I was awoken by a feminine voice. The voice was familiar, but I couldn't identify it until a gasp broke through the words. I knew one girl who couldn't complete a few sentences without gasping or blinking a few times. I opened my eyes. Neive was staring at me, her dark blue eyes visible in the morning sunlight.

I was freezing for some reason.

Neive was a pretty girl. She was ten like me. Her dark hair was a feature only her mother Zeniva had shared, long enough to touch the ground.

"Ruth, why are you sleeping here? were you…" Neive gasped as if she was choking on the air. "Were you sleepwalking?"

Neive was my neighbor, and along with her mother, they were the only people my mother had talked to. Even though my mother had told me not to trust anyone, she was strangely on good terms with them and always received fruits and eggs from them. They even had dinner together a few times in the past.

Ignoring the existence of Neive, I stared around. There was something thick and big beside me, tall and brick-like in texture. I slowly became aware that it was the pole of a gate. I was at the village gate, Neive beside me blinking too many times, making me feel like blinking as well.

I slowly stood, my hand rubbing my head as I tried to recall what had happened yesterday.

I decided to go to the forest. I met five girls, and then…

I recalled. I was being taken somewhere in the forest, lured by the smell of candy, just like what my mom had told me.

The witch. I thought.

It must have been the witch. And those rats must have been her followers…

But what was that illuminating figure? It was o beautiful, yet different. Not a monster, but not a human as well. I remembered her white glow. She looked like a girl. Her hair was curly. Every part of her glowed white.

She looked as if she was my opposite.

While she was bright, I was gloomy… and that smile… was something so genuine I had only seen once before from my mother.

"Ruth!" Neive said loudly, breaking me from my trance. "Are you okay?"

I noticed.

The area had quite a few kids looking at me from a distance. It was morning, and the sun had a thin thread of heat between the cold stings of wind.

The kids were in groups of twos and threes. The area was muddy and spacious, with only one cottage.

Unlike the area, the cottage yard was sprinkled with red stones and was dry and clean, and a few kids sat in front of its door.

I was surprised. I was just in my house, then in a forest, then asleep…

And, now, I was here.

Suddenly, heat touched my cheek.

"Are you okay?" Neive said, touching my cheek with one hand. "You didn't answer."

I nodded.

Even if I wanted to say something different, I couldn’t explain. It was the best answer I could give.

I was somehow puzzled about the reason behind the gathering of the kids. They wouldn't be in groups like now if they were playing together.

Some looked at me but most observed the cottage as if they were waiting for someone.

"The cottage?" Neive asked, observing my eyes.

"True!" she gasped. "You have never listened to the storyteller before. Great! Today is the start of the year, and he will repeat most of last year's tales. Everyone is gathered to listen to the tales we had missed."

The storyteller?

I had heard of him before, someone who told stories to boys like me.

I looked around. All the kids sat in front of the door except for Neive… and another girl.

"Neive, come! I have something to tell you!" a child screamed from the crowd of kids in the cottage's yard. Neive looked at me, blinking. And excused herself.

"Let's return home together," she said before leaving.

I stood alone beside the gate's wooden pole. I was puzzled by many things in my head, but I found myself slowly calming down with a deep breath. The kid who called Neive was steven. I knew him from my memories. He was the first one to laugh at me and the one who had made the rest laugh. His hair was brown, and freckles spread on his cheeks.

He had a snotty nose and currently was talking to Neive and glancing at me from time to time.

All of the kids in my dream were present except for five. One of them was the red-haired one with freckles. Her name was Zozi… and I never forgot a thing before.

And there was a new face. A face I hadn't seen in my memories. A girl. Staring at me from the midst of the field. The girl had purple hair, purple eyes, and thin skin as if she hadn't eaten for some time.

She smiled at me.

I shifted my eyes to the ground with a beating heart. The girl was pretty, and her eyes were fixated on mine. I was terrible in a staring game. My mother had always won when I wasn't using my silence.

But when I isolated myself, things were a bit different.

 

Why did she smile, though?

 

Why was she looking at me so observingly?

 

Ignoring her presence, I leaned on the pole and slid to sit on my butt.

Should I return home? Or stay to listen to the old storyteller?

But, the kids were staying. A man who told stories was here… stories about the world. The world I was so curious about.

"You should wait then," someone said.

I looked up, and the purple girl was standing before me. Her eyes were staring at my eyes, wide and bright.

"you are easily startled, aren't you?" the girl asked. "I can read your thoughts, and no, I don't like you."

The girl approached and leaned down to face me. The girl's eyes disappeared for a long moment that felt like an hour. Her eyeballs turned empty black. And her smile grew ear to ear.

"Your existence belongs to the woods, boy," her voice changed, giggling like an old lady. "Someone had hidden you here. A place nobody will think to search. Such a clever way to hide a cursed child."

My heartbeats grew faster. I felt my body getting cold and stressful thoughts occupied my mind.

What is happening? I thought.

"A lot of things, Ruth," the girls said. "In this world, a lot of things happen. And I'm thankful to meet you in this life. My fate might break this time. But this life isn't good for me, Ruth. I need to die soon; I need to have a better body. And in my next life, I might meet you again and see the cursed child in their darkness."

The girl's scary smile was cold and dreadful. She stared at me like that for a long moment. And when everything returned to normal, the breeze hit her hair again, and her eyes returned to normal. Her beautiful face returned to normal, and I noticed that all of what had happened just took a moment or two.

The girl extended her hand with a warm smile.

"My name is Riam. I'm the witch of time; in this life, I'm a talentless baby, but in the next, who knows? I'm happy to meet the cursed child."

I couldn't force myself not to shake her hand. I was scared and moved unconsciously.

She shook my hand with a smile. She knew I was scared. She read my mind… yet, she enjoyed that. Then, she left me and sat around the kids.

One of the children talked in a high voice.

"Why did Celi talk to the deaf kid?"

As if wanting me to hear it.

I didn't care about that as much as her name. Celi?

Celi or Riam?

I didn't care. I just noticed that my whole body was sweating, and my heart was pounding hard against my chest.

Since yesterday, when I chose to go to the forest at night, the world seemed so evil and scary. That white figure. The illuminating green house. The five girls I had met. And now, Riam, the witch of time.

I closed my eyes and buried my head between my knees. I wished for everything to disappear. The darkness was just dark. But it was quiet, and I didn't have to see many people. How come I was here, in front of many people, hearing them talking trash about me. Seeing a girl for the first time rolling her eyes to darkness…

I wished to disappear into my darkness.

I wanted to swim in the dark, away from everyone. People were scarier than I had thought.

The darkness I was in was elusive and black. And quiet.

My mother had taught me how to isolate myself from the world. It was in the art of silence. She had told me that it was the best art a manipulator could learn.

And the darkness this time took me in an extraordinary direction.

I swam in it as if it was a pool.

I enjoyed it for some time until a light entered my world.

The light started as a thread, with a voice coming through it. And as the voice began getting higher, the light grew more prominent and brightened all of my consciousness. The most marvelous light I had ever seen. A light like a sun. So bright and warm.

And before I could notice, I opened my eyes and lifted my head.

I saw the ocean. Or, in truth, I felt like I was in swimming in one. The eyes of the person I faced were so beautiful. Light blue like an ocean, sparkling like the morning.

"Ah, sorry!" the kid stepped back. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

The kid had blue eyes and blond shoulder-long hair that was thick and clean. And white skin. I had never seen any skin clearer. The kid wore an oversized white shirt. Its neck hole was so big that it slid on one of her shoulders.

But the kid… would never be noticed as a poor child who didn't have clothes that could fit her.

Her eyes and figure were so bright that nobody would notice a flaw.

"Waah," the kid said. Her voice sounded thick for a girl.

For some reason, she looked boyish, but I believed she was a girl.

"Your eyes are so pretty," the girl said, closing her face up to mine again. "I can see myself in them. They are like mirrors."

I didn't know what to say or how to say it. The girl was overwhelming for me.

And when the girl grabbed my hand, pulling me up, I, for some reason, didn't resist. Perhaps, I was too overwhelmed to fight. But, for some reason, I forgot what I was scared of.

"My name is Heal; let's hear the story together," said the girl, pulling me into an ocean. A beautiful, light blue, sunny and warm ocean…

And I couldn't resist.