El mayarah

Chapter 3: Stronger Together

I couldn't believe only 30 hours had passed. I had never been apart from Elin for this long ever since she was born. It certainly felt like at least a week had passed. I missed her so badly, that it hurt like hell every time I breathed. I couldn't imagine what my parents were going through.

I still remembered the day Elin was born. Me and Elin were born naturally. My parents didn't approve of the birthing Matrix that gave birth to thousands of children every day. Considering them too artificial and manipulative.

I was only five and over excited to meet my new sibling, thinking I could finally have someone to play with for my whole life and I would never be alone again like when mother and father had to go to work and would leave me home with a babysitter. I remember vividly when father had put Elin wrapped into a bundle of soft blanket in my arms, holding his strong arms under my slim, small arms to support them and prevent me from dropping her.

"Tyren, this is your little nessa."

She was asleep. Her skin was red and I wondered if she would be always red. "Why is she red, atar?"

My father chuckled and put a kiss to my temple. "It's because she's newly born, arne. Don't worry, she won't stay like that."

"I love her no matter what, atar. I know she will be beautiful just like mya. Because mya is the most beautiful woman in this world."

Father hadn't said anything back then and I kept looking at my little sister until she opened her tiny eyes to look at me for the first time.

"Hi nessa." I then looked at my father, wondering why he had tears in his eyes. "Atar, why are you crying? Is mya ok?"

Father cracked up again. "These are happy tears Tyren, don't worry. Mya is just resting."

Observing my sister for a few more seconds, I asked. "What is her name?"

"What do you think we should call her?" father fondly smiled.

I looked around me, I saw the book that I had been reading while waiting for my sister to be born, lying next to me. It was an old book about a hero called Valor. He was my father's favorite character. I couldn't read yet, but it had lots of the pictures, each demonstrating a tale of Valor's heroics. Farther and mother had read to me most of the stories and I loved looking at the ancient paintings, retelling the stories, and drown myself in the drawings, imagining I'm Valor, fighting the monsters.

In the last page I was reading, Valor finds her long lost lover who had been taken by fire monsters. Her name was Elin-Em. The redness of my sister's skin had reminded me of the painting in the book, showing Elin-Em trapped between crimson flames. I had imagined maybe my nessa had gone through a flames and the heat had made her skin turn so reddish. Without hesitation I had called the name out loud. "Elin!"

Father had gone out shortly after eating his light dinner. He hugged me tightly once more and promised to call soon. I had nodded and tried to mimic his steel and confident expression, before assuring him of his unasked request. "Don't worry father, I'll look after mya."

His face had softened then, ruffled my hair and left in the dead of night. I had then went upstairs and watched my mother's sleeping form, happy that she seemed peaceful at least for the time being.

Walking closer to bed, I put down the plate filled with sandwiches on the bedside table near her without making a sound. Hopefully she would easily see them when she woke up. I walked back to exit the room, but stopped hovering in the doorway. I didn't want to be alone in the quiet and dark house this night. I didn't want to wander to Elin's room again and break apart again. I wanted to be strong and stay close to mother.

I went back to the bed and slowly laid down on the covers – on father's side of the bed, next to mother – making sure not to move the mattress too much and awaken her. I didn't dare to wrap my arms around her like she had done with me, in fear of waking her up. I only took in her relaxed sleeping features, tracing all the delicate lines with my eyes in the dark room, listening to the soft ebbs and flow of her breathing, until I felt myself dozing off as well.

Awareness didn't come to me instantly this time. I woke up to the feeling of light fingers caressing my face and slowly opened my blue eyes only to greet their identical ones on mother's face – Comets as father liked to call them. She kept looking at me lovingly. The faint smile adorning her face made me smile back and reach my hand to stroke her face, mirroring her. I noticed the room wasn't dark but engulfed in the bright beams of red light. It was morning.

"My beautiful unah…" She whispered softly in Kryptonese, calling me son.

"Leiu, I love you." I said back in Kryptonese, calling her mother and shifted forward to nestle my face into her chest, listening to her soothing heartbeat, breathing in her familiar scent. " I will never let you feel lonely."

Later that morning, uncle Kal had come back to our house and slept a few hours, being awake for the past night using his computer skills to work with others technicians, searching for Elin. He then headed back there again.

It was passed noon when finally father informed us that they had found a lead and were planning to send forces to the location they believed Elin was held at. The previous day uncle Kal had gone to Krypton and brought in his Kalex robot upon mother's suggestion. Kalex had a super enhanced processor, allowing the technicians to crack the codes of the firewall, protecting the source of the email that had been sent to me – causing all this in the first place – and had found the ties that revealed the identity of the culprits. And after highly sophisticated analysis of satellite imagery of their movements over a month, a location had been marked out.

I felt a tiny bit of satisfaction in learning that my hologram device would be the salvation that ended this nightmare and could bring Elin back to us.

I looked at my father's hologram projection, telling us all these information. He seemed tired, but hopeful. Could Elin really be back in our arms by the end of the day?

I squeezed my mother's hand in mine and she squeezed back. I had barely left her side since last night. Always there to make sure she wouldn't let herself starve, distracted her and tried not to let her thoughts stumble back into the clouds of dark concerns that I knew were there.

"Me and Kal are going with the forces to the location." Father announced.

"Zohr…" Mother started to ask something, but stopped as if suddenly doubted whether she should ask it or not. I felt her hold on my hand tighten a bit.

"I'll bring our meril back miar, I swear to Rao." Father swore on mother's god to fulfill her unspoken request and diminish her fears.

I watched them communicate silently with their eyes again for a moment and couldn't help myself and asked.

"Father, can I come with you too? Please, I want to be there for Elin and…" I trailed off, suddenly unsure. On the one hand I wanted to be with father and uncle Kal and on the other hand I didn't want to leave mother behind to wait alone in the house.

"I want to be there with you too." Mother amazed me with her exclaim. I looked at her and saw the same thing I felt reflecting in her eyes.

"El mayarah" I recited again and mother nodded with a warm smile.

And we both faced father's hologram picture. I saw the trepidation in his face. Contemplating our decision to be with him in the undoubtedly dangerous situation. I knew he wanted to deny us, but upon seeing the determination in our features, he caved in.

"El mayarah."

Me and mother stayed in a car with a guard and a driver, parked in a safe distance from the building that was holding my baby sister captive. Father had asked us to stay put and not to get any closer until this was over. Instead he had given me an intercom device so we could stay in the loop and call if something happened.

The minutes dragged on and Rao was getting closer to the ground level, causing the shadows to stretch, making me and mother more restless.

The enforcers had surrounded the house. There had been no sudden moves. The kidnappers' demand was for father to drop his lawsuit against a man named Jaol. He was the brain behind this kidnapping and the head of a chain of criminals who were still smuggling slaves to Daxam, even though it had been banned so many years ago. Jaol and many others had disobeyed the new law and had kept selling people like animals to their disgusting clients for years in secret and father had found out about it last year. Despite months of anonymous threatening, my father hadn't given up his pursuit to find the master mind behind the trafficking to put him behind the bars. But in the end it had cost him his daughter being kidnapped.

Ultimately, after hours of tiring and nerve breaking negotiations with Jaol, the talks led to a dead end and we shivered as we heard the kidnapper threatened to harm Elin. Me and mother heard with frightful hearts, as the captain ordered the forces to open fire and infiltrated the building.

The shootings continued for long minutes and the intercom broadcasted only shouts and bangs. The transmission stopped soon. No one was on the other side to answer us anymore and we could do nothing, but cling to each other and pray in silence.

"Kara? Tyren? I have her! Elin is with me. She's ok."

Father's panting and excited voice shattered the dreading bubble of silence we were trapped in.

"Mon-El?"

Mother shouted with relief, holding the intercom device with trembling hands and completely speechless. I saw tears streaming down her cheeks. Tears of happiness. I couldn't say anything either. Tears blurred my vision as well

"She's here Kara. She's just scared. I'm bringing her to you right now."

"Thank Rao" Mother dropped the device and pulled me in her arms sobbing hard.

When we both managed to settle ourselves down a bit, we scrambled out of the car. Impatient for father and Elin's arrival. We didn't let go of each other, grounding each other by holding hands.

I heard father's footsteps before seeing him. Murmuring something constantly, he was clutching a very frightened Elin tightly to his chest. Uncle Kal was following them closely with a broad grin on his face. I was rooted to the ground, unable to move or utter a sound. I saw a cut on father's forehead, bleeding, but it was as if he wasn't aware of it at all. His entire focus was on calming Elin as he brought her to us.

Mother let go of my hand and ran to them with outstretched hands. She burst into tears again as she pulled Elin into her embrace and showered her with kisses.

"Elin-nizu." She cried, her pain and relief laced through her voice.

"Leiu…Mya" Elin whimpered weekly, clinging to mother. I felt the hot tears pouring out of my eyes again. Uncle Kal came to my side and gripped my shoulder.

Mother's legs were about to give out and if it wasn't for father she would have lost her balance, but with his strong arms around her waist, he held them up right and then he turned his head to see where I was.

"Tyren come here. It's ok Arne. It's all over dear."

And with that I ran to my family on wobbly legs, hugging them with everything I had and cried openly.

After a thorough medical check-up for both Elin and father, resulting only in some stitches for fathers head injury – to our relief, nothing serious – it was time for us to go back home.

Fortunately Elin was fine. Apart from a scraped knee and being starved, no harm had come to her. They had only kept her locked down in a room and had even given her food which she had refused to eat. Elin's red puffy eyes told me she had cried a lot since being taken away from us.

The forces had entered just in time and with father in the leading team, they had extracted Elin without a scratch. (Almost, if you took in the scratch on her knee.)

The ride home this time was completely different from the last time. Though there were tears involved, they were happy ones, ones that set us free from the tensions. Elin had her face buried in mother's chest the whole ride, but she let me hold her small, dirty hand. It felt cold against my skin and I held it, warming it – still feeling remorseful. She raised her head to look at me.

"hanon?"

"Hey nessa. I'm right here. I'm sorry this happened Elin. It was my fault." I couldn't stop the words coming from my mouth.

"It wasn't your fault. I forgive you hanon." She told me in her small tired voice. And for the first time in two days I felt my heart finally unclenched and freed from the heavy weight of guilt. It was as if I could breathe again.

I didn't let go of her hand this time. Not ever again.

Elin didn't let go of mother for the whole night. I didn't blame her for being so clingy. And mother didn't let go of her either, needing to feel her in her arms constantly to make sure of her presence to convince herself that Elin was here for real and the nightmare had ended.

Mother took Elin to bath after feeding her a warm meal. We all took turns to bath, not having the heart to look after ourselves for two days. We all needed to clean, change and have proper meal.

I couldn't help but notice how everything seemed bright and heartwarming. Like a veil had been lifted from my eyes and mind. Even the colors on everything seemed vivid and enriched.

Finally I felt tiredness pulling my eyelids down, and this time I was ready to give in to sleep with consent, but I wanted to make sure that everything was fine before going to bed. So I went to check how everyone was doing.

Father was making some calls, while drying his hair with a towel in his study. Uncle Kal was passed out on a couch and mother was playing with Elin since she refused to go to sleep before playing with her doll – which she terribly missed. When mother noticed uncle Kal's snores, she asked me to wake him and tell him to go sleep comfortably on his bed in the guest room. Using this chance to jock with uncle Kal, I tried to wake him up by tickling him with a feather. I laughed hard when he fell down the couch, feeling like my lungs were about to give out and he roared with laughter too upon finding himself on the carpet. Our laughs drew out the other to the living room. Grabbing at my stomach, I leaned forward and laughed even harder at the sight of bewilderment on my parents' faces. And suddenly Elin broke into a round of giggles and snorts - after being unusually quiet since her return which had worried us.

I never imagined all that my parents needed to become happy again - like before all this happened - , all I needed this whole time, was to hear Elin's childish laughs. The four of us stood there – with uncle Kal still sprawled on the floor unable to get up from the laughter – and laughed for Rao knows how long stupidly, and then we took turns to hug and kiss Elin.

And I knew it in my heart that everything was better than ok when I went to bed and father tucked me in. I fell asleep effortlessly.

Later nightmares caught me unawares in the dreams and I jerked awake, cold sweat covering my torso and face while tremors rattled my body. I blinked rapidly to wash away the after images of the horrible nightmare, in which Elin had never come back home.

I went to check on Elin. I needed to see her curled under her favorite yellow blanket and clutching her doll like every night she did.

But she wasn't in her bed. My heart started to pound heavily like it weighed a ton. Suddenly I feared that I had imagined Elin being rescued and frantically went to my parents' bedroom in the completely dark hallway with bare feet. Stopping at the foot of their bed, I looked at their sleeping forms.

I moved closer to father. He had his back to me, facing mother. The soft rise and fall of their breathing did little to calm my nerves. I felt my hands shaking hard as I reached forward to call my father awake.

Then I saw Elin cuddled into mother's chest. The wave of relief hit me so hard that I wanted to lay down right there, right then.

I guess I sighed loud enough for mother to awaken from her light slumber. In the darkness, I saw she raised her head in my direction.

"Tyren?" Mother whispered.

"Mya, I was…" I answered her as quietly, unable to explain my reason to be there.

"Come here." She spread her hand towards me. I went near her. Though we couldn't see each other's face, I knew she sensed my unease. Like she somehow knew I had woken from a nightmare. "Do you want to sleep here tonight dear?" She squeezed my hand. "It's okay unah, I want you close tonight as well."

Without saying anything more, I carefully climbed onto their bed and tried to fit myself in the small gap between Elin and father. Despite my efforts not to wake father, I heard him taking in a deep breath, marking his awakening. He shifted a bit to make more room for me without saying anything and I felt his heavy, warm arm wrapping around me as soon as I laid my head down on the side of his pillow. Spooning me from behind, he put a sleepy kiss on the back of my head. I watched Elin's sleeping face. The only one who hadn't even stirred during this commotion. I fell asleep while holding Elin's hand – the one she wasn't clutching her fluffy doll with.

I can't remember ever sleeping as peacefully as I did that night in my entire life.

And I always believe that we are truly stronger when we are together.

El mayarah.

End of Part 1