Atarah's Realm

Chapter Two

The mumbling words that are prickling my ears trigger my eyelids to fold open but the moment the light from the ceiling hits them, they flinch back close. I remain on the bed, steady and relax as my head recognizes the voices and their words begin to cut-clear.

“Poor Atarah,” says a woman’s voice.

“Hope she’d be okay,” says another one while sobbing.

I open my eyes once more. Though they feel heavy, I angle them towards the people on my side. Distraught faces of my colleagues greet them. Their gazes are on me but no one dares to come near my bed, no one even asks if I’m alright. A couple of minutes later, the door creaks open. A man with his red nose and swollen wet eyes in a plain shirt and tight pants enters the room. He places the basket of fruits he’s carrying on the table across my bed. After a few hugs and taps of each others back, one by one, my colleagues step out of the room but he remains. Without a delay, he pulls a chair closer to the edge of my bed and to my surprise, starts pressing his lips against my forehead. His hands grab mine and he kisses it too. Tears accumulate in the corners of his eyes but he’s fighting them not to fall down.

“I should have stayed with you. I should have taken you away from them but I got scared of your rejection,” he shrieks in sadness.

My lips part but words couldn’t break free so I slide my hand from him and pull my weight up. When I slant my view back to him, puzzlement riddles in my brain. He is still holding a hand and kneading its knuckle on his cheek. My eyes crinkle as I raise my arms in front of my face.

‘But I’m completely free from his grip?’

Anxiety wriggles to my veins as I attempt to look over my shoulder. I jolt and squeal when my sight lays on myself lying unconsciously with gauge coils on my head and a nebulizer masks half of my face. I immediately stand up and run to the corner of the room to catch a better glimpse of the situation.

‘How could this be possible?’

The wariness inside of me is halted when the words ‘I love you’ escape from his mouth. Maybe I just misheard it but he says it again.

“I love you,… I hope you know.” This time, his tears don’t hold back and stream down from his eyes.

My legs tread towards him but when my hand tries to touch his hair, it passes through him. I bite my lower lip as the notion that I might have special feelings for him too muddle with my anxiety. Before he could say another word, his hand quickly reaches for his pocket then takes out his handkerchief and wipes off his tears when the door slams open. My shoulders slump the moment I realize who are entering the room, my adoptive family. He takes a deep breath before facing them, he tilts his head forward and fakes a smile before stepping out of the room. When I lift my foot from the cold shiny tiled floor to follow him outside, Aunt Magda speaks and the things that come out of her mouth cease my movement.

“This girl should wake up! How are we suppose to pay our…” She pauses then peeks her head on the small window of the door before continuing. “…I mean her debts?”

“You’re right. She’s our scapegoat from all of our debts,” Uncle Bogart says while scratching his baldy head.

My eyes agape with my mouth in disbelief as they continue to talk about money and their own personal interests rather than being concern with my well-being.

Elise, who’s standing at the corner of the bed, crosses her arms over her chest and raises an eyebrow. “Stop it you guys! What are you so worked up for?” she says with an irritation on her tone. “You should be more worried about the plagiarized documents than the loans themselves.”

“Shut your mouth!” demands Aunt Magda who’s still nervously peeping through the door’s glass window.

A sudden apprehension crops up in my chest. 'Plagiarized documents?'

Elise saunters towards the leathered coach and slumps her body on it. “Those money lenders will go after Atarah and not us. So whether she survives or not, is not our problem anymore.”

“It’s not just about the debts. Who’s gonna feed us? Who’s gonna pay our bills if she dies?” Uncle Bogart asks.

The weave of agitation and fury that has been accumulating in my chest bursts through my eyes. Tears relentlessly cascade on my cheeks and whimper flees between my lips as my shaking knees flop to the floor. Second by second, I am losing the ability to breath properly as if there’s an invisible chain that’s clasping my neck. Then, screams reverberate in the area when the jagged green line on the ventilator starts to straighten.

“Call the doctor! Call the doctor!”

People in white hastily come in and encircle the bed while they ask my adoptive family to get out of the room.

“Turn on the defibrillator!”

“Put on the pads!”

“Prepare for shocks and clear the patient!”

Whatever they are doing to my unconscious body causes my heart to painfully vibrate as if thousands of needles are pricking it all at the same time. I shut my eyes close as my hand clutches my chest.

'I can’t die. I’ll clear my name from the mess that my so-called family brought me into. I’ll live my life to the fullest, spend my hard-earned money however I want and…and dedicate my whole self to Adam Reyes.'

In an instant, my heartbeat goes back to normal and so does my breathing. Everything around me becomes quiet. I slowly open my eyes but much to my surprise, I am transported to a place unknown to me. There’s no one else aside from me and the chirping birds, the lushes green grass underneath my bare feet and a cloudless bright sky overhead.

“What is this place?...Where am I?” I take a couple of steps forward then tip my toes and stretch my neck to see if there’s something I could find. There is absolutely nothing, I’m in the middle of nowhere. “Am I dead?”

I pinch myself and I could feel pain but I’m not sure if that’s enough to prove that I’m still alive. My legs keep on trudging as sweat profusely coating my skin and soaking my hospital gown. But I’m just wasting time and effort, the place seems like an endless greeneries. By a fluke, the ground quakes momentarily then a sprout springs up from the soil right in front of me. I walk back with tottering legs while cementing my eyes on the plant as it grows into a sapling then into a tree in just seconds!

“What is going on?”

I stare at it with intensity, then the image of the tree in my office building emerges in my memory. They have the same spiky twisting branches that form its weird shape. The only difference is this tree looks enchanting as if it comes out from a fantasy book – its surface is covered with silver and gold glitters and it is surrounded by blue butterflies. My curiosity wins over my hesitation, triggering me to move closer and nudge my palms on it. Some of its sparkle transfer on my skin and the blue butterflies hover around me.

“Atarah.”

I jolt when a captivating voice of a woman calls out to me. I turn and walk around but can’t find anybody.

“It’s me,” it says again.

“Where are you?”

“Behind you.”

I look over my shoulder but don’t see anyone aside from the gnarled tree. My body freezes and my eyes widen the moment I lay my eyes on it. A face appears on its surface and smiles at me.

“How have you been?” it asks.

My soiled feet are glued on the ground, my jaw is trembling and my head is unable to comprehend what’s happening.

“Don’t be scared my dear. I won’t cause you any harm. I’m here to give you a choice.”

My eyebrows twitch. “A choice?”

“Yes,” it responds. “They call me the Tree of Destiny.”

“What if I refuse? I mean, I just wanna go back to my body.”

“You can’t…not yet.”

I crease my eyes while rambling towards the tree. “What do you mean by YET?”

“This is the lifeline of people who are given the second chance to live. Technically speaking, you’re dead.”

I gasp, my hands cover my mouth as my shoulders raise then my head shakes from side to side in bafflement.

“Not all humans are given this chance so don’t throw it away. What’s your take?”

“I don’t wanna die. I’m too young. I’ll do whatever I have to do to come back to life to be happy and be with Adam!”

It smiles again before speaking. “You have to fulfill a mission. If you succeed, you’ll have a shot to live a life that you truly desire but if you fail, then you’ll remain dead.”

Without alternative, I bob my head in agreement. “So what’s this mission all about?”

The face suddenly disappears from the tree and the tree returns back to sapling then to sprout until the soil swallows it. The ground quakes again and its longer and more violent this time. The fissure on the ground crawls too wide and too fast for me to elude. My body lurches down the gash and my hands try to grab anything that will stop me from plummeting further but to no avail.

“Noooo!!!”

I lift my body up while catching for breath. My heart thumps on my chest and beads of sweat form on the my forehead. I slouch my body after realizing that it’s just a dream before reclining my body back to my soft and silky circular bed.

'Soft? Silky? Circular?'

My hand kneads the blanket then raise it in front of my face. “This isn’t my bed.”

I sit down with my legs crossed while my eyes are scanning the area. A salmon-colored cloth which is draped above the bed, a crystal chandelier that hangs on the white ceiling and a beige wool carpet covering the entire floor. Before I could do anything else, the huge double doors fling open. A woman in an apron walks inside, smiling at me while pushing a steel cart.

“Do you feel better now?” she asks as she assembles something on the gold table across the bed. When I don’t reply, she looks at me over her shoulder with a perplex expression on her face.

“Please eat your breakfast, Mr. Ward will be here soon.” She then walks towards the left side of the room and draws the curtain open causing the crisp sunshine to shower the room through the floor-to-ceiling windows.

'Why does she speaks to me like she knows me?'

Our gazes meet for the second time and I’m pretty sure that we’re wearing the same facial expression.

She saunters towards the bed. “Are you okay, Princess Atarah?”

I lean back a little as total bewilderment takes over my entire being. “P-p-princess? Why did you call me a princess?”