The Divinity's Curse

'My favorite scene?'

Ely closed his eyes and drummed his finger on the end of the table.

The series, "The Seashore's Daughter," was oriented around a young girl and a teenage boy.

The girl had no family or a place to call home. She lived in a rundown house on the outskirts of the village. For generations to come, she rotted in her home. It was only when the teenager had wandered far enough to find her home.

He imagined her to be as old as his mother since she sat him down with a strange tale of when she saw the witch as a young girl. But upon arriving at her home he spotted her through a cracked window, she looked smaller than him. With black eyes and hair, she wore a frail white dress.

He approached her home with curiosity but could immediately smell the rotten aromas. Entering through the unlocked door, he looked to his left only to find the place where the girl was standing—empty.

For a while he scoured through rooms flooded with junk to find her, it was only when he went up to the attic could he heard a voice scream from below.

Frantically he tried to climb back down but the steps were pulled from under him. Plundering him to the floor, he bellowed in pain as he dragged his abdomen with his arms to reach the front door. His ankle had twisted into a bulge from his skin.

As he reached the door, the little girl appeared next to his legs. She crouched as she looked at him with eyes of wonder. The teenage boy finds that she rarely spoke, but when she pressed down on his ankle despite his cries, she murmured enchantments under her breath—healing him instantly.

Since then, he'd continually visited her until they became used to each other's presence. In the days they spent together, he taught her how to read and write. And she slowly opened up to him.

He found that her immortal youth was because of her father who had sacrificed himself to an unwanted [Divinity] to keep his daughter alive forever.

A selfish request.

But the [Divinity] did it regardless, each day the young girl woke became the same as the ones before it. She had felt immense sadness when the village neglected her in the early stages of her life because of how she never aged.

They called her a cursed witch because she walked despite the blade going through her. Back then, the girl cried in front of the terrified cry long and hard till her voice slowly became a hushed whisper.

Years passed, and no one had time to focus on her—so most avoided her.

The teenage boy believed he was her fated brother for finding her, it was only when he was trying to say his last goodbye to her as he had an influential career awaiting him did she started beseeching him to stay. Nothing worked as the boy had gotten so close to his dream.

The scene Tamari liked was the one the director decided to glamorize. Then stick to how it was written, to make it as harsh as the tale intended it to be.

The girl's last wish for the boy was for him to go to the ocean with her. Since she had never been, she decided that her first time there—she'd do it with him. When they were at the bay, she took his hand walking him further into the water, until both were fully submerged.

In the tale, the teenage boy screamed for a breath under the water as the young girl kept him down.

She wanted to rewrite her destiny, since the moment the two met.

If he was gullible to walk into her home, he shouldn't be surprised when she turned out to be the witch the people claimed she was.

She used him as a sacrifice, to exchange their lives. The young girl became the teenage boy as she swam to the surface for a humane breath. While the real boy became the girl, sinking to the bottom, he was to live on forever in a small girl's body.

In the series it ends with the two splashing in the water, later having the young girl draw into the sand of the two of them.

A bittersweet ending.

Ely knew the right ending and that's why he despised the half-assed one.

Tamari clinked on Ely's glass plate to bring him back to the moment before repeating herself, "Your favorite scene?"

"When the teenage boy first sees her through the window," he expected her to be let down with that answer after waiting quite some time.

Instead, she agreed with him and continued eating. When dinner was done, Ely paid the bill in advance when he was meant to go to the bathroom so he came off as more of a reliable man.

Tamari stood from her seat as they left, taking his arm into both of hers, "I could've paid you know!"

Ely glanced down at her with an awkwardness straining his face, 'Should I have let her pay?'

He hadn't been with a girl for quite some time and he's lost social common sense along the way. Tamari could have been thanking him through her words or being literal. But given her family's status, the ladder was highly likely.

"What do we do now?" Ely's voice croaked at this question as he met Tamari's honey-brown eyes.

Tamari rested her head on Ely, "We could go back to my place?"

The two took a taxi to Rosemary's estate, on the way there Tamari kept close to Ely. Sharing her body warmth with him. Ely kept a straight face despite the thoughts telling him to shove her to the other side of the car.

Once Tamari's attention was caught on the scene happening outside the window. The lights flickered in the night sky.

Ely looked at the back of her head, 'There's so much damn space over there.'

Once they arrived, Tamari started to become quieter when she noticed another car parked outside her home. Ely took it as she didn't particularly like her parents. Yet this also meant he was to meet them when they entered.

As she started picking at the lock before unlocking it, Ely grasped her shoulder, "Your parents home?"

Tamari turned away from the door with a humorous expression, "No Ely, my older sister."

His face flushed at this, 'Surely she doesn't think I still live with my parents?'

They left their shoes by the pair that was already there. His hand was snatched in a hurry, startled he looked to Tamari who covered her mouth with one finger. They quietly walked upstairs into the dark-lit home, Tamari showed him to her room as she took clothes that sat on the top of her dresser.

'Had she prepared all of this beforehand?'

Next to her pile was another set of matching sleepwear—fitted for Ely. The unsettling feeling returned to him as Tamari flashed a smile at him once more before heading to take a shower.

Wei must've stressed how her son focused on hygienic women with how fast she scurried to the bathroom in the dark.

Ely walked around her room, he anticipated seeing posters of himself but to his amazement, her room looked more like someone who recently moved in. The bed was quite large too. Ely didn't have any suspicions about it because his mother would tell him that women liked taking up the space in their sleep.

Tamari's room was quite plain, he sat on the carpeted floor as he waited to hear the end of the water running.

Up till now, he had noticed a stare coming from the door, that was slightly opened now. He stayed seated as he looked over at it, "Hello?"

An older woman stepped into his line of sight. She had long wavy auburn hair that appeared darker in the lighting. She was dressed in sleepwear similar to Tamari's.

"Are you Tamari's older sister?"

The woman sat next to him and nodded, "Sarai, Ely Calvillo?"

He shook hands with her, a strange start to introduce himself to his potential in-law. She dug her hand under Tamari's bed, "I couldn't sleep knowing you were coming," she let out a small laugh before pulling out a box, "She practically has a shrine of you."

Ely held the box in his lap, photos, posters, notes, and even his signature on one of the pictures were all stuffed in the compartment.

Sarai watched him as he looked through it. Ely tried keeping his face from contorting to an appalled expression.

'What the hell is this...?'

He gave her a slight smile as he handed back the box, "I don't think Tamari would wish for me to see this."

She pushed the box further under the bed before facing Ely, "I think you two would look good together. A loving wife is the best wife."

He had to keep the act of being a lovesick man captivated by Tamari, "Yeah," this time his smile dropped into a more serious expression.

What would he have done if he was forced to stay with Tamari forever? Even her sister gave off the same vibes as a drunken older man.

Ely tried to listen to the sound of water but the sounds were still.

At that moment Tamari barged into the room screaming at her sister with a reddened face and tightened lips, "Sarai!"