Coming back to my own time, I feel the tears running down my face again. I open my eyes to a room still blanketed in darkness. Wiping my tears away, my heart and mind ache. I feel so sorry for the girl, but I push the feeling away, reaching instead for anger.
When the dreams began, they were just sad and strange images, now they mean so much more. I know that the girl is Kivera. It can be no one else. Watching Kivera being forced to the temple to be sacrificed is horrible, but the more I know about this strange girl, the more mottled my feelings become.
I pity Kivera’s fate, but hate her, too. I still don’t know what the girl did to bring the curse on my family, but I know Kivera was the cause. That thought makes my insides boil with anger. I think of the faces of the dead girls. Dead because of Kivera. I hate Kivera in that moment. I make a promise to myself that I will not fall victim to the vicious machinations of a selfish child.
My anger keeps me awake for several hours. Imagining every possible scenario that I can devise to explain the curse, I make plans for each possibility in hopes of keeping myself alive. Never terribly imaginative, I am surprised by the long list I am able to come up with. Wondering and planning, I try to prepare myself until my eyelids begin to droop.
In the dark of early morning, I feel that I am beginning to understand the situation, but as I wake hours later to dawn’s clarifying light, I know I am still as confused and helpless as before. The only thing I know for sure is that I need more information and that I need help to get it. Today is my last chance to make a difference in my own fate.