June 6th 1997
Baron Empain Palace - Heliopolis - Cairo
The car pulled over at the back of the palace on a surprisingly chilly summer night.
Sarah stepped out walking slowly behind her friend Laila and her annoying boyfriend, as the distant, fast, yet steady beats of death metal pounded against her heart.
She was not sure why she was getting these cold shivers that ran up and down her spine, it seemed like the very air around this place was eerie. She heard a great deal about this palace. She actually studied it in one of her history of architecture classes.
"Baron Empain was not an evil man." Her professor said one time. "He was driven by pure ambition and infinite creativity."
She was at awe when she saw the palace from what used to be the main garden. It looked like a Hindu temple with its sharp edges and majestic artwork. She ascended the first set of stairs when she saw a statue of the Hindu deity Devi with serpents for arms and evil slanted eyes. It seemed like it was looking straight at her.
She was looking at a big lion resting on one of the poles when Laila grabbed her arm and dragged her through the main gate and inside the palace.
The aggressive tunes of death metal were deafening. Her friend had told her about those gatherings many times but to see it with her own eyes filled her insides with pure disgust.
She saw a group head banging to the tunes of Dimmu Borgir, others were sniffing coke and using needles.
Wherever she looked, she saw some hideous act taking place. She stumbled upon one of the most disgusting sights she has ever seen.
A group of people had a cage that was filled with cats. They formed a circle around something she couldn't make out. She approached the circle to take a look, she saw one of the men take out a cat from the cage and very swiftly slitting its throat, and to her utter shock, the blood spilled in the middle of the circle where a man and a woman laid there completely naked, fornicating, while the blood was pouring down on them.
She was overwhelmed, blood rushed to her head and her heart was pounding, she gagged, almost threw up putting her palm on her mouth as she rushed away, out of the main room and into a corridor where she found an old door which she opened, got in and slammed it shut.
She closed her eyes and tried to breathe steadily for a moment. "oh God" She said under her breath with her back to the door as if trying to keep what she had just seen from following her.
She opened her eyes. She was in what seemed to be an old dining room. it was empty and full of dust and spider webs. She walked around the room for a moment trying to get her bearings straight when suddenly she felt a chill running down her spine, there was a faint ray of moonlight coming through one of the windows at the far end of the room. She moved slowly trying to avoid the mess on the floor which was creaking with every step she took.
Suddenly she heard what seemed to be a strange, dull, annoying, loathsome, childish lullaby. She followed it to the end of the room where she found an open door. When she stepped out of the room the lullaby stopped.
She followed the path staring at her surroundings as she went. On the wall to her left there were strange symbols drawn in red, and all along the same wall there were three lines also in red leading to the end of the corridor where another door stood open obviously leading down to the basement.
She wanted to see the whole palace, especially the famous rosary room which no one was allowed in by an order of the Baron himself.
She walked to the end of the corridor and descended the stairs to the basement.
It was a lot darker here, the air was damp and heavy, and the stink was unbearable. She thought she saw a shadow of a flame dancing at the far end of that corridor, and she thought she heard distant murmurs, she assumed it was those Satanists who do all kind of weird rituals these days.
She went on walking carefully with her hand on the wall. The murmurs were getting closer and the air was getting heavier, when she suddenly tripped upon something, she couldn't see a thing but she heard a tireless, steady, slow-paced scratch. She snatched a lighter out of her pocket and tried to light it once then again, and she wished she never did.
When the flame was lit she saw a naked girl kneeling on the floor, her head rested on the wall, and she was scratching against the wall and whispering in an ominous, disturbing language. Sarah's heart was racing, and she started to sweat.
"Are you alright?" she asked. The girl stopped scratching; she moved her head away, but her head kept spinning until suddenly it snapped and she was facing Sarah with a blank face; no eyes, no nose, just plain skin and a black hole for mouth with a loud, terrifying scream.
Sarah screamed and fell to the ground, she reached for the lighter and tried to light it with her trembling hands, but when she lit it again there was no one there.
Sarah rose to her feet, she found herself reading a passage from the Quran that was supposed to drive the Jinn away.
"I take refuge with the Lord of Daybreak.
From the evil of what He created.
And from the evil of the darkness as it gathers.
And from the evil of those who practice sorcery.
And from the evil of an envious when he envies"
She wanted to go back upstairs, but she couldn't. She kept looking towards the pink door that stood ajar. She listened to the murmurs, they were so inviting, almost like a chant.
She was approaching the door when she saw a shadow of a person sitting on a chair; she rushed through and went into the room.
Suddenly it was morning, she was sitting on a wheelchair and she couldn't move at all. She saw her daddy arguing with one of the workers about an incident that took place earlier this morning where a worker was killed mysteriously; his body was found with no head, hands, or feet.
She saw her African maid approaching her, pushing her away from the ordeal, and as she was pushed back to her room she was scared, she heard some of the other maids whispering and shooting her looks that struck fear in her heart.
She was in the rosary room now; she sat there, drawing as her maid sat in the corner of the room kneeling on the floor, holding a bowl. The maid was stirring the contents and speaking foreign words. When she was done, she walked towards her smiling,
"Don't be afraid Miriam my love, everything will be alright." She said as she approached her and started to feed her the contents of the bowl.
She couldn't fight; the lady was pouring the liquid in her mouth as she as she spoke that peculiar language, and as she was doing that, her voice changed into a deeper pitch and her eyes turned white, the skin on her face started curling as if it were withering away.
That's when Baroness Helena walked into the room. Shocked and scared the Baroness pushed the maid away, took her niece and stormed out of the room.
The Baroness took her into her personal chamber and laid her on the bed.
"My poor Miriam, what was that evil woman doing to you? What was she saying?" the Baroness said while caressing Miriam's red hair lovingly.
"What was she saying sweetheart?" she asked again.
Miriam started to get uncomfortable; her auntie was now stroking her head faster as her expression changed from sympathy to a cold, lifeless stare.
"What was she saying?!! What was she saying YOU LITTLE WHORE??!!!" she started screaming suddenly as she grabbed a little knife from the nightstand.
"TELL ME!!! TELL MEEE!!!| She screamed and started to cut Little symbols on Miriam's arm violently.
Miriam couldn't take it anymore, last thing she remembered was her auntie licking the blood off her arm, while speaking in a frightening language.
Ruqyaeel Ruqyaeel
Talitha Kumi
Ruqyaeel Ruqyaeel
Talitha Kumi
Talitha Kumi
It was night, something had woken her up. It was very cold.
She heard that lullaby her maid always sang to her.
She heard footsteps but no one was there. She was scared. She could see a silhouette forming behind the curtains and suddenly, footprints were forming on the bed walking towards her.
Whispers and distant screams were filling the room, and walls were fiery red, burnt arms stretched out of the walls trying to reach out for something.
The entity was now right above her holding down her arms, she could feel a warm breath on her face, the stink was choking her, and suddenly she was floating 2 meters in the air with her arms and legs stretched then she fell back on her bed. And it was over.
She was on the roof of the palace watching her auntie giving orders to a group of servants while an execution was taking place on the other side of the palace; her daddy was punishing some workers by hanging them.
He did that many times.
It was time for the tower to rotate, she looked at her auntie who waved at her with a smile, Miriam waved back, but the baroness didn't see little, sweet Miriam on the chair, she saw a bony, ugly, old lady waving at her with blank white eyes. She took a few steps back, and Miriam was now moving towards her although no one was pushing her wheelchair.
The Baroness kept taking little steps backwards until she was at the ledge, that's when the tower rotated and she lost her balance. She held on to the ledge screaming at the top of her lungs. The Baron rushed through trying to catch his sister but it was too late.
He looked over the balcony to his sister's dead body and back towards Miriam who kept humming her lullaby and smiling at him.
Miriam was pushing through past her father's bed room now. She took a look inside, he was on the floor crying and arguing with someone, someone who wasn't there, never there.
She pushed her chair through to the terrace; she saw a statue of a lady leaning on an angry wolf. The marble lady looked at her smiling, while bloody tears ran down her carefully sculptured face and Miriam smiled back.
She looked out the window that overlooked the yard. She saw her maid and other servants arranging dead bodies in a huge circle. Blood was still pouring from many bodies. Some servants had bowls for the blood. Once a bowl was filled, it was taken back into the palace.
Miriam now saw her father crying, kneeling in front of her begging her to stop. She knew he wasn't begging HER. but rather what is now living inside her. She pushed towards him and he kept backing away until he fell down the spiral staircase. She could hear every bone in his body break, and then there was laughter, she laughed and cried and she saw and heard all the statues in the house laughing; the big marble lion, and the Hindu deity came in marching through the main door kneeling before their mistress. Miriam embraced them all, knowing that her master will live forever, his will was served, his thirst for blood quenched. For now.
Sarah was standing in the middle of the rosary room, shaking, trembling; every hair on her body sprang upwards with Goosebumps, she backed away and ran towards the door which was closed abruptly. She tried to open the door but she couldn't, until she finally gave up.
She looked to the left. There were two dead bodies gazing towards her in shock and fear: a boy and a girl hung upside down, their blood flowing down to wooden bowls placed perfectly underneath them.
And then there was that dull, evil, annoying lullaby. Sarah took a look back, she saw Miriam on her wheelchair, and the African maid moving towards the dead bodies cutting out an eyeball from the girl, and two fingers from the boy. The maid looked at Sarah, her eyes and mouth were slanted downwards. Sarah tried to scream, but no sound came out.
Miriam stopped drawing when the maid started to push her towards Sarah. The lullaby was getting louder and a little faster. Sarah could see Miriam's face; she was a beautiful, green-eyed, red-headed girl. She kept looking at Sarah in a straight face while humming the lullaby without moving her mouth or throat.
Suddenly everything went dark. Sarah tried to crawl back towards the door, but someone grabbed her ankle, she looked back to see Miriam grabbing her leg. Her face was old, wrinkly and stained with weird markings of blood; her teeth were falling out as she crawled over Sarah. The maid was on her knees shouting in that frightening language, the room trembled and as if she were liquid, Miriam dissolved into Sarah. And everything went quiet.
Out back, Laila and her boyfriend were waiting at the car, wondering where the hell Sarah was.
Out of nowhere Sarah appeared. She wore her hair down, her skin was flawless and creamy white, and she was humming the weirdest lullaby ever.
"Sarah, I was worried sick. Where were you?"
Sarah looked at Laila with what seemed to be a childish, playful expression and she kept dancing, humming, and going around in circles.
"I've never seen your friend this happy before."
"Neither have I." Laila said as she watched her friend getting into the car's backseat.
As Laila and her boyfriend shrugged, they got silently into the car.
Laila saw her friend waving at the palace.
Sarah kept waving, and humming that annoying lullaby as they left the palace for tonight.