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4. Talking through the night
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The sounds around me vanish, it's completely silent. What is happening? I hear something familiar.voices! And footsteps in the rhythm of a camel. They are coming nearer. I'm saved! I haven't heard those voices before, I'm sure of it. A man and a woman, I think, and they are saying something in Arabic. Maybe I can understand if I focus.
"..we help..hospital..phone..this away..who.." "Indeed.. of the camel..I will.."
Someone is dialing on a mobile phone, and someone is trying to lift me, but.
Ouch! My head! I'm trying to open my eyes. My body doesn't hurt as much as before. This pain is bearable. I swallow, my throat is so dry. And everything looks so white. This must be a hospital. I'm so tired. I'll sleep. I'm safe. Off to my memories.
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"Sil! Wake up! It's five past four! You've slept long enough" Gar screamed, ringing in my ears. Ow, my head hurt.
"Gar? Are you there? Could you please get me an aspirin?" I asked, rubbing my head. Then I remembered my dream, and I frowned. It had been about something that couldn't have been in a dream at all. There had been persons in my dream, whom I knew in my dream, but not in reality. And it had been very real. There were 8 persons present. Gar, Gwen, Isis, me, and two persons I knew in my dream were lined up. We were one by one initiated in the basement, by two persons in a cloak. One held the persons head steady, and the other one branded a V in the forehead. When it was my turn the dream had ended. Could that be the ritual Isis had been talking about? We'll see. I shouldn't worry about it too much. My headache was more relevant at the moment.
Gar came back from the kitchen with a glass of water and an aspirin. "Thanks." I took it and looked up in the worried face of my brother. I smiled "I'll be alright, I just need 10 more minutes to let the pain go away."
That seemed to ease his mind, and he nodded, looking somewhat more relaxed. Then he frowned again. "Did you also have that strange dream?" I nodded, this was getting stranger by the minute. "I don't know, but do you think it's a vision. It didn't seem to be the present anyway. And I'm sure we would have remembered something like this. And I'm sure I've never seen those guys in front of us before." I shrugged. And before I could say something, Gwen spoke.
"I heard what you just said. But think about it. How would it be possible for us to have visions? I mean, we are not psychic or something, at least not the last time I checked."
I looked at both of them, and they looked at me, almost with puppy dog eyes hoping for me to come up with some logical answer. "Let's just forget about it. Even if it is something we cannot explain, it doesn't appear to me we have to do something with it. It will just happen, at least I intend to let it happen. I want to summon monsters with my hands." And they nodded, seemingly content with the answer.
That night everything was back to normal again. Gwen's parents showed us around town, pointing out the best places to eat, to shop, where we would be certain of quality souvenirs, And how to behave on the market. Never look at someone unless you want to buy something. And we concluded the pleasant evening with dinner in one of the hundred hotels.
Just before midnight we parted, all going to our own bed. We would see each other in the morning at eight, at Gwen's house. But before I could close my eyes, my mother ran into the room, freaked out, and went white as a sheet.
"Who are you! You can't fool me! Come out of that bed this instant!" She said, pointing the umbrella she had snatched from the corner in front of her like a saber.
I climbed out of bed, as slowly as I could, Trying not to scare her. Gheesh, had she gone mad or something? "Mum, calm down. It's me, Sil." I tried to close in on her, or at least to get that umbrella out of my stomach. But no success.
"You can't fool me, you slut! Get out of my room! Get out of my life! I won't let you take my husband from me!" Okay, so she was mad. And divorced. What was going on? I tried to think of what could have happened, but my mind was blank. I backed of, towards the door, to get some help. And because I was afraid. This had never happened before. When I had my hand on the doorknob, the door opened, and Quint came in, looking surprised at the scene. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and sighed. Then he looked at me, pulled up his eyebrow, and spoke.
"Sil, what is going on?"
"Mum has gone crazy" I said, with my back against the door. Quint nodded, walked up to mum, who had been looking startled at Quint all the time, and snatched the umbrella from her hands. Then he went to the bathroom, filled a glass with water, came back, and let mum take a sip from it.
Mum finally calmed down, and sat down on her bed. "What happened to me?" She asked, amazed. "The last thing I remember was having desert in the restaurant downstairs."
"I don't know, mum, you were just plain mad. But it's all over now." I said, while I patted her on her back. Good it was all over now. I turned to Quint, wanting to ask him if we should all go to sleep
But Quint had a very serious look on his face, and asked "Who were with you on that moment, mum?"
She looked up at her eldest son, and replied very soft "Owen and Gabriella were with me. And.and the atmosphere was so tense. I almost couldn't eat. And then an eerie teenager with light blond, straight up hair and I believe purple eyes walked up to our table. He said something to Owen in Arabic or something like it, and then he put his hand on my forehead, and everything started to fade away. I couldn't do anything, it all happened very fast."
I was amazed. This vacation was one weird thing after another. Magically summoning monsters, Isis being able to pronounce the hieroglyphics, and now mum. But now I thought of it, how was Isis able to speak ae? (Authors note: from here on I will call the ancient Egyptian language ae, or else my head will fall of in confusion every time I try to write it down clearly) From what I recall the language was forgotten after the Romans had concurred Egypt, and no-one was able to read the hieroglyphics anymore, until some brilliant 17th or 18th century French guy decrypted a text on a stone that carried both the hieroglyphics and an ancient-Greek translation of the text. So how was it possible for anyone to speak ae? Not. Or maybe that was also magic. O man, what was going on here? I really needed to speak to Gwen and Gar about this, and to Isis. But if I wanted to do that, the situation at hand needed to be solved. So I begged Quint with my eyes to say or do something smart. He looked, took a breath, and.Isis and someone else, presumably her friend, came in, almost bursting through the door, dragging along three unconscious persons.
From two of them I knew the names. My father and Gangsty didn't look as neat as this morning, and the third person, now laying on the floor in the middle of the room, was the blonde my mother had told us about, clothed in a purple shirt and black trousers, wearing more jewelry than I had ever seen on anyone. He looked kind of girlish, if only a bit, and about my age. Then I looked up at Isis' friend, who was saying something to Isis on this moment. He had a dark skin, even darker then Isis, as well as his eyes and hair. Half of his face was tattooed, and he was wearing a white jacket and baggy dark-grey trousers. He had something sad and everything-is-destined- by-fate about him. I glanced at Quint, who was clearly as surprised as I was. What was going on? Something in the doorway drew my attention. It was Gar in his pyjamas. He must have heard all the noise and wondered what was going on. And I turned to Isis, to ask just that question. But before I could, she spoke, her eyes fixed on my mother.
"What has happened here so far, ma'am? I need to know, so I can act accordingly" And mum told her the story she had told us, and to please call her Gladys. Isis nodded seriously, and then turned to me and Gar, who was sitting on the bed, next to where I was standing. "Gar, Sil, do you remember what I told you about my brother previously?" We answered positive "This is him" She said, pointing to the blonde, who was still laying knock- out on the floor. "I want you all to understand what happened, and in order to do so, I suggest you sit down and let me tell you the story." We did, wondering what it could be "Alright. When my brother was young he had developed a dark side, an evil alter ego, called Merik, but Rishid here" And she pointed at her companion "Was a neutralizing factor, as he was as a brother to Malik. And we thought the bad side had ended when he was defeated in the finals of Battle City, that was on TV, so you all must have seen that"
Gar and Quint frowned, and mum snored. She had passed out when she heard 'dark side' as it remembered her of her husband, and what he had done to her. But I remembered something about those creepy finals. "Was he carrying a golden stick with an eyeball with a sort of wings on top? Dueling against the winner of Duelist Kingdom?"
Now Gar also remembered "Yes, the one with his twin hanging over him, the one who didn't have straight-up hair?"
She told us what had happened on that tournament and before, about something called millennium, how she came from a guardian-family (So that was how she was able to speak ae, her family had lived in secrecy.), about all the magic and the myths and the secrets Egypt held hidden in its history. ".So after it was all over, the three of us returned to Egypt, and Malik went to school, I went on with my work for the government, and Rishid assisted me where he could. But one day, Rishid got badly injured, and we had to take him to the hospital. Then the Merik-side returned, and it has possessed Malik ever since, trying to find another way to wield power over the ancient monsters again. My friends, again I must ask you to keep this all a secret, and to speak to no-one about it."
And we swore not to. Quint also, after he had been introduced and told about what happened in the basement of Gwen's house earlier today. "Wow, that was quite a story, and hard to believe if you haven't seen anything happen yourself." He said "But what I'd really like to know is, what happened to mum. Could she have been hypnotized?"
Isis looked at mum, who was peacefully curled up and snoring on the same spot where she had fainted. While Gar and I picked her up to tuck her in, Rishid answered "Yes, in this situation that is the most likely thing to have happened, as that is one of the powers Merik has obtained lately." Why did he look so sad? I mean, yes, you have reason to be when your dearest friend was being possessed, but he looked even sadder than that!
I wanted to know something more "Why did he hypnotize my mother? He doesn't know we know each other, he doesn't know where we are involved in. So what reason could he have to do this, Isis?"
"Normally I wouldn't have an answer to that question, Sil, but Rishid was tailing him today, and he saw your father and Merik meat, so probably it was something he did for him, from what I can tell from your mother's story."
Quint looked worried at that suggestion "Why would two strangers meat each other without a particular reason? And why would Merik do father a favor?"
Gar jumped up, an anxious look on his face "If this is about revenge and power and Duel Monsters, then does this have anything to do with the Seto Kaiba being in Egypt? I mean, He participated in the finals, he organized Battle City in the first place, and has a lot of power, being in charge of KaibaCorp."
Isis gazed at Gar "How do you know he is in Egypt?"
"I saw an article in the newspapers, about his tour to America, Europe and Egypt. Something about a theme park. I believe it said he's trying to fetch investors and locations for it."
"But what would that have to do with father?" Quint asked.
Gar shrugged "I don't know"
"But I do" And suddenly everyone stared at me. It was like a spotlight went on. "When Seto Kaiba became CEO of his company, he broke the joint-venture between his company and my father's, and now my father seeks revenge because he thinks it's Kaiba's fault that his company is ruined"
And when I looked at the others, Rishid was astonished, and Isis's eyes lit up in understandance. But Gar and Quint had confused looks on their faces. "How do you know this, Sil?" Gar asked, trying to get a hold on what it meant what I had just said.
I looked to the ground. I hadn't planned on telling them, but now I had to. "I hacked, Gar, and several times, into the company's computer to gather information. And I'm sorry I haven't told you this before" I looked up "I really am."
He smiled, and put his arm around me. "Don't worry sis. I forgive you." And I was happy that my little brother was still a child, who didn't worry about things too much. As for Quint, he gave me a we'll-talk-later look, and left it at that. For now.
"Well, all that talking clears things up a bit. What are we going to do with these three? I take it you want to take your brother with you, Isis?"
"Yes, Quint, wasn't it, but your father and this woman are to be taken to their room. Rishid, maybe you two can take them away."
Rishid agreed, and he and Quint went out, both carrying one of the couple. When they were gone, Isis turned to me and Gar. She looked relieved and tired. "I think you will need to tell something more later. But we all need some sleep now, it's 2 am"
"Where shall we meet?" "At Gwen's, at 3 pm, as said"
"Okay, see you then"
And we parted with a goodbye, each to our own beds.
To be continued
4. Talking through the night
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The sounds around me vanish, it's completely silent. What is happening? I hear something familiar.voices! And footsteps in the rhythm of a camel. They are coming nearer. I'm saved! I haven't heard those voices before, I'm sure of it. A man and a woman, I think, and they are saying something in Arabic. Maybe I can understand if I focus.
"..we help..hospital..phone..this away..who.." "Indeed.. of the camel..I will.."
Someone is dialing on a mobile phone, and someone is trying to lift me, but.
Ouch! My head! I'm trying to open my eyes. My body doesn't hurt as much as before. This pain is bearable. I swallow, my throat is so dry. And everything looks so white. This must be a hospital. I'm so tired. I'll sleep. I'm safe. Off to my memories.
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"Sil! Wake up! It's five past four! You've slept long enough" Gar screamed, ringing in my ears. Ow, my head hurt.
"Gar? Are you there? Could you please get me an aspirin?" I asked, rubbing my head. Then I remembered my dream, and I frowned. It had been about something that couldn't have been in a dream at all. There had been persons in my dream, whom I knew in my dream, but not in reality. And it had been very real. There were 8 persons present. Gar, Gwen, Isis, me, and two persons I knew in my dream were lined up. We were one by one initiated in the basement, by two persons in a cloak. One held the persons head steady, and the other one branded a V in the forehead. When it was my turn the dream had ended. Could that be the ritual Isis had been talking about? We'll see. I shouldn't worry about it too much. My headache was more relevant at the moment.
Gar came back from the kitchen with a glass of water and an aspirin. "Thanks." I took it and looked up in the worried face of my brother. I smiled "I'll be alright, I just need 10 more minutes to let the pain go away."
That seemed to ease his mind, and he nodded, looking somewhat more relaxed. Then he frowned again. "Did you also have that strange dream?" I nodded, this was getting stranger by the minute. "I don't know, but do you think it's a vision. It didn't seem to be the present anyway. And I'm sure we would have remembered something like this. And I'm sure I've never seen those guys in front of us before." I shrugged. And before I could say something, Gwen spoke.
"I heard what you just said. But think about it. How would it be possible for us to have visions? I mean, we are not psychic or something, at least not the last time I checked."
I looked at both of them, and they looked at me, almost with puppy dog eyes hoping for me to come up with some logical answer. "Let's just forget about it. Even if it is something we cannot explain, it doesn't appear to me we have to do something with it. It will just happen, at least I intend to let it happen. I want to summon monsters with my hands." And they nodded, seemingly content with the answer.
That night everything was back to normal again. Gwen's parents showed us around town, pointing out the best places to eat, to shop, where we would be certain of quality souvenirs, And how to behave on the market. Never look at someone unless you want to buy something. And we concluded the pleasant evening with dinner in one of the hundred hotels.
Just before midnight we parted, all going to our own bed. We would see each other in the morning at eight, at Gwen's house. But before I could close my eyes, my mother ran into the room, freaked out, and went white as a sheet.
"Who are you! You can't fool me! Come out of that bed this instant!" She said, pointing the umbrella she had snatched from the corner in front of her like a saber.
I climbed out of bed, as slowly as I could, Trying not to scare her. Gheesh, had she gone mad or something? "Mum, calm down. It's me, Sil." I tried to close in on her, or at least to get that umbrella out of my stomach. But no success.
"You can't fool me, you slut! Get out of my room! Get out of my life! I won't let you take my husband from me!" Okay, so she was mad. And divorced. What was going on? I tried to think of what could have happened, but my mind was blank. I backed of, towards the door, to get some help. And because I was afraid. This had never happened before. When I had my hand on the doorknob, the door opened, and Quint came in, looking surprised at the scene. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and sighed. Then he looked at me, pulled up his eyebrow, and spoke.
"Sil, what is going on?"
"Mum has gone crazy" I said, with my back against the door. Quint nodded, walked up to mum, who had been looking startled at Quint all the time, and snatched the umbrella from her hands. Then he went to the bathroom, filled a glass with water, came back, and let mum take a sip from it.
Mum finally calmed down, and sat down on her bed. "What happened to me?" She asked, amazed. "The last thing I remember was having desert in the restaurant downstairs."
"I don't know, mum, you were just plain mad. But it's all over now." I said, while I patted her on her back. Good it was all over now. I turned to Quint, wanting to ask him if we should all go to sleep
But Quint had a very serious look on his face, and asked "Who were with you on that moment, mum?"
She looked up at her eldest son, and replied very soft "Owen and Gabriella were with me. And.and the atmosphere was so tense. I almost couldn't eat. And then an eerie teenager with light blond, straight up hair and I believe purple eyes walked up to our table. He said something to Owen in Arabic or something like it, and then he put his hand on my forehead, and everything started to fade away. I couldn't do anything, it all happened very fast."
I was amazed. This vacation was one weird thing after another. Magically summoning monsters, Isis being able to pronounce the hieroglyphics, and now mum. But now I thought of it, how was Isis able to speak ae? (Authors note: from here on I will call the ancient Egyptian language ae, or else my head will fall of in confusion every time I try to write it down clearly) From what I recall the language was forgotten after the Romans had concurred Egypt, and no-one was able to read the hieroglyphics anymore, until some brilliant 17th or 18th century French guy decrypted a text on a stone that carried both the hieroglyphics and an ancient-Greek translation of the text. So how was it possible for anyone to speak ae? Not. Or maybe that was also magic. O man, what was going on here? I really needed to speak to Gwen and Gar about this, and to Isis. But if I wanted to do that, the situation at hand needed to be solved. So I begged Quint with my eyes to say or do something smart. He looked, took a breath, and.Isis and someone else, presumably her friend, came in, almost bursting through the door, dragging along three unconscious persons.
From two of them I knew the names. My father and Gangsty didn't look as neat as this morning, and the third person, now laying on the floor in the middle of the room, was the blonde my mother had told us about, clothed in a purple shirt and black trousers, wearing more jewelry than I had ever seen on anyone. He looked kind of girlish, if only a bit, and about my age. Then I looked up at Isis' friend, who was saying something to Isis on this moment. He had a dark skin, even darker then Isis, as well as his eyes and hair. Half of his face was tattooed, and he was wearing a white jacket and baggy dark-grey trousers. He had something sad and everything-is-destined- by-fate about him. I glanced at Quint, who was clearly as surprised as I was. What was going on? Something in the doorway drew my attention. It was Gar in his pyjamas. He must have heard all the noise and wondered what was going on. And I turned to Isis, to ask just that question. But before I could, she spoke, her eyes fixed on my mother.
"What has happened here so far, ma'am? I need to know, so I can act accordingly" And mum told her the story she had told us, and to please call her Gladys. Isis nodded seriously, and then turned to me and Gar, who was sitting on the bed, next to where I was standing. "Gar, Sil, do you remember what I told you about my brother previously?" We answered positive "This is him" She said, pointing to the blonde, who was still laying knock- out on the floor. "I want you all to understand what happened, and in order to do so, I suggest you sit down and let me tell you the story." We did, wondering what it could be "Alright. When my brother was young he had developed a dark side, an evil alter ego, called Merik, but Rishid here" And she pointed at her companion "Was a neutralizing factor, as he was as a brother to Malik. And we thought the bad side had ended when he was defeated in the finals of Battle City, that was on TV, so you all must have seen that"
Gar and Quint frowned, and mum snored. She had passed out when she heard 'dark side' as it remembered her of her husband, and what he had done to her. But I remembered something about those creepy finals. "Was he carrying a golden stick with an eyeball with a sort of wings on top? Dueling against the winner of Duelist Kingdom?"
Now Gar also remembered "Yes, the one with his twin hanging over him, the one who didn't have straight-up hair?"
She told us what had happened on that tournament and before, about something called millennium, how she came from a guardian-family (So that was how she was able to speak ae, her family had lived in secrecy.), about all the magic and the myths and the secrets Egypt held hidden in its history. ".So after it was all over, the three of us returned to Egypt, and Malik went to school, I went on with my work for the government, and Rishid assisted me where he could. But one day, Rishid got badly injured, and we had to take him to the hospital. Then the Merik-side returned, and it has possessed Malik ever since, trying to find another way to wield power over the ancient monsters again. My friends, again I must ask you to keep this all a secret, and to speak to no-one about it."
And we swore not to. Quint also, after he had been introduced and told about what happened in the basement of Gwen's house earlier today. "Wow, that was quite a story, and hard to believe if you haven't seen anything happen yourself." He said "But what I'd really like to know is, what happened to mum. Could she have been hypnotized?"
Isis looked at mum, who was peacefully curled up and snoring on the same spot where she had fainted. While Gar and I picked her up to tuck her in, Rishid answered "Yes, in this situation that is the most likely thing to have happened, as that is one of the powers Merik has obtained lately." Why did he look so sad? I mean, yes, you have reason to be when your dearest friend was being possessed, but he looked even sadder than that!
I wanted to know something more "Why did he hypnotize my mother? He doesn't know we know each other, he doesn't know where we are involved in. So what reason could he have to do this, Isis?"
"Normally I wouldn't have an answer to that question, Sil, but Rishid was tailing him today, and he saw your father and Merik meat, so probably it was something he did for him, from what I can tell from your mother's story."
Quint looked worried at that suggestion "Why would two strangers meat each other without a particular reason? And why would Merik do father a favor?"
Gar jumped up, an anxious look on his face "If this is about revenge and power and Duel Monsters, then does this have anything to do with the Seto Kaiba being in Egypt? I mean, He participated in the finals, he organized Battle City in the first place, and has a lot of power, being in charge of KaibaCorp."
Isis gazed at Gar "How do you know he is in Egypt?"
"I saw an article in the newspapers, about his tour to America, Europe and Egypt. Something about a theme park. I believe it said he's trying to fetch investors and locations for it."
"But what would that have to do with father?" Quint asked.
Gar shrugged "I don't know"
"But I do" And suddenly everyone stared at me. It was like a spotlight went on. "When Seto Kaiba became CEO of his company, he broke the joint-venture between his company and my father's, and now my father seeks revenge because he thinks it's Kaiba's fault that his company is ruined"
And when I looked at the others, Rishid was astonished, and Isis's eyes lit up in understandance. But Gar and Quint had confused looks on their faces. "How do you know this, Sil?" Gar asked, trying to get a hold on what it meant what I had just said.
I looked to the ground. I hadn't planned on telling them, but now I had to. "I hacked, Gar, and several times, into the company's computer to gather information. And I'm sorry I haven't told you this before" I looked up "I really am."
He smiled, and put his arm around me. "Don't worry sis. I forgive you." And I was happy that my little brother was still a child, who didn't worry about things too much. As for Quint, he gave me a we'll-talk-later look, and left it at that. For now.
"Well, all that talking clears things up a bit. What are we going to do with these three? I take it you want to take your brother with you, Isis?"
"Yes, Quint, wasn't it, but your father and this woman are to be taken to their room. Rishid, maybe you two can take them away."
Rishid agreed, and he and Quint went out, both carrying one of the couple. When they were gone, Isis turned to me and Gar. She looked relieved and tired. "I think you will need to tell something more later. But we all need some sleep now, it's 2 am"
"Where shall we meet?" "At Gwen's, at 3 pm, as said"
"Okay, see you then"
And we parted with a goodbye, each to our own beds.
To be continued