Cursed Child

He stood there staring at the destruction laid down on his village. There were bodies everywhere, not a single soul in the area was spared. He had managed to flee when the attack started. With him was his friend and sister who also got shot down. He had for a moment thought to stop as his family and friends were getting shot down but the fear was too big. Running was the best thing he could do and he did. Now after a day he has come back to check, in hope, that there would be some survivors. Every face he sees however, confirms the fact that there is no other survivor.

A week has passed and he is roaming the jungle on his own, looking for food. He has not seen or heard anyone since. Finding food and keeping hydrated is not as much of a problem as is the searing pain he can feel in his heart every time his mind wanders to the thought of his village. How can anyone consciously attack and kill an entire village without a good reason? He would look up to the heavens sometimes asking god the same question. Why did they do it? Why did you allow them to do it? He had a lot of questions but no answer came to him. Other times he could not help but go back to the fond memories of chatting with friends, working with the family and tending to the elderly. He really missed those times. He never contemplated or wanted to be alone.

One day as he was wandering, wallowing in self-pity, he heard a familiar noise. It was like an animal call but far too regular and deliberate. Similar yet distinct noises were made at his village to communicate from distance. His ears shot up trying to corner where the sound was coming from. It felt like it was coming from multiple directions and converging on him. He froze for a while but eventually decided to flee. As he turned to run away he banged into someone and fell to the ground. He was dazed for a while and hence took some time to get up again. By that time the stranger he ran into had gotten up shared a complimentary “moron” and had moved on with her business. He looked at her running away and felt relief momentarily before panic took his legs. He ran like crazy again, ran away from them as he had run away while his village was being attacked.

As he continued his lone life he realised that now along with his despair and questions about the events at his village another thought also kept creeping in: Were the people he heard a few days back “nice?” As he wandered he also wondered and one day he found himself back in the same area. Somehow this time the fear was not present with him. He explored the area looking for food but at the back of his mind he wanted to see them. After a long time and quite some distance away he noticed them. They were not chasing anything today, they were just hanging around relaxing in their village. He stayed hidden away and kept observing them. They were very much like his own village. The bonds and mores were similar to his. He stayed there for a while but the more he saw them the more he missed his own village. When it became unbearable, he left.

A few more days has passed but he could not stay away from this village. He would now roam around them and occasionally hide and watch them. He would always keep his distance in case they feel threatened but he could not also stay away from them. One such day as he was lying around close to the village he was woken up by a rustling in the bushes. First a rabbit dashed by and close behind it was the one who called him a moron. This time she stopped and measured him for a while. After some moments of silence she asked “Who are you?” He was worried by the question and hence came up with a brilliant and unique response. “No one.” The answer did not impress her so she barraged him with many other inquisitions. Finally she left him, bored and uninterested.

That was the first conversation he had with someone in days. Although in different circumstances it would be also one of the rudest interrogations ever, he felt happy even with it. The next day he caught a rabbit and loitered around the village again, hoping to offer her the tribute. Since he was not hiding anymore it was much easier for her to find him. This time she was with other people. He dropped the rabbit in front of her and stepped away. Moving his glances from the rabbit to her and back to the rabbit. Signalling her to accept it without using words. Others were glaring at him but he did not notice. After some moments of awkward silence, she picked up the rabbit and walked away. So did the others.

Day by day he could feel that he was getting closer to the village. They also showed no specific fierceness towards him as he inched closer. However, he was careful. He did not want to overstep his boundaries early. He was feeling close to a group again and felt like life would have a purpose again. The village would slowly let him in on hunting for food, although he would get his own food and then eat it close by but still separate. Sometimes the young ones of the village would also come over and play with him. He especially liked these moments as that was literally the most attention and recognition he had gotten in months now. Sometimes, he even felt that she was looking out to see if he was around. Which made him feel more welcome.

One fateful day, sometime in the afternoon when the village relaxes and sleeps it happened again. He was nearby and he heard the same loud bangs and shrieks as he heard when his village was attacked. He could not believe that it could happen again. He rushed into the village panic-stricken. This was the closest he ever got to it. The village was being attacked from all directions and mercilessly each and every one was being put down. However, he could not see who was doing it. He went to a few of the bodies and all of them were lying dead in a pool of blood. Even the young ones have now stopped yelping. He suddenly noticed her confused and in a corner. He ran to her. He could see in her eyes the fear and shock that was in his heart before. Just then something came out of the woods. He stood in front of her to protect her from it. As he was growling at it he noticed that the thing did not do anything. He also realised that he had seen this creature once before. It had offered him food and seemed nice. He did not remember much else about the incident. The creature stood there for a while, and then quietly got lost back into the woods.

He thought he had managed to protect her. That was somehow some consolation to all the other tragedy. He turned around to see her again only to find her body thrown back inside a bush in her own pool of blood. He could not save her. He has been tagged by the deadliest of all curses. He survives, while everyone around him dies at the hands of someone else. He will never realise why he is spared while others are killed. He felt that even if he did understand why this had to happen, the reasoning would be too baffling for him to comprehend. He is now lonely again.

{dropnote:"Read about the Judas Wolf --> http://www.wildlifedefenceleague.org/news/2016/2/26/a-judas-wolf-named-ghost"...}

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