✷ the ghosts that we knew will flicker from view ✷ location: west of the farmlands ✷ closed thread with: @wrenscrest
Siva carried the planks with her like her own grief. Though they weren’t heavy by nature, they weighed against her tired arms. She shifted and continued to swaddle the three planks close to her chest.
A wailing echoed in her ears and she knew this wasn’t the trick of the island. The culprit was none other than herself. The familiar act of holding a bundle with this much care in her arms took her all the way back twenty-three years ago.
She knelt down at the spot she scouted and cleared out a few days ago. From the pile, she pulled out the wood pieces with Cornell and Milana Augustine‘s names on them. As she quickly found out, she was better at erecting these headstones the second time around. With ginger touches, she picked up the third piece. From holding baby Wren to her headstone, Siva had to tilt her head up to stop the flow of tears down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t look after her,” she whispered. The names CORNELL and MILANA in her neat handwriting stared back at her. After arranging all three of them together, her head hung low.
“I can only do my part in reuniting you all like this. When I came back, they told me she was gone. Maybe I should’ve gone back into the jungle to find her... But I didn’t.” Her shame dipped her head even lower. “I have prayed for her as I did for you. Prayed for her soul to be protected. Prayed for her to be released from this place forever. You would be so proud of the person she became. She sounds just like you, Milana, when she sings. And she was bright like Cornell. She was going to achieve so mu—“
She pushed her words through the feeling of her chest caving in on itself. She collapsed forward; her hands pressed against the ground in time to catch her. “May your souls all attain moksha.”