Arisa, Part 1:Dusk

-Chapter VII: Childhood Memories-

Keith walked down the stairs into the kitchen. He could see Arisa and Dimitri had already finished their breakfast and were ready to leave for some work in Westhollow. Arisa had deep purple bags under her eyes. Keith reckoned more nightmares had kept her awake last night after their conversation. Dimitri on the other hand seemed to be quite fresh, even though he had been on night watch for the second time in a row this night. Keith silently joined them to have his own breakfast.
Arisa went to town again to work at a café. She managed to get hired without being recognised. The change of hair colour apparently really did the trick. Dimitri joined her, after all “it was safer if they weren’t too often at the farm now the soldiers knew where it was.” This was Dimitri’s solution and argument to convince Arisa. Arisa knew she would not win an argument like this from Dimitri and so Keith was alone at the farm today. Of course this was just Dimitri’s way of giving Keith time to read Arisa’s journals. Keith took his hint and took his opportunity.
After Arisa and Dimitri left the farm, Keith went upstairs to Arisa’s room. He noticed she had hardly changed anything about it, except for some of the hay she had moved into a corner of the room and the backpack next to it. She was really tidy, almost as if she didn’t want to leave any trace of her being here. All was just as it had been before Arisa’s arrival except for her bed, which she had just thrown on top of the haystack. The hay had been scattered by nights filled with nightmares and trashing with arms and legs. Keith picked up the bag pack and displayed the contents on the floor. He was amazed by the amount of gear Arisa carried with her. He found pots and cutlery for cooking on the road, a set of balanced knives, definitely not the eating kind, together with the tools to keep them in proper shape, some packs of dried food and cans, a bundle of clothes which Keith decided not to touch any further and of course the notebooks. There were five small notebooks, tied together with a girl’s hair ribbon. The ribbon was old and worn, just like everything else in the bag. Keith took a closer look at the books and carefully untied them. He noticed Arisa had date stamped the covers. The earliest notebook was over 12 years old. He began to read:

12 December 802 (First entry)
Dear diary,

My mother always told me that stories are very powerful. That’s why I’ll keep writing you stories about my day. I hope you’ll enjoy hearing this. My mother always did, she’s gone now, dad too, you know. I don’t really know why or even where they went. I miss her. It has been almost two years now, but I’m sure I’ll see them again…someday. Mom promised, you see. I just have to keep going, but... Oh! I’m sorry! I’m being rude! I never introduced myself to you right? My name is Arisa and I’m 6. Don’t worry, I’m not alone here. My brother, Barto is still with me. He does not know that much about our parents, he was too young to remember, I can hardly recall it myself. He’s 4, and can be a real pain in the butt, but mom always told me to take care of him, because I’m the eldest. He cannot protect himself too well, you see. Can I be honest with you? I had no idea what to do when our house burned down last week! But please don’t tell Bart. He will be upset when he finds out I don’t know where we are going! Barto can be such a cry-baby!

Keith stopped reading for a moment. So this was written when Arisa was 6. The handwriting was indeed like a six-year old, but the language… it seemed so dark for a small child. But then again he was talking about Arisa, so her vocabulary should not surprise him anymore. The second surprise was the fact that she apparently has a brother, or perhaps had? Keith wondered what would have happened with him. He hadn’t heard Arisa or Dimitri talk about him. Would he be dead?

14 May 803
Dear diary,

I sometimes still wonder if that red monster I saw at our house knew anything about where our parents went on the day of the big fire. I can’t remember him too well. I was pretty scared when I saw him. Perhaps he wasn’t even real. Could he be real?
Anyways I haven’t told you what I did today, right? Well... There is not that much to tell about that. It’s a bit boring out here. Barto and I live wherever we feel to go. We don’t need to come back to a home. It’s convenient, but also quite cold, especially at night. Today I was busy gathering food. I had to run very quick to make sure that nasty cart man would not get me. He always gets suspicious when I’m around…weird guy… I guess He doesn’t like it that I take bread from his cart, but I have no other choice, you see? Bart and I get hungry quickly and the cart man seems to have lots of bread for himself... he could share a bit from time to time, right? But he doesn’t seem to understand that…