The Arabian Nights (EDITING)

A talk with a witch

Sabrina's Porsche pulled in the moment I headed out to the parking lot after school.
My mother didn't approve the idea of me "intermingling" so fast with this complete new set of friends, but Dan had quickly come to my rescue telling mom he knew the friends from his college.I knew he was saving my butt only because for his own benefit but I needn't worry;my brother was the last human on earth Sabrina the grand witch would be interested in.
"School was crappy as ever."I said dejectedly,even though nobody asked and nobody cared.
Sabrina was tapping away on her phone and Ky was looking at the bustling pack of students pouring out of the doors.
I thanked God I didn't see the vivacious Jyl today.Ria and her gang "complimented" on my wrinkled shirt and baggy slacks and I couldn't care less.I had other things in mind.
"Let's roll?"I glanced at Sabrina."What you waiting for?"
She mumbled something incoherently but kept tapping on her phone.
"How was school?"Ky asked finally tearing his eyes away from the crowd.
I gave him a tight smile and didn't reply.
"Great.We will be there."Sabrina said abruptly and flicked the car start.
"Huh?"We both looked at her but she didn't elaborate. She drove us out of the parking lot and then her phone rang.As she talked in fast arabic I noticed Ky staring at her,wide-eyed.
I snapped my finger in front of his face.
"What?"I asked impatiently,when he didn't reply.
"Sabrina la wallahi...la unasib ya bint wallahi.."he said in rapid arabic.
"What?"I persuaded.
Sabrina ignored us both and continued intensely before she said "okay we will be there." and ended the call.
"What the even..."I started in frustration glancing between them.
"You will see."Sabrina said mysteriously,stepping on the pedal and shooting past cars.
"You are so stupid...wallahi mo jayyid kiza...."Ky said to her.She shot back a reply in arabic. I swallowed my impatience and asked for the third time but was ignored again.
The two started bickering in arabic.
Calm down Kat.Calm down.
I shut my eyes and opened my mouth to yell at them to shutup.
"Don't interrupt."Sabrina said sharply at me and I shut my mouth again.
Great.
They continued bickering and I decided cutting in the conversation was pointless.
Ten minutes later while I had my earphones plugged in, we entered a silent and conservative area.
There were warehouses and shut-down buildings around.It strongly reminded me of the place Zyek had taken me after saving my life.
Those red,gleaming eyes popped in my mind and I groaned.
I pulled my earphones off.
"You guys shut up already?"I said angrily.
Ky was staring around warily while Sabrina was tapping on her phone again.
"I SWEAR TO GOD....."I started furiously.
"Are you crazy?"Sabrina cut in quickly.
"I'm crazy...?"
"Keep your voice down.We are in a restricted area."She interrupted me again with a snarl.
I glared at her,then looked around uneasily.
"Restricted....?"
"Yeah we are here to get your palm checked and your future out."Ky snapped.
"Wait..what?!"
"Shutup ya khalb."Sabrina snapped at him."Kat.We are here to meet a really old witch.She will relate about your dreams."
"Seriously."I said in alarm.
She nodded as she steered between the deserted streets before she stopped in front of a very old building.
I stared at the peeling paint and the broken glass windows.
"Pull the hood up."She instructed me as she pulled open her door and stepped out.
"Pull up what....oh yeah my hood."I said hastily and threw my hood over my hair.
I followed her and Ky up the rickety steps and inside a battered door barely standing by itself.
We entered a bare and forlorn hallway.There were various potraits hanging from the peeling walls.
Chairs lay scattered on the floor.
"What the hell happened to this place?"I muttered,scrunching my nose.Nobody answered my question.
The witch lives here?"I interjected incredulously.
Ky shrugged and kicked some chairs out of his way.Sabrina paused and glared at him,he scowled back.
I rolled my eyes and smothered a grin;they were acting in such a childish manner.
We followed Sabrina down a stairwell that ended in a dim-lighted basement.A couple of seconds later I realized the light was provided by candles lit on various part of the walls.We passed through a corridor and I noticed tinted glass-doors on each side,secured shut.
The air felt chilly here and I wondered if there was some kind of central air conditioning, even though the building didn't seem to have any power management.
Sabrina paused without warning outside a door and I bumped into her.
She hissed angrily and before I could tell her it was her fault,Ky bumped into me,hard.I hissed at him and he snapped that it was my fault.
"Her fault."I whisper-yelled at him.
"Keep your traps shut."Sabrina shot at us in a low voice.
She raised her hand and knocked loudly.
"Udkhul."
A low voice came floating in my ears.
Something told me the voice meant "enter".
"Wait.What am I supposed to...."I whispered in panic, grabbing Sabrina's wrist.
"She won't eat you."Sabrina cut me quickly and then the door opened with a creak.
We stepped inside a dark room.The curtains were drawn and moonlight streamed inside, illuminating the place in an eerie glow.
I scanned the room and my eyes fell on a table at a far corner.A hunch-backed figure sat at the table, shrouded in a black cloak.
"....A real witch"I whispered out my thought.
We stood there in complete silence for a couple of minutes as the witch seemed to be busy...staring at the table.
"Is she like a mythical witch...?"I breathed in Ky's ear.
He didn't reply.I looked at him and my eyes widened.Ky was visibly shaking and his wide eyes were fixed on the figure.
A mini panic-attack hit my chest at the sight of him.
On my right,Sabrina was composed,yet her lips were pursed which indicated perplex.
My hands started shaking and my brow became clammy.
"I wanna get out of here."I whispered shakily in Sabrina's ear.Were they crazy enough to bring me to an old legend of a witch.What if she did a bad spell on me?
"Don't freak out."Sabrina said softly in my ear."She might not hurt you at all."
"Might?"I echoed hoarsely.
My knees started shaking and I was just turning around to run when Ky gripped my arm,preventing me from doing so.
The figure raised her head and a flash of glowing green eyes pierced mine.
Holy shit.
She raised a long,witchy finger and beckoned me toward her.
My legs were jammed on the ground.Sabrina gave me a slight push and I stumbled forward.Mentally cursing her, I approached the figure cautiously until I stood a yard apart.
The gnarled finger pointed at a chair opposite hers.I hesitated before lowering myself on the chair.
The air was cold and depressing over here.I wished we had more light.
The old witch raised her head and said something in a low and grizzled voice while looking over my shoulder.
I ,then realized she had ordered Sabrina and Ky to leave because the door shut behind me leaving us in perfectly creepy silence.
My heart speeded in alarm.
"Give me your hand."she intoned.
Wait,she just spoke english?
I shuddered and extended my hand.
Don't panic Kat.She might not kill you.
Might.My brain reminded me.
I sucked in a breath when her hand wrapped around mine.
"So much fear."She said in her raspy voice as she held my hand."Yet nothing to fear off."
You probably have nothing to fear off old lady.I shot at her in my mind.
"So much shock."she continued in the same tone."Yet it's all familiar."
What's with the rhythm?I couldn't help thinking.
"So much pain."she said after a long pause.
Yet nothing to...?I chanted in my mind.
"Pain will make you strong."she said finally.
I opened my mouth to say truthfully that I didn't understand one word she said but she put a finger to her lips.
"Shhhh."
I cast my eyes downward.
"Give me your other hand."She whispered.
I obliged without hesitation.After all she could help me.
We sat holding hands for like a decade when I realized her mouth was moving slowly.Then it started moving fast.I caught a few words which made zero sense.
All I concluded was that I was actually sitting with an old and powerful witch who was chanting a mantra on our linked hands.
Then my mind started working.Scenes swirled in my mind.I watched them inside my brain.
I was five.A stuffed toy was hidden in my chest.My eyes were puffy and red.Everyone was telling me I was crazy.It scared me to death.
Then I was six.I was sitting in a bare room except for a bed with white sheets and the red haired woman from my dream was tearing my toy up into bits and pieces.
She was screaming at me.I huddled to the wall, sobbing like a maniac.
"You are mentally sick Lyn."Another voice came in my ear.A young man in a court suit was kneeling in front of me.He was looking at me with indifferent eyes.
"I am not sick daddy."I whispered rubbing my eyes with dirty hands.
"Let's go."he addressed to someone else.
"No please don't leave me here.I will be good I promise.I swear I will be good."I cried between sobs.
"Oh yeah.So you come home again and humiliate us to death."The woman said angrily."Stay here and rot with your friend."
They both turned to go.
"NO DADDY PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME HERE...."
My painful screams echoed around the room.The door shut.My chest wrecked with sobs.
I was seven,rejected and lonely.The room where I sat was still bare except for the bed.The adults here were telling me I was sick.Maybe I was.I didn't care.I just wanted to go home.
My mummy and daddy weren't here and I was so scared,but they told me I couldn't go home.
It was so frustrating.I would really go crazy in this room.I stood up in anger and determination.I tried to extract a steel bed-rod from under the mattress but it wouldn't budge.I started sobbing and screaming.Nobody came to help me.I struggled with the rod until it came free.
My hands were bleeding.
I raised it and smashed it on the window.I screamed but the window stayed fine.My frustration grew.
That's it.I don't want to live another minute in here.
Actually I didn't want to live anymore.
I picked the rod up and smashed it on my head.A scream shattered the silence.Blood splattered on my face.
My panic mounted and I tried to stem the blood with my fingers,but no avail.Screams filled the air and then it blacked out.
Someone was screaming and pounding on something.
"Let it go child.Focus here.Let it go"
Someone chanted in my ear.
I looked around at the blurry moonlit room.Then I realized I was the one screaming and pounding the table.
The witch seemed to squeeze my hand and say soothing words in my ear.
After a minute I calmed down.
"They....I...."I said in a hoarse voice.
"They were not ordinary dreams ya sughra they were your memories."
Memories.
I couldn't believe my own ears.I sat, stunned on the chair.
"But....that woman...that...."
"Your parents."the witch confirmed.
"Oh my God."I moaned.
"Your hidden past opened up to you."
She said softly.
"No...it's not true.If it was I would've remembered something..."my voice broke.
"You tried to kill yourself child.That's how you lost your memory."
"No..I can't believe it okay.It's impossible...Nobody told me about it..no...its NOT true."
And how could it be true?
"It's true."
"Shutup you stupid witch. Why would I even believe what you say?"I snarled as anger took the better of me.
She looked at me beadily.
"Do you remember anything before you were eight years old?Anything?"
I stared at her.
Now that she did mention it I actually didn't.My childhood memories revolved around me being in sixth grade when I had met Emma.
Before that my idea of my childhood was typical.I didn't particularize anything ever, and what could a seven year old remember about their childhood.
My parents once said we lived in Texas before moving to Philadelphia.
I apparently thought that was when I was really small and had no memories about it.
"Please tell me they were not my parents."I begged in a shaky voice.
"Let me tell you a story."the witch said in a low voice"Lyn was five when she started thinking she had a best friend.But strange enough her mother and father couldn't see her best friend and said she was making it all up.She tried to prove various times that it was true. The times were not appropriate to prove an invisible friend.Lyn would be an embarrassment to her parents."
My hand curled into fists.She didn't notice and continued in the same voice"After a year they decided she was mentally sick and showed her to a lot of psychiatrists but instead of recovering she became more determined about her friend.They left her in a rehab and made her stay there for two years.Lyn always wanted to go home and prove she wasn't mentally ill so one day she tried to break out but as a small child she didn't have the strength to do it.So she tried to kill herself and ended up losing her memory."
The witch stopped abruptly but I didn't notice.I stared and stared at her with glazed eyes.
My past?
My breathing was heavy.My heart was bursting from inside.
I composed myself.
"Then what happened?"I asked in a strangled whisper.
"Your treatment lasted for six months.When you recovered you knew nothing about the three years from five to eight.You knew nothing about any invisible friend.You were fine and normal."
I stared at her.My heart was so heavy I thought it would burst with pressure.
"Why can't I recognize them in any of these dreams?"I accused brokenly.
"Child.The faces were replaced with those of unfamiliarity for a purpose."she explained.
I continued staring at her.This made little sense.
My screams from my chidhood filled my ears.The stuffed toy,the rehab centre, my mother's shouts.
"My parents did that to me?"I whispered hoarsely.
"Ya sagheerah apparently they thought you were mentally ill.In your human world ghareeb and ajeeb things are defined as psychic problems."
I tried hard to locate the memories of my childhood,to feel them and remember them in my own head but nothing came in my mind.
"Those memories are sealed shut by yourself.You can never remember them."she said as if reading my mind.
I didn't answer.She apprehended me with her glowing green orbs.The only sound was the rise and fall of my heavy chest.
I squeezed my eyes shut wishing it was all a nasty nightmare.
Those screams were ringing in my ears.My screams.
My mother's shouts were overlapping my screams.I could never imagine my mother shouting at me like that.
"How could she?"I moaned."How could she do that to me."
I opened my eyes and to my shock the witch was gone.
I gasped and stood up staring into the empty chair and then wildly around the room.
"Wait!I need answers.I don't understand....wait please for God's sake....."I babbled staggering across the room.
I needed to talk to her again.This was bizzare.And damn confusing.
How did she know?And what did I see in my past that no one did?And what connection did it have to my present?
"Oh my God wait.."I bawled.
I stumbled back on the chair and pounded the table,hurting my knuckles in the process.
"F*** YOU...WAIT..."
The door flew open revealing an aghast Sabrina and a terrified Ky.
"Kat."Sabrina whispered."I heard everything."
I looked at her."Sabrina I don't understand. She is gone!"I accused.
Tears gathered in my eyes.
Shit.No crying.
"I'm sorry Kat."Ky said huskily.
I turned away and hastily wiped my tears.I didn't need their pity!
"You know what?We will come back for some more explanation.Let's go."I said in my coldest voice.
I ignored them swapping glances.
I stood up and strode out of the room.
My emotions were at the brink and it took me everything to push them back.
The other two followed me up the staircase and out of the building.
The sunlight flared in my eyes but I didn't blink.I slammed in the passenger seat without a word.I could feel the silent communication going between the other two and I didn't care.
Sabrina brought the car into life and we rode out of the restricted area.
The journey was in pitch perfect silence.
"Kat."Ky said after opening and the closing his jaw for the fifth time.
"Yeah?"I flicked.
"Are you going to....?"
"What?"I shot at him coldly.
He shook his head quickly.
"We need to see the old lady again."I said after another stretched pause."She did a runner on me."
"Ablah is the oldest witch on the planet.She has strange habits which we cannot understand."Sabrina intoned.
"When will I see her again?"I said in a flat voice.Didn't care if she was strange.
"Kat you just know the reason of your dreams now.It's no use to dwell in the past."
"It's not about dwelling in the past"I said harshly."I freaking don't understand anything."
"You will."
"Stop here."I ordered abruptly.
"What?here?"Sabrina echoed.
We were on the main highway road.
"Your house is one mile away."Ky explained.
"F*** my house."I shot at him."Did I tell you to sit there and look stupid?Stop here."I said icily to Sabrina.
She pulled to a side and braked.
I stepped outside quickly incase she changed here mind.
"You guys can go.I'll take a cab home."
I muttered.
I pulled out a pack of cigarettes from my bagback. It was Dan's and I had stolen it from him to throw it out.
The last time I smoked was.....screw it I don't even remember.
"We are not going anywhere."Ky said to me strernly as he got out and shut his door.
He came and stood beside me, his eyes on the dying sun over the horizon.
I didn't answer.My mind was screaming but my face was set and stone cold.
Sabrina was still sitting in the car but her door was open and her legs were sticking out.
They both watched me as I smoked.I ignored their eyes as I smoked. My throat burned but I didn't care.
I watched the smoke blow in the sunset ahead and my mind lost itself in it.

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