Please Rescue Me

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Epilogue from TNS

Epilogue: The Lost Girl

Synthia

The heat was unbearable, but as I stepped into the red clay house, I was met with such relief from the conditions of the outside. The cool air met my sweaty skin as I pulled the shawl that covered my hair and sat on the nearest seat.

“You’re getting tired so easily lately,” Ahmed commented, kneeling in front of me as he took my pulse and gazed at me with the same placid eyes, the mark of a slave peeking out of his cotton shirt. “We would have to do something about that.”

I smiled. “Perhaps.”

His eyes sharply looked towards the hall, and before I knew it, he was taking my hearing aids and slipping it in his pocket as he stood in front of me. I closed my eyes and held my breath. I know what comes next, and I don’t want to actually see what happens next.

The vibration of footsteps trudged towards us. I sat straighter as it got close and stopped in front of Ahmed. The smell of saffron and spices hung in the air, and I thought of the desert. How unchanging it looked, but in every second it was all different.

I felt the air clap around me, and before I knew it, I felt Ahmed’s form by my feet. I open my eyes, and he’s sporting a bruise on his cheek. The man towering over him looked at me with the same quiet menace that I had grown accustomed to.

His mouth started to form words.

Your blood isn’t as it was. Go then shooed me away.

I felt Ahmed stand as I walked. Falling in step behind me as I gazed down deeper into the halls of this large and luxurious house. The air-conditioning had kicked up as I felt it on the hairs of my skin and touched my nose.

Slowly, his hand brushed against mine to tell me to slow down and that it was safe. He slipped my hearing aids on my ear as it clicked into place by the magnet.

“He is getting crueler,” I said to him, I tried to ignore the bruise on his cheek despite knowing it would fade in the next second. I couldn’t help myself and brushed the back of my hand on the darkening bloom on his cheek. “He shouldn’t treat you like this.”

“It’s fine” He shrugged. “It would heal.”

“It still hurts.”

“Just be thankful that he needs you healthy,” he said. Not out of bitterness or hate, but out of gruff concern. He has been with his sister for centuries without any proper socialization. “Although… you’re still incredibly small.”

I looked down at myself. My bones are jutting out of my skin as if they would rupture with one cut. The food here was… enough. But I don’t like eating by myself, while Ahmed and Eve just watch me as I do. They don’t need to eat, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need it completely. So I give them some of mine, though heavily packed with calories and vitamins to keep my blood healthy, it won’t be enough for the three of us.

They suspect nothing as they take things from my body too much anyway. Most of the harvests leave me dizzy and half-dead. They just stabbed me with an IV and stuck me back to my room. Eve always looked murderous whenever they gave her my limp body, and Ahmed would refuse to leave my side then the both of them would refuse to share the food with me for a whole week. And for a week, I would be hearing their growling stomachs for food.

“I… am still part human.” I smiled. “Does it hurt?”

He moved his dark thick wavy hair from view to show me his already healed cheek. Bronze skin seemed to shine in the natural light entering the house. “It’s already gone.”

I nodded. “Lucky” I grinned before forcing myself to walk down the hall again.

The house always played classical music through a vinyl player. It played softly in the background and on the speakers hanging high on the walls. It’s everywhere. The expensive carpet was soft and luscious. I let myself take off my shoes and just feel it all through the soles of my feet and toes. Such luxuries would be taken away the moment I got to my room.

My well-hidden hole-in-the-wall room. Mr. Akeresh makes sure that I’m in the middle of everything, every side guarded by not only Eve but more of his men. It’s close to impossible to escape on my own. True freedom can only be achieved by dying, and no matter what others say I want to live.

I stop at my turn. Ahmed stood beside me, already opening the false wall, which was the door of my room. I wait and stand in front of the open door. Eve is already sitting on my bed staring at the both of us with wild golden eyes.

She raised her brows in question as I still didn’t turn to get in our room.

I raised my hand and faced my palm towards her with a smile.

She seemed to understand as she looked away and played at the worn rug at her feet. Just like her twin, she has the same slave tattoo, but hers is on the shoulder with a thick dark band below it, marking her as a slave who could fight. Meant to be given for fighting if needed.

Ahmed is taller but lithe. Not a part of him is stocky, as he waited for me to get in, he was a Djinn with no abilities. He only existed so his sister would be tied to this life. This s*****y even. Her sister was the dangerous one. She can’t grant wishes, but her magic is exceptional.

“Let’s go?” Ahmed softly prodded.

I nodded. Taking one more breath of fresh air, before stepping into the small room.

My room is adequate. It is four meters by six meters. There is my single bed on the other side, and a lounge chair on the other. It’s often where they place me to recuperate with an IV. There is another door just adjacent to the entrance. The bathroom was the bare minimum, but I’m just glad it has a working toilet.

The twins either sleep on the floor or don’t sleep at all. It took me a year before they trusted me enough to sleep on the same bed with me, two at a time. Ahmed closed the door as he slid the false wall back.

I sit beside Eve on the bed.

“You look horrible,” We said in unison then we laughed at each other.

Eve is beautiful, just like her brother she has thick wavy hair that runs to the middle of her back. She never brushes it, but it never gets tangled. She’s an inch taller than her brother, but definitely taller than me, with golden eyes that glowed in the dark, she’s cat-like. Sharp chin, a straight and small nose, she truly looks like a cat or a tigress. But Eve is an exceptional singer. She’s incredibly kind, and she has never shown any violence or anger towards me.

She is calm and controlled. Less of a talker and more conscious of her words, unlike her brother. She blinked at Ahmed standing in front of us.

“What did you two do?”

“The Master paraded her to some of his associates. But it got canceled.” Ahmen answered her.

“Why wasn’t I needed?” She frowned. “I should have come. Ahmed could only light a candle with his magic.”

Ahmed’s jaw tightens but doesn’t dispute this.

I shrugged as I stood to take off my clothes. “Mister Akeresh said it would be safe.” I take off the countless layers on my body, but I feel myself teeter to one side, and almost immediately Eve holds my waist, to keep me standing. “Thank you”

“He didn’t feed you there?” Her brows furrowed in annoyance.

“No, he didn’t let her sit either” Ahmed heavily sighed, while he helped me tug off my coat. “She had to stand there and tell them their future. She almost fainted from the strain and made us walk on foot back to this house.”

“That fool” Eve sighed. “I would try to get you fluids and food.”

“No, I’ll do it,” Ahmed stopped her sister from standing. She glared at him as she never liked being stopped or ordered around. “They like me better.”

Her jaw tightened but she didn’t dispute this.

He left the both of us and this time with ease, as he is often tense when it’s just the both of us, he is self-conscious of the fact that he’s the weaker twin. An anchor than a true Djinn. His powers are a candle compared to his sister’s magma.

“Did you at least tell a tragic future for one of those humans?” Eve asked me, her glowing golden eyes reminded me of actual molten gold. “One that dies a horrific death.”

“Heart attack” I answered. “That’s the most horrific one—ah, no, there is a plane crash.”

She smirked. “Suits the rich bastards.”

“They were… as typical as they come,” I answered. Remembering the faces of those rich people. All of different ethnicities and accents. They all asked their questions, but there was a fee for every question that they would pay. So many of them had souls latched on to their souls. On their bodies that continued to live, while the vengeful ones can’t do anything but hold on to their shoulders and follow them. “So many have backache, and they don’t know it’s not only their weight that weighs them down.”

“No rich person is good, huh?” She licked her lips. “I wish I was a wishing Djinn. I would grant those soul’s wishes in an instant.”

“Life would be so much simpler” I agreed. “If you were.”

She grimaces her sharp teeth in full view. She reminded me of a shark the first time I saw that. “Meh, I don’t want to be trapped in an ancient vessel anyway. Freedom like this is incredibly better.”

“If you are freer than now, where do you want to go?”

The question seemed to shock her as if no one had ever asked such a thing. Her eyes widen in shock before trailing to look at the closed door. “Freer than… here.” She seemed to digest the words. Feeling them out in her own lips. “I… have never seen the sea. The actual ocean.”

Before I know it, I pulled a soul from the nearest vicinity. The ghostly soul stared at me and then looked at Eve with cautious eyes, she’s a ghost that I always passed by whenever we walked towards the conference area of the house. She knows who I am, and I know her, she has helped me a few times before.

The Djinn… cannot be free.

I frowned but licked my lips and forced a smile. not really the question here. “We’ll see it together.”

She smiled. “Why… do I believe you? Did you talk to a soul?”

I shook my head. I’m not really lying. “No, perhaps I will later”

“Need an older and stronger soul for my future?”

“Basically”

She plopped back down on the bed with her arms splayed out above her, her hair splayed out as well. “There is a world out here, huh? I have never left the sands ever since I could remember.”

“The ocean is beautiful and much like the other parts of this world, they are all beautiful.”

She scoffed. “Don’t lie. I have sensed the change in the air and the heat on the sands. The world is changed beyond repair because of you and your species. Rather half of me is at fault too, but the world isn’t as pretty anymore than you think. We were here when the sand was lush greeneries and filled with water. We know the patterns of change.”

That made me even sadder. “There is hope though.”

“Where? Where do humans get their hope?” She sighed. Staring at the red clay ceiling. “Emotions sound tiring.”

“It truly is.” I laid back on the bed with her, staring at the same ceiling she was looking at, but out of nowhere, the soul I pulled out emerged from the ceiling. Her face is in a creepy grin as she peered down the both of us.

She was trying to scare us, but I have grown used to antics like this.

“Tell me your happiest memory.” She said. Glancing towards me with a lost look.

“Well, one thing comes in mind.” I smiled at her; this has been our routine. At first, it was to make me feel better during the first few weeks of my captivity. Now, it’s also something they enjoy hearing it too. “My mother loves to bake. The most technical and hardest things to bake, and she made a lot of mistakes. I was so young then; I forgot this memory for a while until the ghosts at home told me about it, that we would curl on the floor and eat all the mistakes. The salty ones, the burnt ones, or just the overbaked ones. We would just laugh at how horrible it all tasted. I remember how beautiful my mother was when she smiled with frosting on her nose and cheeks. How the sunlight streamed in the house so lovingly that it must have been a Hollywood production at how perfect those days were.

Then my father would come back from the hospital. He was just doing his residency at that time, and he would be so exhausted. So, we would give him the best pieces and he’d laugh and smile at the thought of us on the floor with ruined baked goods.”

Eve even smiled. “What is baked goods?”

The question doesn’t surprise me anymore. I cupped her cheek with one hand and comfortingly said “I’ll show you someday.”

She nodded solemnly. “Someday.”

Only once, the ghost interjected. Then never again. One cake and that is all. She continued to taunt.

I swiped my free hand to push her away before covertly pretending that I wasn’t by shifting my hand to brush through my hair instead. Eve was far in thought to notice this, her mind was focused on other things, perhaps trying to mold in her mind what baked goods were.

“Bread is baked goods too,” I said. “The most basic of the baked goods.”

She nodded. “We have tried that, they do taste nice.”

“Right? With the jam and the cheese or just cheese with meat.”

She nodded. Her eyes shimmer in the continuing dark. “I like baked goods”

I smiled. “Once we get out. I would feed you the things everyone has tasted.”

“That would be… wonderful.”

Ahmed finally comes back with a tray filled with food. This time, it was double the usual, and IV solutions were also strewn on his arm by a large hook. The sight of the situation made something inside of me deflate.

They would be harvesting me soon if they’re giving me double. I sighed as I stood with the help of Eve’s hand on the middle of my back. My skin and bone body creaked at the action of merely sitting up and the sudden transition of standing.

“Let’s get this over with” I sat on the large lounge chair as he placed the tray on the wooden armrests which has a slot for the tray. The steak on the plate is as large as the place itself with stacked vegetables and mashed potatoes. There is also a whole tub of ice cream with crushed cookies. “They would be taking a lot this time.” I sipped on my water in preparation.

Eve perched on the bed nearest me, with a hard look on her face. Clearly disapproved of the situation on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest. “They should have learned from the last time they did this, you barely recovered.”

“Sister, they are never going to listen even if we say anything,” Ahmed said as he kneeled beside me, and I rolled up my long sleeves out of habit. “The best thing that we could do is help her prepare and survive it.”

Eve’s face went harder. Her dark nails slowly tapered into sharp ends. “Right.” She became quiet.

Once he placed the needle on the back of my hand, I started eating. Quickly tearing through the mash first before the meat. The twins refused the food I offered and urged me to finish everything. I tried to do that, but it was a lot of food. I know I would get indigestion or reflux if I finished everything and went to sleep, there isn’t much to do in this room with no windows.

The twins insisted still that I finish all of it. Even lit the single torch light on the empty corner, though there is electricity here, she feels more comfortable if there is a flame made by her nearby. “Eat” she ordered.

“I’m full” I slumped back. Be careful that I don’t move my right arm with the IV.

“She’s right, Synthia” Ahmed urges.

I have finished the large serving of mashed potatoes, a fraction of the vegetables, and steak. The dessert is still left untouched for me to gorge myself. I sighed heavily. “I can’t”

“Please Synthia.”

“you are too soft on her” Eve trudges towards me and angrily cuts my steak into pieces. “eat it like Akeresh. All in one mouthful.” She prepares a spoon filled with the steak, mashed potatoes, and vegetables. “Now open”

I sighed. “Fine.”

I let her feed me till I felt sick.

Preparations always made me homesick. This is when I think of Hanzo and my father the most.