Rosa

Three months before...

The wind blew in, making Rosa shiver from how it felt like a cold embrace on her tiny little body. Though from the moment she had landed in this hell hole, it was just her body that had been freezing, her heart was burning in heat from the guilt she felt over her actions.

She had been a fool like always. Instead of trusting the girl who had been by her side since childhood, she had trusted a stranger and a devil's voice. Oh, how she wished she could go back in time and change her decisions but now she could only repent.

The tormenting voice in her mind had told her that the war was over but she knew it was only a temporary calm before the storm for the voice would have disappeared if the monster had truly been killed. What always perplexed her was the fact that despite Asura being male, it was a girl who always spoke in her mind. A girl with the softest voice as if she was trying to put Rosa in a trance to put her to sleep.

It was the voice, Rosa always wanted her mother to sing in as a child but all she got was hatred. Her mother called her an unwanted witch and she couldn't have been more correct. Rosa felt like a traitor and though she didn't want to repeat what she did in her childhood, she had anyways ended up doing that.

The voice had asked to her go to Greog and then the girl from her nightmares had completely taken over her body till Selina had run away to only get kidnapped. Rosa had been forced to watch as the girl had accused Selina and she had felt proud when Selina had retorted back.

How far her friend had come in life and despite not remembering her past she had fought gallantly in a battle she wasn't even aware of until it was almost time.

When Jackson had told everyone that Rosa and him had forgotten about Selina's wings, he had been saying the truth he knew but what he didn't know was that Rosa had remembered all along, thanks to Maya, the woman who hated her with all her might and had made it her life's mission to make her life miserable. Aunt Urusa had seen the truth haunting her mind and had sent her here in anger. She was grateful that the can of worms had not opened in front of her favourite uncle Jackson who was the only family that loved her immensely but she had never felt more guilty.

What a coward she was that in all the years she couldn't tell her best friend the truth, couldn't tell her uncle, who could move oceans for her, the truth. She couldn't tell them that the wings had only been made dormant by the King's weapon though she had researched all that was to know about her friend's gift from the Gods.

In the initial years, she had blamed her lack of honesty on fear. But she knew that it was nothing remotely close to fear that had made her hide the truth. Secretly, she had been happy to have her friend become normal for she was afraid the wings would have brought fame and the fame would have driven them apart.

Jealousy was another reason she never wanted her friend to have those beautiful wings. Why did Selina get to have everything amazing but Rosa could not even get a loving parent? It had made her blind and weak, a puppet in the end to misery and she now wanted to break the shackles. She wanted to be good, she wanted to ask forgiveness from Selina and everyone she had hurt. But even more she wanted to apologise to Trub, the friend who had always been by her side cause he believed in her. The friend who was now God knows where, suffering at the hands of the elders from Kholali and the evil magic doers from Tooth.

Rosa sniffled as she felt warm from the turmoil of emotions she went through everyday. She was tired of the indefinite sadness that haunted her every minute of the day. She wanted to be brave like Selina and if that meant navigating the hell hole alone to find an escape, so be it.

She received a package of food and water everyday and it came down somewhere from the tiny hole in the ceiling, if only she could find a way to reach there! She knew that the little magic she had always made her too weak to do anything else in the end but nevertheless she wanted to try.

Concentrating on the hole in the ceiling she imagined a staircase going up to it from in front of her. Slowly, a faint outline of a staircase started to form and Rosa started climbing up quickly despite the stairs almost disappearing every time she stepped on them leaving her dangling from the tiny hole in the ceiling. Sweat dripping from her face she held on with all her might as the magic drained her body of all her energy.

It's funny how curses worked. Big curses on monsters hurt them like a pinch from a little child but the smallest curses on humans left them struggling for the tiniest breath.

As Rosa tried to inhale through her choking chest, she remembered the day she had been given this curse.

Flashback...

'Rosa, where are you?' Twyna, Rosa's mother screamed in a drunken voice, as Rosa hid in a closet. It was the first week of coming back from Sehar and Rosa was already missing her life back in the capital. She hated this little village but most of all she hated her house. As much as Rosa tried to keep it clean, it always went back to its cluttered state with a foul smell adding cherry to the cake.

Rosa trembled thinking about how her mother had beaten her up the last time and for the umpteenth time she wished that she had magic. Even a little bit of it that would keep her protected from her mother's wrath would suffice but she wanted to be able to protect herself.

'Rosaa, I see you, hiding away in that closet, do you think you can escape?' Her mother hollered with joy making Rosa freeze in panic but it wasn't the only reason for Rosa's state. Two pairs of eyes were looking at her from the closet door and a mouth was slowly forming near the handle.

'Ouch, ouch, I hate these things.' A male voice poured out of the mouth making Rosa shift slightly back into the dirty clothes filled in the closet.

'Well, I am the spirit of the house and as much as I know that you have not been a good child, I hate to see you getting thrashed by your mother therefore I am going to give you a little magic but remember to use it wisely or a curse shall invoke. You can only use this magic to defend yourself but if you ever use it to cater to your selfish needs, the curse will start and every time you use your magic, it will bring you a step closer to death...'

Before the spirit could complete saying whatever he meant to say, the door of the closet opened and Rosa's mother pulled her out by the hair, muttering curses that Rosa had grown accustomed to hearing.

As she went to hit Rosa, this time Rosa's prayers came through and her mother couldn't even lay a hand on her. Happiness blossomed through Rosa as she realised the magic had worked.

Lost in the daze of merry once her mother went away cursing her like she did every night, Rosa forgot about the caution that came with the boon and that very night, she conjured up a carriage that would take her away but though the carriage came, she felt seizures running up and down her body as her eyes closed slowly and she saw the carriage dim until it completely disappeared.

When she got up, Selina was beside her and Aunt Urusa was looking at her in suspicion. Unlike Selina, she knew that Aunt Urusa was not an ordinary human being and so in front of her she always kept her secrets safeguarded in the deepest part of the mind but this secret she couldn't enclose.

The minute Selina went to get her a chocolate, Aunt Urusa sat beside her and warned her of the consequences like a real mother would to her daughter. How many times she wished that Aunt Urusa was her mother but alas, fate had never been on her side. She did have magic now, but what use was it if she were to live the same as she did when she didn't have it?

Present...

Rosa's hands started giving up and the moisture collected where she had been gripping on the hole, started making her hands slip. Nevertheless, she couldn't give up now, when she was so close to getting out, when she knew her magic might not work the next time.

Pushing her body up with all her might, she finally managed to get her head out of the little hole to realise she was back on Polki and her house was just a few feet away. She dreaded the house but she wanted to escape. Giving another push with her hands that were mere seconds from losing the grip, she somehow managed to bring her upper body out of the hole and dragged the rest of herself to a little distance until her body gave up completely and she found herself going to a deep sleep.