A Stich on tongue.

 What surprised me the most was the loud chime of the wall clock ringing loud in my ears amongst the chaos. With both hands striking twelve, I turn sixteen, the oldest I will ever be. Because in the next ten minutes, I will be burned to ashes.

The air reeked with a burning stench. Flames stretched the entire room except the corner I was crouched in. Scorching heat pierced my skin. Air became thinner and more acrid with every second passing by. I gasped, and my lungs could no longer keep up with it.

-My head is spinning.

I am supposed to see seven minutes of my life flashing before my eyes, aren’t I? It would be shorter than that, as I hardly remember anything memorable.

Maybe it would begin with the first day I met Pariha when we were both handed to our foster parents. She was twelve, two years older than me. We couldn’t understand each other much because her mother tongue was different. But still, those two years were the happiest years of my life. I promised her that one day we could talk without spending hours figuring out the right words.

After I breathe my last, I wish I could meet her once again. Would she be proud of me if I spoke the same words as her? That’s right, she definitely would be. After all, I’ve spent all these years after she left in becoming someone who can understand every tongue.

I badly want to tell her that sixteen-year-old Rayne can say she misses her in eighteen languages.

Would she be happy to know that I became the youngest translator to work in an international organisation working for displaced children like us?

My eyes close as I feel the fire touching my skin. I’ve lost the strength to scream. The idea of meeting Pariha in the afterlife makes me numb to the pain. I just want to melt away.

I could no longer breathe. The suffocation has reached its limit, but my lungs feel heavy. Heavy? As if they are full. My throat is choked, and I taste something earthy.

The heatwaves vanished, and a sudden cold sensation hit my skin. I feel cold and wet, as if almost drowning in water.

Cold? Wet? Water-

My eyes open, and I struggle against the water. My arms flailed heavy as stone, for a surface I could no longer reach. Cold water surrounded me with no sight of a room I was locked in or the fire I was going to die of.

I opened my mouth - stupid, so stupid- and more water poured in. I was sinking, or maybe death came in the form of a lake swallowing me. So this is death- even the ablaze turns into cold water?

Rays of sunlight piercing the water from above hindered the creation of glowing shafts, followed by a splashing sound. The same sound you can hear when someone jumps into water.

Someone jumped?

A figure approached me, swimming graciously like a dolphin. I watched it appear closer, my back faced the basin of the water body, a lake? A sea? An ocean? Wherever I was drowning.

It finally stopped at a distance of six feet. The figure extended its arm, and I got a glimpse of a pair of brown orbs. And it confused me. There was a hint of anger in them, followed by a plea not to give up.

- How can I offend someone while being on the brink of death?

Why bother saving me? It’s convenient to die anyway. It will all end for good, I will see my elder sister. She would be very….. very………happy?………..disappointed?

That’s right. She would be upset if I gave up now.

- Let’s not die today.

I jerked up my right arm with the least bit of strength left in me. Please save me, and it went back. Everyone, everything, the water, the fire wanted me erased. Except for this … figure?…..or maybe person?

The figure leapt forward and clutched my wrist. Rise, rise, rise. All I could feel was the big, muscular arm wrapped around me and the heat from his body.

We - err- the man swam up to the edge and dumped my body on the grass. It was all pitch black with my ears ringing.

‘Ugh, seriously?’ A voice came with a pitch different from mine. It was a man’s voice confirming my assumption.

I opened my eyes, still lying like a garbage bag, coughing up all the water from my nose. My eyes open to find the pair of brown eyes, some six feet above, looking down on me like I’m the filthiest thing he has ever seen.

- Exactly how tall is he?

More water sprinkled on my face as he ruffles his jet black hair with both hands, leaving a grunt. He got rid of the admiral blue cloak dripping with water. A thin cream tunic stuck to every inch of his skin and outlined his broad shoulders. Although the muscles in his arms were prominent, he was rather lean.

‘ It’s always a black haired woman’

‘ What?’

He must have saved other black haired girls like me before. But I bet none of them were burned alive. Speaking of which, am I dead? Clear blue sky, tall green trees and an above-average-looking average looking man…

‘ Is this heaven?’

I got up still feeling the earthiness on my tongue. My magenta dress was clinging to my skin, silhouetting my chest, and I was thankful for not winning a genetic lottery for the first time. Being exposed in front of a random man, whom I should probably thank, was never on the list.

‘ Hurry up. Get lost before I throw you again there.’

‘ Seriously, Where am I?’

A brief pause, and his expression changed thrice - from annoyed to considerate to again annoyed. He came closer with an extended hand.

I flanked it off.

‘ Woman-’ he cursed under his breath, and the second he was off in the opposite direction.

- Wait, don’t go!

The dead should not have an ego. I should have taken his hand in the first place. I got up, breathing like a dying fish. Cold air touched my lower legs, which were not covered by my knee-length dress.

He walked away, further disappearing in the trees.

I screamed at the top of my lungs to grab his attention. Once, twice, and the realisation hit me.

He wasn’t responding to my questions. I held my neck, tried to voice out.

Nothing came out. My vocal cords are still vibrating, but I’ve lost my voice.

Tears made their way to my cheeks. I screamed and screamed from my core; my throat ached.

Out of everything, why does it have to go like this? Even death was acceptable, but -

Smack. A hard blow on my legs, and I was again knocked down on the floor. An odd troop of people surrounded me. My hands were tied in the blink of an eye.

‘ Oi! Madam Captain! Looks like we caught a butterfly,’ the skinny red-haired guy shouted to the lady on the horse.

First thought, I’ve been captured by bandits. Second thought, their captain is a strong, independent, genetically gifted woman.

‘Leave me, you asshole’

‘ A mute butterfly,’ Captain Madam said, almost disappointed. She got off her horse, cowrie tassels clink-clanked against each other as her cape fluttered with the wind. She was too old to have that gleaming tanned skin and too young to be a leader of thugs.

Either way, I am impressed.

‘Let’s trade her off to the old hag in the brothel,’ red hair chirped and held my hand, pulling me up, ‘ Hi! I’m Dorolo. I’ll be accompanying you for a short while,’ a smile with crooked teeth flashed on my face.

‘ Until we hand you over to the brothel.’

Run. Run. Run.

It was the adrenaline gushing in my veins which made me bite his arm. I was sprinting in random directions, dodging them.

Nine, ten, eleven, twelve……a dozen of them surrounded me. It was a funny show for them to watch me run for my life; nobody bothered to catch me, they were playing along with my debacle escape.

I swear my eyes have run dry; no more tears could emerge. One of the members, a bulky man, held me tight by my shoulders from behind. Game over. They got fed up.

My clavicle almost broke from his tight grip. The captain woman gestured to the troop to stop, ‘ Head back’.

Help.

A hushed swish, and the man was down on the ground, soaked with blood.

Another pair of hands grabbed me by my waist, far more gently compared to that giant's, and I was in the air, thumped on his broad shoulder.

Although I was unaware of his intentions - perhaps he also wants me to sell off to a brothel or even worse, sell my organs - it was my second time meeting him, which made him a better option.

‘ How did you manage to get in trouble so quickly again?’ Those were his first words after our second encounter.

Three more men came running in our direction with weapons. One slash on the left, and he managed to dodge the other two.

- Quite impressive skills.

Sprinting towards one of the horses, he shoved me before I could protest. He swung up behind me and we surged forward, hooves pounding on the earth. The world blurred past in the streaks of wind and dust. The sun was about to set, and into the trees we dissolved.

- What a day it was.