Sheena
From the window of my bedroom, I can see that dusk has quickly arrived here. While the darkness began to show, the moon and stars also started to shine. Though it was already night, I could still see everything inside my room, because it was awash in the silver moonlight that would only disappear if I closed all the windows inside my bedroom.
I can see the solid dark shadows that indicate the carriage house and the stables. The moon, a thin wafer of pale lemon, hung impaled upon the slender shaft of a solitary pine that was standing on the grassy hill, but now covered with snow. Everything below seemed luminous, glowing dreamlike in the cold moonlight.
The hither and thither movements of the cold air inside my bedroom are chilling me. So I closed the windows inside my bedroom and lowered the pink curtains. I turned on the lights and got my pink backpack. I got my notes and answered my assignments.
Though I have a wealthy family, I never did reckons with the servants and tutors. I am not an ambitious girl; I just want to live a simple life just like everyone else. I also hate those maids that are always following me wherever I go. The people around me seem to be putting me inside a cage, so I cannot move freely because every small movement that I seem to be making, they seem to be recording.
My mother owned vast land that she inherited from our ancestors. The land that she inherited is the whole town where we are currently residing. My father is a notorious man in the city because of his businesses and a company which he inherited from our ancestors. Though I am their only daughter, I do not aspire to inherit their wealth; I just want to live a simple and peaceful life. Many people believe that having a lot of money will lead you into danger, and I am one of them.
After I finished my homework, I fixed my things and put them back inside my backpack. I donned my pink sneakers and went downstairs. I am counting every step I take and colliding with whatever I can find, just to find some solace. I got inside the living room and sat down on the couch.
“Amara, can you please turn on the TV?” I asked and laid down on the couch.
Amara is one of the maids in the mansion. She’s worked for us for over five years. She is already twenty-four years old, and I am treating her as my elder sister since I don’t have either sister nor brother. I only have parents, and I don’t know how to live without them. Amara is a beautiful woman. She has pink lips, brown eyes, brown skin, a pointed nose, long and curly hair, and is also tall.
“Sheena, just tell me if you need something, I will just go inside the kitchen to prepare your dinner.” She went to the kitchen.
Flash reports. A wealthy couple named Clark and Aya Breaks are both found lifeless inside the Sunshine hotel. The police are now investigating the heinous crime. We are conveying our condolences to the families and friends of the couple named Clark and Aya Breaks.
“Mom! Dad!” I shouted. With mixed emotions. “Dad! Mom!”
The servants running towards me looked at the television. They tried to make me calm. The drippings of liquid that came from my eyes are falling down on the upholstered couch. No words can express how I feel, and no scale can measure how much I weep. I am both sad and angry. I’m sad because my parents are gone and angry at the merciless inhuman who killed them.
“Servants, bring me to my parents; I need to see them now!” I ordered it.
Sorry Sheena, but we cannot bring you there now, especially since we don’t know where they brought the corpse of your parents. Maybe we can go there tomorrow morning,” Amara said. “It’s already night, you better go to the dining room and eat your dinner.”
I don’t mind Amara, my tears and the liquids that came from my nose won’t stop dripping. I don’t know what to do, what I only know is that I want to see my mother and father. Many hours have elapsed, but I am still lopsidedly lying on the upholstered couch, thinking about my parents. Hiding and pressing my face on the soft cover of the couch. It’s just yesterday that we were so happy, and I can’t believe that everything will just be left as a memory.
“Sheena, please eat your dinner. There is nothing that will happen if you just lie there,” Amara said. She was about to say something when I interrupted.
“Just leave me alone!” I shouted. “I want to see my parents!”
“Okay Sheena, I will leave you here because I am also drowsy. Just go to the dining room if you want to eat.” Amara walked outside the living room.
I got up from the couch and turned off the television and lights. I sat down on the couch once more, waiting for daybreak so I could go see my parents. I cannot believe that my parents will die so easily, because they have many guards that are always with them.
While stifling myself, there were many questions that came to my mind. Such as, How can I live without my parents? How can I manage everything without their help? How can I give equity and justice for them? Maybe it’s better if I just die too. I am trying to stop breathing, but I cannot really waste my opportunity to live in this world. I cannot prevent myself from breathing, because I lack the courage to do it. I know that ending my life can’t solve the problems.
I suddenly jumped off the couch and cried, “Don’t leave me alone!”
The whole living room suddenly turns light. I saw Amara and the other maids that were going towards me. I can see mercy and care in their eyes that seem to tell me not to give up. I sat down again on the couch. Amara also sat down beside me.
“I believe that you can. I will never leave you,” Amara said while making me lay down on the couch. I laid down on the couch with my head perched on her thigh. She also lay on the upper part of the couch. The other maids went back to the room where they were taking a rest.
I never found a way to fill all the silence. In the weeks that followed the great tragedy of my life, I jumped from my bed every morning, donned my pink sneakers, a black leather coat with a hood and went out of my dark room. Every morning, I do a step-by-step move on the winding stairs and look at the paintings that are hanging on the hard wall.
Whatever I do, I cannot forget my parents. Everything seemed gone from me. My happiness, my courage, and my weaknesses were gone. This kind of life I had is meaningless; it does not have a destination; it is just flying with the cold breeze.
Sitting on the concrete stairs in the front of our mansion, wist deep in thought because if I think of my parents, I don’t feel so alone. Looking at the groves and copses of trees came whip-crack sounds as the slight breeze moved its icy branches.
The sunsets have changed. They are not as beautiful as they looked before. I have memories of my parents being everywhere around our mansion. I did nothing all day but remember my parents.
I know that I live in a part of the country where throughout a year means ice, snow, and cold weather. That’s why I always wear my leather coat or parka every time I go outside my mansion. All these days, every sundown, I sat down on the piles of snow and remembered the way my parents hugged me, the way we played on the piles of snow, throwing snowballs at each other, the way they taught me how to build a snowman, and the way they glanced and smiled at me.
Night had gathered within a few short minutes; still, I was looking at the black-and-white world of smooth, dark roads, snowy roadside fences, and the tracery of trees.
Amara got out of our mansion and walked towards me. She was wearing a white shirt with a blue corral, a black leather coat that’s striped with pink thread in the center, and long pants that were fastened around her waist and hanging down around her legs. Her hair was tied by a pink band into two portions that were both bouncing as she walked towards me. She stopped beside me and looked at the fireflies that were spreading their intermittent light and flying around the foliage of copses of trees.
“Sheena, don’t you want to get inside the mansion?” she asked. “It is cold outside.”
I get a snowball and throw it in the groves. “I’m just fine,” I replied.
“Okay…? It’s been many days since you have not eaten well or slept well, and look at yourself. You are not the Sheena that I know,” she replied while sitting down beside me.
“It’s not your business; I can do anything I want. Just leave me alone!”
“Not my business? Your parents told me that I must take care of you whatever happens, and you are just telling me to leave you?” She replied. “You forsook everything: your schooling, your friends and yourself. Your mother will not be happy if she sees that you are always sad.”
“My friends? Do I have friends? Everyone leaves me behind. I am alone in this cruel world!” I shouted while there was liquid dripping from my eyes.
“Please don’t cry. I am always here for you. From now on, you can consider me your best friend,” she said, while she wiped the tears that diffused on my face with her pink handkerchief.
Maybe Amara was bored of sitting beside me, so she said, “Sheena, I will just go inside the mansion to prepare your dinner, and please eat it because I don’t want to see you become a skeleton.”
Amara stood up and walked down the wide entrance between the aligned lampposts. I saw her enter the wide door of the mansion. She continued walking until I saw her diaphanous silhouette that passed by through the window that was made of glass.
After a few moments, I saw a darker moving shadow. It was taking the walkway several feet away from where I was. In just a few seconds of looking at it, I recognized that it was a horse that was carrying the carriage. It stopped in front of me and an old woman got out of the carriage.
I recognized that she was wearing a leather coat and long pants. She has long, curly hair that is spread around her back. I am not sure, but she is an ugly old woman who looks like a hag.
She went towards me, looked at the mansion, and said, “I can hear the whisper of sadness here, and the heart that’s shouting for justice and equity.”
I don’t know what she was talking about. Maybe she is just crazy. As I turned to leave, I felt a cold hand that seemed to be a hand of death because of the cold that held my arms. The old woman whispered in my ear, “Do you want to get revenge on those merciless people who killed your parents?”
I noticed that the voice of the woman is not totally the voice of an old woman, because it was a little melodious and she’s just talking normally, as if she were a young woman. Maybe she was joking when she asked if I wanted to exact revenge on the merciless people who murdered my parents, because I know an elderly woman like her will simply collapse under the bullets of those criminals. But I also know that there is nothing to lose if I talk with her. I just want to ask how she knows that my parents are already gone.
“How did you know that my—” I was about to say a word when she interrupted.
“It’s been many years since I have watched you and your family,” she said. “And I also know who those cruel people are that killed your pitiable parents.”
“Who?” I asked. “Please tell me, I need to catch those cruel people so that they can pay for their sins, and I can also give justice for my parents’ death.”
“I will only tell you if you will promise me that you will retaliate against them,” she replied. “You will kill them as what they did to your parents.”
“But how can I kill them if I am only sixteen and don’t know how to use a gun because I haven’t touched one since I was born?” I asked.
“Just trust me, I will give you power, so that you can kill those cruel people without exerting a great effort,” she replied. “Do you want to have it?”
“Power? What kind of power?” I asked. “Of course I want.”
She opened her mouth, and there was something that came out. It was a pinkish cloud that floated towards me, entered my nose and mouth, and because of that I could not breathe well, I lost consciousness.