Selina

8

After having a pity party for about an hour, which involved crying, pacing around the room, and changing into a new set of clothes that Gemma had pointed at before leaving, I chug another glass of water before deciding to explore the place.

The minute I move out of the room, I hear clapping and turn around, but there is no one and that's when I realise what's happening.

'Maya, you are back.' I say in my mind obviously to not look crazy.

'Of course, I am, it was frustrating to see you cry and have all those sad thoughts but I am happy to see you moving on. Friends are meant to be traitors it's nothing new. At least she didn't stab you in the back like Brutus.' She says casually with a small laugh and I can't help but wince at her words and think about who Brutus is.

Words are indeed mightier than the sword and have more power to hurt you and leave wounds that never fill up.

'Look, I am not sure what your friends did to you but I am sure Rosa has a reason for her behaviour. She isn't like that.' This time Maya lets out a small angry shriek before muttering something like breathe and letting out a small sigh.

'Well I hope for your sake that whatever you said is true, I wasn't lucky to have decent friends but I pray that you will be.' She says in a gloomy tone and I get a feeling that she is not being honest with her words.

'You don't want me to have friends, isn't it? Wait did you do something?' I ask, the worst of thoughts suddenly surrounding me.

'What, no! It's true that I don't want you to have friends but in no way I am trying to sabotage your friendships, I am classy like that.' She says and purposely takes a long noisy sip of whatever she is drinking. Wait how is she drinking something inside me, am I like a house for her, but she is taller than me, ok I don't want to know, forget about it.

'So do you know why she is acting like that, I mean being a princess and all if your servants told you...' I ask sheepishly.

'Huh they did, but why should I tell you.' She says haughtily.

'Because you said you are here to help me!' I say in frustration. How can she forget what she told me yesterday?

'Well, that's right too. Look I can't tell you everything that's happening in Rosa's life because that's her story to tell, but right now someone has made her believe that you are going to betray her and-'

'-and so she is not talking to me because self-preservation is better than living with a broken heart.' I complete Maya's sentence and I can imagine her looking at me with sympathy.

'But why couldn't she come and talk to me? Haven't I done enough to prove that I am her loyal friend?' I say not able to wrap it around my head that Rosa doesn't trust me enough to even communicate with me face to face.

'Sometimes insecurities make you do things you don't expect to do. Selina, you are different, you try to find answers but not everyone is like that. Some people, they just try to get rid of the shady parts of life then explore them till the end and emerge out as winners. Rosa, she- Gemma was right, Rosa has been through a lot maybe space is what she needs right now.' Maya says before disappearing again but it won't be me if I take people's advice and just leave my friends alone.

If I have arrived here, and if there is indeed a giant coming to kill me, I am not dying before finding out what's going on at this place, with these girls, with Rosa!

I continue walking angrily in a random direction, hoping to find anyone but all I find is silence.

The place looks like a palace with huge white pillars, swords hanging for display, old, dusty curtains, and wide windows that open up to the view of the jungles. How has no one ever reached here?

It has all the feels of an ancient building, I wonder how it survived in the first place.

As I walk through, I suddenly see light coming through from a slightly ajar door and as I walk near it, I also hear some murmurs.

'Are you sure you want to send her away?' The girl from earlier says.

'You heard what the prophecy said Gina, 'a trusted friend will lead you to trouble always', she is my trusted friend but I am not interested in falling into more trouble and suffering for no reason anymore. And trust me when I say that she is trouble so...' Rosa says and what I hear shatters me.

After everything that we have been through, I never expected Rosa to be saying this but I guess Maya was right, friends are not meant to be trusted or worth fighting for.

I pick up a vase kept on a table next to the door and throw it in anger before running back in the direction I came from.

'Selina... wait... please stop.' I hear Rosa and Gemma screaming but I don't. I run till I reach a door and yank it open before running into the forests.

The girls try to follow me but stop once they see me going into the forests.

I can't believe, I wasted two months of my life looking for Rosa only to be called Trouble.

I run and run, till I see the flowers again and climb down as quickly as I can despite evening approaching quickly.

If she doesn't want to be found, so be it. I can't help her anymore. In my haste and melancholy, I forget to check where I am going and when I land, I find myself in a well-lit area, that's definitely not my village.

Too exhausted to climb back up, I walk into the unknown land, hoping to find shelter. It's the worst decision I make, but I have no other choice.

The maps never mark this place or show it as occupied, I wonder who lives here. The lights shine brightly unlike in my village which always has only a streetlamp or two working.

The houses are bigger too and I see a few children playing around the corner. They are dressed like me, in bright colours. Suddenly I am thankful to have landed here, had anyone seen me in this yellow tunic and white pants, I would have been beheaded.

A van passes by and the children yell happily on seeing it. They all receive a few boxes of what I assume is food, and its only when I see one of them eating from his box that I realise how hungry I am.

I find a place to sit under a lamppost, hoping no one would object me, and continue to look at the children enjoying their day. They look so carefree, so jolly unlike the ones in my village who are not allowed to be too happy.

A while later, they go home and I find myself gazing into nothing but the empty lane, wondering what is this village.

Sometime late at night, when I have nearly dozed off, I hear the sound of another van. It stops in front of a house, and a boy jumps out. The van immediately speeds away after leaving him and that is when I see him looking at me.

He is wearing a blue shirt with brown pants and has a bag in his hand. I can't make out his features from so far away but there is something familiar about him.

Suddenly he starts walking towards me and for a moment I want to disappear into thin air but then I see his face and I feel a mix of joy and panic something that is reflected on his face on seeing me closely too.

'Trub?' I manage to say in a whisper before he pulls me along and pushes me inside his house.