Chapter 1

Hi! It's Simu. I'm 17 and yeah I just had my chest stabbed five times.

"Are you okay, Angela? Are you hurt ?!", says this lady.

Angela? Who's Angela! Why did you just stab me? Wait, am I dead already? But.. Angela who? I am Simu! Simu!!

No sound escapes my throat. I should really have taken that bad dream as a sign and not go out. I should have gone straight back home. Oh my poor mum must be waiting!

And, how did I come to this situation, you may ask. Well, I woke up horrified after a crazy nightmare and decided to get some fresh air around a park nearby my place. That's when I met this young lady. She was coughing too hard and seemed to have no help around. So, as a good girl that I am, I took her to a clinic. Little did I know that my one act of kindness would cost me my life. It turned out to be her trap. There was nobody there actually. She suddenly started claiming that I stole her husband. Apparently, she had her husband have an affair with some girl called Angela and she mistook me for her.

I am so filled with rage. Has my life come to an end like this? I want to hit her so bad .

Oh one hit would not be enough, I want to kill her.

Oh why is it getting dark....? Where is the promised nothingness? What…. What is happening? Wait, am I in Coma? I swear if I am, I will kill that lady.

I find myself floating in the room.

I try feeling things around me and I find that lady beside my body. Yeah, I'm not inside my own body anymore. I try hitting her, but I can't. It's so frustrating…... i….i feel like crying. I want justice..why me? I have done no wrong.. please tell me this isn't real.. my family will be missing me..my loved ones too.

Oo I don't have a body now so it seems I can't cry. It feels even more frustrating.

Huh, as I observe the crazy lady, having nothing else to do, she seems different now. Why, though?

I see the series of actions of the lady. She seems to be stable now and horrified actually. But hey! no sympathy, she did kill me . After a few minutes she called the police. What? It seems like she has some political influence. I may never get justice... Oh no no! She confesses to everything she did to me and reports accordingly too? It's hard to understand crazy people, you know!

I got justice? Well, seems like it. Good job crazy lady! I think this is affecting me. But hey, she killed me. Why would I thank her? I follow her and find myself in jail. Why am I here? I should find my family.

I think I should have hit that crazy lady when I had the chance. My family is crying so hard. Don't worry mom, I am here. Don't worry baba, it's alright. See I can float. I hover around everyone telling them to not cry but no one can hear me. It feels so bad but I can't even cry it out like I used to. Never in my entire life had I imagined seeing myself wearing yellow clothes, having my nose and ears covered with wool, seeing my body slowly get covered in fire and turn into ashes.

Though I know the rituals, seeing it happen to myself is something else. I saw my baba pretending to be fine and crying when no one was looking, my brother and sister being there for each other, my mother slowly taking care of everyone even though she was sad and finally fulfilling every ritual. My ashes were scattered in the river of Bagmati.

I stayed with my family for 13 days although they could no longer see me.

Then I was pulled into nothingness again.

(for those who are confused in Hindu tradition, people are burned after death near holy rivers. The ashes are later to be scattered into the holy rivers (it depends on the culture). Young women who died without getting married are usually dressed in yellow/orange but mostly white dress is used. 13 days is said to be the time the soul of dead people stay because they cannot let go of their physical body till the thirteen days of mourning the family of the passed person does a ritual to send the soul to reincarnation)

....

'Who are you..?'

A soul in front of me just touches me.

....

Turns out the soul in front of me is my guardian in this world and I just had my final wish in previous world fulfilled. Well I was kind of satisfied to say the least. And for that wish I have to fulfill my duties. Everyone is selfish nowadays, even your own guardian. Sad life.

'So what do I have to do?'

"You have to take care of three souls for the rest of your new life"

'How am I going to take care of them, am I their mom or something?' I said jokingly.

"Yes"

'..... What?'

"Yes"

'I.... I am a baby myself though?'

"No"

'I am a baby myself'

"Yes but they are more of a baby"

'Then... I... They.."

"no"

'..... noo '

' why.. Do I have to do this? Anybody could take care of the babies right? '

"It's not that others cannot. They were one of the many souls who had lost everyone not knowing why they were killed "

'Will they have their memories in their next life? '

"Yes, we couldn't erase their memories which is why we need someone to take care of them"

'But still..why me?'

"Because you are one of many healing souls who has the finally completed their journey of life "

'You just said anybody could do it. Let others do it, I want to do something else '

"No, now go"

'noooo what if they don't want to be with me'

"They wanted to be with you so we chosen you"

'But I don't know them'

"They have seen your previous life"

'Can I see their, um, previous life too?'

"Yes but only from third person's point of view"

My guide touched me again and I fell into nothingness again.

___

The triplets, just about the age of 5, were standing beside the door in an old town. Crying and begging for help.

They were abandoned by their families as they were said to bring calamity to the nation. Their parents had left them alone, with no single bread; in the scorching sun with no water to drink.

Later on, an old man found out about their identity and put them in a circus. There, they were beaten by rods and slowly left to die while a mass of people just watched and laughed at this tragedy.

It was after they died that people found out that the calamity they were about to bring was just baseless rumours. But the dead cannot be brought back now.

__________________

'But I don't seem to have done anything that would make them accept me'

"Well you will find it out yourself later on. Now go on"

I feel myself floating again, so beautifully. After getting disappointed for being unheard and claiming I don't want to be a mother (don't get me wrong I love children but only until they disturb me) having no option left with myself, I eventually have to take care of them. Well, now that I accept it, it would be wrong if I say that I didn't feel pity for them after seeing their previous life. After all, they are going to be my children now.

But I still think everyone else avoided this, so my guide assigned it to me, thinking I am weak. But I am not weak!