Hope of the Suff
Years had passed and yet the human kind remained the same. Unkind. Towards him at least.
1st - Origin of the Suff, 2nd - Redemption of the Suff. This is the third part but you can start here.
Sanus waited in the shadows, his lips curling at the sight of festivities.
Unpleasant. Uninvited. Unfortunate.
Years had passed and yet the human kind remained the same. Unkind. Towards him at least.
They revered the figure they tortured themselves because he somehow survived. They worshipped him, the man with kind eyes, because he helped in redeeming them. Sanus was there. He saw the suffering of the man. He saw him escape its clutches. He could only bow to that entity and leave the space.
But he could never have imagined how world around him would change. Yet, to him it remained the same. Unlike what he had hoped when with her.
“Are you lost” a soft voice asked the figure trying to blend with the darkness surrounding him. Sanus looked at the small girl looking up to him with kind eyes, hiding something behind her hand.
“No.” He let out. Words were reluctant to come out of his barely used throat.
The girl smiled and took out a bundle that resembled him in attire, “You look like Gaudi.” She directed the smile at the figure in her hands before turning around to leave. When he didn’t follow, she looked back with a frown, “Come.” She stretched her hands towards him and he followed. For the first time in a long while, he had interacted with someone further than their death. He didn’t take her hand. But she kept looking behind to make sure he was there.
“I am Ma…”
“Have you seen that girl?” An elder voice made its way to the girl’s ear and she ran off in the direction. Sanus lost her in the mass of people. He was about to blend back into the forest. He would spare this one. He didn’t like going to happy places.
But a man pulling the cart on the side felt him. Chaos ensued. Sanus stood there till he saw the familiar sight of death before dawn.
He began to repeat his mantra that he still hoped would free him from the curse, “…the suff…” when he heard a familiar voice.
“Help...” The little girl stood in the middle of the street.
She collapsed before Sanus could reach her.
“Halt.” The tribe leader shouted as he saw a figure on the road ahead. A small one.
The group moved at a slower pace in the night. They were carrying sick people and didn’t plan to stop till they could get help.
The leader stepped forward from the group to examine the girl, hoping to Gods it was not a cursed being. He leaned down and touched her neck. She was alive. But she was shivering on the cold ground. Maybe it was what made him shiver too. He could feel a presence there with him. He looked around but found no one. He could swear that someone was watching them.
“Are you with someone, child?” He picked her up to carry her to the wagon.
She shook her head and her lips trembled, about to cry again. She didn’t know how she got there, but her doll was with her. She held it tightly. It was bigger than before, like someone had added more layers to it. But the last thing she remembered was seeing that man. Where did he go?
“We will take care of you.” The leader comforted her.
“Will you take care of him as you have me?”
Sanus didn’t step out of the shadows. He never did. Not when she fell while growing up. Not when she had her baby. And he didn’t want to be here when she was on the verge of passing to the other side.
He had gotten weak in the past years. He never left her. He only took out the members from her tribe. Both willing and not. But he did not want to take her. He had hoped that she would be the one to free him of the curse. The only one not affected by him.
He didn’t want to let go. To feed. To feast.
She looked around the room, “I am ready.” Her breaths were getting shorter. But she smiled at the baby beside her, her kind eyes filled with love. She had given her favorite bundle of rags to her baby. The parting gift.
She looked at the corner Sanus was hiding in then. She knew where he was.
He stepped back further, cursing the hope he had harbored all these years that things would change if he would just focus on her. He had been saying the chants every time, even with the leader who took her in as his ward. The man had welcomed his end just like she was doing. They always knew he was with them.
The sound of festivities put a smile on her face and a frown on his own, “He will be loved by his people. Will you love him…” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
“…not suff…”
Sanus was ready to leave when he saw a little girl come towards him. He held his breath. She was watching her steps carefully as she went further in the forests, away from the celebrations.
He stepped towards her in the light and she looked up. Her eyes widened in fear. She screamed and ran in the opposite direction, not able to reach anyone.
He didn’t feel guilty as he saw the familiar sight unfolding before him. It was what he was meant to do. To be.
“…Suff…”
