Chapter 14
On the last episode: Zalli came home with Yoltzin to find half her farm was set to fire. Now: The aftermath of the fire and Zalli's confrontation with Green Tepi.
Zalli sat on the bench in front of her house. She hugged her arms in a tight hold and she crossed her legs. She moved her foot in a continuous tempo and she tilted her head down. The farmer held a blank expression as she carried a vacant look while she stared straight ahead into nothing.
Her family had yet to return home. Zalli was unsure if she should make a phone call to someone, or if she should just wait for them to arrive so she could deliver the terrible news in person. Even if she made a phone call, she was unsure who that person would be.
Not a lot of her neighbors carried a personal phone like Yoltzin did—the need to share urgent enough news was never a thing here in her town. The general preference was to either make a call to a house phone, or to talk to the person face-to-face. So, she settled on waiting for her family members to return home to tell them.
Yoltzin stayed with the firefighters in the back. When Zalli left the group, the fire was almost put out. She did not see the need to stay, seeing how she had little energy to continue watching, anyway. When she left, Yoltzin told her he would update the officials about Necalli and the whole situation.
As the night continued to move in its course, Zalli stayed still in her position. Unmoving and unfeeling. She heard footsteps approach, but even that did not spur her to react.
The scent of smoke filled Zalli’s nostrils as Yoltzin sat next to her. Yet, she ignored it like how she ignored the firefighters getting into their truck as they passed by her. One tried to approach Zalli to notify her of their departure, But Yoltzin waved her off. She gave a nod of understanding, and before Zalli knew, everyone had left the farm except for her and the CEO.
Their silence filled the air and combined with the sounds of nature that typically surrounded Zalli’s home. The grasshoppers chirped, and a raven croaked with a blaring sound. A wolf howled at a faraway distance. It made Zalli grimace. She did not like how the world around her had seemed to already move on while she just had something devastating happen to her.
Yoltzin opened his mouth to speak. He had sat next to Zalli, thinking of how best to console her. He was able to put together a sentimental speech with well thought out words, and something to display his sympathy for her. The CEO never got to say it, though, because the moment he uttered a noise to begin his first sentence, Zalli bawled.
She dropped her head into her hands and hunched over as heavy tears left her eyes.
Yoltzin stiffened in his posture, taken aback by the sudden burst of emotion. Though he understood Zalli’s reaction. A pained look appeared in his expression as he heard Zalli sob next to him. He reached an arm out to hug the maiden, but hesitated. He did not know if he would cross a boundary and do something Zalli would be against.
As he continued to hear her cry, he decided to take a risk and went in for the hug. He held her in a tight hold in his arms as she shook with her tears. Zalli clutched onto him and held him as if she would slip if she were to let go.
They sat together like that for a while. The surrounding noise continued with their symphony. Zalli held the melody with her cries as Yoltzin existed as nothing more than the audience, listening to it all.
When Zalli’s cries turned into a soft whimper, Yoltzin asked her with a gentle voice if she wanted to go inside. She nodded with a slow movement, then stood at the same rate.
She kept her face down. Zalli knew her face looked like a wreck. Whenever she cried like this, her eyes and nose became red and puffy, and snot would leak out against her will. She did not want Yoltzin to look at her while she was in this state. She used the sleeve of her blouse to clean up the mess that was her face. It helped somewhat, but she still made sure to look away from him, just in case.
The pair made it to the staircase when Zalli came to a stop. She told him she could continue from here on her own. Yoltzin took a step back to give her some space. He said he would find her family and he would tell them what happened, so she would not have to. He told her to rest, and that he would return in the morning to check up on her.
With all the actions he took in this night, Zalli took her own risk, and she looked at him to speak.
“Thank you.”
She wanted to express her gratitude with as much honesty as she could, given her state. Even with her low energy and sad look, Yoltzin knew what she attempted to convey. He gave her a small smile and watched as she went up the stairs in a slump. He didn’t leave until he saw Zalli turn from his sight at the top of the stairs.
As Zalli entered the hallway she shared with Tepi at a languid pace, she heard the front door shut with a small thud. Yoltzin had left, and she was now all by herself in her home.
The farmer’s head hung low. She passed by Tepi’s door to reach her room, but shuddered with an icy chill. Zalli did not stop until she was in front of her bedroom door with her hand on the circular handle.
She paused at a curious thought.
The disastrous luck she had so far started around the same time Tepi got her terrible insomnia. Tepi’s insomnia was caused by the green entity living in her room. When Zalli confronted the thing, Tepi’s sleep schedule improved. That must mean if Zalli confronted the thing again, then her situation should get better, too.
The maiden did not eradicate Green Tepi when they interacted with each other the last time. All she did was redirect its attention since it wanted to speak with her, anyway.
If she got rid of it now, then everything should get better. And if that statement holds true, then everything that has happened so far was caused by the green entity.
So, it was all its fault.
Zalli inhaled a rough breath and clamped the doorknob in a forceful hold. She stood up to her full height and felt a sudden rush of energy run through her. When she turned to march towards Tepi’s room, she left the doorknob in an odd shape; no longer was it in its circular form, but it was caved in at odd angles as if it were a crumpled ball of paper.
Moving with no need for decorum, Zalli opened the door at a full swing. It slammed against the wall, causing the walls to reverberate.
She found the room empty and dark. Zalli took a step in and brought a hand up to search for the light switch on the wall.
She could not find it fast enough, so she gave up without further thought, and entered Tepi’s room in stride. The maiden stood in the center, just as she did the last time. As she waited for something to happen, she changed her posture from crossing her arms, to placing her hands on her hips, then to pacing around before she exclaimed out to the green entity.
“I’m here! I know you want to talk to me! Where are you?” Silence responded to Zalli, causing her to stop her pacing. Instead, she returned to crossing her arms along with tapping her foot at a rapid beat. “Come out, now.”
“Hello, Zalli.”
A serene voice appeared behind the farmer. Zalli pressed her elbows in at the sudden noise in the otherwise silent environment. She turned at a blinking pace and came across Green Tepi, glowing just as it did before.
The entity bore a relaxed appearance with its hands held behind its back. Zalli narrowed her eyes at the sight. Then she spoke to Green Tepi in a clipped tone.
“Why are you still here?”
Green Tepi raised one eyebrow up before she took a steeling breath to respond.
“Well. I need to talk to you. You forced me to go away last time, and you never came back yesterday to talk.”
“If we speak, will you leave?”
It turned its head to the side and spoke in a soft tone.
“Will I leave ... I am not sure. All I know is that I need to tell you something very important. The thing is ... I have been so focused on thinking about telling you the thing, I forgot ... what the thing was.”
Zalli brought her hand up to massage her temples. She looked down and spoke with bitterness in her voice.
“Qué maldicion. Are you serious?”
Green Tepi took a step back with a flushed face. She walked over to Tepi’s bed and sat on it with a plop. It held its back straight, but held its elbows for comfort while it crossed its arms.
“I have been in this form for a long time! I couldn’t leave to find you, and my doppelgänger was of no help! All she did was stare at me for long periods of time. It was very creepy.”
A shudder came from it as it made an uncomfortable expression.
“... Doppelgänger? What are you talking about? You are the doppelgänger.”
Zalli brought an accusing finger up to designate to the entity that it was wrong.
“No, no, no. I am me.” Green Tepi brought her hand up and placed her fingertips on her chest to demonstrate the point. “The thing you call sister is nothing but a-uh, weird shell that looks like me. It might act like me, but inside it has no substance.”
“You’re confused. You are the thing with no substance. Quite literally. You are see-through.”
It moved its hands away and curved its back to get a good view of its transparent form.
“Well-that’s-that’s because I was forced into a limiting form. I am only like this because ... because ...”
“This is so useless. You should just disappear.” Zalli used her raised hand to wave it around. “I think you’ve fulfilled your purpose, anyway. You’ve spoken to me, so now you can go.”
“Uh, no. I still need to tell you that something that’s important ... which I can’t remember. Because of the form I’m in. That I was forced into!” Green Tepi stood up at a hasty pace and walked in front of Zalli. “And I’m in this form because. Because ...”
The maiden rolled her eyes with her head turning, following the direction of her eyesight. At seeing the attitude she was giving, the entity bared its teeth before it reached out to grab Zalli by her shoulders. It only meant to shake some sense into the woman, but the contact brought an electrifying feeling between the two.
It forced Green Tepi to rip her hands off Zalli, but it also gave her a sudden clarity in thought.
“Because, Zalli! You’re dreaming!”
The farmer blinked her eyelids at a rapid pace as she processed what the entity had just said.
“I’m. Dreaming?”
“Yes, you’re trapped in your own dream right now. Well, actually it’s a dream within a dream. If my memory is finally returning to me, I had to reach you ... twice.” Green Tepi grabbed hold of her jaw and looked down. It shifted through its fuzzy memories before settling on its conclusion. “Yes, it took me two tries to find you, each in a different state of existing.”
Zalli walked backwards until she hit the dresser with Tepi’s radio on it. She shook her head and did not want to accept what the supernatural thing before her was proclaiming.
“No way am I dreaming. This all feels too real. I can literally remember everything. Like my childhood. The precious moments I have made with family and friends. That cannot be made up.”
She brought both hands up to hold her face until she dragged them down; she clenched her skin with her fingertips as if she were checking what she felt was real.
“Well, actually, a dream weaver can fabricate anything to make you believe what you’re experiencing is real. They have to in order to trick you for what they want.”
Zalli had a dazed look on her face as she looked up and stared through Green Tepi.
“Dream weaver?”
“Yes, dream weaver.” Green Tepi took a careful step forward, not wanting to scare Zalli, considering the confused state she bore. “Whoever that person is, they are the reason you are stuck here. I know who it is, but the image is not coming to mind. Again. I was too hell-bent on reaching you. It’s harder to control yourself as you go deeper into the levels of dreams.”
“Uh-huh.”
The entity moved closer to Zalli, then had an idea spring into her mind.
“Maybe I can remember who it is by touching you again!”
It brought its hand up and moved in at a faster pace. It was excited to finally get answers after being in a confused haze for such a long time, and its need to know more took over its body.
Zalli was quick to move out of the way and dodged its lunge forward.
“Don’t, don’t touch me again. I need—I need time to think.” Zalli tensed her fingers, not sure what to do with her body. The farmer took one step closer to the door and turned to leave, but then faced Green Tepi again. “If you have done all that you need to do here, leave me and my family alone. Your purpose is complete, right?”
The entity shrugged its shoulders with its palms facing upwards and its lips pressed together. It said nothing else. It only stared at Zalli as she walked away from it.
Zalli moved at a fast pace, eager to leave the situation. She entered her room with a loud thud and a heaving chest. She rested her back on the door as she tried to calm down. But then she thought about the fire and everything else that happened after that. The craziness and chaos of the night caused her to burst into a loud sob and she flung herself onto her bed.
Large tears ran down her face. Knowing she was home alone, not counting the entity as someone, she did not subdue the loud wails that left her body. She crawled underneath her blanket and curled into herself.
Her boots were long gone, taken off before she went up the stairs. Zalli did not move to get into her sleepwear, though. She had no energy to change or even properly do her night routine.
When her tears quieted down, and was finally easing into a soft slumber, the maiden heard low voices come from downstairs. It seemed her family had returned, although Zalli was unsure how much time had passed since the incident. She thought about going downstairs to discuss with her family about the fire and Necalli, but then she heard the tenor voice of Yoltzin.
He was able to fulfill his promise to her.
Cal has it under control, was the last thing Zalli thought before she felt her eyelids flutter shut. Exhaustion overtook the maiden, and she fell into a deep sleep.
Zalli’s dreams that night moved in quick succession. One scene after another would come at her at a neck-breaking pace. Her brain conjured up images of her in a council room speaking at a podium, of her voting against Necalli in his proposal, and of her sitting with a community member as they spoke to her about a civil issue they were experiencing.
Then, Zalli saw her interactions with the three fairies she helped before. This time, their faces were clear, and she identified each fairy as her family members. Tepi was the green fairy who had endless energy after Zalli nursed her back to health. Xilo was the blue fairy she allowed to boss her around. According to her, Zalli needed to harmonize her home better for a complete balance of energies. Ezi was the yellow fairy who gave her wise advice whenever Zalli came across a troublesome issue within a policy.
The last thing the maiden saw was her mother’s face. But the setting her mother was in was different compared to the rest of her dream. While the images Zalli had seen were distinct and detailed, she could only see her mother standing next to her roble tree surrounded by a grey fog.
It was like they were the only two things to exist in the space. Not even Zalli felt she could see her own self. It felt to Zalli she was merely watching a movie scene as an audience member.
Zalli tried to speak to her mother, but no sound left from her form. She could only observe as her mother looked at the tree with a calm expression. Zalli opened her mouth again, attempting to speak; her mother then turned her head, fixing Zalli with a stern expression. She did not remove her two hands from the trunk of the tree, but she spoke to Zalli in a booming voice.
“Don’t let him get the stone.”
“Who? Who should I not let get the stone?”
Before Zalli could receive an answer about who her mother was talking about, her mother and the tree disappeared and everything went black.
Michelle Alva
