The Seventh Curse Bearer

It’s really not that I hated the world and its presences, it is not that I hated humankind and what it had to give. It is not that I reviled people to the core of my  beating  heart , it is just that all I ever got in return was hatred from the people I loved the greatest. Love was all I had to give and hate was all I had to receive. Due to the fact that I was born different in that life time,  people alleged me to be  a demon that had to be taken off the face of earth, erased from history and wiped out of existence.  On that day , on that night, I stood at the gates of the palace as I watched  them drag away a woman  innocently and unjustly accused of  sinful acts; murder and wizardry; my mother. I was distraught. She gazed at me in bewilderment,  a look of terror in her eyes. I ran after her screaming , "mommy, mommy!" I was only twelve years old. They were unforgiving, the guards  took her to a place, a shrine adorned with wood and moss. They tied her to a stake and lit her  on fire.  I cried and screamed as I watched my beloved mother ablaze and  people threw stones and sticks at her burning frame shouting, "witch, burn the witch! Die, you sorceress!" A lady who stood next to me grabbed me by the shoulders  and kept my mouth shut with her hand. "Come child," she dragged me out of the shouting crowd. To them, my mother and I were an abomination. We needed to be cast out, to be removed. My mother from mine eyes was sinless. Her honour, her virtue, her intergrity, were stainless, clean as the white veil she wore above her hair. She was young  and bold when she met my father. She hailed from an island located away  from Angira. An island hidden and isolated from other lands. Her tribal origins were a mystery. The day she  was cast out from the Island  is the day her life was saved. She had me in captivity, in s*****y; under the watchful eye of a fruitful kindom. Angira.                                         *        *        * ~ A slave slave in the harem ~ At the dawning of dusk, I stood in a large room curling my toes beneath my feet on the polished marble floor in shame and in embarrassment. My  cold naked frame was exposed to the two eunuchs that stood before my very curious bulging and fearful eyes meticulously studying every part of my body to see if i was ready and  fit for the sultan’s harem. I had just turned sixteen.  The room was dimly lit. The evening was warm with a little drizzle. The sound of the tiny raindrops pelted against the large glass window of the room overlooking the harem's private gardens.  One of the eunuchs drew closer to me, he was tall and dominant. His eyes glowed a beautiful glossy brown. The moon's tender rays gracefully caressed his bronzed skin. "She's not so bad, which pat of the harem is she from?" He asked.  They discussed me as i stood  uncomfortable  and  almost drawn to tears. "Indeed, she’s a germ, look at her figure, and those eyes, those enticing eyes.” They both gazed at me in awe and in marvel, another wave of embarrassment washed over me, sending my  esteem plunging into an ocean of bleakness.the girl standing next to me wept. Her view of the world was one of gloom, just like mine.  “Well,” the chief eunuch’s deep hoarse voice echoed in the room, “she’s a bit lean though and a little unpolished as well but she will do. Maybe force feeding and a wash will do her good. She might need to learn some manners too.” He continued pacing even closer to me.  He put his hand on my chin studying my face. I spit in his and he scowled back in disgust. Unexpectedly, he punched me  in the face with his massive fist sending my nude form plummeting on the floor. The next few minutes were horror for me Nothing. Except excruciatingly unbearable pain and dizziness. I lay on the floor struggling to get up. Blood was gushing out of my  nose. Anger flooded me  to the peak of madness, like a rampant storm of untamed rivers. I wanted to lash out at him, to tell him off, but feebleness was my  weakness and my  weakness was pain. I reviled discomfort with all my might. I crawled struggling to find balance and cowered in a corner with my arms shielding my  head. The was nothing but silence and the soft, almost inaudible sound of raindrops and of course the ringing in my ears.  His voice then thundered and a fear I  never felt before struck in my heart. I felt it too much. “Get up you wretched savage!” he howled spiting on the floor next to me in anger. Suddenly i found myself unable to move, faintness was surpassing me , consciousness was leaving me. I was hauled into an abyss of darkness, nothing but bleak darkness. That is how I learned the hard way.  That in order to survive this place, I had to abide by the rules and do what was expected  of me.  Fast forward to two years I would see my downfall begin and my entire existence evolve.    * * * ~ Two  years later ~ "He's only mine! I alone are meant to be his mistress. Don't think you can just come here and take my place. He will never love you!" I screamed with tears rolling down my rosey cheeks. My intimidated opponent curled her toes beneath her feet on the polished marble floors of the sultan's harem as she stood a few feet away from me, a look of total pleasure on her face. This is what she wanted but not what I wanted. She wanted the most out of me, to make me look bad, to see what I would do. To feel my utter most wrath, my reaction in this malicious game of love and war. I had stooped so low that I found my self fighting for a man. A man I thought I was really in love with. A man who took no importance in who I was as a being but pleasure in deriving the most from me in the form of forbbiden pleasures. How could I have become like this? Did I really call the sultan mine? It took a few minutes for me to realise that I was driving my self away from my dutiful obligations and most of all I was drifting away from the basic principles I lived by. Now a days, the heart ruled over the mind. I had become a person of a lot of emotions. I paced back as the terrific situation before me quickly escalated. The other girl, her name was Nadia. She had suddenly gained a whim of courage. She confronted me with full rage. "You don't deserve him," she replied. "You wanted to poison him. If I had not come into that room in time you would have done it. Wouldn't you?" I gazed down in shame. Not shame over what i had almost done but shame over the fact that my life had come to this. That of a slave in a harem fighting over who the sultan loved more. I wanted a free life. My rage seemed to vanish. " Tell me why you wanted to kill him. He's a kind sultan, kind enough to provide a roof and luxury to even someone like you Nancy!" the other girl Nadia, asked. "Someone like me? Whats that supposed to mean?" I replied with an injured tone. "You know what I'm talking about you filthy blood sucker! That's right, I know what you are." She smiled, the most devious smile i have ever seen on a human before. "You are a hybrid," she continued, "your mother was a black lunar witch from the southern hemisphere. Your mother died at the hand of the sultan's father, he killed everyone like her except her, he took your mother in but your mother betrayed her, that is why he had to kill her too and that is why you see reason to avenge her death by killing the current sultan ruler!" At last Nadia had uttered words that dug deep into my wild and thrashing heart refreshing a deep past wound that lay burried within. I felt sad. Saddened by my mother's death, I remembered the promise I had made to mother before she died. To avenge herl "I always knew about your past Nancy, no matter how much you tried to hide it. You, your mother's tribe was massacred for unlawful witchcraft practices and the sultan's father took pity when he laid eyes on your pregnant mother, and he spared her. He brought her back here to live in his harem as his slave. When you were born, they wanted to kill you because you weren't the sultan's father's child but he opposed to that that is why you lived. Your mother took jealously as her motive and killed the sultan's baby brother, the only other heir to his father's throne that is why they killed your mother. Now you' re doing the same. You want to kill the Sultan him self and I'm not going to let you do it" She said with a serious look on her face. "Born and bred a slave, lives as a slave, you're the true definition of a w***e Nancy!" She said. I was deeply hurt, not by her profanities she screamed at me, but by her merely addressing me as a slave just because I was born and raised in captivity under the sultan's watchful eye just like her. She of all people knew what it felt like to be labelled with that audacious name such as slave. To carry it most of your life as if it defined your persona, yet here she was, calling me a slave when she was one just like me. The hypocrisy! I was enraged and she was right. I had tried to kill the Sultan. I wanted revenge for my mother's death but love got in the way. I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I was ashamed because I claimed to love the sultan when all I ever did was decieve him. I wanted her to think so too. The act of murder its self was was less painful to me than the art of deception. It brough forth guilt in me. It's not out of love or fear that I spared his life , it was out of my own integrity and moral values. I had promised mother he would meet his demise, but come to think of it, because of his beloved son, the crown Prince, it took a lot of growing and learn in that i grew to be a better person, i had erased the imprints left on me by my mother, I had forgotten all the spells and customs she taught me. Like the black widow spell. A spell to annihilate one's enemy; and the Binding spell; a spell to make any one do what you want them to; to command. "My child," she had said. "If you want to live and be successful in this harsh and cruel world, you have to do what you got to do. You must seek your roots to find your self, like me, you are a witch and must abide by the life of a witch. The is no harm in a bad deed if it benefits you!" And there she went on painting her dark imprints on me. I simply did not want to be like my mother. Deep in thought, I did not   see Nadia coming for me. She plunged at me with her naked form in full force. She had just come from her evening bath. We were alone in the room. Her hair was still wet, that water was slowly dripping on the polished floors from her dark waist long strands. Her eyes were red, I could feel an ocean of jealousy streaming rigid,   right within her very veins. I felt her every emotion. I noticed her every move but what I failed to notice in time was a dagger she had all along, hidden behind her dark locks, behind her back. Thanks to my reflexes, I caught her hand in time before she drove the dagger through my fragile heart. I pushed her away sending her plundering on the floor, her head hit the wall. She cried in pain but it did not stop her from attempting another attack. We fought woman to woman. She was driven by profound jealousy while I was driven by nothing except hate and a thirst for vengeance. I was driven by the events that had occurred in my past. An atrocity done to me as my life was taken away before my birth. Hate over the fact that I still considered the sultan only to be my lover. No one else was to have him but now she was his and he was hers. I fought for his love and attension but now he had somebody else he loved more amongst all the girls in the harem. She was that woman. Her days, her life, her ambitions had become just like mine; only centered on making his s****l dreams a reality. Did she not also care about her self? Did she not have any dreams and aspirations that she would lower her standards and capitulate to a man's pleasures? Life had been unkind to us  until now. I sought to sympathise  with her but she made herself my enemy. I did not want to eliminate her, but the events that followed  that night led to her demise.  "Stop!" At last, I yelled as I drew back. "I don't want to hurt you!" I found my self saying these very words.They felt strange to the core.  "Oh shut up you bloody witch! " She yelled out of arrogance and annoyance. It angered me more. I felt a way I had never felt before. Blood rushed through my veins like a rampant storm of wild rivers. "What did you call me?" I yelled, I was enraged. I wanted to launch my self at her but then, an astonishingly agonizing sharp pain short through my whole body directly from my feet sending me crashing to the floor. I cried in pain as I tried to hide it. I could not let my opponent see me in this vulnerable state. "What have you done to her?" I looked up in vain to see blurry nude figures at the entrance of the harem's baths. A small crowd of girls had started to gather. "I haven't done anything! " I could hear Nadia's scared and shaky voice echoe in front of me. I could only see her feet and ankles as she she stood nearer to me than the other girls. I cried in vain as similar sharp waves shot through my body only faster this time. I arched my body in pain. I stood up and stumbled. Was I dying? No! No! I couldn't, I was so young. Get out!  I thought  to my self. 'If I'm going to die, I'm going to die out side of these  prison walls as a free woman.' I thought to my self. I could hear everyone scream, I ' felt' them pacing away from me. I don't remember much of what happened after that. All it took was one bucket of cold icy water for me to awaken from my deep slumber named unconsciousness. I was hauled out of nothingness. Only to wake up to learn of a terrible truth I was oblivious to. Next to me was a puddle of blood and strands of torn hair that lay on the floor, what was left of Nadia. When I woke up, I was surprised to find out everyone was afraid of me. They all stood far from me including the nurses and guards. Some say I attempted to devour her whole. They said I turned into a vicious monster. My eyes glowed a glossy light brown and I supposedly morphed into a wolf. The girl, Nadia was so terrified that she had cowered and screamed as I did the awful deed. Her lifeless body had been dragged away to the nurse's before I woke up. I found my self bound in chains as the rumors of my murder circulated the palace. Not that everybody cared that I had took the life of another innocent girl but the way I killed her. A wave of guilt ate at me every second on from the moment I woke up. Fear I'd never felt before. My body ached. I was weak. I was devastated when I learned I would be beheaded, so I escaped to find the only family I had left. My father. I set out not only to find my self but also my to find my father. I wanted to learn of this new found power. This atrocity that had made me demolish an innocent life and that almost cost me my own life. To ask him why he left me before I even came into the world. I wanted to find love, I wanted a free life. I set out into the forest; on my quest by horse. Upon meeting my father, he told me I was his. His only child born of a forbidden union. "Why didn't you stay father? Why did you suddenly leave my mother?" I asked. "I didn't leave your mother out of free will my child." He said. "It's just the way of the felidae clan. We do not abide by the norms of the society. We know no such thing as family and I'm sorry but I can never be the father figure you presume me to be. When we have off spring, we consider that adding a member to the society of the clan." Those words cut deep into my bleeding heart. How could my own father reject me? He didn't want family? "Ah. Don't look at me like that, my Nancy, look around child. You've travelled all the way here to find me and you've been with us for almost two months. Haven't you learnt our ways? All I'm saying is you have to learn to be alone because in our tribe there's no companionship." I left only to be caught by the Prince. my lover. I was taken back to Angira and I was beheaded. I perished being at the young age of 21. I wanted a different life, I had so many untried ambitions maybe that's why the Devine chose to give me a second chance at life because a thousand years later I would be reborn into a different world; a new world in colleration with my ambitions.