The Seventh Curse Bearer

NINE: The palace

The ancient palace of Pikinong; the place of my birth in my first life used to go by the name. Artemascis, the land of sultan Suleiman. The land that bore my hatred. The land where my mother lost her dear life. Today was an auspiciously audacious day.

"This grand palace belonged to one of the greatest sultans to conquer the whole of west Asia." He went on. He was a great sultan. A great king who was respected amongst his people!"

The guide went on. A few thousand were gathered to view the grand palace that covered a few kilometres of land. The rooms were gigantic and exited people from all over the world gazed at this ancient heritage site that had bore my bleak but fancy life in the past. I stepped foot at the giant gates and a tear dropped from my eyes. Memories, bleak and sad, good and happy flooded me.

"Whats your name Miss?" The guide's voice rung above all of the voices of our little group and I came out of my hazy state to find that I was the one being addressed.

"Let me guess, your first name is Nancy?"

"Yes!" I replied to his surprise.

" Nancy Agrivah by chance?!" He asked jokingly.

" Yes!" I said to both our surprises.

"Youre kidding, you must have researched about this palace and its ancient kingdom thats why you know all this. You look exactly like her. You're her splitting image!" He said.

Cain gazed at me amid all this confusion. "Sorry to inturupt but Nancy didn't know we were coming to this specific heritage site. It was a surprise, and I'm a bit confused about what both of you are talking about." He then kept on gazing at me with his arm still around Mariah. Malacca stood looking at me suspiciously. She had tagged a long even though she knew that she would have to witness Mariah and Cain together. There were seven of us.

"Nancy I didn't know you were secretly famous!" Cain continued.

"Umm I'm a bit confused too." I lied.

"Oh so her name is really Nancy?" The guides's face went pale like one would go in death. He dropped his hat in bewilderment then he ran off.

Later we were informed that he didn't want to be our guide anymore which surprised everyone who was with me.

I climbed the very stairs that birthed my esteem as I climbed down them daily in my past life to go to the gardens of the ancient palace. The very stairs that supported my feet as they were adorned in anklets and henna, my very feet with their nails decorated by a purplish nail polish. I was slow in my pace as the people around me all stopped to gaze at me. 'Sultana Nancy!' The memory of the sultan's little favourite daughter's voice rung in my head as I continued up the state stairs into the palace. I was almost running. I was overwhelmed by a lot of emotions. Ever visited a place that felt serene, like home to you? Well this place brought about a peaceful aura even though it bore some of my heftiest memories. The link to my past life were a different me existed. People made way for me but what captivated them the most was my face. Some took pictures of me.

"Nancy wait up! " Cain shouted and they all followed running after me.

I stepped foot into the palace and a mysterious breeze blew about me. I walked those very old palace floors as that had bore the sound of feet of the prestige and then felt the echoes of the women's chatter as they walked about the pace. I felt the walls with my fingers.The ancient walls adorned with gold and intricate designs. Everything was still the same except for the minor details like furniture changed. Some artefacts moved, some walls repainted and of course The people that roamed that very place. The people who had become nothing but a speck in the frame of time. A memory engraved in the history's frame, a story of the past to be told to the present and those to come for the people had become nothing but dust and I was the only living being that bore a memory of what life once was like between those sacred secret walls of Sultan Suleiman' grand palace..

And then I came across it. My portrait. I remembered exactly when it was painted. I stood in front of it and held it with my left hand in disbelief. It had survived those hundreds of years if the harsh cold desert. It had survived conquests to when the sultan died and the palace was abandoned. I had seen it in the after life. In the abyss of darkness I had been stuck in. One sad thing about the abyss before my rebirth was the fact that I could see all that transpired to my love ones, enemies, friends on earth.

"Hey miss please keep away from the portrait." The guard shouted. He then looked at my face and froze. Then he paced back nearly rubbing his eyes. In disbelief.

"Miss who are you? Can in see some I.D. please!" He asked me. I did as I was asked and He looked shocked,. His hand shook as he held my identity card which had my name imprinted in bold black on it. 'Nancy Agrivah' He gazed at the portrait which bore my name down below from the artist who had been honoured to paint it in that time. He then gave it back without making eye contact and paced back as if he had seen a ghost. I don't know why, but his fear for me brought pleasure to my face the same pleasure I got in my past life during the times I was the sultan's favourite. His portrait hung in other rooms and people were awed to see it . I was happy he had died a painful death. I was not the one to glorify over someone's grief or pain but that very moment when his head fell off his neck during battle and was mailed off back to his people as a gift to show that they had been conquered; I felt as if karma had decided to gift him with a taste of his own medicine. He mercilessly fed off other people's pain and fear, he bathed in the blood of their innocence and drank to their rights and legacies yet his kingdom had come to nothing but ashes. Him nothing but a headless corpse burried in the sand slowly turning to dust with age and I ; had won the lottery of life. Given a second chance, i had won.

" I won! My dear ugly old husband sultan Suleiman Van Jalil Nitan. I won and you lost," i was overwhelmed so much that I found my self talking to the portrait and the guard fell on the ground upon hearing my words.

He bumbed into Cain who had just caught up with me and was also amazed to see me in the portrait.

"Oh my gosh, Nancy, you have a dongle ganger!" He exclaimed and the other others laughed in amazement. "This lady could have been one of your relatives in the past. She looks exactly like you!"

But I ignored him as he went on. I was busy in my own lamentations. I had been brought back to my time, my other world where a me once existed.

"You always told me I was nothing but your slave, and that my body was yours to own. You said my personality was also your possession and you had victory over me and that I was a useless woman good for nothing but bedding the king! Now look who prevailed! " I chucked with rage which scared Cain.

"Okay!" He pretended not to notice me talking to the potrait. The others laughed "whats up with her! " Cain' elder sister Natalia asked mockingly.

" Look, your silly little sultana Nancy has managed to out live you into many centuries ahead. And now you're nothing but dust merged with the desert sands. I died at your hands yet was granted a second chance at rebirth. I have won!" I heard my self say. I probably sounded crazy.

"Oh look," Cain exclaimed excitedly. "Her name is also Nancy Agrivah!" He went pale and everyone gazed at me in confusion. Then fear. Everyone went silent and pretended to keep on looking at the portraits of me on the walls. They were afraid to utter anything as I stood there still coming to my senses over lamenting about my past in public. Next to us a guide directed a different group of tourists.

"And right over there is the portrait of the sultan's favorite maiden. Sultana Nancy Agrivah Suleiman van Jalil Nitan. She bore the maiden name Nancy agriva before the Sultan chose her for his harem. It is said, she was a really kind Queen. She was only about in her early twenties at the time of her untimely death."

"Maam!" One of her students asked. "I read about her and they say she was a witch who possess supernatural powers?!"

Mariah dropped her jaw open. I don't know what happened but I could see her clearly even though she was standing behind me. It's like I had invisible eyes at the back of my head.

"Yes, dear student. Her life was a mystery. A lot was documented about her. It is said the sultan loved her more than the others though despite the fact that her mother had died at the hands of his father. She was deemed a witch and fated to die the same way. It is written she was also destined to be reincarnated into the world because she hated her previous life. She possessed a power that made her transform into animal deighties. They say she was" .... I interrupted her.

"A pain to the sultan's existence even though she was his favourite?" I finished off her sentence.

"Correct young woman! He...." I interrupted Her again.

"He became obsessed with me and sought to erase my persona out of existence. To steal my freedom and happiness. He made me into a shell of whom I was. He conquered my conscience and yet what greatness did he conquered except death?"

"What a brilliant perception young lady! You put your self in her shoes and imagined what her life must have been like." She gazed at me. "Can I know your name young lady!"

I faced her. "Nancy Agrivah!" She repeated my name absent mindedly then she stoped talking and looked right at me. She dropped her note pad and dropped down to the floor fainting.

"Ghost!" The guard shouted at the top of his lungs. " The Sultana Nancy Agrivah is back."

The whole place emptied like a concert hall during a break of a deadly virus. I had collapsed on the floor. The memories had over flooded my mind I was unable to detach my two worlds. I was drowning in my own emotions to the point that I passed out. I don't remember much of what happened except the commotion that had transpired bright before I fell to the ground. I was back home in bed with Cain and the others who had gone with me on that trip. No one wanted to talk about what had happened. No one wanted to inform me how everyone had been intimidated by the mere presence of an incarnate queen. Even Cain didn't say much to me. He sat next to me feeding me my supper. I was super hyped at his act of kindness. The way he fed me like he attended to his sick lover.

"It's going to be okay Nancy, don't worry about today! Forget everything. What happened was nothing short of a mere coincidence. Forget it! I should have never taken you to that place to begin with." He calmly said.

"What if it wasn't a coincidence?" I asked him absent mindedly as I was still stuck in my own doom and sadness.

"What do you mean?" He retorted back.

"What if I told you I was Sultana Nancy Agrivah in my past life and ....." this time, he interrupted me before I finished.

" And you were reincarnated into the world?" He paused smiling.

"Well Nancy then I'd still love you the same. Like a sister." He kissed my forehead. I was happy Cain loved me but I wasn't happy he loved me in that way. I had been sister-zoned.

He didn't want to say much more and he left.

I fell asleep drowning in my own rears.

I was awakened at midnight by a bolting sound at my window. I quicky opened my eyes and got up. He jumped into my bedroom and i saw his tall and dim silhouette of a figure figure carefully hover towards me. His jacket dangling, below his thighs, I was afraid. I scared so i opened my mouth to scream but then something hard hit me on the head sending me to collapse back on my bed in a daze. I don't know how long I was out, it could have been ten minutes, it could yhanhave been longer but when I woke up, he was still there now closer to me than before. He was naked. As I felt his smooth skin with my fingertips. The wind blew about slamming the open window shut... The blanket that had been covering me was now laying on the floor whilst the Conner was still stuck beneath me. Who was this man? It was thief for sure. I looked to the side and my stop watch indicated that it was exactly 2 a.m. He drew closer to me, his eyes were shut, because i could see his long eye lashes. His lips were perched up. I could smell the strong smell a strong stench of alcohol on him. He could have been on drugs too because he seemed really drowsy and drunk .his movement was slow as if he was someone about to die, but he had the strength of a beast. I could make out his fetures in the dark but I was not able to tell clearly who it was exactly. He grabbed my breast so hard and twisted them that they hurt so much. He was slowly laying on top of me that I started to heave out of fear and nervousness and the scene quickly unfolded before me. I wanted to scream but my mouth would not open, I lay on the bed with my eyes shut because i did not want to witness what was about to happen to me. I was still comprehending all that was unfolding before me. I then had a whim of courage and woke up and viciously let out a loud scream. I thought maybe it was a dream and this was not all happening but then I opened my eyes wide and it wasn't just a dream , he was really there. He had undressed me and now I lay naked vulnerable , in front of this monster and i was deeply ashamed of my nakedness and scared. He noticed that I had woken up before I screamed so he quickly shut my mouth with his hand. I bit into it so hard that he groaned in pain and I could tell from his voice it was Cain. He let go then he twisted my breast so much that i thought i was going to explode from the pain. How could he have done this to me. He was married for goodness sake! He has a wife and a fiance yet he had betrayed me. He lay kneeling on my injured leg as I had lay with my window open that night for some fresh air and to sleep more comfortably. My leg hurt so bad. I felt warm tears creep up my eyes and roll down my cheeks as he sought to engulf me in his warm but vicious hug. I tried fighting him back to no avail. "Do not try and struggle baby, he insisted in a dreary tone. I will get you no matter what." He struggled to penetrate me and I felt a shearing pain overwhelm me. I screamed as this person assaulted me. Even though Malacca had failed in her plan to get me kidnapped that day; Destiny had caught up to me. Cain had done the awful deed. Although I loved him, i felt awful inside. How could he out of all people have done this to me? Out of all the people in the house, i trusted him the most second to Mariah whom I would have trusted with my own life. It took every one about twenty minutes to wake from the comfort of their own rooms and come to rescue me from this monster. The lights went on and the first thing in saw was Cain panting on top of me.

I pushed him off and he fell naked on the floor. Then I gazed in the direction of the door towards the one who had turned on the light and I gazed in horror. Was I going crazy?

"Cain? " I exclaimed in disbelief.

I gazed at the guy who was naked on the foor.

"Cain?" I was confused. Two Cains?

"Amir, what are you doing in here? What have you done to her?" Cain asked his twin brother enraged. He walked towards him and grabbed him by his throat

.

"How dare you abuse a woman? How dare you lay your filthy hands on Nancy, brother you still haven't changed your ways?" Cain was literally choking his twin brother. Every one entered the room to see what had transpired. Mariah ran to me to comfort me in my state of shock.

"I swear brother, i thought this room was empty and I was undressed to sleep so I accidentally fell asleep in this woman's bed believe me."

Cain thought for a moment then he started beating his own brother till their mother came in.

"Stop this nonsense all of you; we will discuss this matter tomorrow! " she went out and everyone left including the very man who had abused me. He gave me nothing except a smirk, heart break and probably what ever STD he had gotten from other people.

He left the room clinging to his clothes while covering himself and I was left broken.