In Another Life

A Painful Whisper

It had been four months since the wedding, and Manolo and Maria were practically already settled into their new married lives.

The General had been insistent on the newlyweds living with him. Truth be told, when they had been first offered, the two of them had desperately wanted to decline, but it seemed as though the General had a counter argument for every excuse they had thrown at him. Having nowhere else to go, they reluctantly agreed.

The experience had been difficult to say the very least. Their patience has been pushed to the very limit on some occasions.

Manolo and Maria had delayed their honeymoon for a number of reasons; the town needed to be rebuilt, Manolo needed time to grieve his family, and Maria wanted to take time to settle into her town having been away from it for so long.

After a while and some convincing from Joaquin, they had decided to go on a proper honeymoon to the capital city.

It was late afternoon, the sun beginning to set into the sky.

Maria had just dropped off the last of their luggage in the living room and was sitting on the sofa reading a book. Joaquin had asked to talk to Manolo, so she stayed home to bring their things down so they could go to the train station.

Maria got up from the sofa when she remembered to write a note to her father about how to take care of Chuy. She made sure to not leave out a single detail of how to look out for him. She knew her father wasn't much of an animal person, which is why Joaquin will be helping him.

When she was done writing, she felt a dull pain around her eyes.

It went away almost as instantly as it came, so she thought nothing of it. That is, until the pain came back, sharper and stronger, almost unbearable.

Maria cried out in pain and closed her eyes tightly, her hands rubbing her temples, staggering backwards into a wall.

She heard the voice of an older woman say, "Princess Maya will be the sun!", while seeing flashes of what looked like an ancient kingdom, three warriors dressed in jaguar armor, and a woman with a large scorpion hairstyle with a large man with a metal eagle claw in place of his missing hand. The images went by too quickly to focus on, gone before she could grasp them.

The pain and voice went away instantly.

Maria opened her eyes, panting. She looked down at the floor in wild confusion, "Princess Maya?"

"Maria!"

The next thing she knew, she saw her husband rush to her side, "Are you ok? What happened?"

Maria looked up at him, not sure how to answer, "I... I don't know. I felt pain and I thought I heard..."

Manolo looked down at her and his eyes went wide, "You're bleeding."

She looked down and noticed her arm was cut by a sword that rested on a mantle on her father's wall.

"How did I not feel that?"

"Come on. Let's get you patched up."

Manolo led her to the large bathroom in the house. She sat down near the sink as Manolo found the first aid kit. He sat by her and used a damp cloth to wipe away the blood. He used another cloth to dab rubbing alcohol on the cut to disinfect it, his wife sucking air through her teeth at the sting of the alcohol. He finished up by wrapping a bandage around her cut. The cut didn't seem bad enough to need stitches, so the bandage would be fine.

As Manolo wrapped her arm, Maria asked, "How do you know how to treat wounds like this?"

Manolo's lips tugged upwards as he said, "Not every bullfighting injury needed a trip to the doctor."