Shards of the Broken Heart

The next part of the vision was in the courtyard of a large mansion. There, a young man in his late 20s was lying in a pool of blood. His luxurious clothes were cut in various places, and blood flowed from them.

His feet were crushed, and thus he couldn't walk. He was slowly crawling forward with his arms. He continued to push himself forward and cried in a hoarse voice.

“Sheila! Don’t fight!”

Quite a few meters away, a person was fighting against two men. That person was wearing the clothes of a man and was able to fight with the other two on equal footing. Even his hair was cut short, looking quite dashing.

If not for the feminine face, that person would be the most handsome man in the room. But the person was a woman.

She fought on with them fiercely, her eyes bloodshot red. The two men were overwhelmed by her strength. One of them gritted his teeth in frustration and said.

“You still don’t get it. You always protected Dastan. Always paired up with that dumbass. Even though he was the weakest, he was the leader of our group due to your support.”

“Weren’t we also your friends? Why were you always biased towards him?”

The other guy also chimed in.

The girl increased her offensive strength and countered.

“Aftaab. Ilhaan. You both were my friends till you attacked him. I was never biased towards him. I supported him because he is my friend. And for being our leader, it was Dastan who made our group and gave ideas. Without him, we would have never gotten any food to grow, and we would not have these good clothes to wear. And it was you guys who didn’t follow his advice to stop thieving and walked a separate path from us. And now, you are blaming everything on him.”

“You just wanted to steal from him today. Then you will definitely plan to steal from me tomorrow, and I would have been none the wiser. Don’t try to victimise yourselves and put all the blame on others.”

The duo was displeased at failing in its attempts to make the opponent lower her guard by appealing to her emotions.

They understood that this woman's heart was hardened by her past and thus couldn't be affected much. And thus, they had prepared a countermeasure for such loss.

Although overpowered by the woman, they defended themselves and somehow got a chance to throw a vial at her.

The vial contained a paralysing poison that would vaporise instantly in the air. And the one inhaling it would have his senses hampered for a few moments, leading to him being gradually paralysed completely.

The duo wanted to not only get the wealth of Dastan and Sheila but also wanted to conquer the woman.

Although Sheila dressed in man's clothes and her behaviour was no different than a man's, a woman was a woman. She couldn't hide her natural feminine charms, and the duo was always jealous of her being overly friendly with Dastan.

And with the effect of the paralysing poison, they could do anything to her as they wished.

But before they could throw the vial of poison, many small rocks struck the back of their heads, resulting in painful injuries. Although their size was tiny, the impact speed resulted in sharp pain and blood flowing out from their heads.

They turned their attention from the woman to the direction from which the stones were thrown and found a dead and beaten man loading his slingshot with many small gravels present nearby.

This man was no other than Dastan, who was grievously injured by the duo leaving his legs crippled.

Sheila noticed the lapse in their attention and attacked the duo with her dual blades. Her serrated blades sheared through the one shoulder each of both Aftaab and Ilhaan. She didn't let them have any more chance and pulled her blade downwards, creating deep gashes on their shoulders.

The wound was deep and had torn apart the muscles and bones present on their shoulder, resulting in inhumane howls of pain from the duo.

Sheila didn’t stop there and finished them off. The duo died with grievous and ghastly wounds on their front torso.

Sheila glanced for a fleeting moment at the two dead bodies who were once her ‘friends’. Their chests were carved open with broken ribs jutting out of them. A good amount of blood and viscera was pouring out from their wounds.

Sheila’s expression was composed, for she had seen such scenes far too many times.

While transporting their goods, she and Dastan had encountered many bandits. And with the experience of fighting and killing them, she had strengthened her psyche to remain composed even with large amounts of blood and organs splattering around. She remembered the first time she killed a person. She puked for nearly a whole week before she could eat her food properly without feeling nauseous.

But even if she was composed, she felt glum due to her ‘friends’ betrayal. She didn’t linger on those emotions. And after killing them, she went straight to the bloody man who had helped distract the duo.

She crouched down and held the hands of the bloody and battered body.

A new puddle of blood had formed beneath the man. A considerable amount of blood had been lost, and the man was nearing the end of his life. His eyes had turned hazy, and only after seeing Sheila his eyes sparkled a little, and he smiled gently in a consoling manner.

“Don’t be too sad. I have told you multiple times that the human heart is fickle. They just suffered retribution for their wrongdoings, and you have done nothing wrong. And I guess it is also the time for me to suffer for my own sins…haha--akhoff-koff!!.”

The man started laughing while commenting on his current state. But the laugh turned into him coughing blood out.

The woman gently lifted his back and started soothingly patting him. The man stayed silent for some time and looked at the woman.

“Sheila. You are the one I trusted the most. You didn’t betray me and stood with me till the end. I remember what I have said all these years. ‘Never show your emotions to the others. Because they will become your weakness one day’. But now, I will not suppress my emotions. I will share them with you.”

“I was happy when I became your friend. It was very exciting to do all those shenanigans with you. But now that I am going to separate from you, I am a little bit sad. I wanted to enjoy my life a little more with you.”

“But I guess this is my final moment. Just a last bit of advice from your leader: Never give up. Always persevere. You will only grow bigger and achieve what you dream of.”

The woman couldn’t contain her emotions any longer. She started bawling out.

“I don’t want you to go away! I will follow all your advice, just don’t go away!”

The man patted the girl on her head and said weakly.

“It’s okay, Sheila. You have grown stronger and can do all the things you want on your own. Though I will not be present with you, I will always be looking at you. So, you should live your life on your own and be happy.”

The woman didn’t say anything and continued to cry with the wounded man in her embrace, making her dress dye with his blood.

They stayed like that for many minutes before the woman stopped crying. She separated the man from her chest and laid him on the ground.

She then took the body to a nearby barren hill. The hill was at the back of the mansion.

On the peak of the hill, there was a small mound-like structure. It had a small entrance, and inside, there was a burial space for four people.

The woman demolished two of those spaces and then cleared out the rubble, leaving two intact tomb spaces.

She took out some golden platters from the tomb, went to the body and took out a knife.

Then she started carving out the flesh out of the body. The process was quite grisly, but she undauntedly continued to carry out the process. By the time her whole body was covered in blood and flesh, she had separated the bones from the flesh.

She put the flesh on the golden platters, walked towards the top of the mound and placed the plate on its top.

She brought a few pails of water, two sets of clean clothes and some ornaments. She cleaned the bones from the remaining blood and flesh from the water. Then she cleaned herself up and put on a new set of clothes.

Afterwards, she brought a wooden bed from the tomb and used it to move the bones into the tomb. She placed the ornaments, a scimitar and a set of clean clothes with the bones. She stayed there for some time and then left the tomb after covering up the grave.

She stayed there on the top of the mountain for many days. During these days, many scavenging birds, such as vultures, came and ate up the flesh on the top of the tomb. Only after the birds left did the woman bring the platters, clean them up, place them back inside the tomb and leave the mountain without looking back.

My vision blurred, and after many decades, a mourning procession brought a wooden coffer containing the bones of a deceased to the barren hill.

They placed the bones in the remaining grave inside the tomb, along with some ornaments, a pair of serrated blades, and a set of clothes. The clothes were old-fashioned compared to those worn by the people carrying out the procession. But they were new and pristine as if they were never worn before and kept carefully.

After giving their offerings, they carved a tombstone near the tomb and left. The tombstone read:

‘Everlasting friendship of Dastan and Sheila’