Sanctuary | Jenlisa

PART TWO

Pranpriya did live a healthy life.

She found love and happiness, but peace didn't find her until her hair was starting to become gray, and when soft feline eyes finally stared back at her.

After all these years.

I.

The moment Pranpriya stepped her feet onto the land of high houses, busy streets, and metal doors, she knew she would not have survived.

Not when the ghosts of her past were still haunting her or when fear was still consuming her, and especially not when she was still waiting for a particular woman with feline eyes to arrive and save her.

Pranpriya knew she needed to learn, even when she was lost or afraid, even when her nightmares came back or even when people kept looking at her as they pointed to her hairless head.

She knew she was different from the rest of them. She didn't belong to the crowded market or laughing children. She belonged somewhere quiet, somewhere safe.

She decided that the shore was for her, with the moon, the sunsets, and the birds that were chirping every dawn. Silence was her company, together with the ocean waves that sounded like a lullaby to her ears. The sand was her bed and the skies were her roof. For days and days, she felt safe, away from everything and everyone that could harm her.

But when the sky turned into gray and the rain started to fall and cold swept into her skin, Pranpriya knew that it wasn't enough. She needed to move, to learn, and to thrive.

So when the morning came, right after the storm while the pavements were still wet, Pranpriya walked. She walked towards the hope that everything would be alright, burying deep the ghosts of her past and leaving it all behind to be washed away in the shore.

When she was already a little farther away from the beach, she looked back and finally let Pranpriya go.

II.

"You have a unique name." A woman with rosy cheeks and warm eyes told her.

The new Pranpriya gave her a smile. "I know."

The woman laughed, her eyes shone with sincerity. "Alright, Lalisa, you're hired."

Her work at the bakery was the same every single day. She woke up a little after dawn to mop and swept the floor, and when the sun rose high up, she would wash the plates over and over until it was night again. But it wasn't tedious or as hard and painful like her works in the academy, it was rather the opposite.

They didn't scream at her or even tried to hurt her every time she did something wrong, they didn't hit her when she accidentally splashed water on the floor or when she broke the plates. Instead, they guide her with their gentle words and hands.

She met a lot of people. Some of them smiled at her, but most couldn't even look at her in the eyes. She wondered if it was because she was different, or if because they knew, somehow, where she came from.

The days became easier as she slowly learned all the things about her new life. But when the bad dreams came to her at night and when her eyes kept on searching for comfort, she still found herself waiting for a girl with feline eyes to stared back at her.

III.

There were times where everything came crashing down, when her demons came running back to her, and when the pain of the past kept hitting her in the chest, making her out of breath.