Chapter 2 - The calm before the storm before the eternal despair

Looking around at the emptiness and thinking on the flowing thoughts bombarding his brain. His sadness, regret, and anger that he tried to block away came flowing back, but not for the reason before, similar, but not exactly.

If one were to see him now, one would not be able to tell if he's sorrowful or angry. He looked indignant but at the same time, constant tears were flowing down his eyes.

"Fate is cruel, in the same way, that I couldn't save my family, you also couldn't save yours." He murmured to himself while standing up in the middle of the hut. Indignance and anger boiling inside him at the unfairness of it all.

The memories rekindled his own and brought them to the surface. He felt as if he was drowning and couldn't grasp for breath. Boiling anger, regret, sadness, hate all at the same time. He broke down on the floor with a myriad of complex emotions hysterically from one to the next. From the immense pain in his head due to his emotions, he didn't even notice or care that he was squirming around on the floor, his body got cramps in multiple areas, but he didn't feel a thing in the face of his emotional distress. He felt as if his brain was going to tear apart. He was so loud that other people in the village could hear him at this point.

By the time the other villagers could hear him, the sun was up a lot more. Many more people compared to before were up about and moving. Many could hear the noise and the intense emotion within them. Many people including the old granny he met earlier rushed over, the old granny being the first to arrive. What they entered the hut, what they saw horrified them. This little boy was squirming over the floor and even foaming at the mouth, tears, and indignance on his face. They couldn't tell if he was sick, emotionally distressed, both or so emotionally distressed that it made him sick.

Being too fed up with his own emotions he didn't notice or hear anyone enter the hut. Everything was blurred to him, he couldn't hear, see, or feel, all of his senses were numb at this point.

"What's happening to him?" One of the villagers anxiously said.

"Will he be alright? We have to do something." Another villager broodingly said loudly.

More and more villagers proceeded to voice their thoughts while even interrupting others. Soon, chaos followed suit, no one knew exactly what to do or how to approach this situation and everyone was chatting amongst each other.

The old granny that he met earlier that same day was one of the people in the front of the crowd. She had an anxious and sympathetic expression on her face and she thought to herself, 'Zemshee, I wish I could take the pain away from you. I wish I could help in some way'

Thinking on that thought, she dropped on her knees next to him while crying and tried to say she loved him and that everything was going to be alright among other things. It was as if he heard nothing though. This grabbed the attention of most of the people in the hut. She saw that his skin towards his head was turning slightly purple. She and others knew this was bad, she called for help in trying to restrain him. While trying, she was pushed over. But after a few more tries and the help of others, they managed to hold him down.

After a little while of the commotion happening, the village chief ran into the hut. He had a confused expression on his face. They looked everywhere for him, but he suddenly showed up here?

Everyone heard him come in and after a few seconds, people made a pathway for him. He saw the boy and how he was foaming at the mouth and turning purple. He immediately yelled for everyone to give him some space.

Afterward, he immediately crouched down and punched him in the stomach.

For him, he felt nothing due to his numbing senses, but suddenly, everything went dark.

*****

Opening his eyes, everything seemed hazy. He couldn't see much of anything for a while. After a few minutes, his vision started to become clear. This place seemed familiar to an extent, but he knew he had never been here. Lying on a futon on the floor in the middle of the room, he looked around and saw a decent-sized rectangular-shaped chabudai table not too far away to the right of him. He also saw a painting of a middle-aged lady and a young woman on the wall to the left of him. Also on the left side of the room, a bit farther away from him was another futon except it was empty. Although dimly lit with a few candles here or there, he immediately realized where he was. He was at his aunties house. Well, to be more specific, this bodies previous owner's aunty. The old lady who was following him all made more sense now. After contemplated for a little while, he gradually understood why he had emotionally lost control.

After he saw the carved heart on that door, due to that familiar sight, he gained this bodies past souls' memories. All the emotions and memories of the bodies past owner flooded into his brain. He realized that this bodies past owner and he share a similar fate, due to this, in addition to the previous bodies emotions, his own emotions came crashing back into him, causing him to lose control of his emotions even as mentally strong as he was. Nearly killing himself in the process.

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He was very surprised by this, usually, people who take over someone's body, in almost every situation, would not get those persons' memories. Never seeing something like this, how could he not be surprised?

After realizing what happened, he contemplated and sorted out his thoughts for a long while.

*****

The previous owner of the body, his parents died unbeknownst to him. He found this out after he came back inside after looking for food. He made a giant commotion and everyone came over at that time. They tried to help as much as they could, but they were gone. There wasn't enough food. They died over something like food, and not any food, the food they gave to him was the food that could have saved themselves. He knew they looked haggard, but everyone looked haggard, he didn't know that they were starving themselves for him. In his heart, he couldn’t accept this. He despaired over his own helplessness and uselessness, he regretted not realizing what his parents were doing and that he couldn't do anything to change it as he was.

The village chief and a few other men buried his parents next to each other behind their house. By some will of the heavens, he managed to hold his emotions back while they were being buried, but he wasn't holding them back, they were boiling up inside him.

They were buried in the morning. Everyone had looks of concern, pity and worry on their faces for him throughout the burial. Villagers tried to talk to him every so often, but he didn't respond and continued to just look at their graves. Hour after hour, more and more people left, he stayed though, standing, unmoving. After many hours, there were only two people left. Him, and the old granny, his aunt. His aunt tried to talk to him on multiple occasions, but he said nothing, it was as if he went mute. She knew he was hurting inside, even if he didn't show it on the outside. She planned to stay here as long as she needed too, to keep her nephew company and to keep him safe. After the sun was setting and it was nearly dark outside, he shed a tear. His aunt saw this and stood up to try and hug him. He couldn't take it anymore though, all the anger, helplessness, sadness that he was boiling inside was released. Out of impulsiveness he shoved his aunt and ran and ran. Falling on her backside, she tried to get up as fast as she could and proceeded to yell his name as she was getting up. She started running after him, but she could barely see him at this point.

Her yelling alerted the village chief and a few other people, they immediately rushed to where the yelling was. They saw her running and interrupted her to see what was going on.

"It’s Zemshee, he pushed me and ran, please help me find him!" She said distressed as if it were her own son.

"We'll immediately go and look for him!" The village chief said in a determined voice as if it was a matter of fact that they would find him.

She proceeded to tell them which direction she saw him run into and what happened exactly, by this time a minute or two or three had already gone by before the village chief and a few others tried looking for him.

The boy in question did not want to be found. Through his intense emotions, his senses were a bit numb. He ran and ran and ran, changing directions every now and then. Even after running for a long time, he did not feel fatigued at all, and so he kept running.

At a point, far, far away. His body suddenly stopped, he fell to the ground, even if he couldn't feel anything, he wasn't dumb, it was only then that he realized too late due to his emotions though. He went over his limits and overdrafted his body. By using the last remaining strength in his body, he turned himself over to look at the sky. His last thoughts were, 'Life is cruel' and he proceeded to shed one last tear.

*****

After a long while, he finally had the full picture of what happened exactly.

'In a way, we are one in the same. We shared similar fates and our fates were this. Fate really is cruel sometimes.' he sighed. He proceeded to lament for a while, while laying down.

He thought after a while, 'I can't keep being emotional like this lest I end up killing myself a second time.' He once again tried to bottle and seal his thoughts on this matter to the best of his abilities. Once again, it only partially worked. He could still feel a sting in his heart, but not to the point that he would die at least.

Sitting up from his bed on the floor, he looked around again; at this point, he realized that many parts of his body were covered in gauze. He also realized that his entire body was sore. It seemed that losing control of his emotions didn’t only drain him mentally, but it also hurt him physically without him realizing it. As he was looking around, he noticed that the door in front of him was open, it was almost dark, the sky still a bit blue though. It was also raining.

With the door open, the inside was very humid, leaving a nice refreshing air and atmosphere. You would think he would be cold, but not at all, he was perfectly warm. Looking down again, he realized he was covered in an ordinary-looking blanket, but if one was near it, one could tell that it was emitting heat waves. He thought, 'Where could anybody here have gotten this?' Knowing it was a magical item, he didn't think that anyone in this ordinary village would have one, although surprised, he didn't put too much thought into it right now.

After observing his surroundings, he examined his body more closely. His hair had grown a lot, previously short and now it's a few inches lengthier. He realized something else inwardly and was elated for a while before he put it at the back of his mind after wondering something.

He was wondering where exactly his aunty was. He wanted to confirm that she wasn't hurt and was safe at the very least. Slowly getting up although soar, he eventually made his way to his two feet. Covering his body with the blanket, he slowly started walking towards the door.

Hearing footsteps, someone immediately got up from their chair and went to the door and looked inside. That person was his aunty.

Two people, young and old, glancing at each other. You could see the sincerity in each other's eyes that show they are just glad to see each other. He couldn't help but feel a warm feeling in his heart. Even if he truly didn't know this lady, due to the memories and the emotions that he gained, he couldn't help but feel a connection.

The lady soon hugged him, very gently as well, obviously knowing his body isn't in the best shape. The hug was one-sided for a bit, but he eventually gave in and touched her back to hug back to an extent.