Anaya: A Dark Voyage [#1 LightBlood Series]

Chapter 24- Anaya [Part 1]

The Past.

Day Of The Accident

20 April 2019.

Standing with the gathered mourners at the cemetery, he watched. His expression was one that could send chills down your spine in a second as he looked at the impending figure of his soon-to-be victim. Anaya walked past them, a bouquet of forget-me-not flowers in her hand, trying her best to ignore the height of raw emotions swirling in her mind. She felt for them. She knew how it was to lose a beloved to death. She knew how they felt but she had to keep to the business of the day. There were old, ruined tombstones that needed care that afternoon.

"Eternal rest grant unto her, O Lord," the priest began.

Dembe turned when Anaya passed by them. His visage was unsettlingly emotionless and unwavering. Instead of being shut when the priest began the prayer, his eyes pursued her as she advanced towards her destination.

"...through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen."

Dembe mumbled a faint "Amen" as he moved away from the crying that filled the air.

"Hypocrites!" he hissed. I am sure more than fifty percent of these people crying didn't even like her when she was alive. I will place my best bet on it. He thought as he walked towards the gravestones Anaya was caring for, trying his best not to be seen by her. He watched her from afar calculating her every step, watching her every move. He tried but failed to understand what she was up to. Why would she just come to the cemetery and give flowers to people she probably never knew? Why would anyone hang out at the cemetery? Dembe's mind came up with a million other questions.

***

A subtle yet harsh sigh, like the harmattan breeze, escaped Anaya's lips when she sat beside the last gravestone she cared for that day. Then there was the feeling of satisfaction — that hairsplitting sensation that suspends itself deep in your core when you know you have done something good. People wondered, sometimes, why she did what she did...what did she gain from caring for the dead and her answer was always, "The 'warm glow' effect. That is all that matters."

She didn't expect recognition or a reward for what she did. It was the energizing and happy-afterwards sensation she sought after. According to her, one can not find satisfaction through material things. She was a firm believer of the saying, "satisfaction comes through deeper inner fulfilment." She believed that endeavouring for materialistic desires doesn't really lead to happiness because people who do that are not happy as long as they still have the desire to get more possessions.

"When you're always planning on getting something, even from the good you do, how would you find some solace then? You are indeed never going to be in bliss." she would argue.

She sat there, lost in her thoughts and basking in the solemn silence of the cemetery. The earlier burial was done. No one was left at the cemetery except for her. Or so she thought.

Time passed quickly — faster than she imagined, but she seemed to have forgotten herself and time. She felt everything had come to a standstill motion and she was left alone with just her thoughts and emotions.

Night had fallen quickly. It was as if a pitch-black curtain had been draped over the sky. The blackness was perfect, a sort of visual silence that gave revered awe. She smiled when her attention was drawn to the shimmering stars that illuminated the moonless, jet black sky as if to remind her that even in darkness there was still light.

***

"There she sits," Kukua whispered with a crisp voice. Nia Afriyie turned to her a bit shocked.

"Why are you whispering? It is not like she can hear us if we don't want her to..."

Kukua pouts. "Whatever, Nia." She directed her attention to Anaya, ignoring Nia Afriyie's obvious attempt to tease her. Anaya was at that moment staring in the sky while wearing a sly satisfactory look. "How do we do this? I can feel their presence here already. She is not safe."

"I do too but I don't know any other way we can do this unless..." Nia Afriyie paused. Kukua moved away from her knowing she was going to state the obvious which was also not a part of the available options.

"We can't reveal ourselves to her, Nia."

A bit worn-out from the fact that they were running out of time and options, Nia Afriyie resorted to her usual self-therapy she did when she needed her brain to think but it wasn't. "Think. Think. Think." She chanted, placed her index finger on her almost non-existent chin as she moved around trying so hard to get an idea.

Hoot, hoot.

A mottled grey-brown feathered owl cried out from the tree they stood under.

"Nia? Look." Kukua called out, her gaze firmly fixed on their soon to be saviour. As if it knew, the owl stared back with yellow eyes befitting a witch's cat.

"I am trying to think here, Kuks." she retorted.

"No, I am serious. Look at the Owl. We could-"

"-yes. Yes." Nia Afriyie cut in. "Why didn't I think of that earlier?" She added.

All Nia Afriyie did was look deep into those eerie eyes of the bird, chant a line or two and blew a sort of air in the direction of Anaya. The Owl flew silently in that direction and perched on a tree in front of Anaya. It stared at her. It was like the owl was trying to warn Anaya of something. But if it was, it was very obvious Anaya couldn't get the clue. It let out a series of low hoots, three, possibly four, then opened its large, rounded wings to fly away.

"Of course she couldn't get the signal! This looks harder than we thought." Kukua muttered the second the owl flew back to where they stood.

"What do we do? He is getting closer. I can feel his dark aura creeping slowly towards us."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the graveyard, there was this discomfort that settled in Anaya's chest after she saw the Owl. It sent a shiver down her spine and then it settled in deeper. She felt the urge to run, escape, hide. The constricted feelings grew as if she was being strangled by the air around her but before she could make any move, a vast blanket of white, out of nowhere, covered her. It swallowed every tombstone, every tree, everything at the cemetery. It crept around Anaya, before finally coming to rest at the foot of a freshly covered grave.

"He is here!" Kukua bemoaned from where she stood.