Tears of Rain

Sunrise

I pulled back the sheen velvet curtains that lined my windows. The touch of their fabric was soft to my calloused fingers. It was another beautiful but deadly sunrise I saw. It had been the same routine for the sun since last month. To be precise, since the 17th of October.  

Sunrise

Burn Bright

Sunset

Nothing new... nothing changed. Castell was still facing a severe drought. Thinking about the tedious, scorching day that awaited me made my mouth dry. I was parched and dripping with sweat even though I had slept wearing minimal clothing with my arms and legs flailing out of the thin sheet for most of the night. Water. I needed water. We all needed water. Castell needed water.

You know that song, 'Rain, rain go away, come again another day'? Well, I really wished I hadn't sung that during the wet season. It's like I sent the rain away. Huh... As if. 

All of the church services I have been to in the past week have ended with this constant prayer: 

Oh Lord, we pray that the Heavens will shower us with the rain that we need in order to prosper as well as you, God. Amen. 

No offence, but I really didn't think 'the Heavens will shower us with the rain'. The only way the drought would've ended was if the weather miraculously decided to take hold of itself and fill the non-existent clouds with water. I started my dooming descent to the kitchen - my thirst longed to be quenched. One step. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve. Thirteen. The same thirteen steps I take every morning. When I reached the landing, I stared into the darkness engulfing me. That's odd, I thought. The sun has already risen. Why the hell is it so dark? 

"Mum?" I whimpered. Yes, in times of distress a fourteen year old girl will still call for her mother. "M...mum?" Not gonna lie, I was pretty scared. I felt around me, arms outstreched. There was nothing surrounding me. No obstacles - just nothingness. I took a nimble step forward and found that my foot was caught in something on the ground. I grunted and pulled. My foot wouldn't come unstuck, no matter how hard I attempted to pull it out. "Damn..." I muttered under my breath. 

The air around me had started to become cold and a slight breeze blew in through an opening somewhere. I pictured the bottom level of my house in the light, and tried to work out where I would be standing. There were no windows where I was apparently fixated, with my foot stuck somwhere in the ground. The only place the wind could have been coming from was from the emergency trapdoor in the corner of the kitchen, and we never left that open. 

My breaths were quick and shallow. Suddenly, whatever was gripping my foot came loose and I lurched forward, landing face first on the cold, hard floor. A shrill crash echoed through the room, making me shiver as I struggled to stand up in the dark from my awkward position on the floor. 

A voice boomed all of a sudden. I was thrown aback. 

"Daphne Chantilly. The sun has risen." 

I started to walk backwards, hoping I wouldn't crash into anything. "Yeah, I know. I'm not stupid. Who are you?" 

There was a silence. 

"Hello? You there? Creepy, mysterious voice...?" 

Still silence. 

"Yeah, this isn't funny. If this is a prank Angus..." 

"You are a strange girl, you know." the voice resonated. "Daphne Chantilly. The sun has risen." 

I rolled my eyes, "YES, I know --"

And in an instant, the lights turned on. I was in my house still, so it was all good. But, something seemed really unnatural. Everything was way too, clean. "Mum!" I called, desperate now. 

"Daphne..." I could hear my mother. "Daphne..." Her voice was weak. 

"Mum!?" I cried. "Where are you?" By this stage I was frantically darting around the kitchen looking for my mother. I even opened cupboards, though it was clear my mother wouldn't have been able to fit inside them. Then I looked at the front door. It was upside down. Hanging off the door, also upside down, was my mother. Limp on the floor underneath her head was my brother Angus. Their bodies were thin and their bones were visible underneath their papery skin. I ran forward and collapsed onto my knees, skimming my fingers over my mother and Angus' faces. "Mum... Angus..." I whimpered between tears. My head started to spin. Not like, dizzy, I mean, really spin. And then I was hit with blackness. 

When I woke up I was in a stark, white room. There were lights in every crevice and corner, but no windows or doors were visible. And that was when I heard the voice again. Still sobbing, I managed to pull myself together to hear what the voice had to say this time. "Daphne Chantilly. The sun has risen. Tears have been shed. You have succeeded."

And the blackness came again.