Chapter 7: His Trajectory

“Sir!!!” A hasty thudding footsteps persistently approached in a gasping breath.

“Please come with me!” “Sir!” the stormy voice reverberated in its thickness.

A seemingly frightened young man in his early twenties, in a fast heartbeat, vigorously sprinted towards Livingbird Memorial Cemetery, which was barely three minutes away from Southgate Godfrey's Lake.

“It's extremely urgent!” “Please come with me!” The same alerted voice echoed across the quiet moody ambiance.

On reflection, an angry, concocted voice expressed with brows furrowed. “Who the hell are you?! Can't you see I'm having quiet moments with the deceased?” a light-skinned man in his late sixties barked out in a sharp exhalation.

“I’m sorry, but if it wasn't life-threatening. I wouldn't have called for your help. You need to–” he was still in speech before being aggressively interrupted.

“And what!? What in heaven's name happened?” his eyes still on the cemetery ground.

The young man replied after letting out a dry persistent cough. “A body was viciously submerged against the lake. It's been laid at the edge. You need to see for yourself as you're the only person within the neighborhood.”

Instantly, those words crept out; there were a few seconds of abrupt thudding silence.

The once aggravated man drew a deep breath while his countenance awoke to the life-threatening situation. “Alright, show me. I believe the deceased wouldn't mind if I get excused,” he mumbled with words enmeshed in riddles.

The two men hastened towards the lifeless body with similar thoughts plunged in their hearts; ‘Would the body have a chance of survival or was it too late?’

Without hesitation, the light-skinned man examined the pulse, and after twenty chest compressions without any physical positive effect on the body, he let out an exasperated sigh; his heart bled in sorrow that the reality seemed pitiful.

He shook his head at the young man gripped in sweaty emotions. “I presume; he’s already gone, the chest compression seemed inactive…”

“I guess we would have arrived sooner…” he faintly spoke out with a million words hanging in his throat while his face was etched in displeasure.

For a moment, he hoped for the submerged lifeless body to have a chance to live, which was the major reason he exited the cemetery ground.

The atmosphere was flushed into saddened emotions with their faces wrapped in disappointment while they stole a few glances at the numb body.

He was about to head back to the cemetery when a broken voice halted his sluggish tracks. “Let us at least take him to my grandfather,” the young man spoke out in a weary tone.

“Your grandfather?...”

“Who is he?” he hastily inquired with an ounce of curiosity entrapped in his words.

“He is the South Province's most respected Herbal Healer.” “Any lifeless body found in the lake must be examined and declared dead by him before the funeral. That's the law that governs the province.”

The light-skinned man gasped heavily as an image of a terrible past event hit his head after he grasped the young man's words.

He held his head for a few moments to catch his snorting breath before nodding in acceptance.

Without delays, they both had a firm grip on the body and had it rested on their shoulders. “My car is a few miles away.”

Within five minutes, they rode towards a bungalow decorated with herbs and plants, the exterior beautified with well-watered flowers, which gave the abode a sense of natural serenity.

“Grandfather!!!”

“Please! We have a lifeless body found in the lake!” The young man eagerly gutted out with shreds of tears.

A uniquely 6 '1 old man with a long grey beard dashed out from his abode. His eyes narrowed towards the body; his heartbeat raced in urgency. “What happened to him?” his voice cracked in utmost perplexity.

Fear and uncertainty struck shivers down the shoulders of the two men who brought in the body that their spines quivered nonstop with mouths irresistibly dumbstruck.

“What a bold soul inflicted with so much evil and pain. Condemned to death but his spirit seemed unbreakable!” The old man deeply mouthed as he smelled through the laid body.

“He seemed like one who painfully passed through vicious beatings before he met his menacing end,” the light-skinned man disgruntledly chipped in as a surge of emotions clouded his words.

The air thickened, and the ambiance felt the engrossing silence that struck the three men in a dumbstruck, pitiful mood.

Within moments, the herbal specialist paid undivided attention to the body with his eyes temporarily closed while he uttered uncanny ancient dialects.

“His body is cold but his spirit rests within. His soul is tough-hearted and has refused to settle in the underground world,” he continually expressed while he trailed his fingers across wounds and cuts decorated on the body.

Suddenly a voice crept out amidst the excruciating silence. “He’s the one!”

“Yes, he is! The bold soul has found its way back to the root,” the herbal medical specialist vigorously voiced out with a smile charmed on his face which also got his son puzzled.

His words swung into the air as though the wind could grasp his affirmative words.

‘He’s the one?’ the other two personnel mused in growing confusion as none of the old man's words made explicit meaning.

“Take him inside and rest his body in the golden chambers. “Grandson, quickly fetch the herbal first aid box…”

“He still lives…”

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