Anaya: A Dark Voyage [#1 LightBlood Series]

Chapter 2 - In Too Deep

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"Don't panic. No need to be worried or scared. Everything will be just fine.

Right now, I know there is one thing you want the most more than anything. Answers. You want answers and that is exactly what I am willing to give you... but you will have to trust me. Do as I say and exactly as I say it and you will get the answers you need.

This won't be a rosy ride but I want to believe I chose right and that you are the best person for this.

Now, let's start. Get rid of your body first then go to the address written below this letter for the next task.

You know what to do. "

Without saying "Yes, I am in", Anaya realized she had already gotten herself caught up in whatever was happening. She was in too deep. Why her? What did they want from her and to what end was this going to get to? More questions formed in her head as she closed the letter.

She walked over to the window for the second time and stared at her reflection. For someone who had gotten her body swapped after being chased to her own death by a shadow in the fog and a voice in her car, she was too calm than she was supposed to be. For one reason or another, she felt she could trust the voice behind the letter — she could feel that everything would definitely turn out just fine. Except for the fact that she might have to live the rest of her life in a different body of course.

She moved away from the window in search of anything she could wrap the dead body with. While searching, she found herself in what used to be a locker room and saw some pieces of clothes lying around. She wore a sweat-stained T-shirt and jeans caked with dried blood. The best ones she could find. She ripped the remaining clothes apart and tied them together at the ends.

Back to the dead body, she covered it with the tied cloths. She tied her nose with a small piece left but regretted her decision a second after. The dirty clothes didn't smell any better.

With difficulty, she dragged the body slowly towards the back of the slaughterhouse.

There, she found a lot of cars parked many of which were just scarps. It was as if the slaughterhouse has now become the habitat of scraps. Among these cars was hers. She walked to it and realized it was crashed to the core — nothing could be done about it. She stood there and stared at it for a while. Snippets of the night she had the accident returned to her memory. She could see clearly her car spinning in the air and landing tires up in the sky. She could remember her struggles to get out of the seat belt. She could feel the pain that overtook every part of her body. She could see herself sweating as she prayed for dear life with her unsteady breathing.

It was so vivid and felt so real.

Droplets of sweat formed on her forehead as her breathing quickened. She moved away from the car to catch her breath. After a few minutes, she felt a lot better. She moved the body to one of the cars that looked better than the rest and prayed it worked. It did. All she needed to do was start it. There were no keys but she found a screwdriver in the tools box. She removed the screws on the steering column cover and pulled the access panels to reveal the wires of the ignition system. She used a wire stripper from the toolbox to cut some of the insulation off from each end of the two wires. She pulled and twisted them together with the tips of her fingers.

The ignition, radio, and lights turned on. The corners of her mouth curved into a smile. She couldn't believe this trick still worked.

She searched for the wire which connected to the starter motor and sliced a piece of the insulation off from its end too. She took the end of the wire and made it touch the ends of the other two. The engine started right away.

With no time to waste, she dragged the body into the trunk of the car and drove off.

*~*

The town of Tékala spread in front of her as she drove through; tall buildings rising from the wide spaces of green treetops under a shimmer of the sun. The town was always flooded by a sea of people heading in different directions. It was the capital of the Silila State in the western part of Africa. It was a busy town and filled with a lot of stories, cultures and colours. The town itself looked magnificent. But not everyone in the town lived the luxurious life they would want tourists to believe.

The homeless still walked the street, often in chaotic, down-and-out exchanges with themselves over one money or another that someone had generously given them. They didn't usually receive arms from the rich. They did only on occasions like the state festival or when one had been instructed at the Church, Mosque or shrine — any place of worship — to give to the poor as a way to guarantee the receiving of a request they'd made of their God.

However, Tékala was the kind of place where nothing bad ever happened...

It was sunset when she got to the graveyard.

The orange hues stretched far and wide across the sky. It was always beautiful to watch the sunset from Tékala — the sun swimming behind the crest of the mountains, the sky awash and burning with the colours hidden in the heart of a flame. It was a sight anyone who visited the town loved.

Anaya pulled the car over at her usual place in front of the cemetery — the very place her car was packed the last time she visited. She could swear she had a déjà vu. She felt as if a dark cloud was hanging over her head. However hard it was for her to go back into the cemetery when it was nearly night, she had to do this if she ever wanted to get the answers she needed.

She walked out of the car and checked if anyone was around. The cemetery was as quiet as it has ever been. She pulled the corpse from the trunk, again, being hit by the scent of rot. She scrunched up her face as she stealthily pulled the dead body into the cemetery.

Her footsteps resounded sharply around the empty graveyard, sounding excessively loud in her own ears. Even without any footwear.

At a very far end of the cemetery, she stopped and began digging up the earth. She had dug quite enough after some time. Though it wasn't the usual six feet everyone was buried in, it was something a body could be covered in. She couldn't have dug any more even if she wanted to. She could still feel sharp pains all around her body.

She dragged the body in the hole, took the spade and began to cover it in the black earth.

Seconds after she was done covering the whole body under the earth which had about two or three feet depth, a bolt of white, hot lightning shattered the utter blackness, slightly cleaning the darkness, but only for the briefest of moments. Thunder screamed from the blackened sky, the clouds above invisible. An explosion like that meant that the heavens were about to pour but there had not been any signs that it would rain earlier that day — at least for the most part she was awake.

Suddenly, a chill rose up against her spine which made her shudder. There was something or someone with her and she could feel it. Sombre whispering sounds appeared to erupt and spill from behind her. She turned her head slowly over her shoulder and the whispering ended abruptly. The only sound she could hear was her overwrought breathing.

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Chapter edited by RubaiaMQ