by Brown, Allen
Fuck this shit.
I grabbed the box, emptied that old sack of bones onto the table and booked it to the door all steam ahead. Sprinting my way back through the door, I continued down the hallway back to the dome room with the vaulted ceilings I climbed down from.
Halting me in my tracks, something stood in the middle of the room, waiting for me, a shadow. It was shaped like a human, but it was completely engrossed in smoke. I could see pieces of itself breaking off and floating around. Each breath resonated throughout its body, like a single entity.
"Halt infidel." A ghastly voice whispered from it, raising its hand, it pointed squarely at me. "You are now the property of Al Shayir." This was the point where I lost it, every muscle in my body refused to listen. Every ounce of strength I begged for, to move my legs, was denied to me. I was petrified. The shade swam in mid air and darted towards me, within seconds it poured into my chest. It felt like the soul of my body was being ripped out, my insides burned as it kept on going. Before I could see it finish, I blacked out. All I saw was darkness.
But, in the darkness, was a faint laughter echoing eternally.
Chapter Six
My memories of what happened next were a haze, it came back like a wave drawing onto a shore for a brief moment before being ripped away from its arms and tossed back into the emptiness of a vast ocean. I do remember sitting in a chair, I don't know if I could call it a room, but there were no floors, walls or ceiling. It was pure blackness, as if I sat out in the outer limits of space, or maybe within the depths of my mind. The only thing I knew for sure was that I wasn't alone, in front of me sat a shadow. Not your typical six o'clock shadow, but a figure of its own will. It is what kept me there, we sat in silence yet I could still feel the heat against my skin, it was as if we were holding negotiations for a very tense takeover.
What I do remember vividly though, was the metal ring that hit my jawline with a force strong enough to awaken a pharaoh from his eternal slumber. As my eyes peeled open, Galahan and Sonia were the ones I saw next, hovering over me, Galahan with his hand out and a extremely large ruby ring that he had turned around to hit me with. Fucker.
"The fuck are you doing?" I said to him rubbing my cheek. The ground was soft, not like the one I hit a few days ago. I was able to dig my hand into the soft warm sand, I could also confirm that the bright light was also the sun looking at me.
"The fuck am I doing?" Galahan hissed, his voice deep and pronounced. His British accent was very stark, yet it made him more intimidating than sounding like a complete twat.
"Daddy! Language." Sonia said beside him. Galahan grunted like the tall ogre he is and pushed her aside. He reached down with his massive fists and clenched onto my collar raising me closer to him with ease.
"Listen here Jinn, first I will leave the fact that you were with my daughter for another time, for now...What did you take? What was in the box?" He asked, his expression was clear he wasn't in the mood for games. The next words I said could be the very beginning of a world of hurt.
"It looks like a cookie jar more than a box honestly." I said to him and as I expected, I was put to bed with a single blow to the head. It did hurt at first, I saw two Sonia's looking over at me disappointed as my neck gave out and my head hitting the sand.
***
Again, I found myself stuck in this dream with myself and the shadowy figure talking on chairs levitating in nothingness. Its stare continued to burn my skin even though it had no eyes I could look at. The heaviness in my chest was more pronounced than last time. It felt as if I was playing tug of war, perhaps I was, I could feel the struggle in me lose itself for a brief moment like that wave and then return. Maybe, as I started believing more and more, I was fighting for my very body or even soul. It sure as hell felt like it.
"Give up, this is now my vessel." It said with what sounded like the voice of a thousand dying souls. It's black smoke, turned red for a brief moment as I struggled to respond. I was able to get my words across, it was very simple;
"fuck you."
It laughed solemnly before speaking: "I like you kid."
***
"Jinn." A whispered voice echoed in my ear, my eyes opened to see barrels hanging over me in nets. The ground was hard this time, and made of wood, I was surrounded by bars, as I felt very nauseous. The ground beneath my feet didn't feel stable, I could feel a rocking that went in opposite directions with the hanging barrels.
A ship? Where the hell am I...
I grabbed onto the barred door to see if it would swing open, I didn't know what I expected, but it didn't budge. No one was in sight, I was locked up in the undertow, a table with chopped up veggies was the only thing of interest nearby.
A dungeon with a kitchen, classy.
"Hello!" I yelled out shaking the bar, I tried to make as much noise as I could to grab anyone's attention. I have questions.
"Hi." Sonia said walking out from behind a pillar. Her eyes were tired yet her smile was fully intact.
"Sonia?" I said, slightly confused, why am I seeing her here and why is she behind my bars. "What's going on?"
"Well, my father, has arrested you in the name of the Church. You are to be transported to England where you shall be put to trial for looting a holy site." She said, her eyes becoming darker and her smile fading. "You lied to me, you used me."
"Wait, no. I just wanted to see what it was. I didn't take anything."
"Mhmm." She sighed to me, she didn't even bother to dignify me with an answer. She left me in my thoughts alone as she climbed up the stairs and slamming the door shut. Perhaps she waited all this time without sleep just to do that, it certainly feels like it.
As I sat on the rocking ship, I could feel the walls close in on me. The sun light had been exchanged for cold metal wrapped around my ankles with an accompanying chain. If I had known… if I only listened to Fatima I would've still been in the open grass lands churning away under the warm sun with cool winds. Yet, I still would have been the slave to society, a tool for those to use then toss when no longer needed. The familiar heaviness in my chest returned, I couldn't tell if it was rage or what I fear wasn't a dream. Everywhere I look or go, I could feel a second presence looking and being. Not only does my future look bleak, so does my sanity.
"Jinn." I heard a familiar voice call to me. This voice was very particular, it sounded like Fatima, but it was masked in a way that changed it slightly. I looked around the room for her, yet I couldn't place her.
Great. I'm starting to hear shit too.
"Jinn, over here by the window." It said again, part of me wanted to look, really, but the other part was far too scared to. On one hand, she could have seen me and followed me on this boat, or she could be what I feared most. A figment of my imagination, confirming I should turn from a life of solitary, to a life locked away at the mad experiments of the asylum. I preferred the latter, I ignored the sound and played it off, it’s the wind, my mind is just remembering.
No matter how much I ignored the sounds, I kept hearing a struggle of someone squeezing through the window and landing on the floor almost like a feather. The floor boards creaked under pressure with an almost muted sound, like a cat walked along the floor. Something inside me told me that I was being watched, that something was walking towards me and to turn my head and find out what it was. It was almost like a sixth sense, but the weird thing is, I have never felt or noticed this before. It could be the part of me that gave up in life and will just willow in the madness of my mind.
"Jinn." She said, her voice much closer, like she stood right behind me close. I heard her fiddling with the lock on the cell door. I was finally able to turn around, this seemed to be too real to doubt anymore. As I turned, I could see a figure in black garments almost hidden in the shadows. I could only see her eyes in the black robes. I recognized Fatima's eyes almost instantly, and with the black mole under her right eye, it was pretty much guaranteed.
"Fatima? What're you doin here? How'd you get
here?" I said standing to see her clearly in the light. She pushed past the door and threw her arms around me. She smelt of herbs, there was too many to distinguish. It was sharp enough to burn my nostrils, it felt as if it was on fire.
"Jinn, quickly, I need to know. Did you take anything?" Fatima said bringing me down to the floor to sit.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"In the Church, did you move anything." She said sort of demanding an answer from me immediately. Her whole demeanor was different, she wasn't here to rescue me, she was here on business.
"Yeah I did, so what?" I told her, "I was almost rich till these church people intercepted me."
"Why Jinn." She said with a strain her voice, it almost sounded hoarse, "I told you not to..." her look was filled of disappointment. Even though I don't regret what I did, I never do, this time I felt like I made the gravest mistake of all. She didn't give me an moment to release my breath held in out of fear.
"Look, I'm sorry about this." She concluded.
"Wait... What do you mean? What the hell is going on? Why are you dressed like that?" I said pulling away from her cold and rough grasp, nothing makes sense anymore. I am trapped in the middle of the sea, and this girl, dressed in a uniform unknown to me managed to find me in the midst of all the madness. "Who... are you?"
I could feel Fatima become guarded, her left leg stepped backwards as she unconsciously entered a battle stance, but her face remained sorrowful. Fatima stretched out her wrapped arms to me, her open palms were shaking, she approached me and wrapped her arms around my torso in a simple embrace. Her tiny body felt fragile against mine, her back was small and my chin rested atop her head. Looking up at me, her green eyes glistened and clear like on a bright sunny day after a severe thunderstorm. Reac-hing up, she kissed me on my lips before pulling away from me. Upon opening my eyes, I licked my lips, wanting more.
"I'm sorry, but you aren't Jinn anymore." Fatima said, looking at me with tears in her eyes.
"What do you mean I'm not Jinn anymore?" I said wiping my lips.
Fatima, too, wiped her lips with her sleeve. "You were gone ever since you entered that Church. I could feel it."
"What are you talking about?" I said with a cough, every word I spoke it felt my throat was on fire.
"You were possessed." She said pulling her mask back over her face, tucking her hands into her robes.
I couldn't stand anymore, I dropped to my knees in pain, every breath felt like I was breathing in the fire of the sun charring my insides. "What did you do?" I said angrily. The world began to haze around me, everything began to leak a dark black smoke. Looking into my hands, I realized I began to cough blood into my palm. "You poisoned me?!" I said to her with more anger than I ever felt before. Honestly, I never knew I had this much rage before, or that I could be this angry at her. Fatima saw my transformation and started to back up slowly, out of the cell and even closing the door on me. That is when I lost it.
"What the fuck Fatima?!"
"Jinn, come back, please. Don't make me."
"Make you what? You already poisoned him.” The words fell from my mouth, but I was not the one saying them.
"Fuck you." Fatima said as she pulled out a small blade from her robe and threw it at me in a single motion. I could see the blade come straight to me clean through the bars of the cell into my chest, I tried moving my hands in the way to avoid it from hitting me but I didn't feel a thing. Looking down, the blade wasn't there. There was no blood and no tear in my clothing, I rubbed my chest to confirm my feeling.
"Relax." A voice echoed in my head, "let me take over now."
"Who are you?"
"Al Shayir."
"Who?"
"I am now your protector." It said as my arms and feet began to move on its own. My body was no longer mine, I was simply the co-pilot looking through the windshield observing. My life was now out of my hands.
"You shall pay for your crimes against this vessel. It is now mine, and for trying to bring harm to it, I require your life." A voice expelled from my own mouth that wasn't mine. It was the voice I heard in the dream, a voice of many and of one. Before Fatima could even react, I raised my hands into the air and a blinding light erupted from my core. It was then followed by a thunderous boom and enough vibrations to rattle my brain into a scramble.
As the dust cleared, a hole left in the hull brought in some moonlight, Fatima was gone and everything around me was set ablaze. The food on the table was charred and above, the roof was opened to the starry skies. The base of the ship was fully intact, this power was controlled and purposeful, a power I could never had imagined was possible in the first place. My body floated from the base of the ship to the upper deck, I could see Sonia staring in disbelief under the moonlight. No one else was around to witness, luckily. A large clocktower highlighted by the silver moon hung in the distance. Leaving everything behind, I felt my body disintegrate into a foam as we further raised into the air and tunneled towards the tower.
The Final Chapter
One Year Later
Taking another sip, the liquid flowed down my throat and into my veins before I could placed the glass back onto its designated coaster. The cool drink burnt my throat, not a hurtful burn, but a satisfying one. The pub was filled with other Englishmen enjoying their drinks loudly. The room was dimly lit, one lonely light hung from the ceiling in the center of the room and swung as the roof shook so much from thumping that it may collapse at any moment. The exhale of pleasure hummed in the background, at least someone is happy. The bar itself was smooth and polished as the barkeep continued polishing each corner possessively in between servicing his tonics. Taking a look at the mirrored wall behind him, I could see myself, but I didn’t recognize the person staring back at me, a cloaked stranger wearing a long coat and a cowboy hat big enough to conceal his face.
"Bartender." I said grabbing his attention from his precious bar, "Could I have another one of these poisons." I tell him, staring at the empty glass.
"Sure, chap, they are good huh." He said as he poured another into my glass.
The way the drink flowed into the glass reminded me of water threading off a watermill into the grassy lands of an Egyptian farm I once tilled. Truthfully it’s possible I simply saw what I wanted, I couldn't tell, but I didn't care. This land is strange, it is big and layered, it is structured. The concrete jungle allude its patrons to believe they are living a bigger and better life, but it is simply a manufactured idea. As I look around the bar, this country doesn't have the beauty of people, everyone here is taught to feel the same way. There is no color in their emotions, no art in their history and an absence of a beautifully enriched culture formed over centuries. What I can tell you is a piece of me was left in Egypt, but I will not fail myself. This is just another place to conquer, as I am the conqueror of worlds and I will find my way back home, wherever it may be with my new ally.
As I was about to swallow my second sin, I see in the mirror that a woman in a chair hidden in the shadows of a large pillar couldn't break her contact with me. Her appearance was foreign, she had dark crystal green eyes that were highlighted by her caramel skin. Her stare wasn't filled with lust; it was more of a professional arbiter type of look. Putting my glass into its final resting place, I turned to face my admirer. Her reaction wasn't what I expected, rather than looking away and looking inconspicuous, she held her gaze and simply pointed to a gentleman that approached me from my left.
"Oy lad." The man said spraying half his alcohol onto my coat, "you fookin' rag heads ain't welcom' in my pub."
"Its a tan calm yourself old man." I said pushing past him, tripping on himself, he fell over crashing into a table spilling a couple drinks by a few other pub goers.
"He pushed me, he fookin' pushed me." The man said holding onto his leg.
Dramatic much...
"Oy champ, you going to pay for these drinks?" Another said standing up by the fallen table.
"No, he toppled your dri
nks, not I." I said to him. He clearly wasn't pleased, him and his friends stood up and approached me as I backed out of the pub.
Entering the always damp streets of London, I gained some distance between my foe. The gray skies hovered over us with an almost eerie feeling, it craved my attention, but I couldn't look. I had to keep my senses about me or I will hit the darkening brick road like the rain showers falling in spurts throughout the city. The overly muscular young man and his gents shuffled in a semi circle around me, their boots hitting the floor rung like spurs on a cowboy's boot in the middle of good ol Sunday afternoon showdown.
"Do we really need to do this?" I said to them, I fear not for my safety. With Al Shayir infused in me, that thought rarely crosses my mind anymore. Although, I do fear for what he does to others, as he does not seem to hold back one bit.
"Come on now boys, lets all be civil." A woman said exiting the bar, revealing herself in the light, it was the other that was staring at me.
"You know this guy Sam?" One of them said.
"No, but he doesn't look like one to mess with. His eyes are not normal."
"Eyes? What do you mean woman?"
With that, I took off my hat, rested it on my chest and gave them a slight bow. "With that, gentlemen, I must take my leave. Have a good day." I said to them while giving Sam a smile. Placing the hat back atop my head, my body vibrated enough to shake the wetness from my skin. I will never get use to this feeling, it was as if I was crawling out of my skin. A dark smoke seeped out of my pours as I rose from the ground in a shadowy mist and darted into the sky. The looks on their face were unforgettable, one of surprise and utter fear. I think one of the gents even though he was in the john and wet himself.