New World!!
Natasha's POV
Present Day (Full Moon Day)
**"Open your eyes, Natasha!" My subconscious voice pierced through my groggy brain, and my blurry vision was getting cleared. My head was still throbbing in pain; because of the concussion of something heavy hitting it.
"He is behind you!" The voice screamed, but before I had any time to react, a pair of hands suddenly clutched my hair from behind and painfully dragged me backwards towards the stairs.
"NOOO!" I shouted, kicking out and wrestling with the hands that held me down.
"Let her go!" My mom mumbled weakly, with concern in her voice. Her almost lifeless body was lying on the floor, with blood oozing out from the deep wound on her forehead.
"Mom!" I screamed with panic in my voice and eyes. A lone tear drop trailed down her face onto the floor and her eyes shut down for forever. I could hear the cries and prayers beneath her quivering lips. She had cared for me all her life, and it stayed the same even when she was facing death.
"Stop fighting!" My father yelled at me and dragged me further down the stairs. I saw the filthy and pathetic faces of other males who were laughing at our plight.
"Leave me! You monster!" I screamed at my father and squirmed desperately to lose his hold on my hair.
"What did you just say to me?" He hissed, and I knew I was in big trouble now. Pleading and crying for forgiveness won't work, as the only thing I would get now is a punishment.
"You little bitch!" He snarled and struck my head with his fist. The blow knocked me to one side, and I squealed in pain, but that was the least of my concern.
"No! No! Not down there!" I screamed when the realization hit me about the punishment which I was about to get. I got another slap on my cheek. He dragged me mercilessly down the stairs leading to the basement.
"I will show you your place!" He snarled and kicked me in the abdomen; as I rolled down the stairs and landed straight in the basement. Before I could gather my senses and control my trembling body, he shut the door on me and left me all alone in the darkness. The nasty bump on my head was bleeding. I clutched the door's handle and tried to open it, but it won't budge. I was so desperate to get out of this dreaded place that I started punching the handle till the blood of my knuckles smeared on it. A single tear left my eyes and trailed down my cheek before getting lost on the floor, taking away all my hope along with it.
This basement and the darkness shadowing it brings out ultimate fear in me. I looked over at the surroundings; a small window was infested with an ago old cobweb, allowing the tiniest amount of light to pass through its threads. There was a box, a size of a small bed on one corner covered in a thick layer of dust and the fibers of waving cobwebs.
My eyes fell upon the creepy mirror that lay in the opposite corner. My body convulsed as a natural reflex took over when I saw a dark shadow behind the mirror. Every fibre and sense were screaming to me that danger was near. My knuckles turned bone-white while my palms bled from the nails, I was embedding into them. I already knew that it was not a good idea. Nevertheless, I swallowed hard, tightening my fist and letting my dangerous curiosity pull me closer to the old mirror.
"Come to me!" The luring voice tapped my ears. I jumped to my feet and my breath caught in my chest as I counted the time in heartbeats. The sane and reasoning part of my brain was warning me against going near that cursed mirror, but the magical voice coming from behind it was luring me into a trance, and I continued moving forward.
"Come, see me!" The voice hummed again, trying to appear soft and calm, but I knew that if I don't follow its command, it would roar at me in anger. I almost reached near the mirror. As I stepped closer, my hands shook, as if warning me that something was sickeningly wrong about this.
"Was this my end?" I asked myself.
I stood in front of the mirror. Its metallic frame was already broken, and whatever remained of it was rusting through the years of neglect. I sucked in a sharp breath in fright at the sight of a pair of long-rotten claws curling at the edge of the mirror, and a figure emerged from behind like death's silhouette. My nerves froze and blood curdled in my veins as the waves of dread coursed through my body. It was the ghostly apparition of a woman wearing a black veil. She removed the black veil to show me her evil face. Fear gripped me, making me quiver uncontrollably like always when I saw something I couldn't explain. My vision was playing tricks on my mind.
She was staring at me!
Watching over me!
Her eyes were the same as mine, a perfect shade of jade with the thin specks of sea-green; her features resembled me.
She was my doppelgÀnger!!
My vision played a dirty trick again, and her face distorted, taking a form of a rotting corpse bursting in evil laughter.
"No⊠No⊠No!" I screamed as I saw her hands reaching out to grab me. I stood paralyzed in fear as if my feet were glued to the floor. My heartbeats escalated at an unnatural speed as she grabbed my body. **
"NO!" I shouted and jumped up with a jerk from my nightmare, spilling all the coffee on my dress and tray of the airline seat. It took me a moment to understand my surroundings and take in all the other passengers who were staring at my sudden movements.
"Oh shit! I am sorry" I raised my hands till everyone retorted back to what they were previously doing.
"Natasha, are you okay? This nightmare never goes away. I had heard that if you are haunted by the same nightmare again and again, then it is linked to your past life. I am going to die in fright before that black-veiled mage comes in front of us," Tasha surfaced in my mind.
"It's okay, Tasha, it was just a nightmare. This is not real. Nothing like this will happen. Why would someone, let alone my doppelgÀnger try to kill us? Just take a chill. Maybe we are stressed because of our sudden relocation across the continent," I assured Tasha, cleaning the coffee on my dress and legs with tissue wipes.
I tried to calm down Tasha, but to be honest, this recurring nightmare always causes a nauseating churn in my stomach, freezing my nerves and melting my bones. I took out a small make-up kit from my handbag, swiping it open to look at the mirror. The perfect oval face, peach skin with beautiful black hair, resembling silk, but what strikes out and classsify me as stunning beauty are the perfect almond-shaped pair of eyes.
Deep jade and consuming like an ocean!!
Though people find my eyes mesmerizing, I always see a glint of sadness and invisible tears in them, which are hardest to wipe. There is a pain deep in my heart, reflected in my eyes.
For the world, I am a beautiful girl with gorgeous eyes, but beyond this façade is a hidden world of hurt and lies with a lonely heart and a painful fairytale to tell.
"Every painful fairytale has a beautiful happily-ever-after," Tasha's voice broke in my mind, jerking me out of my emotions. I quickly closed the make-up box and put it back in my handbag.
I forgot to introduce Tasha. She is a voice in my head, always talking rubbish to me. I don't know who she is, neither does she. She just surfaced one fine day in my head, when I was in a situation of doing or dying. I gave her the name Tasha, and she likes it. She keeps popping up in my mind. Sometimes I believe I have a split personality or some similar mental disorder, given my history of abuse? But then I convince myself that I am okay because, apart from talking to Tasha, I don't exhibit any other symptoms. I assume I am perfectly fine as far as I don't kill anyone. She is the one making me insane all the time, but ironically, she is also the one who had helped me hold on to my sanity during my worst times. I love her to the moon and back and maybe she does too.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, we have been cleared to land at the international airport of La Plata, Argentina. Please fasten your seatbelts for your comfort and safety. Please check around your seat for any belongings you may have brought on board with you, and please use caution when opening the overhead bins, as heavy articles may have shifted around during the flight."
They made an announcement. Suddenly, my attention drew towards the empty seat beside me.
"Derreck! Where the hell is he?" I wondered, looking around.
"Must be in hell", Tasha muttered.
"Stop it, Tasha" I rolled my eyes.
I also forgot to introduce Derreck. Well, he is my husband. We married two days back in a hush-hush ceremony.
"You are saying as if it was a fairy-tale romance," Tasha interjected.
"Oh, Tasha! At least let me finish the introduction."
"The hell of an introduction! I don't care, but if you still insist, I will introduce that fucker," Tasha grunted before continuing, "Natasha and Derreck met three months back at the nightclub where Natasha was working as a server. They both got mushy-mushy after a few drinks and were caught having a one-night stand, causing Natasha to lose her job. With no money, job, or home, she started living with that Derreck. One day, he got a big promotion from the archaeology firm in which he was working, but he had to shift from Chicago to some unknown, non-existent town of Campo in Argentina. He popped the question to Natasha, and her poor damsel in distress had no other option than to marry him and move to this hell of a place. God knows where? Does this place even exist on maps?"
"Stop it, Tasha! We know nothing about this place. Maybe it can surprise us."
"You still believe it! I am so disappointed in you. Your first mistake was to marry that jerk, and second, to move here. You are fucked. I am fucked, and the bottom line is- we are fucked."
"Derreck!" I clasped, seeing him getting seated beside me.
"Urgh", Tasha growled.
"Stop it!" I murmured.
"What!? Are you telling me something?" Derreck responded, looking amused.
"No, no, I meant, I was asking where were you?"
"Washroom," he replied.
"A perfect place for him. Why does he have to come out? Can continue staying there his whole life," Tasha grappled.
My serious face busted in a loud laugh. My eyes filled with tears of laughter. Derreck gave me a weird look as if I had gone mad. Other people seated nearby glanced at me again. I raised my hands. "Sorry, please don't mind. Do your work?" I told everyone, still giggling.
Our flight landed safely. After completing the security check, I waited for Derreck until he finished some immigration formalities.
I think Tasha is sleeping now, so let me finish the introduction for Derreck. "Well, I met Derreck and served him some drinks at the nightclub where I was working. He was so mesmerized by my beauty and asked me out. You might know, our nightclub had a rule which prohibited sex with customers while working, but one of my jealous colleagues ratted me out, and I lost my job. Derreck was kind enough to offer me a place as I had no money. I was under his obligation. And regarding marriage, his company only issues overseas immigration to married spouses, so I had to get married".
"And doomed for life from which there is no escape," Tasha mumbled in sleep.
"Stop it, Tasha. Look around; I can see lots of hot Spanish hunks."
"That's the only thing keeping me sane." Tasha was excited.
"I am married, Tasha; I forbid it for us to think of other men this way," I reminded her.
"I don't care. He is your husband, not mine."
I rolled my eyes.
We were transversing in a compact sedan along the narrow road with mountains and dense woods flanking the sides. New sights, fresh smells and new life. There was a distinct air about this place. I took a deep gush of fresh air, feeling it almost reaching my lungs. I liked this place. I don't know why, but I have this feeling that this place will work magic for me, healing me from my past.
"This is my boss, Damon Sandalio," Derreck broke the silence by taking out a magazine and pointed towards the picture on cover page.
My eyes fixated on that handsome unworldly face. Never in my life have I come across such an attractive and desirable face. If Spanish men boosted testosterone, then he was the whole pool of it. A strange sensation took over me as if I know this man before. Something in his face turned my head and I swear I had looked in those cerulean eyes thousands of times before, in some another time and place. A lot of blurry images flashed through my mind as I recognized him. I felt a pull so strongly towards him I almost couldn't stop. I seemed to have loved him in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age, forever. It was not love at first sight, but recognizing a soul from a past life. Or how else could he have reached my core?
Tasha groaned in my mind.
"What are you doing, Tasha?" I asked her.
"Laughing on our fates,"
"Tasha! You are impossible."
"I am not. The way you are feeling for Damon, just multiply it a thousand-fold and that is what I am feeling for Damon, but you spoiled everything by marrying this asshole," Tasha squealed in my head.
"Oh, come on, Tasha, Dereck is not a bad guy. And besides this, do you think this Damon, a billionaire, will even look at us? I am sure he will have a harem of models to warm his bed," I tried to explain to her.
âMy sixth sense is far stronger than you, and I am sure Damon has something to do with our past life. We coming here in this place is not a coincidence. It is written in our fates. Souls donât meet by accident,â Tasha replied.
âOh really, when did you meet him? Donât assume things just by looking at the photo. He means nothing. The one thing I learned from life in a hard way is, âNever make stupid decisions on temporary feelings,â" I retorted back.
Tasha seemed disappointed but remained quiet, much to my relief.
It took us three hours to reach Campo, an ancient town on the outskirts of La Plata, surrounded by dense woods, known by the name of Forsidden Woods of Artena. Artena was a lost ancient city located in the hearts of these woods, whose ruins were discovered five years ago by Derreck's archeology company. Our house was a decent two-bedroom and cosy with a large compound. The wooden structure had a faded polishing in some places. Faded green shutters framed the ivy-covered windows. It was positioned on the very edge of dense woods. The landscape was a sea of lush green carpets of thousands of trees. In fact, I think I was looking at every shade of green in the spectrum.
"I assume you liked it," Derreck's voice brought me back to the present.
"It's beautiful. How old is this?" I asked.
"Not sure, but our company bought it five years ago," Derreck responded.
We set our clothes and belongings. We had to cook our dinner as no take-way options that we knew of were available.
Finally, the night took over the day. I lay on my side of the bed with Dereck already snoring loud, making me impossible to sleep. Tasha was getting restless. I glanced outside the window. It was a full-moon night. The mighty moon cast its luminescence over the dark, impenetrable forests.
Suddenly, a loud growl rumbled through the Forbidden woods of Artena. My heart jumped in my throat.
It seemed that some animal was yelping and groaning in pain. I shook Dereck out of sleep, but he heard nothing and advised me to sleep. Tasha also heard the growls. We both were worried as if our own were in pain and needed help. The screams of the beast felt like someone is tearing through my skin, taking away a piece of my heart and crushing it. The pain was unlike anything I have ever known, making me hard to breathe, as my tears ran freely.
"What do you think, Tasha?" I asked her, she already know what was I asking.
"Do you think it's a good idea? There can be wild animals." She asked back.
"I am also scared but I think that injured animal needs help, I can't just let it go," I said, removing my nighty and pulling on a white top paired with skinny denim, slipping a kitchen knife in my pocket, ready to dart through the Forbidden Woods of Artena.