Chapter Six: A Check In and Back To Home
MD sat in Brii's room on her friend's bed. It's been a month since she left, and her heart still felt heavy with grief. She looked around, anger welling up in her at the fact her best friend left so suddenly without a goodbye. Dragon themed items were scattered around the room, superhero posters dotted her walls, and anime merchandise was displayed everywhere. Brii's desk was a mess as usual, plates and cans stacked up on the side, and there in the middle, right next to Brii's most prized possession, was that stupid book that started all of this. MD picked it up off the keyboard of the computer and stared at the cover.
The trilogy king and his kin will come forth. The lady of war will bring the court of evil.
"What does that even mean!?" MD suddenly shouted at the book. Frustration and hurt lined her features, her long brown hair messy from tugging at it. Her brown eyes were puffy and red from crying as well. The book remained stoic, though, and MD carelessly tossed it onto the bed, not wanting to deal with it. However, a bright light appeared afterwards. A knock on the door announced the arrival of someone.
"MD? Is everything alright?" Sinbad asked. He was concerned about her as she hadn't taken Brii's departure very easily. MD rushed out the door and slammed it shut as fast as possible. She looked up at the confused man next to her.
"We might have company." MD said, worried about who would pop out of the book next. She had a sneaking suspicion she knew who, though; and that wouldn't go down well.
"What?" Sinbad questioned, "What happened?" MD glanced at the door before looking at Sinbad again.
"The book," She answered. This obviously didn't answer Sinbad's question.
"What happened to it?" He asked, needing more information to act on.
"I threw it and I think I summoned more people." MD said. Thuds on the floor declared the people falling out of the light. MD tentatively cracked the door open to check on who it was, but Sinbad had other plans. He slammed the door open and stepped around MD and into the room in one graceful movement. MD's sight recognized red hair quickly between the gaps of Sinbad's figure and the door.
"Why did it have to be Kou?" MD groaned. She wasn't really up to putting up with this rivalry and couldn't wait until Brii was home to help mediate. She really wished she'd hurry up.
I stared at the figure in front of me for what seemed like an eternity. I simply could not figure out what it was that I was supposed to do here. I've mourned for my father's death over the past eleven years, which put me in a startlingly aware state of human beings' mortality and fragile state of being, mentally and physically. Death simply stared back, watching me closely, watching for any sign of recognition. When it didn't see what it was searching for, it sighed.
"You need to accept your own life before you can continue on," Death's riddles were confusing me. What did that mean? As if reading my mind, Death continued, "You've expected a premature death every since the age of thirteen. You never thought you'd make it this far, and yet you have."
It was true. My mother suspected I was suicidal for a while during my depression before MD finally broke me out of it two years later. I distinctly remember questioning myself on how to get a blade to cut myself, not that I ever went through with that plan due to the fact I didn't like pain. I always saw my future simply ending after highschool, with at most a short epilogue of a plan after that. Not to mention, I never really think of myself as worthy of anything due to small mistakes that everyone makes. I've always used MD as a way to ignore my own suicidal thoughts, to forget about them and push them down until I needed to shove them farther down.
"I'm alive…" I mumbled out and Death nodded in agreement. I grew bolder, inspiration seemingly seeping into my bones, twirling around the embedded anger and sorrow. "I'm living, surviving. Some even say I'm thriving." Most of my life has simply been a survival game, and that's what I tended to focus on. I put all my energy into keeping my head above the waves of life and not being dragged down into depression and stress.
"You need to live," Death said, "before you can say you've died." In that moment, I heard my father speaking. I felt his presence, the same one that molded me into so much of what I am now. The patience of a father and mediator filled the air, faded memories surfacing and then disappearing just as fast as they came. This obviously wasn't all that was going to go into this, but I was going to sure put some effort into it. The figure vanished into thin air, leaving behind only the feeling of a small crowd and nostalgia.
"Awwwww, that was almost no fun!" Hilal's voice echoed into the room. "You handled them way to quickly, what kind of narcissistic person are you?" He wisped into existence across me in a manner similar to Death, looking very obviously disappointed with my reactions.
"I do a lot to make sure that my 'demons' don't get the better of me, Hilal," I said calmly. I felt the need to be mature around him, almost acting as an authority figure to make sure he didn't do too much damage on the world around him. It was strange having a vague mother-like instinct. Hilal sighed across from me.
"Fine," He sounded extremely dejected. "I suppose you still conquered my dungeon." With a snap of his fingers, we were in the treasure room. A wave of energy flooded through the room and the stone treasures turned to gold. I had never seen so much potential money in one place and my jaw dropped. Suddenly, the realization of what really happened just now fell onto my shoulders. I willingly ran straight into a place known for death to gain a tool meant to build a country. I wasn't no where near fit to be a king vessel, much less fit to try to conquer something this physically demanding. Thankfully, most of it was just sitting and talking about psychology, my specialties. I slumped forward in my chair, gripping my hair in an almost painful grip as the anxiety finally caught up with me.
"Oh my god…" I rasped out between uneven breaths. "I could have died! I was almost eaten by a shark! Jesus Christ!" I was such an idiot. Why did I think this was a good idea? Why didn't I let MD talk me out of this? While even more unwelcome thoughts whirled around my mind, Hilal seemed to be taken aback by my actions. Through the blurry and vague visual sensory input I was able to process; he looked confused as to why I was panicking. At least, I assumed that was the reason he would have been confused in a situation like this. I was too consumed panicking to really put much thought into it.
"Are you okay?" He asked, "Most people are ecstatic after getting to the treasure room to get the Djinn. You're a really weird girl, aren't you?" Hilal wasn't grasping my state of mind at all.
"I could have died," I repeated, my voice nothing but a whisper, "I would have never seen MD again and I just ran out of the house like a maniac." Hilal sighed, crossing his arms and leaning back against his chair. He was obviously annoyed. I snapped my head up quickly after another moment of self doubt and panic, set on getting back home to settle back into my bed and be with my friend. Friends. I had to correct myself in my head. "I need to get out of here, do your thing, whatever, I need to go." I stood up and began to pace around the room, nervous energy pushing me to move.
"Oh, so now you want my services?" He asked, his eyes alight with mischief yet again at my sudden change in attitude. "Well, fine then, you did prove yourself to be a good king vessel of course, or should I call you a queen vessel?" Hilal snickered at his own joke.
"Just please get me out of here." I pleaded, anxiously biting on a nail that was already bitten down to the point there was no white. The finger belonged to just so happened to be the finger my ring was on. My ring was something I've been wearing since I was thirteen. It was one of the last things my father gave to me before his death and I hardly take it off, the groove on my finger proof of that enough. It was sterling silver, since I was allergic to nickel, and in the center it had an aquamarine gem that could have also just been colored glass. On either side of the gem that may not be a gem, were two Celtic knot trifectas. My father said it was to signify that our family would never end, but that was a debate for another day.
"Alright, alright, princess," Hilal huffed, eying my ring. "That's a pretty piece of jewelry you got there, with a pretty piece of history, too." I looked up at him and nodded. "So that'll be my home." With a flick of his wrist, he summoned a column of blue light. However, my ever reeling mind also felt the need to ask about something else.
"Wait, wait, wait, before I go back, I want to know how having a djinn works," I said, realizing then that my phrasing isn't what I was trying to convey, "Actually, no, I want to know how you work."
"My, my, you're a smart cookie," Hilal grinned, "Well, princess, I should just send you on your way, but I was going to talk about this myself. Oh, that's right, I never officially introduced myself." Clearing his throat in an over the top manner, he continued with an equally ridiculous and formal voice, "I am Hilal, a djinn made by Master Solomon of Trickery and Leadership. What a concept am I right?" He whispered the last sentence as if to mock someone who was in the room, "I 'work' by choosing of any of the eight magics depending on the situation. I'll always choose what you don't expect, or your adversaries anyways." He looked me up and down thoughtfully. "Although, I do need a default magic for when your magoi's low…"
"Well if it's trickery, go for strength magic," I said, "I'm weak enough and small enough that it'll probably work." It was a bit of a long shot, but I really just wanted it to be able to carry some gold, and by some gold I meant a huge bag of it, home to put into my savings account. Or to be able to retire early.
"I like how you think. Strength magic it is!" Hilal said triumphantly. "Good luck getting that bag of gold to the light." I rolled my eyes and went about my business gathering the inevitable money I'd make. I laid out a sheet that seemed to come with the room next to the light while I threw various valuable things in its direction. I even came out of it with some pretty jewels in my pocket. I cleaned up the pile, tied the sheet as best I could and stepped in the light. Hilal sent me on my way looking a little displeased I didn't struggle as much as he thought I would.
Now in a ditch where the dungeon was, I nervously looked around for any on lookers, only to be greeted by the glorious sight of night time and one sleeping cop to the side. Although I must have been in there for quite some time if there was only one guard. I simply equipped a half-djinn equip as fast as I could figure out how, which happened to be a silver glove on my left with a light blue stone right in the middle of the back of the hand, and disappeared into the night to go back home.
The walk back home was uneventful until I reached the door. The bag I had very obviously wouldn't fit in the front doorway, but I couldn't just leave it outside either. Sighing, I decided to risk waking people up by opening the garage door just enough to shove the bag inside the garage for later and then closed and locked it again. I waited outside for awhile, scared of going in when people would be more easily roused than before due to the fact I knew I'd be easy to spot for half of them anyways, Jafar and Masrur especially.
After an hour, I deemed it safe to return inside. I treaded as quietly as I could manage in the slowly dozing state I was in, only half noticing how the multitude of bodies seemed to have almost doubled in the dark. I made my up to my room, my glorious fortress of solitude, opened the door almost a bit too hastily, and unceremoniously dumped my backpack onto the ground. Kicking my shoes off and setting my glasses on my desk, I flopped onto the bed uncaring if it was unmade, which it seemed to be with the massive lump under me which I could only assume was my comforter in a ball. Sleep took me quickly and I could care less if MD yelled at me in the morning for not waking her up to announce my arrival back home.
"She's not safe there…" The soft whisper reached my ears, but my mind wasn't fully ready to get up. Instead, I pushed my face further into the moving covers of my bed.
"Quiet, or you'll wake them both up!" A more urgent and much less hushed whisper sounded from my door way.
"Brother En's already up, you idiots." This voice didn't even try to be quiet.
I tried to ignore it and fall asleep again, but my covers moved again. It took me a moment to register that my covers shouldn't be moving. Blearily looking up, colors blurred to show red hair and the bright light from my window. The more firm feeling of my hand resting against a chest of someone is what jolted me awake and to the realization that I was on top of someone. And the lack of boobs led me to conclude that this person was male.
A shriek tore through my throat before I could help it and I scrambled off the bed, somehow managing to flip halfway onto my back before the person in question grabbed me around the middle to stop me from falling. My own hand flew out to try and catch myself on the desk before I knew what was happening, but it ended up just banging on the edge. Considering it was my right hand that was injured, I immediately recoiled in pain and back onto the bed. Sadly, that still left me on top of the person already in it.
"I didn't sign up for this." I grumbled out, voice raspy and angry. This morning was already proving to be a pain.
