Aries (#Wattys2018)

Chapter Two

  The ride back was silent as they both brooded.  Azah's mind was short-circuiting with thoughts as wild excuses and explanations chased each other around her head.
  It was impossible.  It was absolutely impossible for a person to be in one spot one second and in another one the next.  The only conclusion she could come to was that The Weird Gray Place and Creepy Shadow Man were hallucinations caused by her head wound.
  But somehow, Azah couldn't seem to comfort herself with this, because what about the clinking noise?  That wasn't something that could be glossed over as a figment of her imagination.  By the way Amina kept warily looking around as though expecting a ghoul to jump out and attack them, she knew her sister had heard it as well.
  Azah was dying to isolate herself in her room and take out the charm, but Amina seemed to be trying to take as long as she could to get home.  She would drive through back streets and narrow passages, remote lanes and seemingly random routes that turned their way home into a crazy S.  Every once in a while, her older sister made a complete turn in the opposite direction and rode down a different path.
  After forever and a day, they finally reached their apartment.  The sun had completely set by that time, and some stars were becoming visible.  Azah hopped off the bike before they had completely stopped and ran through the swinging front doors, her sneakers slapping against the pavement.  The lobby was dimly-lit and deserted, save for a woman at the front desk who was watching a romance film on a little black-and-white television.
  'Azah!' Amina said as she burst through the double doors, sounding annoyed.  'Where are you in such a hurry to get to?'
  Azah opted to ignore her, making her sister sigh.  Giving the broken down elevator a pass, she darted up three flights of stairs while the woman at the desk sobbed. 
  'No, Matío, no!' the woman cried at the television, collapsing across the desk dramatically, with her hand over her heart and the chains on her glasses swinging.
  Amina took a moment to stop and question the woman's soundness of mind before running after her sister.
  Every step that she took on the worn out carpet that covered the stairs caused a little puff of dust to burst out, despite the fact that troops of people ascended and descended them everyday.  She was a set and a half of steps behind Azah, which meant that by the time she got to the top of the third one, she was already slipping through their front door.
  Flat 325 used to have a room key, just like all the other apartments on the block.  But when they had misplaced it some time ago, there was no point in going to the council and begging for another one.  They opted to just leave the door unlocked like everyone else on their floor.  There was nothing inside that would be worth stealing anyways.
  'Azah!' Amina groaned in exasperation as she finally got inside and roughly pulled the door closed behind her.  'Where are you going?'
  She was stalking across the small kitchen area towards her bedroom, and paid no mind to the voice calling her.
  'Don't ignore me!' Amina frowned, but she took no notice of her as though having been struck deaf.
  She crossed the room in three long steps and grabbed Azah's arm, forcing her to turn around.  Her face was flat and expressionless, but her scrunched up eyes betrayed that she was somewhere between laughing violently and weeping.
  'Are ... are you okay?'
  'Why would I not be okay?' Azah asked in a monotone.
  'You're acting weird.'
  'I'm not acting weird.' she uttered in the same voice. 
  Amina was taken aback.  Now she knew something was definitely wrong.  Azah never spoke without a cheerful undertone to her voice, and she was never - absolutely never - quiet.
  Said cheerful person took advantage of this distraction to wrench her arm out of Amina's loosened grasp and sidle into her room, slamming and locking the door.

***

'I'm not acting weird.  Just fearing for my sanity and possibly my life in here, don't mind me!'
  Azah turned and collapsed onto her bed, waiting five minutes or many millenniums until Amina's persistent banging on the door cut out.  She then rolled over and proceeded to scream into her pillow.
  Abdur, and the man, and the charm.  She felt like her brain was going to explode with unanswered questions.  She reached into her pocket and dragged the little piece of cool metal to eye level.  She stared at the blurry red, and it twinkled back innocently.  Now that Azah took a closer look, it slightly resembled two horns curving outwards, or an upside down anchor.
  She slowly got up and trudged to the open window, looking straight down at the concrete below.  She was tempted to just drop the little pendant and forget it ever existed.  Shadow Man could have it for all she cared.
  Azah had her arm halfway out of the window when Abdur's voice echoed in her head and she felt like she had been doused in ice cold water.
  'Don't trust people who won't show their face to you.'
  Was this what he had been talking about?  Did her uncle know about the Shadow Man with his collection of charms and was trying to warn her?  Then why would he have given her this one?
  Sighing, she retracted her hand back into the room and shut the window.  She couldn't make any rash decisions until she found out what was at stake.
  'I know you have it.'
  How did he know?  And why did he need it?

***

  Three light knocks on the wood.
  'Can I come in?'
  'Sure.'
  Amina hesitantly cracked the door open and came over to sit on the bed across from her sister.  Mama had come home hours ago, and had taken her turn trying to get Azah to come out of her bedroom before retiring to her own.  It was now well past midnight.
  'Do you want to talk?'
  No answer.
  'You got your job today, right?  What did you get?'
  'Afghan Representative.' was the gruff response.
  If Azah hadn't been so busy fiddling with a loose thread on her comforter, she would have noticed Amina's face paling to the colour of a marble slate.  When she glanced up, unnerved by the abrupt silence, it had changed to a pained smile.
  'Well done!  When do you leave for central?'
  'Tomorrow at eleven.  I'm supposed to be there by noon.'  Suddenly, a realization struck her.  'Hey, I don't know what job you got when you were twelve!  You left for that camp right after.'
  A pregnant pause filled the air between them as Amina shifted awkwardly from one leg to the other. 
  'Yeah, Azah, look ... that wasn't really a camp.  I got AR as my job too.'
  She frowned, furrowing her brow.
  'What?  But how do you have a job then?'  Amina worked as a waitress, in a little café on the other side of town near the library.  'I thought that if you didn't get the job then you'll never get hired again?  Is that the real reason you live with Mama and me?  Why didn't you ever tell me that -'
  'Have a safe trip, Azah.' she said, getting off the bed and flashing her a grin that looked like someone had stuck it there by mistake.  'Be careful, okay?  And just ... don't trust people who keep their face covered.'
  Amina left to the living room where she slept on the couch, and shut off the light on her way out.
  'Get some rest.'
  The door was halfway ajar, and Azah caught sight of her own stunned face in the shadowy floor mirror across the hall before she lay back down on the bed and fell into an uneasy sleep.