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Aeons passed... worlds span and whirled... time had become a motionless entity...
...when in reality, only hours had passed for Sarah, but taking the flux out of time seemed to be the only way to cope with the enormity of what was occurring.
Every step Sarah took seemed more difficult than the last.
It was now early morning, and Sarah wanted to have one last chance to take in the beauty of the Balearic sunrise before it was lost to her forever.
She tried telling herself that this was the right thing to do. That by condemning herself to a life of solitary confinement, she was sparing the lives of all the people on Formentera, that she was giving Hyienna and Solomon the chance for an ordinary life.
But she wondered how long that motivation and determination would stay with her.
The lighthouse loomed in front of her as Catherine guided her towards it. Even though Sarah knew she could make a run for it, but she knew it would be pointless. There was no escaping the Moirae.
Catherine had assured her that a living space had been prepared for her and that she would have everything she needed.
Except her freedom.
As they moved closer, Sarah saw an opening underneath the lighthouse that she knew would be invisible to anybody who crossed by.
Sarah tried to take in all the sensations surrounding her one last time, the feeling of the sun gently burning onto her skin, the feeling of sand crunching beneath her feet, and the gentle spray of the sea splashing onto her. She tried to memorise all of these sensations because she knew she would never feel them ever again. Memory would be all she ever had in place of the real thing.
She tried to leave behind all her personal ambitions at the foot of the entrance, all the things she had wanted to do with her life, all the things she wanted to be. She found herself wishing that she had never had those feelings, they were both comforting and soul-destroying, a remainder of the promises she could no longer keep.
Part of her still wanted to lash out at Catherine for robbing her of her life. But she couldn’t bring herself to do so. Because in the end, Catherine was all she had.
This was the way of the Moirae.
They made their way down into the cave, Catherine shining the way with a torchlight.
Sarah tried to comprehend her new surroundings, trying to find the will to accept them and not silently implore someone to save her.
As they passed, she happened upon a painting on the wall, a shadow-like piece of street artwork.
As she walked, she noticed something lying on the ground. It was a card, titled ‘Burden Bearer’; it showed an oracle on the front. Sarah clutched the card to her chest, knowing that she would have to become the card’s namesake. For the sake of Solomon, Nathaniel and of course... Hyienna. She could not save Nathaniel. But there was a chance she could save Hyienna.
She held the thought at the front of her mind, letting it empower her and push her further into the darkness...
***
SOLOMON HAD PUT ALL his pictures of Sarah into a box. He had been tempted to burn the box, to do away with the memory of her, as though that would somehow spare his pain. But he thought of the joys they had shared together, how she had ultimately set him on the path to being a better man. Instead, he had placed the box in a small cupboard. Maybe he would revisit it sometime from now, to honour her memory.
He had taken a small sabbatical from work, cancelling all his assignments and tours for the next few months. He had tried returning to work after Seth had been released. He had thought that surrounding himself with people would make it easier for him to move on, return to normal life.
But everywhere he looked, he found himself seeking traces of the Moirae, or some higher power manipulating things from behind the scenes. And his clients had noticed the distance in his once-charming demeanour, one of which even asking if he had undergone a personality transplant.
In the end, he had decided that it was too much to be around ordinary people after everything that had happened, so he had stepped back.
This was an equally unfulfilling idea. He found himself going out of his mind with angst. Even when he tried to sleep during the day, the trauma of the past few days trickled into his subconsciousness, and he found himself haunted by images of Nathaniel’s broken body.
When they had first met, he had loathed the man. In some ways, he still loathed Nathaniel, for it had been his infatuation with Sarah that had seen her taken away from him.
But such feelings exhausted Solomon. And he remembered how close he had come to killing Nathaniel. And the only reason he was still alive today was because Nathaniel showed him mercy. For that, he knew he had to be thankful to Nathaniel.
Solomon wished he had gotten the chance to know Nathaniel better. Whether, in another life, they might have even been friends.
One day, he headed for the cemetery where Nathaniel had had his life cut short.
He had expected a visit from the police, someone who had seen him driving in the area and might want to ask him some questions about the two bodies lying there.
But there had been no such visit. And when Solomon headed to the cemetery, there was no sign that a fight had ever taken place. It was as though the bodies of Nathaniel and Kal had disappeared altogether.
He wondered if Seth had had anything to do with it. He had not seen his one-time friend since the day he had walked of the inn. He wondered what had become of the man, whether he had left Formentera altogether, or whether he was still there, simply retreating into the shadows.
Solomon felt sombre that Nathaniel had no such gravestone. Nothing to mark his passing or his life. And as far as he knew, there would be no one coming to mourn him. Whatever facets of his life there were to uncover, Nathaniel had taken to his non-existent grave.
He hadn’t spoken much to Hyienna since that day. It was as though there was an unspoken agreement between them to never utter another word while they both lived. He had wanted to speak to Hyienna, to apologise for dragging him into the firing line, for putting him up against Seth. But he knew that there was no moving past what had happened. Maybe there was no closure to be found.
Not for the first time, Solomon considered whether he should leave Formentera, travel abroad, see the world.
But the more he thought about it, the more unfeasible it sounded. The world had no new sights to offer him. Like a child walking in on a primal scene, Solomon could only see life through a cracked lens.
And though he would never outright say it, Barcelona was in his blood. No time and distance would ever change that. And one day, Solomon would occupy a space in the cemetery here.
He remembered that today was Hyienna’s last day on Formentera. He figured that if he hurried, he could catch him. At the very least, they could exchange goodbyes, both bidding goodbye to a turbulent period in their lives. But Solomon knew that such an attempt would be self-serving, more for Solomon’s benefit rather than Hyienna’s. Hyienna didn’t want anything to do with Solomon and Solomon couldn’t find it in his heart to blame him.
But he knew that there was somewhere else he needed to be.
***
YASMINA HAD NOT OPENED the inn for business, despite Ermina’s insistence that she was bleeding money. In the end, Ermina had taken over responsibilities maintaining the bookings herself. And to her credit, she seemed to be doing a good job of it. She had stopped counting down the days when potential visitors would catch a whiff of whatever chemical concoction Ermina had been inhaling.
Yasmina spent most of her time looking out to the sea ahead. The blanket had since disappeared from the inn. She was still in two minds as to how to feel about it. On the one hand, she had wanted to keep it, to maintain a part of Samuel. But then she remembered that a blanket was no substitute for a living baby.
She thought she had gotten over the pain of losing her child, that the wounds had slowly started healing. Now they had been pried wide open and Yasmina did not think she could ever close them again.
She had once heard the expression ‘it is better to have loved and lost than never loved at all’. But Yasmina disagreed. She would have rather never fallen pregnant, never entertained the idea of becoming a mother if it was going to be ripped away from her.
She had hoped that the blanket would provide some kind of closure, that now she knew for certain what had happened to Samuel. But then she wondered if it had been better to keep on hoping rather than have the reality crashing down on her.
She looked out into the sea, beautiful and merciless, just like the Moirae.
Not for the first time, Yasmina thought about walking into the sea, wading into the waters, and letting them pull her under, taking her out of a world filled with pain and regret.
But that wasn’t a decision made once. It was a decision made over and over, every time Yasmina thought about what she had lost, the life she could have had, how the only way she could numb her pain was to dope herself silly.
And every time she made the decision, the sea looked more and more inviting.
***
ERMINA WAS BUSY LOOKING through the register when someone walked into the inn. “What are you looking for?” she asked without looking up. Her new responsibilities meant she needed to keep a clear head, something she envied considerably. Although she wanted Yaz to get her act together for her own sake, part of her hoped that Yaz would step up again so that Ermina could go back to being stoned 24/7.
“I want to speak to Yaz.”
Ermina looked up. Solomon was standing in front of her. Her first instinct was to tell him to ‘fuck off’ as she had done on numerous occasions.
But there was something different about him this time. He no longer looked smooth and imposing. He looked like a shell of himself, as though all the joy and the ability to feel joy had seeped out of him.
“She’s not seeing anyone at the moment” said Ermina plainly.
“I just need-”
“It’s not about what you need!” said Ermina. “She’s lost her son. She needs to heal. She doesn’t need you getting her hopes up again.”
“I just want to help her” pleaded Solomon.
“What, are you a doctor all of a sudden? You offering a prescribed shag?”
“No! Nothing like that!” snapped Solomon. “Look, you don’t like me. I get it, I don’t blame you. Right now, I don’t particularly like me very much. But Yaz is hurting badly. I know because I added to that. And I honestly don’t think anything I say or do is ever going to make up for that. I’m not going to ask you to forgive me because I don’t know if I can forgive myself. But I want the same thing as you; to make Yaz better.”
Ermina studied him. She had expected some suave chat-up line from him to charm her. But the reply had been earnest and had clearly come from the heart.
She remembered that Solomon had lost a child too, and he had still been feeling that pain on his own. Maybe the two could help each other.
And it wasn’t as though the two had a collection of people to unload to. Everyone would think them insane if they spoke of witches or supernatural curses.
“All right” she finally said. “She’s out the back.” As Solomon began to move past her, Ermina quickly added, “She’s in a difficult place. There’s a lot of things she’s uncertain about. Things that I can’t convince her of no matter how hard I try. But one of the very few things she was ever certain about was you. So, if you get that second chance – and that’s one big if – try not to squander it.”
And she stepped aside, letting Solomon pass.
Yasmina could sense Solomon’s footsteps as he approached her. “You mind if I join you?” he asked hesitantly, estimating his right to be here.
Yasmina shrugged. “It’s a free country last time I checked.”
He took a seat next to her as they both looked out into the sea.
Solomon did not dare look into her eyes, feeling he had not yet earned that right. Instead, he looked out ahead into the unyielding, merciless sea stretching into the distance.
And as they both gazed, Solomon's hand gently rested on Yasmina's.
But she didn't pull away from him this time. Instead, she took his hand in hers, allowing herself that small solace and him the promise of a better tomorrow.
***
CATHERINE HAD ALWAYS admired gorges.
So much land had been taken up by industries. She remembered a beautiful field that she had loved to run across when she was a girl. As far as she could remember, there was now a supermarket where it once stood.
She loved patches of land that had been untouched by the world.
It also meant that she was safe from civilisation and thus, potentially prying eyes.
She thought about her girlhood home in Trasmoz. It had been some years since she had been there and would like to revisit it again now that Kal had been dealt with and Carmelita had been avenged.
“Enjoying the view?”
She turned around to see Seth making his way towards her. “I take it’s done?” he asked.
“Yes, it’s done” she said simply, unwilling to dwell on it any more than she needed to. “No one’s asking questions?”
“No, the cemetery was cleansed of all traces. Think of it like cutting out pages in a history book. No one will be reading Nathaniel or Kal’s stories anytime soon,” said Seth. “So, what’s next for you?”
“Tamil Nadu, India. I’ve got to tidy up some loose ends regarding the blanket. I managed to swipe it from the inn with nobody any the wiser.”
“Ah” said Catherine with a slight smile. “Give the Martial Arts Master my regards.”
“What about you?” asked Seth. “What will you do?”
“I’m on my way to Africa” answered Catherine. “Oyala, to be exact. With Kal gone, there is an opening for a Collector. A void I am all too happy to fill.”
“Congratulations” said Seth plainly.
There was a pregnant pause in the air and she faced Seth again. “Got something you wish to share?” she asked.
“You played a very dangerous game in Formentera” said Seth without accusation.
Catherine nodded in acquiescence. “Restoring the balance in life is always a turbulent process.”
“I’d prepare yourself if I were you” warned Seth. “Your power play may have gotten Kal knocked off the board, but it still cost the Circle of Judges a Nephilem. So, if you’re expecting them to coat you in glory, I wouldn’t hold your breath. At any rate, you won’t be forgetting 2006 in a hurry.”
“It was a price worth paying to avenge my sister. If I can’t have her by my side, I shall settle for revenge.”
Seth shook his head knowingly. “Catherine, everybody is happy to pay the price... until they’re actually paying the price. Your card will be marked. So if I were you, I’d think long and hard about what your next move is going to be.”
Catherine turned and faced him. “That’s the beauty of the Eternal Game. There are endless moves to make.”
***
THE FERRY WAS GOING to take off within ten minutes and Hyienna could not get off the island fast enough.
His decision had been made for him the moment Seth left the inn. It was the formalities that hammered it home. Sarah had been a major reason why he had stayed for as long as he had, Nathaniel another. And with both gone...
He hadn’t said goodbye to Yasmina or Solomon. There had been nothing more to say. They all knew that they were bound by the events that had transpired. But in the interest of everyone’s lives – at least, those that remained – they needed to remain silent.
He thought about the loss of Sarah from his life. When it became clear that she was never coming back, that he had lost her forever, he had broken down screaming the scream of the damned. He had dared himself to envision a future with her in it, the only person who he felt could help him turn his life around, to find the good in life. Whenever he dared to look into the Sarah-less future, he recoiled as though stung. She had been his light in the darkness. And now the world had gone black. There were so many things he had wanted to say to her. And now he would never get the chance. It was almost enough to convince him to say, if only so he could say them one day. But that dream had been ripped from him. And he had to stumble, wide-awake, through this new, bitter reality of a world he struggled to recognise, a world he didn’t want to recognise, a world that seemed determined to remind him of his loss.
It was hard to believe that there had ever been a time when Hyienna looked on Formentera with excitement, its buildings with its rich history, a beacon that called to him every time he stepped into the streets, only to lose its charm gradually as the rot underneath became increasingly apparent.
He didn’t know where he would go from here. There was no plan; he had no idea what he would do with himself, no idea what work would look like.
But most of all, he was uncertain as to whether he would ever be able to inhabit a part of the world untouched by the Moirae.
He thought about Sarah, the closeness they had shared. He wondered how he could think back on the times they had spent together when she occupied a space in his mind reserved for darkness and tragedy. He wondered if he could ever bring himself to reflect on her again, or whether it would be better to push her from his memory to spare himself the pain.
As these questions shrouded him like a black fog, Hyienna felt something bump into him, knocking him off balance and almost over his case.
“I’m so sorry” came a familiar voice.
Hyienna turned around and got a look.
He recognised the woman. She had been with him the day he had first arrived in Formentera. And standing next to her was her son, now older, aged by a year and slightly bigger. “I remember you!” said Hyienna cheerfully, pulling the same funny face he had pulled from what seemed like a lifetime ago.
The child chortled with laughter at the faint memory of the amusing man with the sunglasses.
“So, what’s pulling you away from the island?” asked the mother, having no idea how loaded the question was.
Hyienna’s mouth hung open as he considered the question. He could give any number of explanations, all of them false and impossible for her to comprehend. So, instead he settled for the simplest answer he could think of.
“I’m looking for a change of scenery.”
“Me too,” said the mother. “I’m taking this little one to see his daddy.”
The need for small talk quickly passed as the ferry prepared to pull away and she said hurriedly, “Nice to see you again” and hurried onto the ferry with her son.
Hyienna envied the small child, displaying an innocence that Hyienna would have loved to recapture.
He thought once more about his friend Nathaniel. But this time, he didn’t find himself thinking of Nathaniel’s final end. Instead, he thought about the life Nathaniel had wanted with Sarah, basking in the sun, the spray of the sea on his face, knowing what it meant to love and be loved, finding an anchor in the form of a family of his own. The kind of life that would have always been denied to Nathaniel, right up to the end...
...but not to Hyienna. Those possibilities were still open to him and as he clutched the anchor buried in his pocket, he tried to imagine himself in Nathaniel’s place, holding down a job, starting a family of his own. It had all the makings of a good life. He could do and have all the things that Nathaniel should have had. That was how he would honour his friend’s sacrifice. That was how he would keep himself going for now.
As Hyienna moved onto the ferry, he still struggled to think of what his life may look like post-Formentera...
...but for the first time, it didn’t scare him.
He was determined to find a peace for himself in the world, a peace untouched by the clutches of the Moirae. He did not know how long it would take him to find that peace. But he had the determination to last a lifetime. He hoped to lead a good life to enjoy all the pleasures that Nathaniel had spoken about.
And as the ferry pulled away and Formentera faded into the background, Hyienna looked to the sea and to the future with renewed hope.
THE END