The Heart of the Sphinx

Chapter 4

As the afternoon grew darker and the evening fell, the teenagers on the corner of the street begin to disband. First off the wanderers who already have had their fix of something they were smoking which seemed to me as weeds and definitely intoxicating to some degree. After that they all mumbled to each other thing which were incoherent to me and my sensitive hearing, still I waited. I kept on looking where this particular girl would be going. To my strange affliction, I was bound to be on the ledges and other high towers. I was more like what the modern humans called the sky-walker, for I could reach the places where they could not normally without their machines.

She was wearing a dirty and torn jeans, and I could feel that it was more of destitution rather than a fashion statement. The clothes that she was wearing had most definitely seen better days. Her hair was blonde and matted. And the smell that her body emitted, I could clearly understand that she did not have had the chance to shower or to clean herself in the last few weeks. But still, there was something about this young woman which had made me check her out. I needed pair of feet on the ground for my purpose and I thought, rather felt that this one would be more than better in order to understand and grasp what was expected of her.

But at first, I had to see how resilient she was. I had to know that she was ready for what I was going to ask her to do. I had to see how she was going to behave when she was threatened. There was a look of callousness and reluctance on her face which made her look like she was weary of the outer world. She had waved to her departing friends and then she lingered alone for a while lighting up the cigarette and smoking out clouds from her mouth, savouring the ephemeral heat of the flame. But cold and hunger would get to the bones of the strongest, and in this case she was only a small and weak girl.

She pretended that she was waiting for someone but I could see that hunger and loneliness in her eyes. At last she leaves the corner and then starts walking towards the direction of the place where I was perched, looking at her. She could not even understand that someone was trailing her, expert trackers could not understand this, and she was just a weak little girl. But I could sense that she was not as weak as they saw her to be.

In this meanwhile, she gazes ahead without looking at any other direction with her hands thrust in her pockets. Her look is focused and fierce at the same time, a reflection of what I was probably when I was human. I wonder what Seshat would do when she would see women moving around like this without any check or control or the Gods and Goddesses cursing them for being knowledgeable. She was probably mentally churning over some kind of dilemma. Perhaps she is thinking about where she was going to scavenge her food for the night. Or maybe she was thinking about her future or tomorrow, which ever seemed more consequential. She knew as well as I that this was not the way that she would be able to live her entire life.

But in the meanwhile I was painfully aware of something which she did not even know about. Three men were following her.

I could see them from above because I was at a vantage point from above. Seconds after she passes me, I recognize that three men were emerging from the alley way after her. I could recognize the men, it was the same trio who had been looking at the entire group when they had been sitting together. They were probably looking for a weak prey to prey upon. They thought that they were natural predators not knowing that there was someone here sitting above them who had the most advantage of all.

None of them had seen me. They could not even have the faintest idea that I was looking at them. I start moving up, looking at them, my eyes never failing to move away from the girl whom I wanted to get under my wing. Just like they are following the girl, I keep following them.

She heads into a neighborhood where too many buildings are abandoned. It looked like the entire place had died all of a sudden and the sidewalk seems to be paved with broken glass bottles. The girls moved in the place and the dark area without showing any tell-tale signs of hesitation and fear. It was as if she was moving in a territory which had been familiarized to her and she with it. Not even a single time does she glance back in order to look at the people who are following her. And that was obviously not for the purpose of giving her shelter. Only two kinds of people would be so damn confident, one was a dire i***t and the other was an exceptionally confident one who knew that she could do anything. But I doubted that she was intelligent enough to know what the world, the big bad cruel world could do to the likes of her.

A few paces ahead, the girl turns left and enters a building vanishing through the doorway. The men stand outside the door pausing for a moment as if they were trying to understand whether there were other people inside, or if it was safe to enter a building like that. I was still in the shadows and no one was aware of my presence. They were probably discussing what should be done in getting hold of the girl.

The windows had no bars and had been covered with strange things which were made of some kind of paper only and smelled funny. I was retreating in the shadows as I found that there was another entry way to this building except the one before which the men had been sanding. As soon as they walked inside I went in too, and no sound came out. One of the perks of having foot like mine.

Even though it was pitch dark I could see everything clearly and smell even better. I could smell the burning candle wax. And I could hear the screeching sound of someone trying to open a tin can. The girl was kneeling in front of an upturned wooden box. She was using it as a table on the temporary basis.

I could see her face by the light of a candle, the flame was flickering casting long shadows. And all around her are the temporary signs of habitation, a torn and tattered mattress, tins of food like things and discarded plastic bottles of water. There is also a small camp stove around her side. She was working on the can when the men were closing in around her from all sides, at the back. It would not take me even a full minute to finish all these bastards. But I waited, I waited patiently to see what would the girl do and how would she react.

She suddenly turned over and looked at all the men with just a fork in her hand. A small weapon which was nothing against three larger men.

“How did you come in? This is my place…get out,” said the girl.

I was prepared to intervene in case anything went awry but I still waited.

“We have just come to visit your place darling…no harm, no foul, right?” said one of the man in a cocky manner while the others laughed at his words.

“I am pretty sure that I have not invited you,” said the girl.

“But it looks like you can definitely use the company. We can help you open the can and also help you open other things honey, now why don’t ya be nice to us?” asked another men and I felt like slicing off his throat the moment he uttered those words. These were not predators, they were simply hungry rat-ass bastards.

“You look like you could use a brain,” said the girl with a smirk and I had to check myself from laughing out loud. This one was definitely a great piece of work.

The man was definitely a huge one in size and he lunged forward but before he could do anything the girl kicked him square in the middle of his chest. I wanted to shout and tell that she should have crushed her man jewels rendering him ineffective but I waited to see how she handled. The other two came at her at the same time and she plunged the fork in her hand in one man’s eye jabbing it in the softest tissue. Kudos to this one, she is perfect but then she was tackled to the ground.

And I would not wait any longer to see the girl getting raped. I just leapt out of my hiding place and slashed their throats in a single swipe successfully getting away half of their throats as chunks of flesh on the ground.

And then the girl saw me.