"Quiet Hustle"

In hindsight, I realized how foolish I was, and my calm became a noise that could not be heard at all. When you went and left me in a noisy calm, I don't know whether you will break it or not.

Rosalia began preparing divorce papers from her husband, Victor, despite their love that lasted for 5 years, which they sealed in marriage.

Rosalia was sitting beside her mother in the living room in front of the TV, sipping tea.

Rosalia's mother spoke tenderly admonishing her daughter: "Rose, dear, you should think first. You've only been married for a year and a half. Didn't you shout around that he's the right person?"

- Rosalia, frustrated and sad: "Mom, please, I don't want to talk about this issue again. I've made my decision."

Her mother sighed and put her cup of tea on the table to leave but remembered something and said,: "Oh, I almost forgot the day after tomorrow there's a family reunion, prepare yourself, my flower." 

Rosalia smiled, :"Okay, Mom."

Rosalia's eyes followed her mother while she came out of the door, She leaned back on the sofa and her gaze hanging to the ceiling. She covered her eyes with her hands and sighed deeply, trying to stop the flow of memories. And she said, "Victor, you're such a wretch, why did you do that?"

The next day, on Sunday morning, she is ready to go to her job at the fashion agency after a 3-month vacation. Rosalia loves her job in the fashion agency. It was a place she loved and hated at the same time. She had to work with who caused her pain, because of the presence of these two people, her husband Victor and her close friend Jessica.

She no longer feels comfortable with their presence because she discovered her best friend Jessica cheated with Victor ; made her feel as if she was drowning in icy water, which led to their divorce.

 although Jessica was the person who introduced her to Victor and was with them in the stages of growing their love for each other 

and the main reason for their separation, when she was seeking in secret and transmitted her poison to both of them , and she got what she wanted.

At 6:00a.m.in the morning, Rosalia confidently walked into the office after making a promise to herself that she will start a new life in her mind without them. The general mood in the office was stagnant, everyone was ignoring each other, all the employees knew what had happened so no one would talk about it , respect for them.

While she was busy working with the models, Rosalia felt a sudden nausea and ran to the bathroom to vomit. She came out still feeling ill and looked at herself in the mirror, and she spoke in a shaky voice: "Am I pregnant?" The idea brought tears to her eyes, and she spoke sadly, touching her stomach: "I think we'll be alone, my child..."

But in these minutes an ear heard what she said, Lily was one of the employees Respecting Rosalia, she said to herself happily: " well, there is hope."

Lily went out and got some food for Rosalia and advanced towards her office in full view of everyone, and she spoke audibly: "Dear Rosa, how are you, I missed you, why didn't you text me?"

 Rosalia felt pain after hearing that name, it was Victor who gave it to her. 

She felt nostalgic for those days when he used to call her:” Rosa, my rose my beautiful girl."

She spoke with a smile: "I'm fine, my dear."

So she hugged her, and Lily handed her a box of breakfast and orange juice, and said in a voice that was not clear to everyone: "For the child." Rosalia smiled shockedly and whispered: "But I'm not sure yet, Lily." Don't worry," she reached out with a pink bag, winked at her and left with a smile.

 Rosalia laughed because of her cute action . Two hours before work was finished, Rosalia went to the bathroom and did the test and the result was positive. She said while trying not to think of Victor: “Oh well , I wanted a new life, here it is.” 

She went out and on her way bumped into Victor and the papers were scattered and her bag fell. Victor caught the attention of a pregnancy test while he was helping her collect her things, he lifted it in shock, he looked at her and his heart was beating fast and he spoke while trying to hide his feelings: "AH A.. Are you pregnant?!"

 She snatched him from his hand and turned around to leave without speaking, he grabbed her by her wrist and said: “Rosa!!” 

She spoke, yelling at him: "Oh, you have nothing to do with me or him, it's all over a long time ago." She left behind her a broken heart.

 A voice came from behind him and said : “Hey Victor.” Victor turned behind him, and the speaker was Lily. She said: “I discovered the truth. Everything was fabricated by that snake, and this is the evidence.” She handed him a USB and said: “You must go back to your woman and your child."

He watched what it contained and felt shocked and heartbroken, he went to Jessica and scolded her , Jessica tried to prevent him from going and justify herself that She loved him first, and couldn't stand the idea that staying them together, but he did not respond to her, determined to retrieve his wife no matter what happens.

The next day, Rosalia went with her mother to the family gathering, met her relatives and greeted them.

 In the evening at 8:00pm, they all gathered around the great-grandmother. She wanted to tell them the story of the family legend. She spoke: “It began with spirits called “Silla.” These spirits were forcing the people of the village to sacrifice children at the age of 10, and when the choice fell on the family of a little girl named “Evelyn” , who is one of our family's grandmothers.

The people of the village tried to sacrifice her despite her family's refusal, so they kidnapped her and sat her on the ground in front of the fire in chains. The spirits ordered her to jump into the fire for them.

 Evelyn told them that she would never jump, so she cleverly ran away from them because of what her mother had taught her and she sealed them in a leather book called "Quiet Hustle." 

" So they swore that they would find her in this life or another and take revenge on anyone whose blood bond with her , they would take his life from him when the fifteenth moon was full, so be careful, my dear." 

Rosalia's phone was ringing for a few minutes, and the caller was Victor, and before the ringing was cut off. She answered him subconsciously, he said: "Rosa, please don't shut up and listen to what I have."

 She sighed: "Okay, I can hear you." 

He told her the beginning of what happened with Jessica to his conversation with Lily and the USB was shocked by his talk.

He tells her how much he loves her and how much he wants them to be a happy family. She started crying,

 she said in a hoarse voice:” My soul misses you I want to be with you forever with our child.”’

answer her with love and desire :“Me too, my rose my beautiful girl.”

In the end, they reconciled, and she gave him the address of the family's house.

After they had eaten dinner all went to sleep, and when it was midnight in Rosalia's room, watching the moon through the window and smiling with her hand on her stomach, she said, "Finally, we will be family again." 

Suddenly, a child's voice comes out from nowhere . She turned behind her to see her standing at the open door step of the room. The girl tried to speak, but only the roar of the wind came out of her mouth. Rosalia's body shivered when the little girl ran away.

She went down the stairs and saw a person's shadow from afar inside the room that had been hermetically locked for years. She approached until she arrived in front of the door. No, there are two people, one of them is a woman reading an old leather book, and the other looks like a woman's body, but her head was missing.

 The one who had the book in her hand spoke frighteningly: "Our birthday present is your progeny, Evelyn." Rosa was pulled into the room and closed tightly.

And her heartbreaking screams, which woke them up in fright, they rushed to look for her. Then the grandmother came out of her room with sadness on her face, and she said: They took her.

Meanwhile Victor entered the house when one of the servants had opened the door for him and found them gathered, and when he saw Rosa's father he spoke with joy: Uncle, aunt, where is Rosa? I have good news, Rosa and I reconcile, and she is pregnant with our child.

Everyone in the room froze and her mother faints.

 He collapsed after they told him that she had been killed by the evil spirits of Silla.

Rosalia woke up in an abandoned house, the feeling that she did not remember why she was there, it was frightening. She noticed how quiet it was . The walls, furniture, and paintings had appeared as old as time. she heard the sound of an old typewriter as she walked around the room, something was looking strangely familiar.

She made her way through the house, and suddenly an old woman appeared in front of her, the old woman whispered words that Rosalia could not understand. Rosalia tried to ask her: "Who are you?" 

But the old woman whispered something else in the same language, but it made her uncomfortable. Then she took a step back, and then shadows appeared around her that moved like a flame of fire. The old woman began to cheer and things began to fly toward her - statues with sharp edges, chairs with nails protruding from them, even knives that came out of nowhere.

As soon as Rosalia saw all this happening around her, she ran for her life before anything else came, almost stumbling on something, while it turned out to be a strangely shaped book of black leather with silver inscriptions that she could not read. It was written in a strange language but her name is on it.

She headed toward one of the rooms, after making sure that it was free of anything strange, and sat on a sofa that was in front of the fireplace, with two sofas on her right and left, and in front of her was a wide tea table with a vase in the middle of it with a red flower. 

Rosalia sighed and spoke to herself in a loud voice: "Oh my God, how can this be? I don't know how I got here and how to get out of this abandoned house."

 Then she put her hand on her stomach and said: "My child, I apologize for this mess. I hope you are fine, what a curious fool I am !! ." 

She couldn't remember how she got there or why she was there in the first place. She reached out to grab the book but when her fingers were about to grab it, the book turned into an owl and flew away.

She tried to follow the owl , but then she saw that there were two identical rooms that looked exactly like this room she was in now. The owl entered one of them, and when she entered behind it, the owl came out through another door. She followed the owl again into the other room ,where she saw herself sitting with another girl on the sofa almost like mirrors, reading a book.

Suddenly this sight disappeared and a beautiful middle-aged woman with an eagle tattoo appeared in front of her.

 She spoke and said: "Rosalia, my granddaughter, thank you for accepting my invitation, and thank God for escaping these rotten souls." 

Rosalia calmly stepped back and spoke: "Who are you?" 

the Woman: "I'm Evelyn."

Rosalia with a misunderstanding: "Am i your granddaughter?!! Wait, are you Evelyn that Grandma told about before I came here, how young are you!!"

Evelyn with a smile:"I think I have to explain to you what happened and what will happen."

Evelyn told her the story she had heard before, but what she hadn't heard from the story was that Evelyn didn't lock them up forever, and it wasn't her, It was Rosalia who was destined to finish them off.

Rosalia: "No, wait ,I just saw this woman speaking in a strange language. I can't understand it, but she seems to know what she's doing because she pushed me into the hallway and somehow locked the door so I couldn't leave."

Evelyn: "That is not the problem, You are going to have to face them by read the book"

Rosalia: "But how is this possible? I can't read it !"

Evelyn: "Open the book and read it see it now"

She browsed the book, and the sound of the wind blowing through the trees, the rustle of leaves, and the rain of the book rose and soon disappeared.

 Suddenly, the words had changed into a language she could understand across the pages faster than she could read with her eyes at once before stopping suddenly, the words on the pages began to light up as if they were on fire.

Evelyn smiled proudly at her when Rosalia looked at her in anticipation.

 Evelyn said, "It seems that there is some kind of ritual for five people, now only four people are needed."

Rosalia asked Evelyn, "There's no one here but you and me. We need three more people."

"Try to bring the people closest to your heart," said Evelyn, but Rosalia's head was completely blank.

"She doesn't remember" - those words echoed in her head. It was a dull, painful feeling that gripped her mind and soul. It was a feeling she couldn't fully comprehend, an idea I ran away from as soon as I tried to think about it whispered.

: "Mom, Dad, Victor." While she was looking around, she heard a voice calling: “Rosa, my flower, where are you?” Rosalia’s heart beat strongly: “Victor, where are you?!” Suddenly the door broke and her parents appeared behind him and Victor hugged them.

She explained to them everything that was going on, Evelyn asked Rosalia's parents for help and to stop this heavy legacy.

They agreed and began performing the ritual to kill the evil spirits. Evelyn explained to them that it would take several days to complete the ritual, but the longer they waited, the more dangerous it became.

Two days later, Rosalia woke up feeling confused and ill, her mind becoming foggy and a new, stronger force was growing within her over the time of her stay. She can feel somehow connected to this black book and everything that has happened to her since she opened it yesterday

Evelyn said : "The ritual is almost done, you have to hurry and read the book, but make sure that you do the rituals as they're written in the book before you read the book.”

"What about my parents and Victor, where are they?" said Rosalia.

"They're back," said Evelyn. "They are waiting for you on the other side . We must hurry."

When she was in front of the book, she felt like she was falling into it. She was seeing things differently, she was seeing different worlds, different realities, like she was traveling through time and space. The book was glowing with a mysterious energy that made Rosalia's hair stand on end.

Suddenly, she was in a white room, with a black man who seemed familiar standing beside a woman holding a baby, both looking like reflections of each other, and a strange book was on top of a table. She advanced towards the black book, knowing that it was that book "Quiet Hustle.", 

closed her eyes and muttered some words, and a silver dagger came out of the book with her name engraved on it.

She grabbed the dagger in both hands and shouted out, :"It is time for the clamor to be quiet forever ,Silla spirits ,In my name I am Evelyn's fifteenth granddaughter Rosalia, I will erase you forever" Then she stabbed the book.

When the ritual was complete ,Evelyn said, "You are free from the Silla spirit. "Congratulations, Rosalia, you are the only one of us that succeeded in the ritual."

Then she gave her the dagger as an inheritance gift .

Rosalia: "Thank you, Evelyn, I promise to be a good mother and a good person, and I want to be a good mother for my child.”

Evelyn: "I'm happy to have known you. Now go and live the rest of your life with Victor, with love in your hearts for the child that is to come from them.”

 The door opened and a white light filled the room. Rosalia's parents were standing there with tears in their eyes. Waiting for their daughter , Victor was worried about his wife Rosalia and the child in her womb.

Rosalia came out the door and hugged her parents, Victor hugged her and said, "I will never let you out of my sight again."Then the family returned home.

Eight years later , with his healthy and intelligent child playing on the beach he heard a soft voice say: “Victor darling come inside with Lucian” ,Victor: “We are coming honey” , " we must go before the Silla spirits come."Their laughter grew louder as they ran inside, and they lived happily ever after.

The End