusely.

Her breaths emerged in ragged pants. She tried to control her breathing by opening her mouth, but her effort was futile.

She wrapped a hand around her neck and swallowed hard. "What...what sort of a dream was that?" She yanked the duvet off her body and got down from the bed. "Azumi." She cried and curled into a ball by the foot of the bed. She couldn't comprehend what the dream was about, but she had a hunch something terrible was going on with her sister. She could feel it in her heart. "Ya Allah, please protect my sister."

Larai got into her bed again and attempted to sleep, but immediately she closed her eyes, the heart-wrenching picture of Azumi flashed into her mind and her words kept on reverberating.