LIFE FOR LIFE

In a breezy morning, the kind that feels light on the skin. The sky is clear, almost endless. Sunlight slips through the clean window of the old wooden shelter, landing warm on my face, making me squint a little. Inside the cabin, silence took over, except for the thin cry of a newborn. Mauro held his son, Apollo, close to his chest, the child's warmth trembling like a fragile flame. But as he turns his head to the bed beside him, he grabs a cold hand, once full of life, now limp and colorless. It belonged to his wife, Emilia, who had left him forever.

The door slowly creaked. His old friend, Alejo, stepped inside with dark, hollowed eyes.

"Mauro...There may be a way," said Alejo

Mauro looked up with sunken eyes. "A way?"

"They say there's a man, a magician, who has the ability to return the life to those who have lost it."

"What's the price?"

"No one knows, but power like that never comes free."

The magician lived far from town, in a house that seemed to breathe. Shadows moved against the walls though no candle burned. The man himself was tall, robed in gray, and had eyes like smoldering coals.

"You want her back," the magician said without introduction.

"Yes, bring her back to me, I beg you," Mauro said.

"I can, but as you may know, every wish has its cost. Are you ready to pay, even if you do not know the price yet?"

"Yes, I'll pay anything just bring her back."

The magician gently placed a scarlet-tinted powder on the chest and forehead. Then, made her gulp down an elixir. While waving his wand, he murmured words that tumbled out like nonsense. The floor groaned, the walls bent, and in the next moment, she breathed again. Emilia's eyes opened, dazed but alive. She turned her head, confusion spilling into joy.

"Mauro?" she whispered.

Mauro fell to his knees, tears running down his face as he pressed her hand to his lips.

For days, happiness returned like a long-forgotten melody. Emilia laughed again, her touch warm, her voice filling the hollow space of the house. Mauro watched her cradle Apollo, though her skin was pale, and her eyes carried shadows she had not before. He brushed it off, grateful to the universe for granting his wish. Until the magician came.

It was night. The fire had dwindled to embers when the knock came, a sound sharp as bone on wood. Mauro opened the door and froze.

"You owe me," the magician said.

"What is the price?” Mauro asked.

"Life for Life. Your son."

"No... You can't. He's all I have."

"Then, she returns to dust. Choose wisely, I'll give you three days"

Over the three days Mauro wrestled with the choice. His son's soft cries pierced the night; Emilia's hand in his own gave him strength. But a voice kept circling his mind: She or him. You cannot have both.

At last, he had made his decision. On the third night, he carried the child into the forest where the magician waited. Mauro kissed Apollo's forehead once, twice. His tears wet Apollo's hair.

"I'm sorry," he whispered in Apollo's ear.

The magician's shadow consumed them both. When he stepped away, the child was gone.

When Mauro returned, Emilia was waiting.

Her eyes fell to his empty arms. "Where is he?" she asked.

"It was the price, Emilia. To keep you here... with me."

Her face turned red with fury. "You gave away our son? The life I gave my own for. You chose me over him?"

"I could not lose you again!" Mauro cried.

"Then you have lost us both."

Emilia gathered her cloak and walked away into the night, leaving Mauro alone in the silence of a house where no child's cry remained.

Leticia Jimenez Gomez is originally from La Vega, Dominican Republic, she loves traveling and learning about different cultures. She streams and sings as a hobby, and when she's not working, she enjoys hanging out with friends or watching TV shows with people she loves.