HER ARDENT ADMIRER

         Kata has always made a daily habit of saying hello to her jasmine tree right across her bedroom

window.This jasmine tree is literally of the same age as hers. A full twenty years and growing for tens of years more, the tree has been named as Kata's Armor. Since Kata was a baby, the faithful jasmine tree has served as her guardian which warded off any undesirable threats to her being..

One huge problem she had was the fact that her visitors would often feel creepy around the presence of Kata's Armor. One by one, they would bide Kata goodbye and would leave the pineapple juice unfinished on the serving table. When she pried why they always seemed in a hurry to go, they would simply shrug off the matter. 

One of her closest friends spilled one day that she felt she saw a terrifying entity behind Kata's Armor. When asked to describe fully the said entity, Emilia simply said that it was like a red ball of fire surrounded by very dark spots. 

One evening as Kata was knitting a pillow case on her bed, she was jolted on the sides of her station. She looked underneath her bed if her Yellow Labrador Max was on its naughty tricks again. But Max was nowhere to be seen. Or maybe it was her little brother Fido who sometimes turned the tables on her. But she just recalled Fido had a summer camp in the nearby hill point. 

In moments of speculation, her eyes caught a visible presence hovering around Kata's Armor. There were sprinkles of bright lights that followed but they were blurry. She also saw a shadow that jerked immediately. 

The next morning Kata went to talk to her grandmother about her disturbing experience about Kata's Armor. As she poured red tea on her granny Martha's cup, she cried when her granny squeezed her arm side. 

"Granny Martha, what's the matter?", she inquired quite alarmingly. 

"When was the last time one of your suitors dropped by this house?" she asked in a hoarse voice. 

"About six months ago..." 

"Have you ever wondered why not one of your suitors dropped by the second time here?".

Kata poured herself a half filled  cup of red tea. "Maybe they were all busy." 

Granny Martha's voice quivered. "Oh you're so naive. They have a competitor that is hard to beat." 

Kata frowned for a second. "Hard to  beat? Who?."

Granny Martha made her forewarning. "Kata, you have to get rid of the jasmine tree. A dark being lives there and has possessed that tree for twenty years. And this entity has virtually owned you and repossessed you."

Kata let loose of her granny's grip. "What do you mean? Granny, you're frightening me." 

"You have an invisible suitor that is a spirit being. You cannot see him but he sees you whatever you do and follows you where ever you go."

Kata began to pale. "So what do I do now?". 

"Cut the tree!".

"But I can't. It has been with me for twenty years.It's a part of me that I can't tear apart."

"Keep it and you'll end up a spinster. The entity will never allow you to marry. You are his for life."

"No! That is not true!".

"If you are not brave enough to get rid of the tree, I will do it myself. I want to see you properly married in the future. I want to see my grand kids." 

The greatest shock of Kata's life came a week after the initial discussion with her granny Martha. Apparently, she did not succeed in having the tree cut off. She hired a couple of burly men to do the cutting of Kata's Armor but all of them failed. 

In no time at all, her granny Martha passed away. The cause was a severe heart attack. 

At the unexpected death of her granny Martha, Kata courageously stepped forward and confronted the tree that gave her solace and hope for the last twenty years.

"What have you done?" she asked, remorseful and battered."What have I done to you?".

And out of nowhere, a mighty being in a swirl of fire appeared before her wet eyes. The image began to metamorphose into a full body and it emerged as a muscled man. He was stark naked in a dim light. The lower half of his body was covered with layers and layers of Jasmine buds.And he stretched his hands toward her. 

"What do you want from me?" Kata asked unnervingly, her voice shaking.

"IT'S YOU I WANT. I WILL MARRY YOU..." 

"Marry me? How can that be? You're a beast." 

Her spine felt like bursting. She felt his whole being envelop her until she ran out of breath.

"WE WILL HAVE CHILDREN AND YOU WILL STAY WITH ME FOREVER."