Vanished (I LUV U.) - Abide With Me Book 1

Chapter 14 - Hate and Memories

Three more chapters... two more days... you will finally know...

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Chapter Fourteen - HATE AND MEMORIES

June 6, 1499

“A-Anita?” Alaya fell on her knees in disbelief. Tears escaped her eyes and landed on the grass like morning dew. She just couldn’t believe her own sister was standing in front of her. Was this a dream? she wondered. I am that hysterical? The day before, she thought Anita was dead, killed by a strange bandaged being.

The exiled princess waited for her sister to come to her arms. But after a long wait, Anita just stood there, staring at her atz. Her magnificent grey eyes were gleaming in the sun and twitching, as if they were wet and teary. She kept gripping on her Pyramus knives while the rest of her was frozen under the morning sky.

Alaya just couldn’t wait any longer. She pushed on the ground, launching herself on her feet and ran towards her with open arms.

Suddenly, the girl felt a prick on her waist. Alaya looked down and saw blood dripping from a tiny cut close to her navel. Why does my culture force me to leave my waist unprotected?

Wait…it wasn’t a tiny cut. It was a shallow, but long one that encompassed the width of her body. Every part of her skin below that was beginning to be soaked in red. Alaya’s eyes moved around, wondering how she’d been cut.

And she realized…the knife in Anita’s right hand was dripping blood on its tip.

“Why?”

In a split second, Anita lunged, trying to strike her atz’s jugular vein. Alaya was slow, but not slow enough that she sidestepped out of the way. She slammed her back against a nearby tree. Its abrasive bark scratched her skin. Suddenly, Anita lunged again, this time spewing fire out of the tips of her blades. The exiled princess quickly bowed her head and dropped to the ground.

“Anita, what are you doing!?” she asked.

Looking up, Alaya saw the anger and emotion in her sister’s eyes. Her tear glands were liked burst dams releasing years of internalized envy and rage. She approached her atz with anger in the form of fires spewing out of her knives.

“You have no clue what you have done to me!” she muttered in total aggression. “You took what I wanted, what I loved! Now, I shall take your life!”

Before Anita could decapitate her, Alaya rolled out of the way, only to be stopped by the same tree whose bark scratched her skin. She stood up, unsheathed her triangular dagger and nervously pointed towards her sister.

A sinister smile appeared on Anita’s face. “Your cinquedea will do you no good, atz. Two knives are always better than one.”

Anita kicked high in the air, unleashing a wave of flames that Alaya narrowly avoided. It sliced off all the branches of the tree behind her and set off a small bushfire.

The exiled princess was torn between defending herself and keeping her sister safe. She kicked a flame wave, too, a weaker version. It barely reached Anita. Nervous, Alaya turned and headed for the grassland where the stakes could be more even.

She managed to escape the confines of the woods and entered the open plains. An abrupt stream of fire bellowed out of the shadows. Alaya threw herself to the ground, before throwing her own stream of flames with total inaccuracy.

Anita stepped out of the shadows. “I was always better at this than you,” she said, smiling and crying at the same time. “Should that not be enough to impress the Hachen Village? It impressed father and mother! Why could my skills not impress anyone else!?”