Chapter 1: My guilt

*I don't understand why it's funny to me, I must no longer agree. Currently, tears must run down my cheeks: sad for every bitter memory, regretting everything that happened, thinking about every event. However, I feel at ease, calm, relaxed, as if I were freed from an enormous weight, the lament from a moment ago... it no longer mattered "Everything is already done and a way to start over is impossible." I took a deep breath, just enough, and let go of the accumulated stress. I looked at the sky, I looked at the stars and I contemplated how simple life is and how every little thing led me to this moment, to now. Likewise, I started to remember how it started, and only memories came flooding back from yesterday morning. You could hear: the flow of the river outside the main gate of the town, the rustling of the tree branches due to the wind, the birds, the dogs, the neighbors hanging up their leather clothes. You could hear the bustle of my family, who took so long each day that we had to leave town.*

—Ma… We'll leave! Please…!! Faster! Why do they always have to delay? *I didn't know how terrible it would be, since then*

—Is it my fault? Your sisters then! I'm just waiting for you. *If only we had stayed inside*

—But you're still getting ready! Hahahahaha! Oh, mom... Quick! *Maybe if I had been smarter, stronger, faster or more careful, I'd be hugging them right now.*

—Where is your mom? *If only I could have saved my family.*

—You know how they are... *My father.*

Dionisio: Oh Sonia, when will you change? *My mother.*

Sonia: What? I'm ready, your daughters are the ones who are delaying. 

Me: Liar, you just finished getting ready.

Sonia: Crazy you... *hahaha, I almost forgot my mother's sentences, even if it were grammatically wrong.*

Merly: Ya ya, we're ready... You would have been moving forward.*My older sister.*

Linnethe: Yes, my sister is right, you should have been walking.*My second older sister.*

Me: Hey! If we had walked, we would have left them far behind.

Nina: Mommy... carry me, please.*My little niece Nina.*

Me: Come on, Nina, I'll carry you.

Nina: mmm... daddy Dionisio, carry me. *My niece was saying "daddy" to my father.*

Dionisio: Haha, haha, come here, beautiful daughter. 1

Kelly: hahaha, you're going to have to play with her more if you want to be the favorite Kouji. *Me, Kouji.*

Merly: -looks ugly- Funny, I'm sure it's because of you that her teeth got itchy.

Kouji: No no no no, well... Let's go, we're running late! ¡The festival will end when we get there!

*I smiled as I lived that moment again... Ahh... I wondered, "What would have happened if we had left later? Or, what would have happened if we had left earlier?"* 

Dionisio: Hi Richi!

Richard: Hello Brother!

Dionisio: Say hello guys to your uncle

Kouji: Good morning uncle

Richard: Good morning, nephew! What happened, where are you going? *When we went out to the main gate of the village, next to a river that passes by there, we met my uncle, and we started to talk.*

Sonia: Aren't you going to the festival? There will be free food, Brother!2 

Dionisio: Sonia...

Richard: Hahahahaha, oh Sonia.

Sonia: What? The feudal lord owes us, we were working all autumn cultivating for his crops. That's the least he owes us.

Kouji: Mom has a point. *And there, there was the beginning of everything. Nina, standing on my father's shoulders, saw it.*

Nina: Papitooo... What's that? *Again I wondered what if Nina hadn't seen that thing?

Dionisio: Mmm...? What is it, my daughter? -I whisper- -What is that? *What if we had passed by?*

Richard: What, where?

Linnethe: But, what is that?

Kouji: Isn't it a snake? *Posing over the river that was just outside our town, perched on a rock and on its back, but it was more than that. We only saw a part of its body, we didn't know how terrible it could be.*

Merly: What an ugly snake, hahaha. *As if he had heard our voices, he turned towards us.*

Linnethe: Aaay... That's disgusting. What is that?

Sonia: Is that a face? Linnethe: *I didn't act, I didn't do anything. I was just absorbed in my thoughts, but not my father.*

Dionisio: Sonia, enter the town and close the main gate as best you can. Warn those on patrol. *My father had already sensed the danger, and his first reaction had been to protect us.*

Sonia: What? *My mother was still unaware of our situation.

Dionisio: Sonia, come in and close the door! *My father shouted without taking his eyes off that thing as he approached us.*

Sonia: Merly bring your daughter, come quick! Kouji, quick! *Again... hahaha, I sound so pitiful, but seriously... What would have happened if I had listened to my mother?*

Kouji: -Throw a dried meat into the river- *I had with me a small bag of dried meat that I would eat it on the way. Seeing myself trapped in the situation, the only thing my head could think of was to throw it at her to distract her.*

Kouji: Run! *I pretended to be a hero, and that's why it was my fault that this happened. Which haunts me to this moment.*

Richard: He changed direction.

Dionisio: Kouji, what are you doing! Where are you going! *All I could think of was luring that thing with the meat bag as it threw pieces down the river, one further ahead than the last as it ran.*

Linnethe: Dad... *My sister was only worried, giving my father a sad look.*

Dionysus: Go inside. Richard, please come with me. *I just kept running and throwing the pieces of meat until I ran out of them.*

Kouji: Shit... *That thing was following me and getting closer and closer. As I kept running along the edge of the river, I looked ahead and there was a little girl, maybe 10 or 11 years old.*

Kouji: Hey you! Go away, go away! There's something coming this way.

Little girl: Huh?

Kouji: Run! *I grabbed her hand, and we started to run... when that thing started to come out of the river.*

Little girl: -looks up- What is it... Ahhhh. *I thought she was exaggerating, I thought she was screaming because she was still a kid, but she had just seen what that thing was.*

Kouji: Don't look back "Run Kouji run" *I thought to myself, but the girl fell down *Ah. Bang. *I fell next to her, I was still recovering and as I pulled myself together, I looked at the girl sitting with my eyes looking up... then I saw it too.*