Selina

4

Why can't a teenager just live in peace for a day? As much as my ma was scared yesterday, today she was persistent that I go to the weekly fair and help out my aunt Yursulana with her stall.

Every week, women in the community who worked in the fields near the Fiona river bed, sold some unique items like shells, special stones, food items, fufu grasses, ancient findings, and anything and everything that one couldn't imagine to find on their own. Rosa loved the strawberry candy stall and would eat so many candies of different shapes, sizes, and fillings, that for the next two days she would only complain of stomach ache.

My aunt Yursulana, however, was a tarot reader. She liked to pretend that she knew magic, that she could predict the future. After yesterday's dream, I had half a mind to go back to the Polki peak and find out if there was a castle but the thought of actually finding it scared me too since that meant my dream was real and there were really some Giants looking forward to ending the world; the other half of me just wanted to go check if Rosa was actually there and who those other two girls were, rather than spending an entire day listening to my aunt spooking out the community's superstitious folks and earning a great fortune.

Other than every other worry clouding my mind, there was one more question that was eating me away, who was the girl who was killed yesterday and where was she from?

As I near the fair, the smell of popcorn, candies, and even scented candles wafts through the air, and combined with the chitter-chatter of the ladies and the playful screams of the younger teenagers, who are playing hula-hoops, it makes me want to run away.

I feel guilty for getting to experience everything without my best friend. She was the one who loved this place, who interacted with everyone with a huge smile on her face, and yet these women didn't waste a second to turn their backs on her when she needed their support. I clench my fists suddenly feeling angry at everyone. A part of me wants to give them a piece of my mind but I know better than wasting energy at people who don't deserve it. Besides Rosa would expect better from me.

My aunt's van is located near the far end of the fair, decorated with flowers, beads, and posters displaying the charges of the various services she provides. Today, she has gone a mile ahead and also put incense sticks on one corner and hung some cards with scary faces on the other.

A woman or two hang around the van, gathering courage to speak to my aunt for she is not an easy woman. Unlike my mother, who looks all sweet and feminine with her black hair always hanging loose on the shoulders and her face youthful and pretty, my aunt looks scary and a hundred years old despite being only a year older than my ma. Smoking has made her voice heavy and combined with the kohl lines she makes around her eyes and on her forehead, she looks like the witch she claims to be.

Once I reach the van, I take a seat on one of the little chairs placed near the door and take a moment to look around. The joy on everyone's faces doesn't even give a hint of the officials surrounding the fair, their guns ready to shoot anyone who breaks the rules and creates havoc.

We are allowed to be happy just not ecstatic enough with everything at the tips of our fingers to create a ruckus that can once again lead to events that angered nature years back.

The door to the van opens a few minutes later, and my aunt steps out in a black skirt and blouse, her long hair dyed a muddy brown shade and her haunting makeup in place. She asks me to clean up her van without sparing me a glance and immediately gets to business with the women who have finally taken a seat on the small chairs, ready to waste their money on the bluff.

I hate cleaning the van, it's one thing to look at the weird cards, and magic items but to be actually touching them, no way. The door shuts on its own once I enter and I find myself face to face with a little black cat. She looks at me like she is the employer who is going to give me some wages for cleaning up the mess.

Food cans, dry leaves, and cigarettes are littered everywhere. I start by picking up the big wrappers and cans and filling them up in a white cloth bag, followed by sweeping and making the bed.

By the time I am done, I can't move a muscle. Who knew cleaning a small van would be such a task?

When I step out for lunch, my aunt's table is hustling and bustling with crowds and so I decide to take lunch at the back of the van. The fair is located close to the Gionia forests and my aunt's van looks like the border that you need to cross to go inside.

I am busy stuffing my mouth with spoonfuls of rice when I see a shadow behind a tree.

'Who's it?' I call out but get no reply. Putting the bowl aside, I stand up to inform my aunt but decide otherwise. Carefully stepping on the grass, I go near the tree, but the shadow is now behind another one, a little further away. How did the person move so fast that I couldn't even see it?

I once again move towards it, but it moves further away. In no time, without realising it, I am deep inside the forest with no clue of where I came from. The light is dim because of the trees and I can't believe what a fool I am to have followed a mere shadow that could have been caused by the sunlight.

I turn around to go back but something strikes me and I fall on my back. A huge man stands above me, a smirk on his face, as he raises a sword, that glints from the little light falling on it, to kill me.

I gain senses just in time to roll over when he brings down the sword.

'Who are you?' I ask panting as I stand up to get a better look at my enemy. He looks like a mini giant, his hair and clothing like what I had seen the Giants wearing in my dream and his sword like a branch of a tree.

'I am your death. No prophecy can stop us this time. I will end all girls with black hair.' He bellows before charging at me again.

I once again sidestep him, quickly realising his weakness.

'So you killed the other girl? Where did you bring her from?' I ask as he turns around to charge at me again.

'The Greog village, where else. Now stop wasting my time and get ready to die.' He says, this time coming faster than before and though I manage to avoid the sword, I trip on a root and fall sideways. He doesn't spare a second to hit me but I roll away quickly desperate to stay alive.

All the movement combined with the fall makes me dizzy but a plan forms in my brain. I may not have a gun, but using it has taught me how to aim. Collecting a few stones lying around me, I get up quickly and run to a distance from the baby Giant. He tries to catch up with me but his weight holds him back.

Adrenaline shoots through me as I aim my first stone. The Giant is so lost in catching me that he doesn't even notice when my stone flies in his direction and pierces one of his eyes. Huge drops of blood splotch on the grass as he groans in pain. Fueled by agony he once again tries to catch me and cut me into two halves, this time with more intensity but anger can never help you. I run away once again and the minute he turns towards me, I hit him with another stone, making him blind.

While he falls down in pain, I continuously hurtle stones at him, piercing his chest and gravely injuring him before using his own fallen sword to chop his head off from his body.

I don't understand the severity of my actions until the deed is done, and it's only after it that I come back to my senses and realise that I am a murderer.

The adrenaline goes away, and I slowly move back to where I think I came from until the van is in sight but just before I can make it, I feel my eyes closing against my will.