Just Noise and Light
Title: Just Noise and Light
Fandom: Kane Chronicles
Summary: "It's just some noise and light. That's all."
Characters: Zia Rashid, Yazmin (her older sister, my Original Character).
Word count before notes: 741 words.
Notes: It was originally going to be fluff. Now it's rather angsty.
What seemed like a sonic boom to six-year-old Zia's ears rattled her family's simple house. She gave a high pitched squeal, covering her ears and burying her head in her older sister's side. A streak of lightning flashed across the sky, shedding a flicker of light on the household for just a second before drenching it in darkness again.
Another clap of thunder sounded, followed by the pouring rain hitting the dry sand, the dwindling river, and the small buildings in patches here and there. It wasn't a soft, calming thrum, but the beat of an insane drummer, pounding irregularly.
Zia reached out a slender, olive-skinned hand to her sister, with whom she shared their small bed, shaking her shoulder. "Yazm – " she began, but suppressed another squeak as another boom of thunder sounded through the desert. Her elder sister, eight years her senior, lifted her head sleepily. "I'm scared," little Zia whispered, curling up into a ball, her knees to her chest, the blankets loosely draped around her rather bony shoulders. Lighting flashed across the sky, just enough for Yazmine to see her younger sister's terrified face.
"It's all right, Z," she murmured, comfortingly, reaching out to the girl. With another earth-rattling boom, the little girl flung herself into her older sister's arms.
"B-but, it's scary," Zia whispered, her face buried in Yazmin's nightdress, her small arms wrapped around her.
"Shh, no it's not," the older girl said softly. "It's just a noise, okay? Just some noise and light."
Eight-year-old Zia tore through the crowded streets of the village, her dress flapping in the rough wind, her long black hair whipping around her face. Everything looked...red. The sand, the sky, the buildings, the sun. Even the river looked red. It was unnerving, to see the place she'd grown up in look so...intimidating.
"Get to the river, hide in the reeds, and don't wait for us, we'll be along soon!"
Remembering her mother's order as she'd shoved her out the door, Zia ran towards the river, her knees hitting the sand. As if by chance, she tumbled into a hole beside where she had landed, an old fire-pit. She hugged her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth, her eyes clamped shut.
Footsteps, light and lithe, yet with purpose, stopped right outside the fire-pit. "Good, stay here," Yazmin's voice called down. An explosion sounded off in the distance. "Z, it's just noise, remember? Noise and light. No reason to be afraid." With that, her sister stood up and began to run back to the house, to help their mother with the other children.
Zia believed her, that it was just booms and flashes of light. Like thunder. The thunderstorms had never done any harm to them – their house was far up enough to where the river didn't wash it away, and the rain always made the crops grow so Baba could go into Cairo and sell them. Noise and light were good, in Zia's innocent mind.
Maybe that's why she managed to fall asleep. She thought everything would be all right.
That's probably why she was so surprised to be shaken awake by a strange man, with a strange accent – maybe one of the countries they'd learned of in school. She shrunk back into the corner of the fire-pit, her dark hair covering her grimy face and making her look rather creepy. "Wh-who are you?" she stammered, in Arabic. The man obviously didn't understand, furthering her idea that he wasn't native. He called over his shoulder.
Another man soon appeared, this one much older, and looking less foreign. He smiled kindly at Zia, and told her, in Arabic, much to her relief, "Hello, child. Do not fuss, we will not harm you. We will keep you safe."
"Mama...Baba..." she whispered.
The man sighed, his smile fading. "Come with us. We are your family now."
Zia understood. She understood what he meant, she just didn't want to believe it. Her family...they couldn't be dead. It was all just some noise and some light, right?
Zia sat on the window seat of her room in Brooklyn House, watching the rain slide down the glass, the lightning streak over the Manhattan skyline, and then closed her eyes, hearing the rumble of thunder follow. She sighed softly, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders tighter. "It's just noise," she whispered to herself. "Just noise and light. That's all."