Part 3
On that night, the night when I was filled with hope after a long two years of desperate life, something happened to me that had never happened before. I was relaxed and free in my sleep, and in that relaxation a demon snuck in and conquered my mind.
My piercing cries ripped into the silent night. My brother must have been there, but I could not see him, or anything at all around me. I could not wake up, could not escape. Picture upon horrifying picture flashed in through my mind, indented into my memory forever then stored away to make room for more. The fragments of images being beaten into me came so fast that they ran into one another, yet I still saw each one with alarming clarity. One moment, I saw a mother dying in childbirth, a soldier being tortured for information, two lovers kissing in a moonlit glade, the same female screaming as he is beheaded two days later…A horse being broken in, a maiden cursing silently over her imperfect stitching, a short man in a dank cave speaking to some tiny inhuman being. They kept going, and I struggled to stop them, gapping for freedom as a suffocating person gropes for air, and I could not find it. Instead, I saw massive battles, a dead man slowly sinking in a clear pool, and my own brother, beaten and broken, being tossed over the cliffs and into the massive waves…
Suddenly, and without warning, they stopped. My skin was laced with desperate perspiration and my hair most likely sticking up everywhere in a rats nest. Malkemen's own ashen face was only inches from my own; his startling innocent eyes shining right through my guilty hard gray ones. I did not say a word, but I could not hold back the wrenching sobs tearing at my throat. Malkemen swiftly got up and went towards the back of the cave, and I began to moan in protest. He looked back at me, saying, "I'm right here, little sister. Just getting you some water." He took one of the seashells we used as cups, and gently scooped some of the fresh water that accumulated itself there from the rocks. I could see him the whole time, but that wasn't enough, and I was sobbing and sobbing until he returned to me.
He was back at my side in a matter of seconds, and he brought the shell to my lips and forced me too drink. I sputtered on the perfect water that collected itself so shamelessly for us, here where we had nothing. Most of it ended up flowing down my neck, thanks to my sobbing and sputtering, but a few drops got down, and for some reason feeling the water cooled me down and relaxed me a little. But when Malkemen stood up to get more, I made a protest even greater then before and attached myself too him. He half smiled, half frowned, and sat back down, settling me on his lap and putting my beloved Nima on mine.
Malkemen looked troubled. "Kinya, you're eyes, they…."
I looked at him. "Mahkemn, me no wake up, me no wake up!"
He held me more tightly. "I know, I know little sister." We sat in silence for a while. Tears made little rivers down my face. Brushing the hair from my face, he sang,
Sunshine, sunshine.
Don't weep and hide your face
For I need you to light up fine
To show me the way.
The stars may twinkle in the sky,
And the moon will always be bright
But my heart will always be free
Cause you are my sunshine.
I relaxed a little more, and soon fell asleep in his arms. I was to wake up twice in the night to similar images, but both times I had the slight control to slip back into eventually consciousness, for they were simple nightmares. However, as the seasons changed I had several occurrences like the first that night, where I could not wake from the flashes of infinite darkness. The fourth time this happened, Malkemen told me what had made him cringe the first time he saw it- my eyes alighting with a silver glow every time a new image was revealed to me. He warned me never to let the villagers know of this, for it seemed I was possessed by demons.