The Treasure

I have a dream: I am a treasure-hunter. I go to a distant village to search for gold. I am alone. I know there is an old woman who can help me. I walk into her house. The walls are old and battered. She meets me with a smile.

“I have been waiting for you,” she says.

“I heard that you know where a lot of gold is buried!”

“I know.”

“And why do you want to tell me? Why haven’t you taken it by now?”

“It belongs to the dead. This is the gold of an army that was here one hundred years ago. The bones of its soldiers lay in the ground behind the hill. This gold is cursed.”

“I am cursed too,” I say.

“I know,” she answers, and we walk out.

We go deeper into the forest. We don’t talk. She stops suddenly and turns white. Points at a venerable oak and then falls on the ground. I walk up to her. I can see that she is dead. I take her in my arms and start back. I stop. If I leave now, I will never be able to find this place again.

While death is in my arms, greediness digs sharp claws in my heart. I am afraid.

Death makes me walk. Let it carry away the secret. Let it remain the everlasting mystery.

I am exhausted and my hands tremble with tension, but I manage to return to the village. It is dark. I go into the old woman’s house. I lay her on a chair. I close her eyes. And the darkness carries them away for ever. I feel that she is watching me. I take out my knife and turn abruptly. No one. But the darkness remains forever behind my back.

I cross myself and mumble a few prayers.

Then I pour gas over everything and set the house on fire.

I watch the fire from outside. The darkness lies in wait for me again. Is it possible that greediness has followed me from the forest? Can it show me the place again? Or maybe this is guilt?

I leave for ever. Absolutely empty. Without gold. There somewhere my dream slowly transfers into reality.

Only the memory of the woman who was watching me then, makes me remember.

I have forgotten… 

Alexandar Tomov - junior