The Seventh Curse Bearer

FIFTEEN: Hospital

I continued with my spell and then I dispersed my little paper fire I had started on the floor. The floor was slightly burned. The white tiles were now brownish with a few black ashes smeared about. I shut my eyes and perfomed the restoration spell. The floor went back to its original state. Like a fire hadn't even been lit there before. I had opened the window to let out the smoke but the curtains were closed and the room was a bit dark. I ignored the thing that had been watching me as I did not want to give any craziness a chance to overcome me. I didn't want to end up seeing things and hallucinating things which were not there. I was mostly scared because, i had experienced an event before it even happened. The incident with Amir had shocked me, after he had gone out, i had collapsed on the floor and cried my heart out. Over all the events that had occurred to me in the past. I was not the emotional type but i found my slef breaking. Thats when i decided a spell to get me and Amir devorced was bound to fix all my problems. I was dome with this. I did not know why fate had chosen me to come into this family.

After conducting the spell I decided to pretend to not notice the shadow and as soon as I snuck up behind the door to see who it was; if it was a person, I bumped into Malacca who had her hand high about to knock on my door. I was dead clear the shadow I had seen with my eyes couldn't have resembled a person. It was a non human form, that's why I had been so scared. My eyes felt heavy in my sockets. My head was throbbing, my limbs were weak, and I did not know why this was happening to me. It reminded me of a similar experience I had had in my past life, when I had been put in the dungeon awaiting my execution.

"What's wrong Nancy!?" Malacca asked truly concerned which surprised me, i dint know how bad I looked until I collapsed on the floor in total exhaustion.

"Where you the one spying on me? What are you doing here Malacca, let me warn you if you,...."My vision had gotten blurry and the next thing, i had blacked out. My soul sunk into an abyss of the darkness in my mind as I lost my consciousness. Before i passed out, Malacca sought to catch my fall. I wondered why she had truly cared about my well being the moment I regained consciousness, which was at the hospital. I was surrounded by Cain, Amir, Malacca, and Mariah.

"Nancy, don't worry. You're going to be okay." He said as he caressed my cheek and blew my hair gently back with his hand.

"Is it serious?" I asked feeling weak.

" You must have fainted, that's all. The doctors have taken your blood samples, we have paid them to get the results on the same day, but everything seems to be okay!" He held me hand and brushed thin whispers of my hair back on my cooton white pillow.

The sun shone in through the window illuminating the dingy room. I hated hospitals. They reminded me of the times I spent in the infirmary, back in my past life when I was a harem woman. The memories were bleak and vivid. I hated those days, those very vicious and frightening moments I thought I was going to die as i layed in one of the infirmary beds fighting for my dear life. One time I had caught the flue. I had come down with a ferocious fever and the nurses thought I was not going to make it. I shivered at the thought of death. The thought of my lifeless frame covered in a white sheet and being buried in the warm desert sands to lie along with my deceased ancestors brought chills down my spine. My mind was running wild. I did not want to perish. It was about the time I would become the kings favourite. I was only fiteen about to be sixteen.

"We are wasting a lot of expensive medicine on her for no reason. I mean the king could acquire a new slave for his harem quotas at any moment ." One of the nurses said.

"I guess we could tell one of the servants to immediately inform his highness about the matter. I mean we've been treating her for more than four days now. The soldiers will be back from the Pultan war and we need the medicine as much as possible! And she is not the sultan's desired slave , he will not have any problem in us getting rid of his unnecessary possessions for the sake of our country's high rank soldiers. " The other replied.

"Do you want to die? If you have the courage then you can ask him but I won't be a part of it because I still want my head, sister! I have family back home. " The other one said. "The sultan might get angry at you asking him if you want his harem woman killed. Does that not sound wrong to you? Unless..." She smiled and then went quiet.

"Unless what?" The other one asked.

"Never mind Munira." The other replied. "Look at her face. How she is so scared!" She laughed gazing at me devilishly. "How these girls taunt us and bully us just because they are the king's possessions and think they have more power than us, yet when they become ill, they come to us and expect us to treat them kindly. How stupid!" She chuckled louder.

One looked annoyed. "Why do you silly slaves have to fall sick?" She said as she injected me with tiny needles dipped in medicine, on my chest, throat and arms to cure me. She roughly poked them in, and deep making me jump in pain, then she would shout at me to stay still. "Just because you're the sultan's women you think you rule the world because he gives you treasures and pleasure?! Then you go about being careless and getting sick just so that we can waste precious time and the best medicine on you?" She shouted. The other just smiled in agreement. I blinked trying to fight back strong tears of hurt.

"The king does not give a damn about you w***s. He can just replace you in less than an hour. Infact he could get bored of you and just get rid of you him self. Tell us why you got sick!!" She slapped my back signalling me to turn over and lie on my back which I struggled to do as I could barely move from my sickness.

"It must be because of the rainy season! "

"Oh so you play in the rain? I've seen you haren women running about in the rain like vigin maidens, as if the rain has something to offer you! Ha? So you exposed your self to sick ness and you have the audacity to come here and waste our time and best medicine? Did you not think there would be consequences if you got sick!" she mummured absent mindedly. She wasn't even paying any attention to anything I was saying. She was just blubbering on and on in a bid to insult me. She looked young, about twenty five. Her face had a permanent frown while the other looked about twenty. I felt the rivers of hatred within her. Hatred for me. Hatred for every woman like me; a concubine.

"Turn over lazy girl!! We did'nt ,make you sick. You did this to your self. Then,.... so help your self." They all laughed as I wept. I had heard about this place of horrors. The place were every harem woman dreaded. The nurses were cruel and if any girl got sick they avoided going there. I had been taken there because it was my only last hope of survival.

The older nurse, Munira, the one who spoke a lot flipped over bands of empty sachets of medicine.. "So much waste on the sultan's petty toy." She said with regret in her voice. I was dumbstruck at the audaciousness she displayed at showing me so much hatred.

"I have an idea Munira!" One said with a devious look on her face. "Lets kill her, then tell the king she died due to the fever." She continued. "We could use the white kanjid root powder so no traces of poison are detected."

I lay there horrified at the conversation unfolding before me.

"When do you think of such devious things Catherine? I might start to be afraid of you now that I know your mind wonders this wild!" ' Munira said in a surprised tone.

" I learn form the best! You mentioned asking the king for her death since her sickness is a waste to the empire, I wonder what other ideas you come up with. Plus I have learned your ways, I have worked with you for so long!" Catherine replied.

"No please!" I said in a bewildered tone. "I cannnot die, not now."

" Well you should have thought about that before getting sick!"

"I did not make my self sick, I didn't want to be sick. And if you think curing me of my fever is a waste to your precious medicine then don't cure me. I will heal by my self by the grace of the Lord." I said sternly. My fear had disappeared. I was now angry.

"You can keep your cures for your precious soldiers and your filthy sultan! It's not like I'm dying to live as his slave anyways."

I said.

They all went quiet and looked at each other as if I had just uttered some profanities. Then one of them laughed dumb struck. " You said those things about highness. If anybody heard you would be in trouble right now!"

"If you really want to get rid of me. Let me heal and help me escape!" I said with a serious look on my face.

" Oh my, we got a hater!" Munira said with a smile on her face, to my surprise.

"I don't understand," she began, " many women would die to be in your place right now, many women would want to be in the harem. To have the luxuries you get. To be pampered by the sultan and get thier very width come true but you...." She paused.

"Yes, I hate the sultan to the core of my heart. I don't want him." I said fuming in rage at the mention of his name. He had previously attempted to have me a few months before he won't for the Pultan war. He summoned me to his chamber, I went but I made sure he didn't lay a finger on me. I called it protecting my virtue and rights, he called it disobedience, disrespect. He sent me away to get trained by one of the best looking Eunuchs on how to treat a king. How to pleasure him and make him desire nothing more in the bedroom. I was enraged at that time but I cowered in my own corner of fear and contemplated on how i could get my freedom. The sultan had only been two weeks back from his Pultan journey and I was happy he didnt ask about me, I gues fate chose to punish me for my hatred that I fell sick the next day, after a week and some days, I was then admitted in the infirmary.

"Trade me your life sis!" Munira uttered. "What do they call you?"

"Nancy Agrivah!"

"Oh, then Nancy, we will reconsider killing you, you seem to be worth saving." She then said.

"You hate him too?" I asked shocked that they would subtly admit it in that manner. Catherine then laughed. " Silly Nancy, we are too scared to hate him in public but our detest for him will always dwell in our beating young hearts!" She passionately said without fear.

"Youre different form other harem women Nancy!" Munira said.

"Different?" I asked confused.

"Yes and by that I mean not snobbish or mean, your honest and innocent and brave. You don't seem to fall prey to the power of fear! You're not afraid of Sultan Suleiman like most people in the royal palace. Don't ever change. Stay that way even if your ever put in a position of capitulation. Well won't kill you but if you come back here sick again, I promise we won't make compromises next time! " She advised me as if she was my sister, a friend. She then gave me a childish slap on my arm and they both laughed, this time, I had found my self smiling.

Ever since I had that experience, I had a deep fear for the infirmary and hospitals in general in my present life. Sick people made me nauseous and anxious. The aura of a hospital brought nothing but despair in mine eyes. The feeling that some don't even make it alive, some go to spend their final moments in easing the pain of their suffering whilest desperately clinging on to their dear lives in hopes of recovering but to no avail. The striking strong smell of medicine on the air. The people's cries and tears, their emotions, as a felidae, I sensed all these things but mostly, the most terrifying of all, the smell of death. It is said, animals have some sort of sixth sense and can predict your death. Bearing this feeling as a felidae was hard when I was in hospitals. It was a bleak moment for me therefore I preferred home treatment to hospitals. The nurses back that day in my past life could have been joking but i could feel the cold tone in their voices that i could have become a memory to anybody who knew me. I would have died. I was grateful when I rcovered from the fever a few days after. The nurses were happy enough to rid of me alive and well; I was removed from the infirmary.

The second time I ended up in the inifirmary was when I acquired my first injuries from spending the night with the sultan. My hands had been adorned in nail polish and a thin pitch black shade on henna. My whole body was covered in satin and lace veils, that barely covering my full body. I felt insecure. My silver anklets jingles as I walked, my neck was adorned in pearls.

"You have to look good and appealing to the king. I promise when I'm done with you, he will have a thirst for you so much that he will call you to his chamber every other night! You might bwcome his favourate and thats a guarantee. This is your lucky day Nancy!" The best maid who was preparing me had said with confidence and so much zeal , making cringe at the thought of everything.

I sought to avoid going to meet the king and made up excuses about being sick. I was looked at by a doctor who determined my sickness a facade and I was warned that if I had really been I'll with some disease, like the flue or something serious and if the king wanted, I would be beheaded. That's when the truth about my purpose in the harem hit me like a cold icy blade in my heart. I percieved that us harem women were nothing more than toys for powerful men to pleasure in.

Then a few nights later, i was summoned to be with the king. He sat in his bed. This thirty something year old man, gazing at me. He was covered in a thin sheet. He stood up and lay non his bed on his side while balancing his top body with his elbow on the pillow. I immediately froze in fear, shocked as he removed the sheet to expose his naked frame.

I took a few steps back and covered my eyes. He was smoking form a pipe. He immediately called out to me.

"Approach, you slave, don't just stand there you wench, do what you have supposedly come here to do." He said angrily not showing me any form of mercy. His chamber was gigantic with a large royal king size bed in the middle. I noticed a hari/calabash pot on the side of his dresser.

I did as I was instructed. Hesitantly, I walked towards him. "Stop!" He commanded. I did as I initially thought I had done something wrong but then he commanded me to dance for him, which I started to do. I twirled and turned in circles while he clapped his hands. His thick rings on all his fingers; gold, pearl and siver rings, made clicking sounds as he clapped along to the sound of my trinkling anklets.

"Goood good good good! Obedient slave!" He said as he continues to smoke tobacco from his smoker. He then motioned me with his hand to vecome towards him. I did. He dragged me on the bed and to my horror, he showed my no mercy. He ripped my clothes off like a crazed animal. I could smell the smoke of the holy essence on his blankets and bedsheets, which was usually burned from a burner to cleanse the artmosphere.

I took the opportunity to ask for my freedom but I was ignored and met with nothing but severely painful bites on my breasts, my chest and body. I screamed in horror. Did anybody ever survive being with him, the atrocious things he did to me next were to horrific that even the memory of it brought fear in my heart. He had opened the pot/ calabash and in it I saw live snakes. I always knew he had a thing for snakes, he kept them as his pets and I considered him a snake too. The most venomous of them all. He like to breed roses too. He was a strange man.

I backed up in fear. I stood up naked and ran off his bed. "Come hear you slave! How dare you show such behavior in front of your sultan. Have you no respect! " His voice thundered as I shook in terror.

"Sire, I'm de ...de ... deathly a..a.. afraid of s..snakes!" I stammered in fear, my chest heaving. My whole body was sore from him grabbing me and biting everywhere.

"Do you thing your little life matter to me you silly slave? Do you think I care about your fear? I said come here!!" He roared and I walked towards him in despair. I got ion his bed and he started putting snakes on my body as a form of pleasure.

"Dont worry, they are not venomous. He said as he kissed me. He put about five snakes on my body and pleasured in my screams as the slithering critters dug their fangs into my flesh. I paused out. I don't remember much of what happened next except that I woke up the next day in the infirmary with the same nurses except that there more nurses present this time. I was being cured for snake bites. I had internal injuries because after I passed out the sultan took it upon himself to sexually attack me and did that for the whole night.

Although I hated serving the king, and he also never ceased to summon me to him almost every night, i still did not want to die. It's like every other harem woman was invisible except me. I know the moment he laid his eyes on me that I was in deep trouble. The next few moths he had called, me over and over again till one day after one of his tormenting night with him he told me, "Slave, you're no longer a nobody in the harem. This week pm I will make you a lesser queen. Since you wanted freedom, which I can not totally offer you, I have decided to raise your status from concubine to sultana." He said as if expecting me to be jolly with happiness. He anticipated a joyous reaction from me but then his face sunk as I made no reaction at all. I then smiled and it made him happy. "Than you your highness." I said.

"Nancy are you okay?" A distant voice rung from the distance as I came to from my bleak memory and realised Cain had been calling at me for the past, i dont know how many minutes and that I had been engrossed too much in the past.

"Are you okay Nancy, we've been talking to you for the past fifteen minutes and you were not replying to me." He said. "You stemmed to be in some sort of trance or something similar."

" I am ok Cain, i was just thinking about something! " I said in a sombre tone. "By the was when will I be out of here." I asked him.

"You seem to not like hospitals!" He smiled at me.

"Yes! I don't like them one bit!" I complained.

He smiled at me making me nervous. My heart flattered at his charm. He stood there looking good whilst being deeply concerned about me. I loved him.

Mariah was uncomfortably smiling as Cain continued to talk. I guess she felt threatened. Lately she had been feeling insecure about me being so close to Cain. She feared that he might slip away through her thin fingers like sand and she would lose him to me forever. I noticed but ignored. Her jealousy was annoying sometimes. Cain was hers! I had gome out of my way to make sure she was his and he was hers. I had destroyed Malacca and his's relationship just for her sake. I had witchcraft, something I never thought i would find my self doing. I had embraced My felidae curse; it even proved to be useful at times but I still had not accepted the fact that I was a witch by blood.

"Umm," Amir stammered as he drew closer to me. He quickly waved off Cain's hand from my arm and stood hovering above me in a bit to get Cain to back off. Cain smiled in surprise. The he backed off. Malacca stood there rolling her eyes in annoyance. She was hurt for once that all the attention wasn't completely on her.

The doctor walked in. " We have taken the results to the blood samples t we took to the lab to get tested Mr alnilum. We expect results in two hours so you might want to stick around. Mr Alnilum. I froze right there in shock.

"Blood tests?!!!" My heart started to beat father and faster! I was in for it, soon the world would know about my secret. I would probably become a lab rat or end yurtyp dead. I would probably escape civilization and run wild with the wolves and other animals in the forests due to fear of being caught. I wondered what the tests would reavel about my felidaeness. What would be the composition of my DNA? I was scared as I rocked in my hospital bed waiting for the results. The others paced about in the room waiting, sitting and playing on their phones. The results came back later. The doctor seemed akeptical as he read them to us, he seemed to have attained some form of cold aura about him suddenly, looking at me from the corner of his eyes. He avoided eye contact.

"From the samples we took, everything seems to be fine, but I'm afraid there might have been a mix up in the blood samples." He said as he threw me a glance.

"What mix up doctor?" Cain asked with apprehension in his voice..

" The blood we have tested seems to be semi to non-human, What surprises me is that were the blood came from!" He said signalling that he didn't wa t to say anymore on the matter.

"I'm fine," I lied, i was still a bit sick, I was drowsy from the medicine I had taken earlier on. "We can go home now!" I said.

We left the hospital and went home without word. I was happy when we left, I was happy that the blood tests issue had come to no avail. I was worried for no reason. Athough the ra t that my blood samples were still at the hospital bothered me. Once we got home, Amir insisted on taking care of all my needs. I was still a bit nauseous and also weak. I found my self unable to eat. If I did, I brought it all up at once.

Cain came to see me in our room that night. Amir was downstairs.

"Honestly at first i thought you fainted because you were pregnant Nancy! Especially after witnessing the way Amir was over protective of you at the hospital... I thought he might have fallen in love with you." Cain said as he sat next to me while I lay in bed ailing away.

"Amir loves Dylan!" I coldly said.

"Of course he thinks he does but its just a phase...."he continued but I cut him short. Not because I needed to correct him and tell him not to judge and evaluate Amir' s relationship but because of what he thought. That's what hurt me the most. Day by day, I lived hanging on to the hopes that Cain would realize what we have for each other. That he would realize how much he avtually cares about me and that this love of ours was much deeper than the friendship he perceived in to be.

"Just because it's not up to your standards its not legitimate?" I asked him .

"Look Nancy , I'm not evaluating Amir's relationship, I'm simply pointing out the norm. Amir and Dylan 's relationship would be considered illegitimate by society. Though i simply support my brother in what ever he chooses. I simply believe he is going thorugh a phase, he's si mply learning more about himself and i don't object to that but i also believe he will come to his senses and do the right thing."

"The right thing?!" I asked him looking him straight in the eyes. "Who are you to decide what's right for him. He is not a child, he can think for himself. Hrs an adult, do you doubt his capability of making his own decisions. I mea you guys are twins anyways!" I said looking away. I was more annoyed that he was still more concerned about Amir and his relationship and he was still blind to the love I had for him.

"Nancy, he began, am I not allowed to have my own opinion?!" He kindly asked.

"Yes you are Cain!" I said at last and appologised for the way I had spoken to him. "Of course, you're, I'm so sorry, today I'm just not in a good mood. "

"Do you want to be left alone?" He aksed me.

"No, stick around some more please! " I found my self begging for his company. "Stick around Cain," I heard my self wail. "Stick around for a long time, I love you!"

"What?" He asked me perplexed by the very words I had uttered at the end of my sentence.

"What, what?" I asked him confusing him more.Tonight I was going to make him realize the feeling he had for me, I mean he had come to me and pinned me against the wall and kissed me, I had rejected him but now it was time to stop playing dumb. He knew it had happened but could it have been only my premonition/ hallucination like the one I had about Amir breaking things in his room? Had it really happened? Was Cain even present at that moment because it had been so real. I was scared by just the memory of it. I would sopn come to learn of a horrifying truth.

"What did you say last!?" He said.

"Cain, ever since I met you, I have felt you were the one for me. I have never easily loved any man before, but spending time witn you has made me realize how much I love you Cain" I said.

" Nancy, how could you? ,You know I'm married and we are both married in the same family. you're my sister in law. A best friend at most. How can you consider me anything more than that?"

"But you kissed me!" I said with regret in my voice.

"When did i do that?" He asked me surprised "Are you sure it wasn't Amir? "

"Cain you pinned me against the wall and French kissed me. it was you how can i forget.?"

"Okay maybe you should get some rest. We will talk tomorrow." He said at last as he left me sleeping feeling regret for what i had uttered with mine mouth. I had confessed the love i felt for him at the bottom of my heart. I had confessed half of what lay at the bottom of mine heart. I was deeply ashamed because at that very moment, I realized, I had hallucinated it all. It had been a premonition that's why Cain was uncomfortable, maybe even shocked that I knew what his intentions were. This sort of confirmed to me a bit that he loved me. I wondered how this was going to affect our relationship. I woundered if Mariah would think i betrayed her. Would it be still the same? Would Cain feel awkward talk in to me the next morning?