Déjà Vu
1109 Words
Zahraa POV
“You have to go,” Jacob said, after a long silence. One might expect our positions to be reversed, but though Jacob shared my apprehension of Zain, I don’t think he shared the pure primal horror I felt at the thought of being alone with him.
I wanted to agree – trust that I did. Zain had the answers. Or, at least, he made it seem like he did. So, instead of an agreement or a disagreement, I blurted, “He did something to Ingrid.”
Jacob’s eyebrows shot up. “Like what?”
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “Like… altered her mind. She forgot I was at the club – that’s why she left me alone with him in the first place. But the fact that he can do that…”
Jacob’s adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed his nervousness. “Ingrid just… forgot?”
I smoothed my pencil skirt, admiring the pattern in my gloves. “She remembered… because I think I made her.”
I hadn’t thought the look of surprise on his face could get any more emphatic, but it did. “You made her?”
“I don’t know how,” I blurted quickly. “I just… I…” I shook my head, “I think it might’ve hurt her a little? She was confused, and I told her she had to remember, and she just did.”
Jacob huffed. “I wish you remembered your background that easily.”
I frowned, and he quickly backpedaled.
“I mean, I’m just-” he motioned with his hands, then sighed. “What did the Oracle say again? A woman will go into your mind, and you will not like what you find? That sounds like the hypnotherapist to me. We could just wait on your appointment with her.”
“Sure…” I cast my glance aside, biting my lower lip.
There was a knock on the door, thankfully releasing the tension of the moment. A woman entered: Julie Fallow, the proud owner of a rather large beanie baby empire, now sold off without her consent. I stood, “Julie, have a seat. I’ll clear out and let you two talk.”
I did just that, abandoning the space that felt much smaller than it had been when I’d walked in. In the hall, I leaned against the wall while I checked my phone.
I had a message from Ingrid: What did he say?
Damn if that wasn’t a loaded question.
I called her, walking slowly through the halls. The floor was different from when I’d had that first meeting with him, and the work, or so I was told, was a bit more important. I moved to the stairs, descending slowly. When she picked up, I spat out the details of the phone call. Breathless at the bottom of three flights of stairs, I asked her, “What do you think I should do?”
There was a long pause, and I knew it was only fair to let her think on it, even if I wanted nothing more than to rush her into a yes or no.
“I mean, I hate this guy, Zahraa,” Ingrid replied, her voice low in that way it dropped when she was delivering bad news, “But I think he’s the fastest way to learn what you want to know. I mean, what if he’s being this way because you’re family?”
My heart skipped a beat. “No,” I said, unsure of where the confidence came from. “We’re not.”
Ingrid hesitated, but didn’t challenge me. “Okay, well… think back on what the Oracle said; a man will take you home. What if it’s him? What if Zain is here to take you home?”
“What if Zain paid the Oracle to say that?” I pressed. “I mean, isn’t it a little convenient that a very gimmicky Oracle – that Zain had already said he works with! – would tell me that?”
“Well…” there was rustling on her end to the line, then a begrudging, “…that’s a fair point.”
“I can’t trust anything about Zain. He’s a…”
Snake.
A sudden chill ran down my spine as I remembered the vision I’d gotten from the mirror – a large snake striking me, a blossoming pain that burned and consumed.
I took a deep breath, and recalculated what I was trying to say. “I just can’t, Ingrid.”
She hummed, “Well. It seems to me he has everything you need, and I don’t understand why you wouldn’t lean into it now. I mean, he wants to meet you alone at this hotel, but why couldn’t you go with Jacob somewhere nearby? I mean, his mind tricks don’t work on him, do they?”
That caught my attention. “What? What makes you say that?”
“Well, he used mind tricks on me when I tried to intervene, but not on Jacob when he tried to take you away. I doubt that’s because Zain hadn’t tried.”
I remembered the flash in his eyes when he’d rerouted Ingrid – but I hadn’t looked at him. When Jacob came, I’d curled into his warmth, trusting him to protect me.
And he had.
“I guess that makes sense, yeah, but we can’t count on it.” I stepped out into the open air, feeling the breeze in my hair. Jacob’s meeting wouldn’t last long, and when it ended, I would open a Door back to his office.
“Z…” Ingrid sounded hesitant when she asked, “Have you met him before?”
“Hm? No,” I replied. “Why?”
“It’s just…” another pause – “Nothing. Never mind.”
“Uh… sure.” I knew without asking that it was because of the strange déjà vu I felt.
I felt the same towards Jacob.
“I’ll talk to you later, Ingrid,” I said, suddenly feeling sick. I hung up the phone and put a hand over my mouth. I pressed my eyes closed, my back hitting the bricks.
It was the same – the same feeling. One of apprehension and fear, one of intense attraction, but nevertheless, the same immediate feeling of knowing and understanding. A feeling I’d never had before.
No, that’s a lie – I had that feeling before. When I was just a girl.
My first day at St. Marjorie’s Academy for Girls.
When I met the girls that I still, to this day, call my best friends.
- Writer
