Chapter 119
It was in the afternoon, when the sun had started to go West and the temperature started to cool down. I was sitting on the rooftop of my house with Lisa, enjoying the scenery and the wind with a cup of warm tea in our hands and some sweets and snacks on the side. She came to say goodbye, saying that she would go continuing her study and work tomorrow and she had no intention to come back even though this was her hometown.
As this might be our last meeting, I braved myself and asked about her father and brother; also her other family. After she told me her story, I had the urge to curse myself to ask those questions and made her sad.
Have you ever felt so sad that your tears just suddenly rolled down your cheeks but you tried to convince yourself that you’re fine? That’s what happened when she told me her story.
She was crying, but she said she was fine. Her tears would not stop rolling down her cheeks, yet she still smiled and continued talking. She didn’t sob, but sometimes she would take a deep breath and wipe her tears away.
I wouldn’t say I knew the pain she was feeling because I had never been in her position. But, the frustration she felt, somehow I understood. It might be more or less the same when I heard my father was in accident. Only, I could see my father later but she couldn’t see her brother and father ever again.
Maybe in afterlife, who knows?
Lisa lost her father several years ago. She said her only regret was she had not provided the best for him yet because she had just started working for several months at that time. From the way she talked about it, I noticed that she had made some efforts to help lessened her father’s burden by doing the monthly shopping for daily necessities.
For Lisa, it was not enough.
.....
So, after her father passed away, she promised to herself that she would take care of her brothers. Lisa had one older sister who was working out of the town and two younger brothers who were living with her. Her mother...
I guessed her relationship with her mother was not that good and I had no intention to ask why.
By the time she said her mother was absent during her father’s funeral and mourning days, I had detected some internal conflict and I didn’t wish to ask more. She said her mother returned only after her father had passed away for almost forty days.
Which was too long for me. What kind of mother would leave her children facing that kind of situation alone? Forty days meant more than a month and it was too f*cking long!
When Lisa mentioned about her mother, there was a displeasure in her eyes but her expression was still the same. I also noticed the change of emotions in the powerful beings and Sir Guntur at the mention of her mother.
They must have found that her mother was not satisfying in her role as a mother.
Lisa didn’t know that. She only felt a wave of warm wind blew in her direction, but I knew for sure that it was their rage.
“Somehow, losing my father was not as painful as losing my brother.” Lisa added. Her face reddened slightly from all the tears she shed before.
If losing her father was not as painful as losing her brother, I couldn’t even imagine how much tears she would produce for her brother?
Her first younger brother was not on good terms with her for years. She said that he was undoubtedly evil, naughty, and annoying which led her to stop caring for him for years. Only recently that they started to mend their broken relationship between sister and brother, especially after their father passed away.
Unfortunately, as their bond as a family started to be stronger, an unpredictable accident befallen upon him.
“Doctor said it was an infection. I said it was not merely an outer cause. My heart was telling me that there’s something wrong with the way he got sick. It was just a tiny wound, but in a matter of a night, it swelled up into unbelievable size. No matter how many antibiotics from the doctor he took, it wouldn’t go down. My cousin said that he must have gotten his ‘sickness’ from his cigarette. Someone had been targeting him. There was no way a small wound like a small acne would lead him to a fast death. He felt sick for five or six days before he died. He couldn’t walk, he couldn’t eat, he couldn’t even sleep, and it was hard for him to speak. I couldn’t do anything and only told him that he would be fine. That he would get better soon.” Her tears started to flood down her cheeks by the time she said it.
“He said he felt hot. He said... it was so noisy when there were only the three of us sitting outside his room, talking in hush voice. He said he saw a big diamond with sparkling lights. It was so blinding and he asked me to pick it up for him. I made fun of him, saying that he played too much game. Little did I know, it was the sign that he would not last for the night.” Lisa stopped talking as she took a deeper breath than she did before.
“I said it was harder losing him than losing my father. It was because I saw him taking his last breath in front of me. The feeling of seeing his heart beat stopped is still fresh in my mind and I couldn’t erase it. I will remember it for the rest of my life. No matter how many times I tried to locate his pulse, I couldn’t find it. My heart started to panic but my mind urged it to stay calm, that it would be okay. That he would wake up. I thought, didn’t some of these scenes happen in a movie? Didn’t the actor or actress inside wake up after several seconds?” She gave a bitter smile but I couldn’t smile back.
How frustrated she was at that time? How shock she was at that time? Just seeing her expression right now left me dumbfounded. How painful it was for her to see her own family left the world forever by her own eyes? Her tears were madly wetting her face, her nose and eyes reddened, but she still smiled silly. She displayed a strong front but she was as fragile as one could think.
“Do you know what I was thinking at that time?” She asked as she was wiping her tears. Her smile was still plastered on her face but a determine look flashed in her eyes. “If... If what my cousin and my heart told me were true, that someone had been targeting my brother and using my brother as his experiment to test his dark power, just pray to God that I wouldn’t find out his identity. Jail or anything would be the last thing I would think. My goal would be killing that bastard.”
Her eyes flashed with ferocity belong to a mad man and I shivered as I felt her killing intent was real. She would really do it!
“But, as I’m not a person who will hold a grudge, my anger might disappear after several weeks. If it is true, then I will just pray that God will punish this kind of person and let me have a chance to see him with my own eyes that he is also not having a good life and time before he died. He might have a hard time dying but living will only be a torture to him. He will feel so painful that he wishes he could die but he couldn’t. He still needs to pay for what he had done towards my brother. An easy death will be a luxury to him. And I believe that whoever plays with dark magic with the intention to hurt other people, this person will not die easily.” She said firmly.
“If my brother really did die because of infection, I could only pray for him to always be in the care of the Creator. Sooner or later, I will find the truth. I just have to wait patiently with what God plans for me and my family.” Lisa returned to her usual calm state with puffy eyes, red nose and face, and some remnants of tears on her face.
I took a deep breath. Now I knew the origins of the Shadow who was following behind Lisa. Signaling with my eyes, Siji went out and rushed towards the hiding Shadow. I would deal with it later.
Regarding her brother, I was sure he was in a better place, maybe the same place with where Senior Rizal was. Since he saw a blinding light coming to him, he must have been loved by the Creator that He wouldn’t allow him to feel anymore unnecessary pain.
It was easy to say that the Creator loved someone, so much that He would take this person before this person suffered a lot. Anyone with lack of brain would blame the Creator if that was the case.
Thankfully, Lisa was not a brainless idiot, but instead a strong and wise woman. Even though there was a split second that I felt afraid of her, I was sure she was not a psychopath. Just like my own self who was planning an infiltration in the Queen of South Sea’s castle under the water, I was sure I was not a villain.
After all, we did what we could for our beloved ones.
“I wonder if there is a way to know whether someone is dead because of getting cursed by dark magic.” Lisa stared into empty spot for a second. I was tempted to say ‘yes’ but I held back.
She didn’t need to know, but I would deal with it for her. “Why don’t you wash your face first? Your face will be swollen to the point you’re resemble a ...”
“Don’t say it.” She interrupted. “I’ll be back.” She got up, put down her cup of tea on the table and got inside the house to wash her face in the washroom. Maybe she would continue crying for a bit, I didn’t know.
As she left inside the house, I shifted my gaze towards the Shadow that was standing in front of me, baring its sharp teeth towards me but couldn’t do anything to me since it was being held tightly by two of my White Army men.
“Hello...” I greeted it.