STRANGE MEMORIES

THE BOY IN BLACK 

(DNAR)

  

Uncountable days the sunset was earlier than usual and nights were gloomy such as cemetery mist. Owing to the fact that we lived far away from the civilization, deep into the Amazonas. It wasn't so strange at all for those who are visitors but we, we know when something is going wrong. This mist came from different places and something called our attention, there was a mysterious cave near the Amazon river in which the mist appeared with overwhelming force, but inside the cave we heard someone screaming and crying that scared all the animals around. We thought it twice to go forward, but we couldn't stay with the doubt because it could be a real boy or not.  

The river had several mysterious stories in which ancient and native people tell that exist a hidden or underground river, called the dimensional portal or soul catcher, where many people have been dragged in an instant, some of them had appeared far away near to some villages but without memory and just repeating a strange phrase " Try to kill IT " but the majority of bodies vanished in the transparent and calm waters and never appear.  

All this chill our bones, it is the first time a person enters to this cave, our minds were running until the limits and excited about what we could find there. we entered to the cave and immediately we felt asphyxiated. It was strange, the cave wasn’t totally dark, the mist was glittering and the water seemed stagnated, it looked like an underground river but its water was incredible clear. Suddenly the mist dispersed and allowed us to continue but the screaming and the crying was louder and louder that after walking ten minutes through the tunnels I asked to my son came back to the surface and bring help… My legs were trembling but I had to continue because a week ago a boy disappeared in the river and it could be a possibility to find him. I confess it, I was scared, it was really insane; I went alone, in the darkness, among a peculiar mist and heartbreaking screaming. I was clearly confused, but when I was minded to continue I heard back in the distance my son shouting for help, I ran as quickly as I could but when I got the place, I just found his hat with a stain of blood on it and a new tunnel that we hadn’t seen the first time we passed through.  Without thinking twice I followed the traces, some of them were from my son, it matched with his boots, but It was weird, I realized that close to his boot prints there were others, smaller and dark like burned coal a child size but close to them stains if blood.  Nevertheless, I went after them, maybe my son found the child and he is hurt, that is the reason of the blood, I thought said this to calm myself down.

In that moment I realized that the screaming and crying had disappeared and instead of them I listened a familiar song from the footprint direction (I hurt myself today To see if I still feel… Try to kill IT… all away)- instantly I recognized  that lyric, It is called Hurt, by the great artist Johnny cash. It was the first song that I learnt to play in the guitar that gave me my mother when I was ten,  Highlighting that I don’t play the guitar since I was thirty, fifteen years ago, because the arthritis caused a lot of pain to my hands at the moment of playing the guitar. O.K. But why? Why that song?  It reminds me the most difficult moments of my life, my mother was murdered, raped and quartered for people who wanted to appropriate of our lands. With my father we faced these people until the end but a terrible wound from these confrontations killed him, he was in pain and suffered two weeks until his death, we were so far away from the cities and a doctor close to this territory was something unimaginable. Meanwhile, I survived and continued my life in our lands; some neighbors helped me and took care of me some years. Here I grew up and created a family. Now I put my son in danger, these mysterious events are driving me crazy, I need to finish this. Maybe these lands are cursed to me, despite the natural treasures and the beautiful landscapes.

I need to overcome this situation; we mustn’t have entered to this cave, (speaking to myself and feeling a lump in the throat). I followed the footprints and the song had been played many times, I don’t know how long I spent rambling through the tunnels, I wasn’t aware about it. I continued running for a while, But I was so tired and I couldn’t breathe so well, in that moment I lost my vision and fell down so hard that I vanished for hours, when I recovered the consciousness I was over many human remains, bodies in decomposition and  a cold mist around me that froze my blood. - This is the place where the missed people come, but why? Who did this? I saw a bonfire in the distance, I tried to drag my body through the skulls and body parts that still fresh, so, in that moment a rush of air stopped me. Something was in front of me, no, someone. I faced a terrible scene; the boy who  mysteriosly missed two weeks ago was there standing there gazing at me, with a pale face, without an eye and with a putrid smell that emanated from his body. He knelt and whispered the scariest words that I have ever heard ”YOUR SON IS DEAD” I refused to hear those words and closed my eyes, when I opened them, the boy had disappeared but a terrible pain was burning my whole body, the mysterious mist was covering and creating me terrible wounds, but an unquenchable feeling told me that my son was alive and I didn’t surround  despite the pain. Thus, I crawled until reach the bonfire where the mist was dispersed. The pain didn’t allow me to see in that moment what was written with blood around the bonfire, it said   ” TRY TO KILL IT”   and in from of it there was a shadow similar to a  little boy. When I became aware of it,  I thought the worst, I hesitated, I tried to call my son but immediately I realized that it wasn’t he, this thing has a human appearance but something smelled wrong. This thing reminded me old stories of an ancient indigenous people that slaughter humans to their gods when their great native chieftains died, in that way they could reborn to lead them in others life.  But there was an evil native chief who sold their lands and natural treasures to the white people and killing hundreds of their own people. The leaders and indigenous that survived caught him, In a trial they decided to cursed and exiled him, living always as a boy and jailed into the tunnels under the Amazonas river.

In that moment I was astonishing and voiceless, he was sending messages with the survivals ”TRY TO KILL IT”  he wanted to die and stop his suffering, but why did he try to kill me? And in that moment my son appeared from the shadows and told me the reason,  only someone who has suffered enough could destroy the curse and kill him. You were the only one who risked his life for a unknown person, for your son, and overcame the whole barriers that torture you physically and mentally to get here.

The boy in black came to me and gave me a short blade, in that moment I could see the suffering, the pain in his eyes and the regret on his face, the only thing he wanted to, was to rest in peace. To destroy the curse was necessary to extinguish the bonfire, that was the first thing that I did, in that moment the mist was brighter than ever and the little boy in black became an older man with the physical features from a native Amazonian. I was almost stabbing him to make his wish real and escape from there, but my son stopped me, - Dad, one of us have to die here. At the moment of his death the entirely cave is going to collapse and is necessary to stab him in his hearth. – I didn’t know what to say in that moment and cried with my son at the same time, I didn’t want to let him alone and live like I did, his mother died a year ago from a pulmonary  infection and his grandparents are too old to take care of him.

Otherwise, the only way to stop the curse was that, and if my son can live a peaceful and wonderful life  in this lands, perhaps will be an honor die here. His son started running through the tunnel crying rivers of pain but with the gift of great father that took care of him until the last moment.  On the whole, the boy in black represented the pain of treason, murder and greed. This act cost him more than his life, the people disappeared in the river were part of his lineage, his descendants and as a coincidence the boy who disappeared two weeks ago was the last one. He didn’t kill them, it was part of the curse. 

When his son was out of the cave, He stabbed the boy in black directly to his heart, in that moment his body became dust, the mist became flames and a shining light appeared as a portal in which the boy in black´s soul and his descendants disappeared to rest in peace.

It was the most amazing thing that I have seen in my life, I wished had spent more time with my son but my time had come and my ancestors will take care of  him as they made with me. In that moment the mist exploded and the cave was totally collapsed.

Outside the cave, was dark too, it was almost midnight and the young boy was scared of what happened, he didn’t  know what to do, so just waited until the dawn looking for his father although he knew he will never comeback.   

THE

END…