Tacenda | A Jerza Fanfic

Chapter 9 | Why?

This place seemed weird. All these hidden coffins? Why? Who...? As soon as I descended, I wanted to leave this place. But I didn't want my hard work to go to waste. I didn't want the time I used searching for the rumor to be for nothing.

A thick layer of dust had accumulated on top of the coffins. For how long had they been here? I wanted to open one but I was too afraid to do so. What if I unlock something which I shouldn't have? What if I bring about some curse that will affect me and my family and my generations?

I know it sounds absurd but we can never be too careful with these kinds of stuff. What if all of this was some kind of a cult or something? I looked around for something interesting other than the coffins but didn't find anything. This room had nothing but secrets, dirt, and maybe remains of people.

I turned around disappointedly when to my surprise, the red-haired girl appeared in front of me. She looked angry, breathless but eager. She pointed her skinny and bloody index at the coffin on her right. A small thought sparked inside me. "Is her body in there...?"

I swiftly walked towards the coffin--the girl vanished immediately—placed the lamp on the ground and managed to push the lid of the coffin just a little bit. A rotten and foul smell came from the inside and I quickly covered my nose with the sleeve of my shirt. I looked inside and saw a slightly skeletonized, decomposed and deconstructed body laid deliberately. On her decayed head were traces of scarlet colored hair. My heart suddenly ached and an unknown force made me push the coffin's lid aside entirely.

I stared at the body and thought, "Is this the red-haired girl...? Is this the rumor I had been searching for...?" And more questions arose, "Why is she in here?", "What happened to her?", "Why did she become a rumor?"

I desperately needed answers to all my questions because I felt that if I don't find out the truth, the mystery behind the red-haired girl then I might end up choking to death. That's how suffocated I felt. I felt angry, sad and completely strange. Not just a few weeks ago this disintegrated body appeared before me and asked me to write her story.

Why?

What really is her story?

Who killed her?

And why?

Questions over questions over questions.
But no answers.

Who will tell me what happened here...?

"I'm so glad that you finally found me..." I heard a soft, serene and faintly breathy voice from behind and at once, twirled around. There she was, standing as beautiful and human as the first time I met her. Her scarlet hair looked as though it were strands of silk. Her face was pale but her cheeks were bright pink and her lips were full and red. She smiled. I don't recall her smiling but I guess she really was glad that I found her. It was a smile I wanted to capture. A smile I didn't want to forget.

She looked at her body and her smile slowly faded away. I didn't like that. My chest ached and I had this longing to help her out. To make her smile again. However, what could I do? How do I make a dead person happy?

"Are you here to write my story?" She asked. I hesitated. I was scared, I was amused but moreover, I was inquisitive. Rather than writing her story for her sake, I wanted to unravel her mystery for my sake. Eventually, I nodded.

She fidgeted with her fingers and sighed. She looked so real to me. As if, if I get closer, I could perhaps feel her. Touch her. She looked so alive that I wished the dead body in the coffin wasn't hers. "His name was Simon and I loved him...a lot."