Cambion Love

Despair is Freedom

Shrouded in darkness, she walked aimlessly towards a tunnel of light. Soon she would be with her mother. As the heat firmly graced her skin, she opened her arms to embrace her destiny. She felt like she was being reborn into a new world. When her eyes completely opened, an intense pain ran through the right side of her body. She screamed at the top of her lungs. She was suffering from hypothermia. Part of her ankle was frozen to the floor.

She writhed on the floor as the sun provided some relief. All she could do was laugh hysterically. Instead of meeting her mother in the afterlife, she cried so much her tears helped freeze part of her body during the night. She closed her eyes and continued to attempt to flex her appendages. After an hour or so, it was close to ninety degrees in the shack. The wild temperature changes were something she wondered if all of Wilshana went through because it just wasn't right.

Soon she started getting the feeling back in her arm and leg. She laid on her back staring at the ceiling, wondering what her next step would be.

“I know what it is, but I don’t want to, mama. I don’t want to.” Her emotions flooded her face, she thought she would drown. She started thinking about how her dress was made of some poorly sewn together curtains. Her shoes were made from sculpted tree bark and the leaves of the mafoozle tree. An odd tree that grew rubber-like leaves. She didn’t know exactly where the palace was. If she remembered correctly, Wilshana laid across the top of the entire continent. Which meant she could be more than 500, maybe 1000 miles from the palace.

Most of the residents used dimensional transporters to get around, so they may not have known how to travel directly there. Alefa couldn’t use the transporters because she was not a resident of Wilshana. She sat up and pulled her dress closed. She was terrified of seeing her mother’s deceased body, but she had to. She had to make sure she was still sleeping peacefully. She crawled over to the small twin-sized bed and peaked over the edge.

The sunlight landed perfectly on her mother's hair. It sparkled under the rays. Her skin now matched the color of her hair. She looked like an angel with her newly formed halo. Alefa took a deep breath, trying to keep the tears at bay. She wouldn’t be able to stay in the hut with her mother’s silhouette. Grabbing a book about Wilshana and the book she read nightly, she readied herself to start her next journey.

She kept the rice and left the potatoes and a kettle to heat the water. Her heart raced but this was nothing in comparison to getting swept away in the swamp or losing her mother on her sixteenth birthday. She added tape around her cloth bra to make running a little easier. She picked up her mother’s shawl and used it to strap the grocery bag to her back, tying it in the middle of her breasts.

After planting one last kiss in the middle of her mother’s forehead, she turned and rushed towards the walkway. She kept her shoes in the grocery bag, she was sure running barefoot would improve her speed. The moment her feet hit the moldy dirt, she felt like she was floating. The wind blew threw her short curly hair, her arms chopped back and forward as she sprinted.

“Is this freedom?” The thought made her angry. Her mother was not some anchor that made her stay in the dugery. She chose to stay at her side. If this was anything, it was despair. A realization that there was nothing left in the world for her only despair and existence. She would gather both of those ideals within her arms and covet it like a dragon coveting gold.

“f**k it.” She whispered as she saw the end of the walkway coming into sight. Without noticing, she had run across the walkway in less than three hours. She stopped running when she got to the edge.

The sound of the town buzzing that morning seemed different. Every click, clack, and laugh made her skin heat up. Their smiles were like knives grazing her back, leaving millions of paper cuts. She continued her walk, trying to drown them out. Once she arrived at the storefront, the men that normally sat out front drinking were standing.

Their eyes followed her as she walked past them.

“What the hell ya doing here?” One growled. Alefa stood in a daze trying to push herself to keep walking past that point. The shorter male of the crew walked over to her and grabbed her shoulder.

“I know you heard him!” He yelled. Alefa turned and wrapped her arm around his arm and popped his shoulder upward. His eyes rolled in his head as he screamed out in agony. She released him and his arm dangled loosely at his waist. Alefa took a fighting stance while remaining silent. She had wanted to kick their asses for the longest time. But now with a straightened back, she turned her back to the vulgar group as they tended to their wounded friend. They didn’t want to fight her. They seemed scared.

That was her cue. She saw a cleared path in front of her and dug in. She shot off like a bullet from a gun, kicking up dirt and flinging rocks at the storefront and the men. Her vision seemed enhanced. She could see all around her perfectly. She jumped over baskets and kids playing in the streets, maneuvering around people like she wasn’t traveling at the highest of speeds. When she came to a gate she stopped and stared in amazement at the grandeur. She shook her head. There was no time to be excited.

The thought of the large opening collapsing as she walked through it bounced through her head. “Just keep moving.” She whispered to herself. As she stepped out on to the wet soil on the other side of the gate, she let out a sigh of relief. The mud between her toes was the least of her worries. The roads outside of town were unkept. She could tell no one traveled by foot or vehicle anymore. While the creatures in the dugery were large and plenty, that was there and this was here. This was different, unknown. The smell of the swamp was even different.

Alefa held her nose, “How can they withstand this smell?” Then it dawned on her, she didn’t smell the stench before she stepped through the gate. These waters were filled with the souls of the dead. Their carcasses didn’t have to be visible; their aroma told their tale. She exhaled and started to run. She got to a grass clearing and her instincts screamed" jump, stop, wait!" all at once.

The reason for the massive grave laid in front of her. A lake covered with behemoth trees and thick grass. There was no way to really tell where it was safe to step. The trickery this swamp played to get a complete meal was terrifying.

The gate to the small town was still visible. She hadn’t gotten far. Now this formidable obstacle was trying to impede her existing. She looked around, checking all possible options. The trees were close enough for her to possibly jump from limb to limb.

Alefa started to laugh loudly. She had never climbed a tree. If throwing caution to the wind was a person, her picture would be its associated image. She jumped on the roots of the nearest tree and hugged it tight. With her grip she propelled herself up the body of the tree. Once she reached a stable branch, the real work would begin. She eyed a place to land on the next tree.

Her weight and the impact it would have on the limb caused her to have second thoughts about her endeavor. [It’s too late.] She sprung off the branch and relieved herself of all self-doubt. If she was meant to die in that swamp, then that’s where her freedom ended. [I had a good run.] After the fourth tree she picked up the pace, her stomach was turning from the odor that lived in the humidity.

Before she knew, she had landed on the last tree. There was nothing but grass left. She could see the next town about two miles away. A large flying machine hovered towards her.

“What’s that?” She whispered.

Once it reached her, a voice came from it. “This area is restricted. Danger zone. Do not enter. Do not enter. “

“Is it only water?” She asked without thinking about whether it could answer her question or not.

“The grass is attached to unsteady mounds of dirt.”

As soon as it finished communicating, she climbed down to the base of the tree.

“Then I still have a 2 % chance of survival.” She said as she bent down and prepared to sprint across the water.

“DANGER! DANGER! DO NOT ENTER!” The machine communicated louder and kept running a scan over her body as if it was trying to teleport her. Alefa pushed off from the tree. [I am wind.]

Her toes felt like they were barely touching the grass before she was on to the next step. [I am energy.] The sun heated the skin on her back, as she steadied her breathing to almost nothing. [I am nothing.] The gate grew larger in her line of sight, so she leaned forward into her run. Her legs started to burn. The sensation was the most pain she had ever physically felt in her lifetime. It was slowing her down. It had taken the steam out of her engine. She reached her hand out for the land that wasn’t covered with grass. [Please. This can’t be the end.]