The unopened gift envelope

Normally when you get a gift from a relative it usually is either money or something thoughtful, in my case it usually was something I would throw into my closet and forget it ever existed. There was this aunt who was basically disconnected from the family for as long as I knew who decided once to attend our yearly family Christmas dinner. She just appeared which made everyone there feel out of place as they tried their best to either avoid her or just talk to her for just a few seconds to appear polite. I was just 12 years old and didn’t have any cousins my age to talk to so I ended up sitting next to her later that night.

Aunt Susan was kind and she asked me about stuff I normally would do as a kid and she would talk about her own adventures, it was a complete change for me as I learnt about stuff my parents never talked about. This went on for more than I expected and soon we were called for dinner, I asked Aunt Susan if she was coming but she declined noting that no one actually tried to invite her. I guess being a kid you see the world in different shades of colours and not greys so I did not think anything when I invited her.

She told me to take care as she had to leave, her flight back home was later that night and before she left she gave me an envelope as a gift. I remember looking at it for a moment before running to join the rest of the family, some were already eating. When asked about Susan I told them she left as she had a flight to catch, this lifted the mood of everyone and soon everyone was enjoying the night. I did not know why this was until I turned 17 when everything in my life was turned on its head.

It started with the death of Uncle Jason, he was mowing the lawn when his mower suddenly broke down and when he tried to fix it the rotor suddenly started up again and the loose blade snapped off flying directly onto his face. Then while we were organising his funeral his wife was found dead in the kitchen, apparently, she was electrocuted by a loose connection or something. So now everyone was on edge and nothing made sense, I asked what was going on and there were no answers. I persisted and still nothing was made clear.

A week after the dual funerals my grandmother fainted while taking her daily walk in the park, only thing was that it was while crossing a small bridge which led to her falling down and smacking her head on the rocks which basically ended her. I was getting scared now and I kept asking what the hell was going on, my nerves were completely burnt out and remember shouting at my mother in the wake. I think I then fainted after that, which was used as an excuse to explain my behaviour. I spent a few days in my room not bothering with my schoolwork as I tried to figure things out and maybe I could be on this death list. My paranoia was getting the best of me and after that I ended up creating a ritual of sorts to make sure that I would not be alone in case I was to suffer an accident. The least could be spoken about the rest as my elder cousin brother was impaled by a branch when his boke lost control on the highway, while trying to get the bike back into control he failed to notice a car in front of him and rear ended it and flew over the car and into a tree. The bizarre way he died finally broke the dam and my father was the first to curse that old Aunt, he said she was the one to bring the curse back. I asked him but was silenced by another uncle who tried to console him.

A priest was called later to bless the family and try to life this so called curse, I was sceptical but went along with it. While cleaning my closet I came upon the envelope I was given all those years ago and I realised that I never got the chance to open it. Looking at the letter it was plain but had my name on it. I opened it to find a slip of paper and another that was actually made of gold, the gold letter was plain but had a series of letters stamped into it. They looked alien so I turned to the letter, it was short but for some reason made sense.

“I forgive you, nothing will happen to you as your debt it paid. Aunt Susan.”

What debt, I had never met Aunt Susan until that Christmas party so I took the letter to my mother to ask her. The gold letter I returned to the envelope and placed it on my desk, I wanted to translate it so decided not to show it. Upon seeing the letter my mother asked me where I got it and I told her about that night and Susan giving me the letter, I omitted the gold one until I knew what it was. She broke down crying and I tried to console her but she could not be. My father came in to find out and when he saw the letter almost strangled me, thought I was going to die that moment until my mother stopped him. I was finally told the story of Susan.

Susan was my dad’s older sister and when she was about 14 she was struck by lighting resulting her to have periodical fits, she tried everything to cure it but nothing could be done. Finally, she got fed up and tried to find an alternative remedy, back then the families lived in a close-knit community so having a girl who was useless when it came to work made her a pariah. It was during a dark winter night that Susan was supposed to have made a pact with a demon of some sort to cure her fits that some family members thought they tried to interrupt but it turned out she was using a traditional native remedy that actually managed to cure her somehow. The shaman who was helping her was lynched by the men in community, in his dying words he cursed the lot of them. So finally, I guess the curse was coming for the descendants, why I am forgiven I don’t know.

The gold letter, I later learnt, was her protection that she gave to me. That night she left the house and when she was in a cab heading to the airport the taxi was involved in an accident, and she died on the spot. There was no funeral for her as she was shunned by everyone, I guess being a child I never knew about such things so a new Aunt who talked about hunting frogs in a river was way cooler. Now I am watching everyone I know die in the worst ways possible and there is nothing I can do. I never told them about the gold letter because I knew that I would die too but honestly I guess being selfish is all I have left after knowing why everyone is dying, karma can be a real bitch sometimes.

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