Reincarnated Without a Body

ch 24: dream

"EmiLea! Dinner is ready." Mother's lovely voice called our names from the kitchen.

Her small voice is barely audible over the constant buzzing of insects, but we heard her all too well. Our famished belly instantly took over and we jump down from our bed, dropping the rag dolls we were holding onto the dusty floor.

It's quite dark and chilly, but we speed through the house with ease as we know every inch of it. In no time, we reach the dimly lit kitchen.

Weird. The kitchen seems different than what I remember. It is unbelievablely empty, devoid of anything apart from mother, standing towering over our measly height with a basket in her hand.

"Mom, what's for dinner?" Emi ask mother impatiently, unfazed by the bizzare situation.

Mother doesn't say anything back. Instead, she suddenly threw out the content of the basket on the dirty floor. After that she open her mouth, only to mutter a single word.

"Eat." Mother said.

But the coarse voice was not her's.

Mother? Is this really our mother? This kitchen strangely doesn't even have a window, making it darker than usual. I want to ascertain who's the person standing in front of us, but my body doesn't listen to me. Instead, my sight falls down on the hard breads the person just thrown out on the floor.

Emi grab two pieces of them, and began shoving it down my throat. The bread is so bitter, it feels like I'm eating medicine.

Suddenly, about a dozen of small pair of hands reach for the bread too. The quickest, and the biggest pair of hand sneakily took two pieces without letting the others see. Strange, there shouldn't be anyone else in the house apart from us and mother right now.

"I saw them taking two!" I heard a voice of a boy shouting at me.  Yet the voice sounds somewhat familiar.

I look up, and saw the fat boy Daus and the rest of the kids. They are staring at us ominously.

Huh? Why are they here at our house?

"Mother.. " I feel scared and instantly call out for mother.

I turn my head in her direction but the spot she was standing at moments ago is now empty. Mother disappeared without a single trace.

Confused, I back away from the hostile kids, but the door is closed. And somehow I know it's locked, without even checking it.

"I still haven't got one!" one of them shouted.

His voice also sounds familiar. It's Kal.

"Why are you selfishly taking two for yourself!?" it's Man shouting this time.

Then the rest also join in, throwing cuss after cuss at us.

"Monster!"

"Demon!"

"You're horrible! Apologize!" Daus bellowed.

The kids surround us while inching closer ever so slightly. They felt so intimidating and scary, while our body feels weak and tired.

"S.. Shut up!" I scream on top of my lung.

Then the dark 'kitchen' is gone. Replaced by a brightly lit room. I found myself staring at a pure white ceiling. I look around, but the kids are nowhere to be found.

Instead, there's two grown man in the room, looking at us with a surprised face. Bear is sitting on a chair while that bastard Kanan is grovelling miserably on the floor.

We lock eyes in silence, but only for a brief moment as darkness once again engulf my vision.

What is happening? I'm scared. It become pitch black. It's painful. It's cold. It's scary.

It's... lonely...

"Mommy, I'm scared." I heard Emi whimper.

"It's fine sweetie. Mom and dad is here with you." Mother's soft voice whispered into our ears.

Then the pain and cold vanish, replaced by mother's gentle hug and cozy warmth. We are lying on the bed, cuddling close together under the thick fur blanket to escape from the worst of the cold winter. Father also inch closer towards us, sandwiching us between him and mother.

"Sleep tight." Father whispered with his deep voice.

Father pull the blanket over our heads.The thick fur does it's job splendidly, making me feel suffocated.  It wraps around us tightly.

Suddenly the comfortable bed disappeared from beneath us. No, we are being lifted and carried somewhere, in a very crude way. I try to get out from under the blanket, but the blanket seems to have changed into a coarse gunny sack.

"Let us out!" I shouted.

"Bam."

Something hard hit our body. It hurts! More hits follows after the initial one.

"It hurts! Please, stop!"

The beating just get worse. After what feels like ages, the abuse finally stopped. We were thrown out of the gunny sack onto the floor.

There's a fireplace in front of us. a small fire flickered inside it. The flame is very little, but it is quickly getting bigger.

Suddenly, a man appear out of nowhere and grab a metal rod from the fire. The end of the rod is glowing red. He turns towards us and began closing the distance, all the while extending the glowing hot metal rod at us.

Cold sweat drips from all over our body. I want to run, but our body won't budge. The brightly glowing metal is inching closer towards us. I want to run, but our body just froze stiff. I'm unable to move a single muscle as the man press the glowing hot rod on our face.

"Chirp chirp"

A streak of of sunlight hit my face, waking me up from what feels like the longest nightmare in the world. The sound of birds chirping in the distant sounds like it's boasting its freedom to me.

"Good morning." An unfamiliar voice greet us.

By our bedside, there's an old man that looks twice as old as dad. He wore a simple white garment, yet he still exude a dignified aura greater than the extravagant Bear.

"How are you feeling?" He ask softly while giving us a tight, bitter smile. His hands busy stirring a foul, bitter smelling concoction.

I just answer him with my own tight, bitter smile. I'm too weak to even speak. The old man proceed to tend to our mangled body, cleaning the wounds and changing the bandages.

Somehow, I manage to tilt my head to the side a bit, just barely enough to get a clear look of the room.

I saw Bear, snoring loudly on the chair with Kanan kneeling timidly at his feet. A wave of  spite fill my mind. Why bother putting us in this fancy room, just to treat us worse than animal?