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Tuesday, October 26, 2021

" The Grave Robber" by Ayden G

 

     “What do you think we should name her?” the mother whispered, cradling the baby in her arms. “I’ve been so exhausted lately, that I had forgotten.”

 

With intense concentration, he continued to pace around the bedroom, until suddenly, he stopped and said “Aqua, that will be her name!”

 

Needless to say, she was dumbfounded. “ Out of all the names you could have chosen, you picked… Aqua? Why, I’m not even sure if my ears have ever heard those syllables in my life!”

 

“For her deep blue eyes of course!” he replied, perhaps too confidently.

 

“You do realize that she currently has no eye color right now? For all we know, it could be green by next year!”

 

“But you can’t lie, it sounds strangely charming, does it not?”

 

The winds outside matched her pause. She smiled in concession. “ You always know just the right words to butter me up, don’t you?”

 

“ And you shall always know that I will love you and this child.” the father said.


 

---


And love them he did

 

For Seven Springs and Summers

 

And Falls and Winters

 

Till the draft of war

 

Came to forbid any longer

 

 

 

 

Leaving behind family and his lucky lighter

 

The child alone in the cemetery clasping it

 

Cried out in pain

 

 

 

 

“Father, Father

 

Where have you gone?

 

Your beloved wife and my compassionate mother

 

Were torn ashreds

 

By a single damp letter

 

Leaving me to pick up the tatters.”

 

 

 

 

“It was raining gray that day

 

I remembered the certain way

 

Black umbrellas surrounded us in a daze

 

My mask uncrying; my mother assumed me unfazed

 

And mistook shock for a child with no emotion to portray.”


“Please… forgive me father

 

For I could not understand

 

The phantom weight that I took as a bother

 

Was in fact, your ghostly hand.”

 

---

 

     The mother, now not appearing a day over forty, sighed in desperation. “ Aqua please, for once in your life can you please listen?”

 

Aqua walked away from the wood kitchen table, with clear frustration in her green eyes.

 

“ Listen for what? To hear another one of your lectures on finding myself a ‘gentleman’ like you?”

 

“I only do what is best for you and our family. It seems that you show a remarkable lack of maturity for someone your age.” said the mother, blocking her way.

 

It took all of her willpower to not scream in rage. After Father had died, her mother plummeted into a deep grief, and she became deeply obsessed with making ends meet. As well as educating her daughter.

 

At first, Aqua went along with it. After all, she could never truly forgive herself for not shedding any tears that day. But, as lessons into etiquette grew in frenzy, her patience started to wane with each passing day. From dancing, to the way she opened her mouth, it all seemed a fool's venture. Turns out that this was the day that patience ended, notably her 16th birthday.

 

“ I thought you were better than this Aqua. With your homeschooling nearly complete, you now decide to give up? What would your father say if he were here?”


The young lady’s neck nearly snapped as she turned back, her mother realizing what she had said far too late. “ You would dare say that, while I spend every day working at the tavern and stable? While knowing that your newly vowed ‘husband’ goes around the town’s brothels and never have I seen him once to even visit you?”

 

An uncomfortable silence grows. Finally, the tension is cut with Aqua saying “ I’m sorry. I know you get sick very easily and that's not your fault. I just… need some time alone.”

 

With that finality, Aqua exited their straw house. It was time to talk to her real father.

 

---

 

With its black gates opened

 

The cemetery’s graves beckoned

 

Equipped with her father’s lighter

 

Aqua entered with a confession

 

 

 

 

“Father, I know nought what to do

 

For my mother and I

 

Debt collectors

 

Greedily coming to collect their dues

 

Oh what can I do?”


 

 

 

As usual,


No response came

 

From neither sky or dirt

 

 

 

 

Instead,

 

Death came to claim her mother’s heart

 

After her return from the cemetery’s hearth

 

In the form of the reaper’s fever

 

 

 

 

And was forced

 

Into a most cruel position

 

To seek help

 

From her most hated father

 

---

 

“ So you’re telling me,” the wicked man, dragging each syllable precariously “that I am responsible for this woman?”

 

“You have been responsible for her from the very beginning,” said Aqua, simmering with

 

hatred.

 

With no amount of money enough for medicine, she had no choice but to rely on him. Every second she wasted with this man was another second that could have been spent on saving her mother. And yet, here she was, on the verge of practically begging.

 

“My child, surely you understand why your mother married me in the first place, yes?” “No, I don’t. Why would she begin to even think about marrying a man like you?”


Mocking laughter erupted from him, sending waves of foreshadowing down Aqua’s throat. “It was time you fool, time.”

 

My mind started to unwind, as the cogs inside started to whirl and clang against one another. “ What do you mean time?”

 

“ I mean exactly what I said. For as outspoken as you are, your intellect doesn’t seem to quite match.”

 

Getting up from his chair, he leaned towards Aqua and said “It’s rather simple really. I own nearly everything in this town. And that includes the headstone in which your father lies under.”

 

A gutting realization threatens to tear her apart. She needs to leave now, before he sees exactly what his treatment has done to her.

 

“In exchange for a nice suitable sum of money and her vows to me, your father was allowed to stay buried.”

 

Aqua could not stay no longer. She couldn’t bear to stand within his presence for another second.

 

“ If you leave, you do know what will happen don’t you?”

 

Aqua turned back, one last time, to stare at the man’s eyes. “You are a coward. A greedy coward who destroys everything around him. And I swear to you, on my family’s name and honor, I will get my revenge.”

 

She didn’t need to open the door to know they had taken her mother. She didn’t need to visit the cemetery to know her mother’s headstone was already there. Grabbing her father’s lighter, she set to her work.


---

 

What debt had sought to acquire

 

Was payed back in flame and ashes

 

Surrounded in her own tsunami of fire

 

But a glint in the corner of her eye flashes

 

 

 

 

Behind blue blazing blinds of the estate

 

Was the depiction of her mother’s so called lover

 

And the dowry-

 

The dowry that they had dug with her father and mother

 

Six spiteful feet separating each other

 

 

 

 

There was not a moment's hesitation

 

Her movements never lacking conviction

 

With pickaxe and shovel in hand

 

She left cemetery abound

 

...

 

 

 

 

After the unspeakable deed was done

 

Grave dirt coating her shoulders

 

Emerging with the dirt in pocket

 

No longer would she give herself the cold shoulder


Though with less moral, befitting a cunning pickpocket Rather than just madness to eventually become undone

 

 

While the sun may only besmirch

 

May one day, people look upon her better than wretch improper

 

As the crow watches from its decaying perch

 

Running away; only known as a grave robber

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