Chasing Dreams (Discontinued)

Chapter 258: The Princess of the Wilderness

Once, when Manasa was a woman grown, a child lived with her for a few years. A child with unkempt brown hair, honey skin, and green eyes that yearned for the sea.

The child often sang. He sang about his home despite never being there. He sang about a kingdom below the ocean currents with translucent walls and floors made of seashells.

The child often tried to make her sing along, and she'd give him the same reply each time.

"No." Manasa answered curtly, but the words didn't belong to her. Her ears listened and knew it wasn't her voice, yet things continued as if it were.

"But why? Come on Kumi sing with me." The boy begged.

Manasa blinked. Her eyes felt heavy, and her mind did too. The boy was staring at her his eyes were large with a childish innocence that she recognized only in herself.

He's talking to me?

Manasa wanted to ask him who is Kumi. That wasn't her birth name or a nickname yet the boy called out to her as if it were.

"Songs are meant for the dead not the living." Manasa said. She felt startled and uncomfortable in her skin. Like she was wrapped in a sleeping bag made of flesh. Her voice confused Manasa the most. The voice she heard wasn't girlish and full of wonder it was soft and coy like a devil leading you to hell.

The boy didn't seem satisfied with her answer. "How are songs meant for the dead when the dead can't hear them stupid."

"Songs are ageless. Songs tell stories about people who've long passed. If a song is forgotten then the dead are too." Manasa impulsively smiled. She tapped the boy's forehead with her finger like she intended to stab a hole in it. "The memory is the key to mortality. A person only truly dies when they are forgotten. Not when their life ends, nor when their flesh decays, or when their spirit ceases to exist. You'd best remember that Emilio."

Manasa remembered when she first met the boy then. It was many moons ago when the boy was still an infant. Back then the boy used to wail. He was even louder then than he was now.

An orphan? Pitiful, how pitiful. The ocean didn't swallow you up like it did the others. Maybe your gods wish to see you suffer for a while longer.

Manasa heard the baby wail. Hearing it scream made her think back to her siblings. Mei, Leu, and Feng. There was a time when thinking about her loved ones brought her solace, but now all she felt was pain.

An image burned itself in the back of Manasa's mind. She saw her father, copper-skinned, muscular, tall, and handsome. His black hair hung in a low ponytail partially covering the crescent moon on his back and his other detailed tattoos.

The image shifted. The bright blue sky turned dark red like someone slit its stomach open and allowed blood to spill out. Her father was clutching a woman. Upon second glance she saw it was Diwa. She looked young very young no older than Suzume. Her stomach was torn open like a cracked egg.

Her father looked lost. Her red eyes were glazed black and he cradled the woman and a mashed newborn in silence.

Remembering that moment stirred something in Manasa's brain. She felt like she was melting. Cognitive thoughts stopped flowing they slowed and blew away like mountains of ash. The anger and guilt Manasa felt were beyond anything she had sensed up until now.

I want to erase it.

Manasa grabbed the infant by the head and the baby squealed like a pig. She didn't know mountains of meat were capable of making sounds. Nonetheless, she decided to give the noisy beast the gift of mercy. There was no point leaving it on the beach to die. If she didn't kill it then a seagull or some other creature would.

Manasa shoved her fingers in the child's mouth deciding to tear the tongue out first to cease its wailing. But then her fingers felt sticky. She tried to pull but couldn't, her fingers were wedged between the baby's teeth.

Now she was amused.

"You want to live." Manasa remarked. "Very well I'll let you. Perhaps my initial assumption was wrong and the gods didn't curse you to live a little longer. I think you continue to live to curse them. If that's what you desire then so be it. I'll help you. I'll give you anything you want and more. The only thing I ask in return is that you'll never abandon me."