The sound of heaving rang through the small tattered house where a sick woman laid on a stone bed, continuously wheezing for her breath.
The pale middle aged woman on the bed only had a withered bundle over her delicate frame to provide warmth from the harsh winter, her hands and feet having gone dark blue already.
She had dark spots all over her sunken face and she was as thin as a branch stick.
Next to her stiff cold body sat a little girl, who looked no older than 4 years of age. The little girl eyed her mother who was struggling to breathe and raised her delicate hands to pull the bundle tighter around her mother, as if that would do anything to protect her from the bitter cold.
The girl stood up from her position at the corner next to the bed, and picked up the wooden bowl on the floor.
'I have to get some water for mother' she thought as she made her way out of the poorly built house.
The house they were in was shaped like a hut, without any proper cover to protect them from the cold, and it was at the edge of the tiny village they were at. They were surrounded by trees and bushes and she would have to walk a while before she could get to a water source.
After finally coming across a river, she filled up the small wooden bowl in her hands and headed back to her house where her mother was. The woman looked like her condition was only getting worse so the little girl held her mother by the head with all her strength as she fed her the water.
The water only dribbled down the corner of her mother's mouth as she emptied up the bowl. She had already fed her mother all the food she had gone out to search for earlier and had not eaten anything for three days, but her mother didn't look any better, only worse.
Ever since her mother fell sick and collapsed a year ago, she had been taking care of her mother.
Mother couldn't get up from the bed and provide food for both of them, so she would run into the forest and gather fallen fruits from the ground, carve up tree barks and look for water to sustain both she and her mother.
Ever since she was born, she could remember everything she saw and heard clearly. She could speak at two months and walk at four. Her mother thought she was strange but still took care of her until she was three years old, so it didn't come as a surprise that she could help take care of her mother at such a tender age.
Her father died before she was even born, but she had heard he was a poor hunter who was ostracized by the village and only had this small house to his name.
He was unlucky while hunting game for his pregnant wife and ran into strange monsters in the mountains.
Her mother fell gravely ill after giving birth to her on her own without any midwives and only got worse when no one from the village offered any sort of help to them. She collapsed and became bedridden shortly after she turned 3 years of age and she had been taking care of her ever since then.
Without anyone by her side to help her or teach her, she didn't know what to do when her mother's breathing finally came to a halt.
Despite all her efforts to help her mother get better, she couldn't prevent her mother leaving her.
Why? Why did she have to be alone and suffer like this? How could she go on with no one by her side now?
The village ostracized them, and they were dirt poor. Wasn't it better to just go with mother now?
Tears filled her eyes as she watched helplessly as her mother stopped struggling to breathe, and only huddled up to her.
She didn't know how long she stayed like that, she only knew her leg had gone numb and her limbs were gradually freezing up. She stayed like that until she eventually lost consciousness.
As time passed by, she drifted in between consciousness and unconsciousness in a daze. How long has it been? Her mother's body had something growing out of it.
The smell too, it smelt really bad in here, why hasn't she gone with her mother yet? She didn't know how long she had gone without any food or water, three days? A week? She couldn't tell.
A long time passed as she was in a daze before she finally realized that her mother, the only person she had in the world, had left her. She decided she should go down to the village and find help. Maybe someone would help her with her mother's rotting body.
Her body ached as she forced herself out of her position, the dizziness hit her as she stood up, reminding her of her empty belly. She ignored the feeling and the stabbing sensation in her stomach, and made her way outside.
Having never been to the village, she had no idea how to get there. And with only the large forest that could be seen before her, she gathered up her courage and entered it, whether this was the right way to the village she didn't know, but she couldn't go back now.
After walking for hours, she finally came across something. There was a small cave hidden behind a wall, and she made her way there with the hope of meeting someone there who could help her.
She stepped into the cave and it came into view, there was nothing extraordinary about this small cave, in fact it was very ordinary.
There was only one stone in the middle. It was carved in some strange manner but immediately she set her eyes on it, her body froze. She felt a chill run down her spine, her breathing became laboured and her eyes started to burn. There was an eerie feeling that she was being watched right now.
She often thought that her misery started on the day she was born, no perhaps the moment she was conceived but she was wrong, her misery started on the day she stepped her foot into this place.
'whatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthiswhatisthis'
She only felt her mind drifting as the burning sensation in her eyes got worse. She hastily closed one eye while she felt the other melting into bloody goo and running down her face.
"Heh"
And then all she saw was darkness.