Captured (erotic) (#5, 101 Nights)

Chapter One: Alisha

“Ms. A’isha!”

Alisha. I’ve given up correcting the friendly people here. A’isha has some sort of historical significance to them, so I go by either name.

“Hey, Miriam!” I greet the woman I came to meet. Pretty and tiny, Miriam is wearing a brilliant headscarf of fuchsia streaked with yellow.

Another thing I love about Nijala: the women are more concerned about outdoing each other in bright colors than whether or not they match. I fit in like a champ here.

“You escaped!” she says cheerfully.

I laugh. She and her family listened with awe the first time I described the palace. They somehow found it in them to pity me for being trapped in a world of obscene wealth and beauty, so much so that I’ve eaten dinner with them four nights in a row. “I couldn’t miss your mama’s kuftah and rice!”

“We have bakalawa for you tonight, too. Come!” Miriam links her arm through mine, and we weave through the crowds together. Her eyes go up to the billboard of Natalie, and a dreamy look overcomes her. “When do you think we will get to meet her? She is so beautiful.”

When we find her. Just like that, my brittle happiness breaks. The reason I look forward every day to fucking with George’s security members and finding new random families to adopt me is because I can’t get close enough to him to uncover what’s going on. He’s always gone or on the move or simply unavailable. I’m locked out, bored, alone and worried. Every day, my room is searched, and any electronics I manage to buy at the markets are taken. I’ve got absolutely no money now to buy more, and I can’t risk tapping the emergency fund George doesn’t know about yet.

The only thing I can do: fuck with his men in passive aggressive revenge and hang out with people like Miriam in an attempt to stay occupied. The desperation I’ve been trying to lose in my daily jaunts to the city rears its ugly head again. This past week was the longest I’ve gone without a computer or electronics of some kind. I can’t help find her, even though it’s why George brought me here.

I’m just … lost. No Natalie, no internet, nothing. There’s freedom in not being chained to my desk and gizmos, but there’s also a familiar neurotic edge, one that makes me do really stupid shit, that’d growing harder for me to contain.

“Are you okay, A’isha?” Miriam is watching me curiously.

“Na’am, sadiqati,” I reply in terrible Arabic that makes her smile. “Hopefully we meet the new queen soon.” Assuming she’s still alive.

It’s hard to smile when I feel this way. My good mood is gone for the evening.

Somehow, I manage to fake my way through the dinner, which runs more than three hours and includes board games. Miriam’s two older brothers, one younger sister and parents live in a two-bedroom apartment in their version of the slums. But they’re happy, and I feel at home whenever I’m with them. Miriam is my age and working on her Masters degree. One of her older brothers is in his internship at a hospital after completing his medical doctorate.

There’s no work in Nijala, another reason for the poverty despite the speculation I read in a newspaper that the kingdom is worth something insane like a trillion dollars. It’s all concentrated inside the walls in the hands of the rich.

Natalie will fix that, if she has the chance. God help me, I’d do anything for one small piece of information about her.

Roughly four hours later, at midnight, I leave Miriam’s place and stroll out into the much quieter city. I’m full and distracted, ready to go to sleep and restart my restless cycle of staying occupied somehow again tomorrow. If I give myself too much room to think or act, I’ll become impulsive. The only reason I’m somewhat in control is that I fear what might happen to Natalie if I cause a scene.