TimeBound (Time Tells #1) (COMPLETED)

Chapter Nine

Now...

I had managed to recreate a large chunk of all the deleted portions of my draft.

Of course, four times in between I almost jumped into the pool and decided drowning was a better choice than rewriting a scene. Twice I banged my head against the laptop for five minutes. Five times, I got distracted and watched movie trailers and then reviews for those movies.

Of course a nice interlude for delicious lunch that I shared with Hrei.

In the midst of this, I managed to get some work done. And I commend myself on it.

Now, it was time for a break. Well deserved in my opinion.

I stretch my arms up and lift my legs out of the pool. Little ducts under my feet shoot a gust of warm air up my legs as I stand. My brows raise.

Four seconds later I'm drier than the desert.

I decided it was time for a spot change. I carry my laptop and phone and begin a spot hunt.

After a careful scout I decide the sofa in the living space looked mighty comfortable. I toss my things onto it and fall into the sofa. It was like sleeping on a cloud.

I would groan if I had any non-melted muscles left. My eyes close, a mild pounding beginning at the back of them.

Maybe a nap was not a bad idea.

Not a bad idea at all...
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A name being screamed in the darkness.

Screams. Desperation. Running.

Clangs of metal.

Silence...

Fire burning to the sky.

Funeral.

My husband's.

Walking towards it.

I wake with a start. My eyes widen as I realise my nap had turned into a coma. I had slept for an hour. Perhaps making up for all the sleep I hadn't got before my wedding.

I press a hand to my forehead. The voice screaming a name in the darkness. The chord it struck inside me...and I knew. It was my name.

And the one calling me...

I drag in a breath. My fingers tremble as I reach for my laptop. I remembered the vision I had had at my wedding. Something that recurred now in my dream.

I opened a search engine.

Jumping into husband's pyre

I click the very first link that turns up.

Sati or suttee is an obsolete funeral custom where a widow immolates herself on her husband's pyre or takes her own life in another fashion shortly after her husband's death.

Mention of the practice can be dated back to the 3rd century BCE, while evidence of practice by widows of kings only appears beginning between the 5th and 9th centuries CE. The practice is considered to have originated within the warrior aristocracy in the Indian subcontinent, gradually gaining in popularity from the 10th century CE and spreading to other groups from the 12th through 18th century CE. The practice was particularly prevalent among some Hindu communities, observed in aristocratic Hindu families, and has been attested to outside the Indian subcontinent in a number of localities in Southeast Asia, such as in Indonesia and Vietnam.