When the day was as bright as it was, I went to the woods and walked across the river and valleys to gather all kinds of flowers I walked past.

The sky turned gold when I was sitting on the edge of a cliff, sniffing a bunch of flowers ribboned with a white lace from my dress. I stared at it against the sun, and that was the first and prettiest thing I had ever made.

The ground was as dark as the sky, as I was holding a posy upside down. I was walking home when I saw my parents leaving home in a rush. I could see how my mom tried to fight what was killing her.

Instead of approaching them, I lay low in the shadow until they got into the woods riding the horses.

At home, I dipped the posy in a vase on the table, next to a hissing lantern. And the lizard was still there, on the wall, as if looking at me as I was lying on the bed with my stomach growling.

I couldn't sleep that night that I waited for them to come home, by the window, as I was looking up at the moon, and as I was facing the cold breeze that was swaying the flowers in a vase inside.

I was scared to know such things without seeing the reality of intuition. And the only way I was thinking was to wake up. To travel back to the past.

Then I woke up coughing, lying on a cliff, with a posy in my hand, like what really had happened against the twilight.

I ran home and caught up with my parents, still at home, as I hid the posy behind me.

"Will you still be alright?" My mother asked me as they were getting their things ready. 

I still couldn't ask them about what's really happening besides my mom's illness. I just responded kind of sadly. "Yeah..."

She came to me on her knees and hugged me.

"Flowers? Where did you get these?" She must've seen it.

I gave it to her with a smile, and she said, "For me? What for?"

I couldn't help but cry in front of her.

She hugged me. Hushing me until I could utter a word, looking at her teary eyes, saying, "Be home safe..."

"Of course we will. One more night and I promise you'll not be sleeping alone anymore, okay?"

"Hey, come here!" My father said, on his knees, with his wide-open arms.

I hugged him too as he asked, "Will you still wait for us till morning?"

"That'd be last?"

"Yes, that will be the last waiting. So, will you?"

"Okay..."

They left me with a smile.

As I was standing outside, I just watched them until they got into the woods on horseback.

Inside, I hurriedly took the posy dipped in a vase on the table and fitted it into a bag to carry with me. The lizard on the wall is surprisingly gone after all, as I took the lantern next to the vase and mounted a horse that lowered its saddle for me to follow them.

For almost half an hour, I found their horses outside a shack in the middle of the woods. I dismounted and left the horse nearby before going.

As I was getting closer, the shack reeked of a disgusting scent that had me covering my nose with my hand.

Their horses weren't moving like stones. I caressed their faces and looked at the flames through their eyes before I quietly peeped in through the wall.

I've seen this dream before.

My mom. She's wounded with her bleeding body, hanging like a marionette right above the boiling cauldron of a wicked witchess. Whispering an incantation.

My heart was crushed as my eyes wept silently.

Her eyes were open, my mom, but she wasn't breathing. I wasn't dreaming as I thought I was. As I tried to fight this kind of hurt that hurt me.

My father was there, standing close to the cauldron, facing the floor, and holding a bloody knife. He wasn't moving, but alive. He was tranced.

The witchess stopped as soon as I stared at her wickedness, and she said, "There's someone outside..."

My dad turned around eerily, which caused me to panic and run away quickly, carrying a clinking lantern.

As I was relentlessly running, it suddenly felt like I'd run through dense air that made me turn around to it. And there was nothing. 

Then I galloped the horse off as I could feel the witchess's eyes staring back at my soul.

These tears. They were just dripping and dripping out of my eyes until I couldn't keep it in. I burst out on the horse's mane, which caused it to decelerate. I wailed as my racing heart was clenched in pain.

As if the clock stopped ticking when a flock of blackbirds hummed their wings beyond the trees, guided by the moonlight.

On my way home, I walked with the horse, hearing the cracking dried leaves under the hooves as the cold breeze shivers my beaten heart.

Before even getting out of the woods, I could see a fire from where our home was. Our home was on fire. Our homestead. It only had my heart start thumping once again.

The next thing I remember is waking up on a horse with the blazing sun on my face as I was hugging the lantern that ran out of oil before I threw it on the ground.

I rode horseback back into the woods, deserting our burnt homestead. It was undeniably quiet until the knights walking with their horses seemed confused, looking at me.

I was never wandering around until yesterday.

On my way to the shack, there was this kid. A boy, taller than me, who's trying to ignore me as he strikes the tree stump in front of him with a crook.

When I walked past him, he stopped making echoes that had me check on him. He stopped looking at me and continued striking.

When I arrived, the shack was completely dead and empty, as if last night had happened centuries ago.