“Anyways,” I utter to stop Katrin’s gasp to speak back to Zhai. “We’ll make sure to remember your offer.”
“When we are ready,” Zhai utters after me and we both smile, as I look up to her cheeks changing colour.
Suddenly, my attention goes behind Zhai and between the tree’s huge roots. If I’m not mistaken something…or someone is moving; I can even say it’s coming out of it. Frowning, I take a step closer to Katrine and walk right pass her to stand near Zhai.
“What is that?” I ask Zhai. I think it’s because of our earlier incident that Zahi looks scared as she flicks turns around to see what I am seeing.
In a moment, Katrin walks to stand next me on my left side to look but she gasps, shocked. I can tell she knows what we are looking at.
“No, it can’t be,” she whispers and both me and Zhai look at her and look back at each other, but in fear, we follow her steps; we are impulsively taking a very slow step back.
“What is it?” I whisper and Zhai takes my hand in hers. I doubt if Zhai ever encountered this before, during her stay here.
“Intruder,” Katrin whispers.
“Help!” It just can’t be me, but I know we all heard a scream. It’s a woman, I am suddenly astonished as I am now more interested, that I recognise the language the woman is using. Frowning, I take a step forwards and Zhai holds me in fear.
“I can understand her; its Amharic and she’s asking for help,” I utter, turning to Zhai and we both start marching forwards to the tree.
“Stop!” Katrin holds me back, gripping my left arm. “You can’t go, it’s dangerous,” she says with her eyes wide open.
“I’ll use my chance,” I snatch myself away from her.
“Okay,” she says and looks back, pressing her lips in a hard line. “Help!” she screams as loud as she can with her eyes fixed at me. I frown, and shaking my head, in disbelief, I start following Zhai who is already speeding to the intruder, as Katrin explained about her the moment we saw her first... or the woman. “Intruder, intruder,” screaming, she starts a running back into the house, lifting her dress up from the floor to clear a way for a speedy run.
“Hurry!” Zhai screams as she reaches to the root and near the women screaming for help. I start marching to her, giving her my entire attention.
“Uzza!” I heard Katrin screaming as she starts running further and further away from us and I ceased on my speeding. For no reason, I feel a pull back into the house; a deep connection to the word she just screamed. My mind is playing tricks on me; I keep getting an image of him; loving me, walking me, smiling for me, holding me, kissing me…everything is playing in my mind in speed and my need to be around him rises even more, but I can also feel in charge, like I am a boss indeed, like someone special.
“Hey,” Zhai shakes me back to my senses and I look at her gasping and she pulls me to the women, who is looking at me in shock and frowning.
“Selam…” I whisper tiredly, trying to greet her in my bad Amharic, breathing heavy as if I was running a long distance.
“Focus,” Zhai says, shaking me a little, holding me on my shoulders with her hands. “Look,” she says then, looking back to the women standing and staring at both of us quizzically. “We can’t touch her,” she adds.
“Adha?” the women call my name fearfully, and I frown, waking back to my senses.
“Awo. Me. Adha,” I utter, pressing on my chest to indicate that I am Adha, and ‘yes’ in Amharic.
The woman is in a summer dress and looks lost and confused. She looks a bit drenched, covered in mud; she seems as if she dug her way up. She is huddled to be able to warm herself. Her medium hair is subdued in a box bread. Her chubby face gives her a young face, making it hard to tell her age. I look down to her barefoot it just doesn’t seem if she is comfortable standing. I can tell for sure she doesn’t know how she got here. She doesn’t know where she is. I can see she is scared because this is her first visit.
Unlike Katrin’s reaction at seeing her, she looks harmless. She seems to be here accidently…but then again, she said my name, perhaps she is here on purpose, but she doesn’t seem to even know what she is doing. I highly doubt if she meant to intrude into this world, I can tell she is stranger. All I am thinking is about how she managed to get here; this could be our very last chance of getting out this damned place and back home.
My heart is beating harder and in speed. I am now breathing heavy because I am excited that this woman is here calling my name. She looks scared and drenched and cold …too cold, unlike us.
Who are you and are you really looking for me? This Adha before you? I wonder, standing still, looking at her in shock and hope of finding something positive.
***
Things were quite for a moment, and it’s quite unlikely to be this way. Tirgume never for once in her entire life ever felt this chilling feeling before. To be able to communicate with souls on the other side was simple, but today makes her feel like this is her very first time. She was scared every time she gets a vision or a message from them. She never was able to be in the quietest place and so suddenly. It’s not even tranquillity, the air is polluted and every hair on her body is rising up, as if they are growing their own types of life.
She can’t see anything, no soul at all, but she can feel she is surrounded like someone is talking to her. This is not something she is used to, souls usually come to her, but this time around, they seem to hide from her. She can’t really feel it, but she can tell they’re reaching out to her and with every passing minute, she is getting colder. She keeps spinning round and around to every reach out feeling she have.
She can tell that her aura is traveling far from home and far from even where the souls waits for their loved ones. She doesn’t know if she can travel this far but she can tell she is. She can’t even control it any longer than this. This is her first and she have never heard of this kind of experience before...not from those around her.
“This is odd,” she says. At first, she was so sure she was not far, listening to Bamlakfekad’s and Membere’s voices, but slowly their voice starts to change into an echo. “I…I never saw this before,” she says, rubbing her hands one with the other to worm herself. Then everything falls under a silence.
A scream of a child shocks her to turn and see behind her. If this was in normal and usual session, she would have just woken back into her body, but she couldn’t this time, she has come way too far for that type of yank back home. Then laughter follows.
Tirgume is scared but she can tell she has no other choice but to proceed. She keeps licking her lip to a merciful wetting. She is breathing heavy in fear; she has never felt alone in her life like now.
“Hush,” she heard a voice to her right and she turns to see and yelps secretly, looking at a girl in white dress that looks like pyjamas, short hair and pale skin. There is nothing that feels this young about this girl, but she can tell she is here to guide her to where she wants to be. It’s a feeling not that she knows it. “Come,” the girl says, pressing a bright smile. She didn’t give her a chance to ask otherwise, she sets off and Tirgume follows her, getting cold and colder. She doesn’t like what’s going on, but she has no choice but to complete what she has started; this is the only way out.
Tirgume can feel how far she is traveling, and this type of traveling are things she heard of, but never for once done nor heard anyone around her say they did it. This is not something she is used to nor did feels comfortable with, but she has already started it. In this way, the way out is one way and it’s ahead of her; no entrance can be the exit. She can only rely on her instinct and she should follow her feeling. The coldness is starting to get physical that she is getting wet like she is walking under water; her hair is in the air and steps she is taking are in struggle, the girl suddenly holds her hand and she feels like she can breathe, like a fish in a water she can feel growing out gills though she it’s all in her mind and not totally physical.
The girl simply star
ts dragging her out and she feels moving further and further away in speed. Before she come to her realisation, they get close to a space where there are lights everywhere with winged creatures brightening the surrounding in the water. Tirgume smiles looking at the ball like creatures moving all around her and everywhere creating delighting and serene environment.
She turns to her left to check on the girl who hold her hand before and couldn’t see her anywhere. Then she suddenly starts to choke in need of air and starts fidgeting in the water; fear starts taking of over her presence, and for the first time ever, she feels death near her.
As she starts losing energy and starts to float up, she sees the girl floating in distance as she approaches towards her. Being under water doesn’t seem to affect the girl, and the way she is moving towards her makes the situation seem simple. Tirgume bubbles out a breath with her gaze fixed at the girl.
The girl’s hair looks longer in the water and her cloth is still and covering her well, as if she is still on a dry land. Her left leg is bent; her feet parallel to her right leg, her arms relaxed and down to her hip but her hands spread, showing her palms, she is smiling and as if she glows herself, she looks brighter than the creatures giving life to the water. Because her hair is floating, she can get a clear look of her face now; rough skin that looks like a dry land, too bright brown eyes, elf-like ears, but pin pointed on both ends; top and bottom and well-shaped body structure. It’s clear this is not human spirit but something else.
“You shall die before you live, and so shall your eyes be opened.” The girl utters and presses a smile. Slowly she rises her hands forming heavy weaves around them and Tirgume bubbles her last breath out and stays still. “Use the roots,” she says and pushes her hard on her chest away from herself.
As if the water wants her to keep living, it carries her away and because of the circulating weave that’s formed around her, it creates a dry space for her to once again breathe. She then suddenly yelps a breath in and rises up. As she feels a hard thing hitting her, she looks up and notices that she is under a rock; she swims to find a way out and see a curving end to it. She fidgeted to it.
For a moment, she couldn’t manage to hold on to a firm support; everything is slithery, she is wet, the stone is covered by alga, and even if she manages to hold on to it, she wouldn’t be able to climb up the huge stone since it’s too smooth to deliver her all the way up. She swims around it to find a way that she can get a grasp on to and see there is a lower side of stone. She reaches to it, breathing heavy, and climbs up on it and takes a moment, breathing heavy to manage to calm herself down.
She looks around at every direction in fear. If it wasn’t for the light coming from the water, the place would be too dark. Swallowing nothing down her throat, she stands shivering and starts walking around to find a way out. This small space is the only space. In the corner of the wall, she can see roots of a tree coming all the way down to the wall and into the water. There is silver lighting traveling up and down the root structures that are buried through the ground, looking for a merciful wet of the moisture and the water. Licking her lips wet, she walks to it and starts digging her way up. In a while, she manages to find her way up and out the ground to an open air; under an enormous oak tree, that she looks up to in in a complete bewilderment.
***
“Are you heading down the river?” Rihanna asks Haddiya, who is speeding out her compound.
“Yes,” she says, giggling to her as she pills her dress up to run as comfortably as she can. “Why, want to come?” she asks playfully, looking at her as she walks backward.
“You’re crazy,” Rihanna answers her, smiling as she shakes her head. “If I come with you, who would tell on you to your husband that you went there again?” she says, giggling, following her three steps forwards.
“Then wait for him,” she says, laughing. Turning around, she speeds off.
“Slow down at least,” Rihanna says, concerned. Shaking her head, she walks back into her compound, amused to Hadiya’s euphoric doings.
Hadiya is in love with this spot in particular. She feels alive and peaceful here. She feels calm and can think clearly. She does nothing different here, except sitting on the big stone and look at the river flowing down. She doesn’t even stay long, just for some minutes and she would just go back home. She doesn’t want her husband to feel discomforted about her coming here.
Here, it makes her feel like she can have a conversation with nature itself. The wind making way through the trees to meet her sitting on the stone, the water flowing down as it tries to share a secret she can understand if she pays enough attention to listen. She is quite unlike her brothers, who are city boys. She enjoys nature better than anything. She sometimes pretends as if she can talk to the wind and trees; she wouldn’t be loud but she would imagine, with her eyes closed, as she converses with nature.
Closing her eyes, she breathes in heavily and exhales long. She presses a smile and stands from the stone she was using to sit on for a moment.
“See you tomorrow,” she says, waving goodbye to her surroundings and turning on her heels to speed off back to her house.
***
I’m checking the women, from head to toe. She is still not sure about where she is at now…well, after all, I don’t know where I am now either, but her confusion is making me feel like an expert. She is looking around in confusion and still shivering. To be honest, I doubt if we have time to hide her nor if we have time to explain to her about what’s going on around her and now.
“I am Adha,” I said in English and she looks at me, once again. I am more focused on figuring out what she is looking for, from me…hoping it is me she is looking for. “Adha, Ene,” I repeat myself in Amharic, hitting my chest once again.
“Adha nesh?” she asks me in Amharic. “Adha Bamlakfekad?” she adds with my father’s name and like it’s time to go home, I feel like exploding in excitement. I went back to my childhood where I hate to be at school, but time is approaching to head home.
“Awo, Yes, Awo,” I repeat myself in Amharic and English over and over again as I lean on Zhai with my right hand on her left arm. I think, for a moment, I just lost my mind that I don’t know what I am doing, I don’t know how to act like; I keep touching myself over and over again; my hair, my belly, my chest, I try to touch her, the intruder, but then at the realisation that we couldn’t, I would retreat back and then I would hold Zhai. “Negn, I am,” I answer in Amharic, then translate it in English again. I’m sobbing as I look at the women and then back to Zhai, who is looking at me, confused. I don’t even know why I am using both Amharic and English together, but I know it’s not going to change my answer; I’m not even trying to help Zhai understand what I am saying. I think this is what they call panic; I don’t know what I am doing but I am doing it anyways, I kneel halfway to the ground, but stand once again and blood is rushing through my body all the way up and cumulating in my brain, as if the rest of my body is drained, my head feels stretched beyond its limit. “Mindin new? Endet…?” I hate myself for not being able to speak my mother tongue very well, but I keep going on and on with my corrupt Amharic. I guess this is one disadvantage of culture difference conflict.
At the sound of many footsteps approaching our direction, I flick turn around to look. There are many of them running to our direction. None of them human, most of them are too odd and two three of them are too tall that it’s impossible to hide or deny their scary presence.
“Hurry,” Zhai utters, looking to her direction. “Tell her to hurry, they are here!” Zhai screams, shaking, and I gasp. I know this isn’t time to lose it, I should be able to hurry her up before any of those creatures reaches to us.
“Tolo,” I roll my right hand in the air, “metu…ke yazu motesh…” I know what I want to say is ‘Hurry up, show us how you get here, you’ll be dead if they catch you’, but I panicked too much that I messed up my message. “Ah!” I screamed as I pull my hair band off in stressed fear and thr
ew it on the ground a little behind her. “Tolo bey!” I add once again. I think my last message to speed up is clear enough. I don’t know what I am meant to do but this is the only reaction that feels like fitting to the situation.
“Tinishwa lij, be…” she frowns, thinking for a moment as if she is recalling something. She is talking about a young girl and what she told her. “Ah!” she jumps slightly, clasping her hand and seems like she has come to the realisation of what she wanted to tell me. “Sirochun tetekemi, mewchaw…” she stops looking behind her. “Ahhh!!!” she screams loudly, looking at the long hideous lady that just reaches to our presence, but it didn’t take her any more seconds to strike her. She…more like it waves its left hand at her.
The moment, the intruder realises the attack, coming from the creature, she falls down; her left arm in the air, in defence mechanism to her face; she escapes the horrible fortune, but since the tip of the creature’s hand touches her, I can see a burnt wound on her forearm.
“Emebete deresh!” she prays loud in shock, looking up to the creature; calling Marry mother of Jesuses’ name for help. The creature seep to be affected by the word that it staggers back a little and looks down at her in disappointment, but screams with ear piercingly disturbing sound.
The creature is too thin and tall; nude with sagged penny-brown body skin, scattered hair string on its head, sharp interlocking teeth and long feet. It’s deformed; heavy shoulder blades that seem to make it stand banding down a lot as its belly is too thin. Just as it is hideous it also smells bad as well. It any ways make me run out of air and weak, in shock.
I look back to the intruder with my hands on my ears and realise that she is retreating back; still on the ground and scared. I can see her forearm is bothering her; the pain from the slight touch from the creature. As she uses her hand to drag herself away from the creature approaching her, once again, I see she grabs the hair band I throw earlier. She is getting closer to the root and I am hoping she would use it as a shield to hid away from the creature. Both me and Zhai are screaming.
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