BLACK BIRDS IN MAHLA'S EYES
Prayer Room
There was only darkness that blinded Mahla's gaze as soon as she tried to break through her mother's mind. The darkness felt so cold and made a jerry. Mahla could feel how much her body was in pain as the memory hit her mother's mind one by one without stopping.
Mom, it's all over!
Mahla cried out loudly to her mother's mind. He could not clearly see the flashback of events that were sweeping reality he had. The woman he loved formed a kind of defense that he could not break through. But Mahla is quite able to feel that her mother's past trauma is tearing her consciousness apart in the present.
No one can hurt you now, Mom! Be aware!
Ask Mahla again. He felt himself slowly eroded along with his mother's common sense which was slowly depleted because really the attack of pain hit in a row. Mahla doesn't care, even if she gets melted away by it, she won't let her mother be alone, lost between the maelstrom of the past and the present. He would not allow his mother to wallow in the pain that was slowly destroying his compassionate soul.
Get out of there, Mahla!
Melekh cried out loud inside his sister's head, just as Mahla felt that she was going to slowly fade away because the memory in her mother's mind was so dark and devastating. He could not face all the pain. Mahla would never be able to survive there without being smashed to pieces
her mother's.
A split second later, Mahla could again feel her own body, solid and intact, with Melekh's hand tightly gripping her shoulder. Filled with regret for not being able to help his mother, Mahla looked at the back of her mother who usually stood haughty and stiff, now turned curved because of the burden of past pain that squeezed her. The two brothers observed their mother walking half-blind, and gasped at the same time when they heard the door closing.
*
Marya walked over to her prayer room in the back room. The room used to be just a storage room that was commonly used to store unused items, but after the death of her husband, she said, Marya turned the function of the room into a prayer room she used to devote hours to devotions.
The main room she usually shared with her late husband was located on the second floor, right in front of her children's room. On her best days, Marya can stay there without feeling pressured. However, tonight, there was nothing he could think of but locking himself inside that windowless room, and would remain there for some time.
“My Lord, I am guilty of you.” He said sadly as he removed the rosary necklace from his neck. He began to recite the rosary prayer while tightly gripping the necklace given by Father Samone. The necklace was precious to him, not just a regular rosary that the pastor had given him to guide him, but rather a symbol of his new birth in the faith that the good priest had taught him.
Father Samone has patiently helped her to gain peace in her heart, as well as helping her to live through the trauma she has gained from the ill-treatment of her father and husband.
“Where may I turn from you, yea, my eternal Lord. I am guilty of turning my face away, but You always look after me with Your eyes. I sinned, Lord, I sinned.” Isak Marya after she finished reciting the Rosary with the three Hail Marys. The night had been so late, there was only the sound of the earthy night beasts outside his room.
*
Mahlas
standing pensively in front of the door of the room that his mother used to use when praying. He never liked that room. It was in the back of the house, so dark and cold. It feels distant and foreign.
Shouldn't God be in a warm, bright place?
Mahla once asked her mother one day, but the middle-aged woman never gave room for any doubt that resided. “Follow God's orders, shut up and carry out!” That's the answer she gets from her mother every time she asks.
The concept of godliness felt strange in Marya's mind, she never understood all the hard rules applied by her mother to get what is called “restu Lord”. From childhood he used to receive punishment in the form of confinement in the prayer room for hours after using his powers accidentally.
As the punishment worsened over time, Mahla was accustomed to not eating dinner, or reading the Bible with a sigh until her knees blistered, even his mother had let him submerged in the bath for three hours in the season where the wind was blowing cold.
The punishment was obtained from the consequences of people who took turns to come to their homes to ask for help. Some ask about the position of the deceased's relics, some are curious about the state of their family members after death, many miss their loved ones, and not infrequently there are also those who want a glimpse of a vision in the future that can help them make a decision.
As far as Mahla understood in her childhood, she only knew, God loves people who like to help others, because he is happy to help those who approach him. He also often accidentally tells strange things to people he meets. For example, “Master, I saw someone take something from your closet,” Or, “Madam, I don't know if there are other women who can stay in your room with your husband at home.”
Things that ordinary people could not know and would lead him to light punishments that were enough to deter him. Over time, Mahla learns to reject any kind of request for help addressed to her. There was still one or two people who could meet him on his mother's permission, but the girl was never free from fear at the thought of the punishment that awaited her.
Is not God Most Merciful?
Mahla whispers inwardly, too afraid to knock on her mother's room, though her little heart wants to make sure the woman won't hurt herself. No matter how bad the treatment he received from his mother, nothing could match the horror he felt when he found out that his mother had a tendency to self-harm.
Mahla once caught his mother using an iron latch to snatch her own body.she also often found purple rinses resulting from wood cuts along the arms or legs. When he asked her, her mother would just say, “Sick is good. Pain is penance.”
Mahla only knows that her mother's past is so deeply affecting her mind. He only knew at a glance from the visions he had received shortly before his mother was lost to the realm of the soul with David. Mahla prepares to knock on the door while she tells herself to ignore any consequences she might receive later.
The girl was just about to raise her hand towards the door when a figure of a plontos-headed creature, with a mouth filled with black teeth and seemed to be always shrill in shape, gushed its head. The ugly creature pierced through the door right in front of Mahla from inside her mother's room.
It's just that your mother isn't here.