AMACON 4: SERENDIPITOUS (30-Day Writing Challenge)

Mercy

AMACon 4: Serendipitous
English FF Day Twenty Five: The last survivor finally heard a knock on the door.

She opens her eyes to a clear blue sky. She blinks and adjusts her eyes to the brightness of the day. A couple of black birds pass the sky and her eyes automatically trail on them. She looks around and sees colors everywhere. She sits up, then stands to revel at the entirety of the meadow she's on. Her bare feet feels the tickle of the soft damp grass as she walks around, the skirt of her favorite peach sundress, flows with her every move. She twirls around the flowers of all possible kinds and colors one can imagine. As her eyes reach the edges of the meadow, she's able to make out four passageways out of there. Out of curiosity, she walks closer to each, one by one.

One looks bright, with an arch of yellow bells, that looks like it leads to where the sun shines the most. It smells of sunflowers and barley, and radiates hues of oranges and yellows. She imagines a deep-red barn in the middle of fields of gold, where she can sit and watch the slow moving puffs of clouds, or maybe have a picnic and feel the warm breeze of the sun.

The second one looks blue, like it leads to the ocean or sea and white sands. It smells of saltwater and fish. She imagines clear blue water, reflected by the sky, kissing pure, glistening sand from the shore and embracing the end of the sky on the horizon. She can feel the warm water washing the tiredness off of her feet and the cool sea breeze brushing through her long brown hair.

The third looks like a portal illuminated by the aurora borealis. Its green and purple hues radiate toward the flowers lining that side of the meadow. She thinks it's possibly the forest or another, bigger meadow, with more vibrant and colorful flowers. She imagines constant but light rain, just enough to keep everything green and blooming. She can almost hear birds chirping and does peacefully drinking from the cool water of the nearby river.

She can easily just choose from one of the three, but it's the fourth one that piques her interest the most. It's dark and she has no idea what's behind the barren trees lining the pathhway to it. Something in her is pulling her to this path, like this was where she's supposed to go all along. She remembers bits and pieces of her childhood where she would choose the beach over anything else. She knows she should choose from the first three. But here she is standing in front of the path, where a conspicuous owl sits atop a dried up branch, almost like taunting her to take the step inside. There is something in her that tells her that it's not the first time she's faced with these choices, but she also feels in her heart which one she chose everytime.

She takes just one step closer to the unknown path, and the owl swivels its head like it's the dial that opens the portal to wherever that dark path leads. After she takes the second step, she immediately feels the cold air, like she's headed for eternal winter. She wraps her arms around her and thinks how stupid it was to choose this with the dress she had on. She turns around and only sees darkness, the bright meadow nowhere in sight. She should be scared, she thought, but she just shrugs and continues walking forward. At the end of the barren tree lined pathway is a lone lamp post, its light flickering. She stands there and tries to adjust her eyes to the darkness with no luck. She can only feel the cold and she imagines she is surrounded by snow covered everything. Suddenly, lightning flashes across the sky, blinding her for a second, followed by a very loud booming thunder. She looks up and for a second the blackness is quiet. But another lightning follows, and another thunder and so on, until fear started to envelope her that made her scream. She closes her eyes and screams for help.

She jolts out of her sleep, beads of sweat trickles down her forehead and neck. She slowly sits up on her bed and looks around. All she sees are white cushioned walls. There are no windows. Even the door can easily get missed as it blends in perfectly with the rest of the walls. She looks around, like she's looking for something, or someone, but there's just her. She can only hear her own breathing. She sees a tray of food on a small table at the foot of her bed but she doesn't have any appetite. She's trying to remember why she's there. She sits on the bed and hits her head with the heels of her hands, like it will make her remember things she wants to recall. But nothing comes. She walks around the room, counts the squares on the walls, looks at creases and crevices if she can find any clues as to why she's there, but nothing. When her stomach grumbled, she hungrily ate all the food in her tray.

Then she's back lying on the meadow again, and again she chooses the dark path. She's lost count on the days and nights, or the dreams and waking hours. She wakes up with a fresh tray of food and she eats. She breathes but she feels worse than dead.

Finally, one day, she heard a soft knock on the door before it opened and a man, not much older than her, came in.

"Hello." He warmly greets her.

"Who are you? How do you know me?" She steps back away from him.

"Well, I've come to take you." He smiles.

"Take me where?" She asks, fear beginning to creep up her spine.

"Where you're supposed to go. It's time. Come." He says firmly and profers his hand.

She hesitates a moment but takes his hand anyway. As soon as his skin touched hers, she gasped as the onslaught of memories flooded her entire being. She tried to let go but his grip on her hand was tight and meant to stay that way until all her memories were restored. After what felt like an eternity, he let go and she collapsed on the floor. She looked up to him with tears endlesly running on her face, her eyes filled with regret.

"It is too late, I'm afraid. The damage has been done and you will have to come with me where you cannot hurt anyone anymore." He answered an unspoken question. "Come."

She had no choice but to take the hand of the angel of death and forever pay for all her sins for murdering her entire family.

(Originally published in "Tapunan Ng Feelings" on January 26, 2017.)