Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 388

A Sacrificial Death The International Schools Foundation Academy, Wong, Ariel - 11 T he following passage is from a translated, recently uncovered manuscript. It was written in Chinese, and found under strange circumstances. It was found at the bottom of the Mediterranean, yet still, unexpectedly, intact. Long jump, pole vault… Possibly the easiest sports ever created for monkeys. But leaping into a monster, killing it? Possibly not the easiest activities ever created for monkeys. Even as a monkey, jumping 50 feet into the air and landing on a moving target is not as easy as expected. But since I’m the Monkey King, of course , I successfully did it. That is, if you don’t count the breaking of every bone in my left leg… Breathlessly limping, I scrambled up the trunk of Makara. Barely audible over the sea monster’s screeching, Xuanzang tried to call on the powers of the gods as a distraction. I honestly don’t think I would need a distraction though. I’m agiler than any of the other gods, even as a mortal! Also, all I really needed to do was jump on a 40 feet tall sea monster’s elephant trunk, and not on the seal tail that is sloshing around in the water uncontrollably. Right? Oh, and did I mention that the sea monster had teeth that were the size of actual swords? I wonder if someone was attempting to fight it but instead jabbed in two double-edged swords in the place of where Makara’s teeth should be… I’d ask Ganga later. Focus. I scolded myself. Xuanzang is depending on you. Even if you don’t want eternal revenge from Ganga. Hmm… I wonder if–– FOCUS! Eventually, I clambered up onto Makara’s head. Wishing that monsters with elephant heads don’t cross their eyes, I glanced down at Xuanzang. He began chanting. I chanted along with him. Immediately, the sea started churning all around us. Drops of seafoam splattered on our faces, the scent of the ocean drifted into my nostrils, yet we could not afford to get distracted. The ocean raised, creating a whirlwind. In the middle of all the swirling, sat Xuanzang and me, continuously chanting. The ocean shifted and shifted, shaping objects and ideas that happened to be in my mind, reenacting scenes from my memory, imitating my closest friends. Now. Xuanzang signaled to me calmly. The ocean is prepared to move to every one of my commands. He stared chillingly into my eyes. For the first time, I realized that he had mismatching eyes. One red as blood, the other gold as… Well, gold. Though this time, his eyes were filled with mist. I knew what he intended to do. No! Xuanzang! Don’t do it! Don’t transfer all your energy to me! It will drain you! You will… Well, die! I screamed at him through the mind desperately. He looked back at me, calm as ever, as if this wasn’t a life or death situation. You know you need all that energy to defeat Makara. You know that defeating Makara always involves a sacrifice. You know that. Don’t argue, Hanuman. Let it be me. “Right. Don’t argue.” I gritted my teeth and muttered under my breath. “I’ll find a way, without arguing , to keep you alive.” I had won a BGA (Best God Actor) Oscar award before, and it’s too easy to fool Xuanzang, so I pretended to sulk as I shaped the ocean into Kharga, the legendary sword of Kali. That’s when Xuanzang started sending me his energy. I can feel my heart beating faster, my left leg mending itself, my blood overflowing with adrenaline. I’ve never felt like this since I was born. I feel… I feel the mischief was coming back to me, returning to its birthplace. With all this energy, I can defeat anyone in single combat. With the control of the ocean, I can destroy the whole planet! With both, I can rule the world! All this power! And I can do anything, anything , with it! Tha–– No. That wasn’t you. You were acting like a hypocrite who is overly enthusiastic about ruling the world with Michael Jackson dance moves. Quit it. I guess all this time with a “very focused” companion helped me focus too. Instead, I used all that energy to build a wall. To build a wall that stops other energy from coming in. Xuanzang realized what was going on, and forced harder. Yet the harder he pushed, the more energy I sacrifice for the wall. Unfortunately, none of us realized that, and none of us are willing to give in. We kept pushing. Until we realized. But it was too late. I’m drained of energy again. But this time, both of us are.