Devil's Daughter

I am running as fast as I can. The whole map of the neighborhood in my mind, I run towards the bus stop around the corner. It’s past 3 am. The roads are empty. I think to myself-

“Is there anyone awake? Will anyone see me? I need to be as quiet as possible. I can’t risk them seeing me fleeing. Otherwise...”

I shiver at the thoughts of getting caught. No, I haven’t done anything wrong. At least not according to the law. Maybe being born with the different eyes are my biggest crime. They call me the “Devils Daughter”. The eyes that peek into hell. The viewer of death.

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Alissa opens her eyes with a good morning kiss from her mother. It may sound weird to other 14 years old, but Alissa loves her mornings the most. Once she had an essay competition where she was asked to write about one thing, she loves the most in her day. Alissa won the first prize by writing about how her mornings are the best part of her entire life.

Alissa lives with her mom Sarah and their cat, Mau. Sarah is a single parent and is ever thankful for such a perfect daughter. Alissa from the very childhood was very calm and composed. That day, when Sarah explained to Alissa how she is different from the rest of the kids her age, Alissa didn’t ask any questions. Even the other day, when Sarah explained how Alissa’s dream are to be kept secret; Alissa only replied with a nod as if she knew “why” better than anyone else. Maybe Alissa is a regular teen who just doesn’t want to complicate her life by disobeying her perfectionist mother. Or maybe, Alissa knows something; a secret beyond these trivial matters.

Today is a very special day for Alissa. Alissa is about to meet her new classmates. They just moved to this new town for her mother’s new restaurant business. A perfect little town for a specialty steak and beer place at the outskirts of Arizona.

“Alissa! Let’s go Hon! We are going to get late.” Sarah honks the car.

Alissa jumps into the van. She throws her backpack at the back seat and puts on the headphones.

“Today’s color, “Green”! Why do I feel like something great is going to happen today?” Alissa says in excitement as she plays her favorite playlist.

Reaching out for the few hairs poking out of the beautiful red braid, Sarah smiles at her daughter’s excitement.

“I’m sure it’s going to be.” Sarah droves off to the new school.

It is a middle size school for the local kids. Sarah wished Alissa all the very best for her first day as she started walking towards the principal’s office.

The first day Alissa made a few friends. Her seat is right next the window.

“What a pretty view” Alissa thought to herself. The countryside is surely comforting but she knows, they can’t stay here for long. Like any other of her schools and towns, they have to leave this place within next year.

Staring through the window, Alissa started breathing heavily, there is something shining on the yard. It shimmers underneath the big oak tree. The wind. Shadows. Veins. Behind rotted vines and leaves. Fences and scratches screaming some old tale. It shines on top of the hard, dark earth. Ignored. Or maybe tricked. The grass dried to lifeless. Coarse. Bristle. The big oak tree. The guardian. The witness. The mark.

Suddenly, Alissa opens her eyes.

“What was that?” Alissa whispers to herself.

Alissa looks around. She is in the nurse’s office. It can’t be. It’s her first day at the new school. It can’t start this early.

“Are you okay darling?” The nurse comes over to check on her.

Alissa nodded to show she is okay. A bit more and she will return home.

“A bit more.” Alissa whispers to herself.

Sarah comes to pick Alissa as soon as the school ends. Alissa doesn’t speak with the usual excitement and Sarah quickly notices the behavior. An absolute silence prevails the rest of the day.

It’s near bedtime. Sarah keeps a piece of pen and paper near Alissa’s bed.

“Just relax. It’s going to be okay.” Sarah reassures Alissa.

The eyes fall heavy. Alissa can’t fight her sleep anymore and falls into deep sleep.

“Staring through the window, Alissa started breathing heavily, there is something shining on the yard. It shimmers underneath the big oak tree. The wind. Shadows. Veins. Behind rotted vines and leaves. Fences and scratches screaming some old tale. It shines on top of the hard, dark earth. Ignored. Or maybe tricked. The grass dried to lifeless. Coarse. Bristle. The big oak tree. The guardian. The witness. The mark. Seek what is bestowed upon a few with the light.” A voice sings to her ears.

A thin womanly voice. Comforting yet scary. She is demanding. She is demanding Alissa to find something. It’s there. Under the tree near the school lawn. Alissa follows the voice to the tree. The tree is glowing bright red. There is a small hole under the tree. Alissa tries to lean inward. Maybe this dream is a call for help. For a trapped soul. Under the tree, inside the hole, Alissa can feel something is reaching out. She reaches her hand inside. The hole expands. Hallucination. It can't be. Darkness is spreading around her. It's reaching out.

“From the dark, over burnt and broken wood, parched soil, dead leaves, a wet cloth. Cold and stiff. Blood leaks out. Your breath catches. Hollows like eyes. It’s an unfortunate demise” The voice screams at Alissa.

Sarah jumps off her bed. Alissa’s screaming.

“What’s wrong?” Sarah rushes to Alissa’s room. “Wake up! Wake up!”

Alissa wakes up from her sleep.

Sarah hugs Alissa. “It’s okay.”

Sarah stares at the paper that she left near the bed. Alissa drew something on it. It has always been this way. Alissa has dreams. Dreams that predict. Dreams that reveal. Dreams that need to be fulfilled. And the paper doodles are her clues.

Sarah takes the paper from Alissa’s hands.

“A tree. Your school. A red button on the ground.” Sarah reads out the doodles from the papers.

“Mom, I think we should go there tomorrow.” Alissa points at the tree. Her hands still trembling.

“From the dark, over burnt and ashes, arid soil, dead leaves, fence to resist, a cold grasp like wet cloth. Blood is the promise. Your breath catches. Eyes prophesy,” Alissa recites.

“Don’t worry. I have a plan.” Sarah assures Alissa.

The night passes like any other for this family. Horrified and troubled, hoping that the new day will stop this ability of Alissa.

The next day, Alissa and Sarah head to the principal’s office. Sarah explains to the principal that a few kids took a ring from Alissa, and they dug it under the big tree in the school lawn. The principal hears out in disbelief.

“Never have such bully happened here before,” the principal confirms with determination.

Sarah demands a little portion to be dug open as the ring meant a lot to them. Being helpless to the situation, principal orders the gardener to dug around a meter around the foot of the tree.

A coffin soon gets exposed. Kids staring with curiosity from the windows of the building. The principal orders for the coffin to be dug out.

“From the dark, over burnt and ashes, arid soil, dead leaves, fence to resist, a cold grasp like wet cloth. Blood is the promise. Your breath catches. Eyes prophesy. It’s an unfortunate demise” the gardener reads from the coffins.

The new spread around the small town. The police came and claimed the coffin for investigation. Alissa breathed a sense of relief.

For a week, there was no more news about the coffin. No more nightmares for Alissa. Once again, Alissa and Sarah became a normal family.

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A knock at the door surprised Sarah. It’s the town mayor. Sarah politely invited him inside, though it was the movie night for Sarah and Alissa.

“There is something very important for you Sarah,” the mayor had an interesting request for Sarah.

“We have a ritual in our town.” Mayor continued.

“The town has a history of a ritual to be performed once the Devil’s daughter shows up.” Mayor looked around. He is definitely looking for Alissa. Sarah can feel the air of despondency.

“We last performed it was over a 100 years ago.” Mayor looked at Alissa. “I don’t want to make this difficult for you or your daughter, but you need to know this. This is your daughter’s destiny. She is special. She is the devil’s daughter. The viewer of death. The spirit of Faluha. She needs to embrace her eternal form.” Mayor announced the story as if it’s a command.

“Why Alissa?” Sarah’s anger was clear from the question.

“Because she found the body of the last bearer of the spirit of Faluha.” He quietly left after finishing his explanation of the town’s weird history and handed over an envelope before stepping out.

Sarah hurriedly opened the envelope. It was a single paper mentioning a date and time.

“14th, at the first hour.” Sarah reads out loud.

Sarah takes out her phone to check the date.

“13th! Friday! 10 pm. The first hour of 14th? We have only 2 hours to get away from this town.” Sarah is panicking as she packs the necessities. It never happened before; them running for their lives for the ability that Alissa has.

“Alissa, pack a few things you need. We are going to your grandma’s place.” Sarah hurries Alissa.

“Why? What’s going on?” Alissa gets confused at the sudden plan.

“She is sick. So now let’s go.” Sarah finds the right excuse. Alissa shouldn’t get scared. That’s what Sarah tries to do most of the time. Protect her little kid from all harms that come the way.

Alissa and Sarah quickly headed out to their van. As soon as Sarah ignites the engine, she can hear some voices in the distant. Some people are staring at them.

“Listen, Alissa. Today, I want you to run. If anything happens to me, just run and find help.” Sarah starts the car and drives past the corner.

As Sarah starts to head towards the exit of the town. She starts speeding up as she sees a lot of people standing in front of the road, completely blocking the way.

“They don’t want us to leave the town” Sarah whispers.

Sarah reverses the car and takes a different road as the mayor and others starts chasing after them. Just a couple of blocks ahead, Sarah drops Alissa.

“Get out of this town. Hide and find a way out. I will distract them.” Sarah asks Alissa to get off.

“No, mom. They will kill you.” Alissa starts crying and begging her mom to stay together through this nightmare.

“This is the only way” Sarah kisses the forehead and forces Alissa off the car. As Alissa chases after the car for a few seconds, Sarah drives off getting the attention of the people of the town.

With tearful eyes and disbelief in her heart, Alissa runs out towards the towns exit.

Soon the oil runs out. The people of the town must have taken out the oil so that Sarah and Alissa cannot run to far. Sarah cannot but abandon the van. But she cannot run away. This will alert them that Alissa is not there.

Sarah picks up her phone and gun. She never owned a bullet. But this might help her warn these crazy town people.

“What do you want from us?” Sarah screams as she dials into 911.

“You are the one who is about to destroy our lives,” the mayor screams with a gun in his hand.

“You don’t have to do this. 911! 911!” Sarah struggles to finish her call.

Few people looks into the van. They tear the whole van upside down and reap every part apart.

“She is not here.” A woman panics.

“That’s not possible. Look for HER!” The mayor screams at the top of his lungs. The whole town scatters around.

There is a silence in the air. Hurried footsteps. The reloading sound of the guns. Humans growling is the scariest sound. Divers even dive in, searching the nearest ponds. She cannot hide. She will not hide. She needs to found. Otherwise Faluha will start the revenge like 100 years ago. The disappearance of young girls in a small town on the outskirts of Arizona. A case none could solve. The very reason the town if left off from the map of US.

I am running as fast as I can. The whole map of the neighborhood in my mind, I run towards the bus stop around the corner. It’s past 3 am. The roads are empty. I think to myself-

“Is there anyone awake? Will anyone see me? I need to be as quiet as possible. I can’t risk them seeing me fleeing. Otherwise...”

I shiver at the thoughts of getting caught. No, I haven’t done anything wrong. At least not according to the law. Maybe being born with the different eyes are my biggest crime. They call me the “Devils Daughter”. The eyes that peek into hell. The viewer of death.