Memories of the unspeakable events that led to her demise flowed through Taru’s trembling mind: how she was overpowered, robbed of a future, and forced into a life of shame. She remembered how the villagers pulled her body down, leaving her fractured consciousness still lingering on that branch, doomed to witness eternity in silence. They purposefully started to avoid the tree; some even spat at the direction of the cursed tree following the incident.
With an intense jolt of reality that overpowered her senses like a thunderstorm, Taru came back to the present. Maya was already halfway into tying the rope around the same branch where Taru had ended herself. It was evident now why Maya’s despair seemed all too familiar. Taru could see the same weight in Maya’s eyes, the same longing for escape that had once consumed her own soul. But this time, Taru refused to remain silent. The branch that had borne her pain for ages could not carry Maya’s too. She reached out, somehow, anyhow, straining against the stillness that had defined her existence. She screamed until her throat, if she had one, felt raw, each word a desperate plea to save the girl she had come to love.
No! Maya, Stop! Don’t do it! Please don’t do it. I will help you; I will do anything. Listen to me, damn it! Listen to me for once…
Maya looked around startled, as though someone had called out to her. Then she shrugged and slipped the noose around her neck and tightened it.
Maya paused for a moment. She looked apologetically at Taru as streams of tears shone on her cheeks and said, “I’m sorry, Taru.”
Please listen to me, Maya. You can’t do it.
The branch creaked and slightly shifted as if it was about to break. Maya steadied herself and kissed the tree, bidding farewell to the only presence that had silently bore witness to her pain...
Stop! I said stop now! Maya don’t…
Maya regarded the setting sun for a moment and leaped.
CODA
There were tense arguments about cutting down the cursed tree among the villagers. The gloominess that surrounded the tree and stories of the unspeakable incidents it was tied to had begun attracting troubled youths towards it. Some said it didn’t bode well for the village to have such an evil presence around them. Some believed it would be dire for the community to cut down a tree that could possess minds and drive people to commit terrible acts. For cutting it down might mean inviting a terrible curse upon the entire village.
The crippled boy named Rinku, a teenager, had been the tree’s latest victim. If not for the branch snapping at the last moment, sending him plummeting to the ground unconscious, the village would have been attending a funeral instead of gathering inside the community hall for that meeting.
In the end, no one had the courage to cut the tree down. They decided on avoiding the tree like before. They warned everyone in the village to steer clear of the cursed tree at all times. The village council agreed upon ostracism or a hefty fine for disobedience.
And so, the tree remained. Despite the warnings, sometimes curious onlookers would approach the tree, gazing at it with a mix of awe and trepidation. Some noticed how it seemed to have grown significantly larger recently. The tree turned into a local legend that was often discussed in hushed tones around the village. Some even claimed that one could hear human voices and laughter over the branches right before the sun sets.
