“Give yourself time to feel.” Lily placed her hand on my shoulder. The weight of the past several days had broken me down to my core. My sister, Freya’s sick and they’re not sure she’s gonna make it. And now I’ve found out that Jeriah, my best friend admitted he has feelings for another girl.

“Feel?” I clenched my teeth.

“How can I feel anything but anger?” Tears began flowing down my face as I choked back the pain. My hand balled in a fist. Why did Lily have to be here to witness this? How embarrassing. She’s never seen me angry. We do our best to hide that disgusting feeling - anger.

She nodded and placed her hand on top of mine, comforting in an odd way.

“If you keep failing you know they’ll do worse this time.”

“I know, but WHY-!”

“Miria, that’s what they want- the Kyori,” she continued.

“The Kyori want you to fail so that they can make you angry, which will lead to your own downfall so that they can stay in power.” I could feel her hand gripping mine as though my hurt had now become hers.

I stared at her for a moment willing myself to speak, the heat dissipated when I was with her. I could feel my cheeks return to normal.

“The Kyori were a select few known to punish those who go against the law. Those same law breakers in go mad because they begin to slowly lose not only themselves, but everything and every one they love.” She enunciated every word as though teaching a class of fifth graders.

“That’s why we don’t get mad because at the end of the seventh day you’re no longer someone that anyone recognizes.” I replied, sighing.

She patted my hand and stood up, wiping the dust off her red pants. It was getting late and the crickets were beckoning us home. Even being out past 9, we risked breaking curfew because that’s when the Kyori conduct rounds on the village.

I reflected on why we even had the Kyori and curfew to begin with. Long ago, the Tonkita tribe, my tribe, was cursed by a travelling witch who said that its descendants would inherit great land and that if they did not share the land with Jenau tribe, Lily’s tribe, their peoples would be cursed to go mad and by the end of the seventh day the Tonkita tribe would die from rage. As they had never experienced anything like it before - the prophecy came true. They Juneau tribe became jealous of Tonkita and Tonkita became suspicious of Juneau tribe that they were sent to kill them and not their own anger. That is why now the Tonkita tribe must always share whatever they recieve otherwise the signs and symptoms of pure unadulterated rage show. And so this curse has continued on for many generations.

On the first day comes the heat, which appear as a red rash to be a warning to all. The second day, the rise and fall of temperature. On the third day, the person can only drink small sips of water because their bodies are rejecting it. They become extremely sick and must drink cow milk. And lastly on the fourth through the seventh days, they lose all taste and cannot eat or drink having to be forced until their dying breath.

Lily wrapped her arms around me pulling me into a tight hug. “If it is too much for you to bear, I will carry your anger with me,” she whispered into my ear.

My eyes widened and I began to protest. “No! You can’t do that!”

“Why not? I never said I’d let it consume me, or …” she hesitated as we both knew what came next.

“Kill you.” I replied.