Irina Tasnim
Published: 22/10/2024
England,1956
Amidst the misty, opulent corners of Amber Valley, there is a little wooden house at the end of the street. Situated among lush greenery and surrounded by warm orange lights the house exudes a faint smell of cider. The place had all the beauty a person could ask for but it lacked a happy soul. Inside the house lived a girl named Luna. After her father died last year, her stepmother forcefully married her off to a swindler of their area in greed for some money. It was a imperious marriage from both sides. Villagers say, her husband, Leo had become a lunatic after the death of his first love. But is love so powerful that it can even alter a man’s brain?…Perhaps no one knows. Even after being
acquainted with all this, his family forced him to marry. Well, rather than being sensible, his lunacy grew upto such an extent that he could even murder a person. However, no one thought that the person would be Luna.
Typically Leo roams around the village all day and extorts money. As no one could
oppose him frankly, the villagers used to vent their anger on Luna, who was 8 months pregnant at that time. Still it never stopped Leo from torturing her. On the other hand, Luna was like all the conservative rural women and reared the outlook that her husband is godlike for her. She always nurtured him, poured her feelings into it, was terrified of failing but yet was overwhelmed with transcendent pride until one day…
Leo was mocked by his partners he used to swindle with. They had a conflict and said to Leo that he was unworthy of being a man. The weather was very rough that night. Leo got drunk and slammed the door of the house really hard. First Luna was speechless about what to do and became terrified. Yet she tried to sober him up but all of this was of no use. Rain lashed against the grimy windowpane and the stormy wind blurred the light. Leo was coming towards her with a pistol in hand. With horror, Luna started
running out of the house and at one time, reached the apex of the valley from where she could only jump further. Leo was standing some inches away from her and started to yell with anger filled in his red devilish eyes that would kill her anytime. At one point of their dispute with each other, Leo shoot her and she fell off the cliff.
As she plunges deep down from the cliff, she screams and starts to suffocate. An
intense pain grasps her whole body like cutting it with the edge of a knife. She
desperately thrashes motions in the ground, to claw something for safety, for life. Then her eyes finally rested.
10 years later
Luna now works as a volunteer in the village local club. After losing her father, facing abandonment from family and miscarriage of her only child, Luna can finally live in the world without any worries and duties. She is indebted towards the village people for granting her a new life and intends to work for their development in her remaining days.
After everything she faced, she has become a carefree and wilful soul. However, the trauma of the past still haunts her to this day.
(Flashbacks from 10 years ago: Conversation between two men lingers through her ear “Hey, look! Isn’t this Luna? The girl whom that scoundrel treats like an object? I really pity her.” “Oh yeah, but how did she ended up like this? Is she still alive?” Those people then take her to a medical centre and miraculously she gets the chance to live up to this day. Although the unborn child of her womb couldn’t survive the accident)
About Leo, no one knows what happened to him. He never returned to the village after that night. Maybe karma gave him what he deserves.
Present day
It’s rare for Luna to be free all day. She is sitting on the couch and reading Dante
Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy where it quotes “In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost.” This line got her star-struck for a while. She took her family photo out from the suitcase and became nostalgic. She decided to visit her parent’s shrine that day.
It was a mysterious place with big pine trees and shadowy pathways. She went into the Ancestral Hall and paid respects to the ancestors. Behind the shrine, she noticed a door with antique and exquisite patterns which had been almost covered with mosses and shrubs. She urged to take a look at it. When she tried to push the door, she heard a faint voice saying,
“And this is where it all begins…”
She feels a gravitational pull from the inside. It seemed like a ghost had been trying to pull her with all the dark forces he knew. Vapour gathers all around her as if it wants her to forget her existence in this world. All on a sudden, she realises that she cannot see anything. Everything beside her has become vague. After a while, she finds herself sitting on the floor and sees a flicker of light ahead.
And guess what, she was stunned after what she saw. She found herself in the
phenomena of what happened 10 years back. Yes, she was teleported back to the past. She couldn’t believe her eyes first and thought it all to be a dream. So alike all the other people she pinched herself and touched all the things around to realise whether it was just a reverie or not. Consequently, she became bound to realise that the supreme force has given her a chance to make amends for the past. Her present soul now resides
in her past body.
After memorising all the events that happened during that perilous time of her life, she found out one shocking thing. She had returned to a day before Leo had tried to kill her! Now it’s past midnight and she only has a few hours to think what to do. She gets nervous as time passes. She starts talking to herself to make plans but nothing seems to work. “This man is a devil who destroyed his own child. I should kill him
mercilessly. But what if he murders me before that!” Thousands of thoughts roam
around her head. Finally, she prepares herself to do what her heart wants to at that moment. Probably only that will be the best choice. She says to herself…
“The countdown of the tragedy begins”
The demon came to his den as the way he did a decade back. Luna thought this time she won’t get frightened and take decisions with wit. However the destiny apparently doesn’t want that.
She became pale as soon as she saw him and started to escape again. Fate has brought them to the same place again. This time also Leo had a gun while Luna only had her zeal to live in this world with her innocent child. For the sake that she loved her husband once, she tells him everything about her misfortune and time travel. Upon hearing all this, Leo ultimately came back to his senses and learnt about the grave mistake he had done. After going through all this scary and depressing life events, Leo tells Luna to kill him and make him free so that he can repent for his sins he has done in these years. He gave her the pistol but Luna doesn’t want to kill him. It’s okay for her as long as he is sorry. But Leo couldn’t bear to hurt anyone’s feelings anymore. Not by any chance.
Suddenly, he frantically grips Luna’s hand and shots himself in the abdomen. Luna gets shocked and faints hearing the gunshot.
After a while, she discovers herself lying on the ground. She tries to open her eyes butfinds no strength in herself. Nevertheless she accumulated all her energy and stood up.
She could smell the scent of the damp earth and rotting leaves. It is the Ancestral Hall of their family! That means her soul is back to her present self. Although she held a grudge that she couldn’t save Leo, she now thinks that maybe letting go of Leo’s discontented spirit and protecting Luna and her baby was the only reason for which God has kept her alive enduring the pains and the thorny scratches that life has granted her all these years.
She watched as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows over the
deserted street. With a mysterious smile and a speck of tear in the corner of her eye, she
She watched as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows over the
deserted street. With a mysterious smile and a speck of tear in the corner of her eye, she murmured with a bittersweet realisation that sometimes the darkest echoes from the past pave the way for the brightest tomorrows.
Author: Irina Tasnim
Institution: Holy Cross College
Grade:12
Email: irinatasnim.n@gmail.com
