I pushed the door open to see dad still laying on his bed, looking outside of the window of the rising sun. His hands lay gently weak on the blankets. The room isn’t really cold nor too warm. The whole room is just warm as the innocent garden in the evening. The equipment for the cancer treatment eerily defies the peace in the room.
“Judith, my girl, where have you’ve been? It looks like you’ve went out.”
“Oh, yeah I was just walking around the hospital.” I replied, protecting him from the truth of the event. I know many others lie to others to protect them or just to get away with something just for themselves. But there are lies that tell people that they don’t want to ruin such a moment like this.
The sun rises very smoothly behind the clouds. It was beautiful, reminds me of the time when I was just a young kid. When mom is still here and we would eat pancakes in the middle of sunrise. Birds flew upwards in midair. The lovely grass flows with the wind. “Isn’t it beautiful. Watching the sunrise in the early morning.” Said my dad who’s hand lays on the bed’s fences.
“Yeah. I just wish mom is still here.” His face said the same way as I wished. “I know. Me too.”
-
Later I brushed my teeth, kissed my dad on the forehead, wore my uniform, and left. The world around me felt more innocent and harmless. There are no eyes watching me nor a creature hiding in the darkness. Just me walking on the sidewalk.
Where are you going!
All of the sudden, her yell made me jump with a small scream. How dare she yells at me without letting me know she was there in the first place. I thought I’ve been walking alone until she showed up out of nowhere. “Don’t yell without letting me know!”
What makes you think you can deny! I’m a part of you now and you’ll do exactly as I said!
“NO, NO! I am not going to leave here! This is where I grew up and this is my home! You are not going to take away my life for whatever you’re doing! I am staying here and that’s that!”
And with that, she went silent. My peace is ruined; bothered by her irritating demand. I began to feel a nerving itch on my back. I looked around to see a mailman just watching me with those devilish eyes; and by devilish eyes I mean they threaten my soul.
I quickly walked away, escaping from the man’s uncanny presence. Talking to yourself in public spreads awareness that they’ll start looking at you with those eyes that would stab your heart. But sometimes you like to talk to yourself and that you do it in a private room; just so that no one can hear you nor stare at you. Unless someone comes up behind you and you jump up in horror.
Finally I arrived. I got in there and started doing my job like I usually do. I took a look at my phone and saw the watch said it’s 7:32 AM. I continued to set up the supplies as usual.
Sometime later, I found Athena behind me inspecting a toothbrush. This nearly caught me off guard; watching some alien mess around with a simple item. The blue shiny pupils of her eyes inspects the brush. She looked like she sees this as something special. “That’s a toothbrush. It’s used to clean your teeth with a toothpaste.”
I know that. They clean human teeth to freshen their breaths and reduce the sensitivity of their teeth. Why is it necessary for you to tell me?
“I just felt like you would want to hear that from me.” I felt a smile grow on my face, which makes me immediately looked away from her. The suffering to see my family die was too much for me to bear. It’s like my heart gets terribly squeezed by the devil that’ll make me suffer for much longer than a week non-stop. I don’t want to feel more pain just like that or even worse.
When I turned my head away, I was met face to face with a worker I’ve never met before. She looks the same age as me. Her blonde hair reflects the light above and her face is so beautiful that it makes me cringe. On her left breast pocket was a name tag ‘Raz’. I can’t shake the feeling that something about her isn’t right. Her disturbing macha eyes stare into my soul; wanting to melt me down to my core.
“Hello, Judith. I want to…chat with you…” Her smile was bright with her beautiful face. But her eyes made it much deceiving. I tried to move, yet my muscles were trapped in a stance. I know Athena can be exhausting sometimes, but right now I want to see her instead of Raz. I tried to reply back without a stutter, afraid she might bite my face off. “Ok. What do you want to talk about.”
“You used to have a very lovely and happy life. What was it like?” I was puzzled to hear a question such as this one. “Uh. It was good. Too good that I loved and cared about my family. I was smiling so much with them.” I answered. I hoped my answer would satisfy her enough to let me go. But when her smile fell, I knew I fucked up.
“I see. And how does it feel to lose your family, other than your dad?” My whole blood runs cold. How did she know about my dad still being alive?! Why is she asking these questions? Was she stalking my life? Her face made things much worse as her eyes sank deep into my threatened soul.
“What?!” She tilted her head robotically, not repeating the question. I tried to keep my breath stable as I can as I stand firm before her. “How did you know about my dad?!”
“No. You answer me first. Then I’ll answer yours back.” Her voice grew to a menacing predatory tone with a menacing smile. I felt threatened, worse, felt like I’m being watched by a devilish predator. So I told her, hoping she would go away already.
“It was bad. It was…It was too…horrible.” My soul threatened by Raz’s devilish gaze as the horrible memories flashes before my eyes again in an endless loop. I begin to picture her as the devil itself.
Her smile grew uncannily dark and her eyes filled with delight; as if she mocks me. “Why?” I asked weakly.
“I want to know if you have felt that terrible, sufferable pain. All of that pain you have endured throughout the years. You are alone with your sick dying father. Working so hard to keep him alive, yet not knowing you can’t save him. You’re just a child who ended up growing too fast. Too fast that you avoided your youth to keep your father alive. What you do is a waste!” She hissed mockingly at me.
My fear is starting to be overwhelmed by hatred. My mind racing with imaginations to torture her, and watching her burn in hell. Seeing her stand before me, mocking me by wishing death upon my dad, makes me even more bloody pissed! Now I picture her more of a mocking bastard who everyone hates everyday!
Without a thought to consider my actions, I grabbed the collar of her shirt and slammed her to the shelves. As I slammed my fist against her face, she started to laugh like a witch. Her mocking face still the same as I repeatedly punch her face. “YOU BLOODY FUCKING SHITTHOLE!! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU YA BLOODY BASTARD!! DON’T YOU EVER THREATEN MY DAD YOU FILTHY SON OF A BITCH!!!-“
“JUDITH!!!” I was still punching Raz when my boss yelled at me from behind my back. Of course I didn’t turn around, I want to beat her until she begged me to stop. But she didn’t beg nor a single blood came out. She still laughs as I punch her again and again and again. When my boss pulled me away from her, the shelves fell with Raz.
The loud crash of the shelves switched my anger to shock. I looked at the shelves and Raz, realizing what I’ve just done. My anger is now overwhelmed with guilt and regret. I looked at my boss to see his rageful expression on his face. “YOU ARE DONE!!”
“No, wait! I can expla-!!”
“I DON’T CARE!!! GET OUT!!! NOW!!”
-
I did everything to find a job here, but because the people around me took videos of me and sent them on social media, jobs aren’t available for me. Everyone is calling me the villain of the story. No jobs, means there is no way to pay my dad’s cancer treatment. I wished Raz was never there to begin with. But I worry she might be watching my dad or me right now. Who know’s what she’s up to. I don’t want to see that devilish person ever again.
Till afternoon, out in the woods, all I wanted to do was to scream and wreck everything around me. I kept screaming until I can’t keep myself up. My fist slams every tree around me, breaking them into piles of broken wood. I let out my rage by screaming into the bloody fucking sky!!
Then I stopped. A great burning sensation courses through my whole body as I lay sobbing in defeat. I felt hopeless. I’ve lost my job and I’m about to lose my dad. Where else am I supposed to find a job. I tried everywhere and they don’t want me in.
Judith.
I can hear her enough to make me want to just punch her in the face. “I don’t want to hear another word from you.”
…I know your pain.
I don’t need to see her to tell me she was sitting by my side. What she said caught my attention. I guess I can have someone to talk to, who also experiences the same way I have. “Yeah? What?”
When I was sent to a world to conquer, I was met with kindness and love. I never realized the worth and value of life until they showed me.
When I return to my home world, I did everything to convince them about what I’ve learnt, but they never approve them. They said that kindness and love is a concept of weakness. They then destroyed that world which I was designated to conquer.
We both sat in silence and I was left collecting her story. I wanted to tell her that I’m sorry for them, but I don’t see that can really comfort her enough. I wonder if I can convince people that it wasn’t my fault. Can I though?
“Can I get people to believe I’m innocent?”
It’s hard and complicated to achieve redemption from others. And there are people who will never understand nor forgive.
That really gives stitches in my heart. I felt like I want to lash out at other people just to make them believe me. But I guess that’s not how it works. It just makes things worse if I did so.
I tried everything to convince others I’ve changed, but they will always know my actions of the past. They will not listen to reason. It’s not easy to to be forgiven. The best way is to move forward. Not backwards.
We sat in silence before the sky above. It was interesting to hear this from an alien such as herself. Or some spirit? I have no idea. I didn’t realized I had forgotten that she can read my whole life experience, which I sighed dumbly.
If only your mother was here, she would understand.
I saw something depressing behind her eyes. How someone from another world can have the same emotions as we have warms my heart like the sunset. “Yeah,” I replied with a smile on my face.
“Where are your parents?”
She looked up into the sky above with those heartbreaking eyes.
They’re not like any other people of my species. They loved me as their own instead of being an object for war. Mother kept telling me how adorable I am and how lucky she is to have me. Father taught me his secret for planting flowers in my parents bedroom. Every night, they would always sleep by my side.
There are tears coming out of her eyes. Her lips were starting to shake and I can tell she was trying to hold back in her voice. Her whole life she was told to hold back her inner self is just damaging her into a husk.
She wiped the tears away with her tattered sleeve, now looking down on the floor below us.
One day, we were escaping from our home world. Unfortunately, we were caught and I was forcibly taken away to the military. I don’t know what happened to my parents back then, but when I was old enough, I learnt that they’re never coming back.
My heart sank, collecting the story she tells. Her parents have always been there for her and did everything to make her happy until all of that was taken away. The similar yet close fate as mine. I’m beginning to share some sort of bond with her, but I knew it’ll only make things worse for the both of us. “Then we’re on the same page then.”
I believe we do.
I looked up to the sky to see a bright shining light behind the clouds. The afternoon light reminding me of my good days before disaster. I took a very deep breath, relieved to have let out all of that pressure before I stood back up. I don’t hear any footsteps behind me as I walk back into the streets. When I look back, Athena was gone.
When I left the woods and into the streets, everyone was crowding around something. Suddenly, I heard a loud scream in the sky again. I was struck with horror when I look up to see a man being slowly dragged up. Most people thought going up would mean meeting god in judgment; example would be spirits being lifted up by an angel or some sorts. But in this case, this is something else. I asked someone if they had saw what I saw. “There’s nothing up there! You paranoid or something!” He said with disgust.
I’m getting to understand what Athena meant when she said about 2 different worlds. The material world can’t see the cosmic. Maybe it has to do with our naked eyes; unable to see what’s beyond our comprehension.
What hits me really deep in my heart was seeing a young girl crying for her dad, unaware that he’s being ascended to wherever he goes. She keeps crying as she follows her frozen soulless dad to the ambulance. I can’t stand letting this horrible event.
I ran back into the shadows of the woods and transformed whilst thinking of a way to get up. The wind still blowing normally as ever, except for the sounds of screams coming from the air. I wondered how in the bloody hell am I supposed to get up there. “How am I supposed to get up there?!”
I turned around to see Athena behind me, making me jump in fright. “Shit! Don’t do that!”
Our connection between me and your soul has grown.
“So what does that mean?”
Our essence are stitching together- meaning you’ll have my potentials. At first, you’ll feel a shock of great pain, but I assure you, you’ll be alright.
Suddenly, I felt a stunning and horrendous pain at my spine. It was too hot and the pain was just too much that I screamed. My legs surrendered, leaving me to fall to the ground. I then felt a deep connection on my back; like having new set of arms. I look back to see my very own wings. They were shined with smooth steel metal and the sharp dim feathers reflects the light of the sun.
Your whole body is changing. With it, you’re able to learn and control your wings. So listen carefully.
As I stood back up, all the pain has left me; like a train’s whistle releasing a load of smoke.
The front area of your wings must be higher up than your lower area of the wings.
As I listen to her, my wings moved as I wanted it to. It was incredibly a weird and awkward experience; moving my new developed limbs. It’s hard for me to describe the feeling and experience. I was beginning to grow impatient as the man above is slowly being dragged upwards.
At the right timing, flap your wings by rotating them down, at the right timing, jump.
When I flapped my wings and jump, I kept falling to the ground embarrassingly. I tried again, and again, and again. It took about nearly a minute or so as I keep attempting to fly. He is nearly mere inches below the clouds and I hurried myself up, yet I keep failing every time I tried. My heart is beginning to beat quicker than how a heartbeat regularly does. “Why can’t I do it!?”
A metallic hand rested on my shoulder. I turn myself around to see Athena’s calm demeanour.
Patience, Judith! Do not let your emotions get the better of you. Your emotions does not do anything other than a reaction. Focus! And never let your guard down.
I took a deep breath and slowly begin moving my wings. I raised the front of my wing high, prepared a jump, and when I flapped my wings I immediately flew up. The air blowing on my face as I soar to the sky. It was incredible but also nerving. The air blew my face as I soar to the sky. I pictured myself as a bird shaped like a bullet, shot at the sky like a legend. Then I stopped in the middle of the sky, free in an endless space of the atmosphere.
I started flying, thrusting my wings with the air pressuring below them. The wind breezes below my wings as the pressure of them lift me upward to the direction of the source. My velocity got much faster as I kept thrusting, until I stopped to rest my wings. I’m literally flying like I’m some sort of arch angel. I turned my head to see if she’s there. She wasn’t. I was flying alone.
As I flew through the misty clouds, I felt nothing but air. Until, when I escaped out of the misty cloud, I saw the source as to who or what could it be that’s dragging the man up; ascending into the sky. Before my eyes was a huge golden spider. Its body must be at least 2 human’s tall. Its abdomen is just a large ring that embodies the sun’s light. Its eyes are nothing but darkness that it brings shivers to my skin. Such a horrifying creature that exist in such a reality as this. What kind of god would make such a creature?
Its golden strings pulling him up with its oily spindly legs. The man kept screaming to escape but it was futile. His arms flailed miserably with eyes full of terror. I flew towards it at high speed, then smashed its head with my shield. The man was set free from its golden silk and started falling to the earth.
I dived down and caught him with a sweat on my brow. I remembered the ambulance that took his body, so I looked down and found that its driving towards their destination. It was far away for me to catch up. The spider is already in pursuit to get back what should’ve been their meal. Damn, the thought of this man being its meal is just disgusting and bone chilling.
Just as I was reaching the ambulance, the man was pulled away from my grip. The spider’s long web caught him with such frightening speed that my heart nearly exploded in shock. It caught the man and began soaring away to the sky.
I followed in pursuit, hoping it doesn’t take its first bite. When I catch up to the creature, I knocked it off of him and caught him as quick as possible. Just as I thought I have the time to fly away, a string of web hit me like a beam. I lost the man and was sent falling to the earth.
I struggle to keep balance as the brain in my head kept spinning dizzily around, making my vision sick and cold. When I heard the man scream again, my whole mind sprung to immediate action. I gained back my balance in reaction to the screams and spread my wings apart. I flew back up as strings of golden shining webs beams towards me with threatening speed. I tried to not get hit but unfortunately and annoyingly they hit me flawlessly again and again. It hurt like hell that I groaned in pain; like getting hit by a truck. I somehow able to endure such pain as this whilst flying.
Once the beams reached me, instead of moving away, I catch them in my hands. If you’re wondering what it’s like touching these strings, I tell you this: It is not pleasant, like getting your hand burned by boiling water. For some reason, I wasn’t bothered by the burning sensation at all. I should be letting it go and shake my hand as I yelp out ‘ow’. Instead I still hold them.
I pulled the string, pulling the spider with it. Until the spider reached closer to my range, I slammed my fist against its head. I imagined myself crushing a spider’s large fat abdomen, squishing out its mushy organic contents. I’ve never seen anyone eat a spider before. That’ll make me feel that I want to knock myself out.
Again, I caught the man and went back to the ambulance as fast as I can. I finally reached the ambulance and landed on top of the ceiling surface before I inspect him. At first he seems ok, but then I looked at his abdomen to see 2 large holes sunken into his flesh.
Before I could process what to do, his soul started to get sucked into the ambulance. He was too fast for me to catch him. I thought he dropped to the ground. When I looked at the ground, there was nothing. Suddenly, I heard the man again gasping for air. He was loud enough for me to know that he lived. Yet something doesn’t feel right. The holes might indicate that the spider took something that belongs to him. or maybe it was proceeding to eat him up.
I heard something piercingly loud from far behind the vehicle. The spider is back and there are flames inside of its sockets; furious at me for taking its prey. The creature was only mere inches away before I tumble it down to the ground with a kick in its face. I then drag it up and I threw it off into the sky but it halted itself in front of me; as if there was a web behind it. The spider’s halo ring like abdomen shines bright of gold.
The spider bellowed out a loud screech that I nervously shut my eyes; the shriek showered my whole nerves of my body. I was presented a bullet of light darting out of its abdomen. I tried to block them with the shield but the bullets are shockingly too strong that it broke my guard. When I tried to get to the spider, its bullets hit me in reaction.
I tried to keep up my flight, dive to rest my wings. But when I flew to the right, I got hit in the left shoulder by one of the bullets. It felt like I was being stabbed by a 300 degree knife. I couldn’t help myself but to scream in agony.
I began to fall as my wings struggle to keep balance. I tried moving my wings around but it only made it worse. Another bullet shot through the right side of my abdomen. I force myself to hold my scream, making me groan in pain and gnash my teeth. My brain is becoming so dizzy that I lost control of my flight.
I was unfortunately caught in a large golden web; like I was on a sticky trampoline. I forced myself to get up but the webs are too much for me to pull away from. Is this how the insects have to go through? Being trapped by the most disturbing and unfamiliar creatures? The concept of giant spiders terrifies me. If you’ve ever watched or read about giant spiders on earth, you’ll see why it’s terrifying.
The spider from above begins moving slowly. Either it’s excited to take me away or make me afraid of death. My heart beats in my chest hard and threatening that I began to force myself to get back up. The sticky webs stretches as I pull my arms away. I put so much will to it that I gritted my teeth out of frustration. Finally my arms and torso broke free from the golden web, but my legs and wings are still stuck.
The sun begins to fall and the moon is rising eerily slow. The golden webs in its abdomen starts to disappear. The flames in its eyes disappear, replaced with haunting human eyes. Its face started to mutate into a human head with a jaw that stretched much farther down than normal. The sound of loud crunching of bones and grinding flesh flatly reaches to my hearing.
The golden sunlight web I sat upon turned from sticky to hard like metal. I looked to the web, watching it turn into diamond. It looked beautiful and pretty that people would love to use this as a jewellery set.
I grab hold to the web as my whole body was set free. The spider moves much slower, as if the moon affected it. Its web at the centre of its abdomen shines bright like heaven. When I say heaven, I mean it. I know I can be wrong about its details being from heaven. Who really even knows what heaven actually looks like. Many religions describe it in different context; a flower garden, a kingdom, a temple, and so on. I wonder what heaven truly looks like, instead of what us humans describe them to be. Would it be just white without shadow? Or is heaven just a lie but a trap?
The giant spider started to shake violently as large tumors start appearing around its body. The long pale humanoid arms ripped out of the tumors; hatching out of their eggs. They come out, flailing around like a rag doll. When it screeches, it sounded more human and distorted. How am I still able to comprehend those things? I think it was Athena who’s doing the work in my mental stability.
Its arms stopped flailing and began to drag itself towards me like a black panther. Its sharp fingers dragging the atmosphere. It looked like it’s being a mime; dragging itself by pulling the invisible rope from its mind. A clown is made fun of by many, but there are times when clowns don’t fuck around. Like the spider, they’ll use silly activities to intimidate people. That’s what the spider might be doing; a clown trick to intimidate me to give me goosebumps.
As I still pull onto the web, it teared apart into a rope. I begin to fall to the earth with a long rope of the web in my hand. When I tried to move my wings, a shock of bruising pain prevents me; blocking my movements as a limit to my joints.
I pulled the web in my hands, then threw it at the giant humanoid spider like a rope. The web successfully wrapped around its body, which halted my fall. The giant spider didn’t fall with me, instead it’s still there in the sky. The world seems to not matter anything to it. It would be like a toy world for its amusement.
I took the time to inspect my injury and saw that I was slowly healing. There’s blood coming out of the sockets and to my uniform. The sockets are stitching back to each other as strings of metal seaming together to repair. My pain slowly drifting off of my flesh. I was relieved that I’m able to heal.
The giant spider is still closing in on me. Staring at me with those haunting eyes. My strength can’t seem to pull it down. So instead, I flew upwards. The string of web pulled the giant spider with me. I then threw the spider with the web tied to it. It soars into the empty space like a dart of light.
I thought it’s gone, but when I stared deeper into space, my heart nearly exploded. It came back massive than the earth and its face glared at me with those haunting eyes that burns in my soul. My whole body runs cold that I froze in defeat.
I don’t know what to do. I felt hopeless, dumbfounded to what I’ve done. I thought this would be over but now I’m not so sure it will be. Soon, everybody is going to die.
We can stop it.
“How?” I turned my head to look at her. There’s an alien structured bow in her hand. The bow’s surface is of metallic material and a curved white metal shell that shields the front of the riser. There are small glowing eccentric wheels that hold the blue bright bow string.
She reached it to me, encouraging me to take it. I haven’t been doing archery for a very long time, since before dad got cancer. I took the bow and inspect it. There’s one important thing that’s missing. “Where are the arrows?”
The arrow comes from the energy in your soul. Position yourself, pull the bowstring, and it’ll appear.
I took my position perpendicularly and lift the bow to my front with my fingers hooked to the bowstring. Due to the hard limbs, I had to pull the bowstring with a bit of force that the wheels stir with the sound of gears.
I look up at the face of the titanic humanoid spider, facing me with those menacing eyes. As I pull the bowstring, something sparked at the edge of my right eye. A bright blue shining arrow appeared at the belly of the bow. It was a terrifyingly beautiful arrow. I’m looking at something that came from the stars heart.
I immediately push back my hooked finger and snap the arrow forward. The limbs stretched back to its brace position with such heavy force that the arrow shot into space in a form of a beam. It shot through the clouds beneath a second, separating it massively.
In just a second, the spider’s head exploded into scattered pieces. A blue explosion came out of it with pieces of its bone and flesh shooting out. Chills freeze my whole skin, rendering me frozen in place. I’m starting to realize how dangerously threatening Athena is and there are more just like her. What else can she do? With that in my head, I carried it with me as I flew away.
Before I went to the hospital, I transform back into my regular human form in the woods. I ask one of the nurses about the man and his daughter. I tell her that it’s for my school project and she led me to the room and I thanked her. When I went in, I saw the man, who’s now laying in bed and living like a regular man. He was patting his daughter’s head softly as she sleeps by his side. He looked at me with those horrified eyes. I remembered that he had 2 large sockets deep into his abdomen. I want to know what that means and what did it do to him. “Hello. How are you doing?” I tried to lower down my voice, not wanting to wake her up.
“I’m good. I’m just glad that my daughter is safe.” His voice was raspy and exhausted. His face pale from the fright and terror. “Do you feel anything different?” I asked gently as I could. “Well, I do feel different. It’s as if I’ve lost something. I couldn’t tell why. It’s just strange.” He said sadly.
“What did you lose?”
“I think I’m losing what really matter to me. Like joy, happiness, something like that. I don’t know what happened. I just blacked out and appeared here. I promise you, I don’t remember anything before I got here.”
Half of his goodness was taken away. Athena spoke next to me. I looked at her sorrowful face, telling me that it’s not good news. “Are you alright?” I looked back to the man to see an expression of confusion. “Yeah, just thinking,” He nodded it off, letting my weirdness slide.
I’m sorry that I was too late to keep his joy and happiness away from the damn spider. If I wasn’t too late, I would’ve saved his whole soul. I can’t describe how much I felt for his loss of happiness. All I could describe was sorrow, guilt, or just so sorry.
“What happened to you?” I asked, trying to act stupid as if I didn’t know what had happened.
“Well, I was just having a heart attack, that’s all.” He said. Telling people stories about kicking satan in the balls would make people laugh in disbelief. I would’ve done the same thing too if I was in his situation. I wonder if he remembered the whole thing.
When I left the room and closed the door behind me, an old lady’s voice spooked me. “You did very well saving that poor man, young lady.” I turned to see an old woman holding onto her dark smooth cane. Her silk web like hair dangled the back of her coat. Her wrinkled face holding onto a strange smile. When I looked into her eyes, I felt a sense of familiarity course through my mind. “Uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“The giant spider you’ve killed. It was very impressive for such a strong young girl such as yourself.” Her voice raspy and kind that I fell to her innocence. How an innocent old lady can see what happened in the sky can be totally creepy but mysterious. Maybe she was hallucinating or something, I hope. “I think you’ve mistaken for someone else.”
When I turn around, she was there in front of me that I jumped in fright with goosebumps. “I didn’t mistake anyone. I’m sure it’s you with that friendly person behind your back.” I turn my head to see Athena, who expressed concern. I looked at old lady, then to Athena, then again to her. Fear has overwhelmed me. I felt as if I’m in danger. But she’s just an old lady, right? “Uh, what?”
She laughed like a witch. Could she be a witch in disguise? After what I’ve been through I think I might be right. That which grew chills all over my skin. “Don’t be shy. I understand not everyone believes such spiritual things happen. If I was you, I’m certain I’ll tell a disguised story,” I stared at her, dumbfounded.
“I have something for you to do that I can pay a high salary for your father’s cancer treatment.” I begin to concern deeply about this old lady. Her voice is hypnotizing my mind that I couldn’t leave without a genuine kind goodbye. But she’s trapping me here, preventing me from leaving. The offer she is giving me is tempting; that I can still continue to give my dad more time to live. “Really? Then, what kind of job is it?”
She made a short wicked smile as she begins to tell me. “This is a job fit for you and your friend. Your job will be to exterminate the source that’s causing problems to the society: towns, villages, countries, cities, and natural environments.
“You can decide how to approach the issues. But I warn you: these threats have different kinds of potential. You’ll have to figure it out on your own.
“As for the salary, I’ll pay 20 000$ when the mission is done.” She looked at me in the eye, making me stuck to gaze at her with no escape. I couldn’t move, other than my mouth to speak. I’m beginning to think that she’s more than a witch; an unknown force behind her physical form I see before me. I’m certain I might have a sweat slide through my brow, yet I don’t feel it. My blood run cold the more I stare into her lavender eyes.
That price is really high but also the danger I put myself into if I take this job. This sounded like she’s telling lies from her mouth, but from what I’ve been through I seemingly believed her. I wanted to look at Athena for something, anything. I suggest you shouldn’t take it. She whispered into my ears. “But if I do this, I can pay the cancer treatment and have much time with my dad. What makes you think I shouldn’t?”
I don’t trust her. Her voice sounded more concern and worried. Before I could reply to her response, the old lady interrupted our disagreement. “Oh. A smart woman aren’t you. You’re right, I can’t be trusted after all. But all I’m here for is to offer you the opportunity. There are even sad lonely family members such as yourself that needs help. You don’t want to let them experience the same way as you have with your own.” She said with a gentle and comforting tone in her voice.
If what she said is true and that there are others that experiences the same way as I have, I think I’d be taking the job. But from Athena’s perspective, she doesn’t trust a stranger such as the old lady. The old lady lend out a hand to me. If I accepted her offer, I can spend more time with my dad than before. Even though I will face the horrifying and the unknown, I’ll be fine. No matter how much pain I get into, it’s all worth it when I get to see dad afterwards.
I stare at the old lady and gave her my answer. “I’m in.” Then we both shake hands; sealing the deal. Her smile turned to a wicked grin. When I took her hand, a random thought came to my mind. What have you done….