The Zodiacs

48. Subdued Sociopathy

Layla sat in her place on the floor with the same anxiety that hadn't left her body since the moment Lotus had stepped out of her room. Her ears were constantly listening in on any movement past her door that may be headed in the direction she'd last seen Akil.

It terrified her. She'd only known the boy for such a short time, but the idea of him being put to death for crimes that only presented his humanity made her shrivel. Just imagining having to look down at Akil's lifeless expression... or a compacted area of dirt that he may lay beneath collected a helpless pain in her chest that Layla couldn't get rid of.

She liked him; that was obvious to anybody. But how much did she really care for the Zodiac? And why did it burn within her body much more intensely than it had with any of the other boys she'd occupied her time with in her neighborhood?

They all were head over heels for her --well, for her appearance, anyway. But Akil wasn't. Maybe it was the thrill of wanting to prove that she could get even him.

That thrill wouldn't steal her ability to sleep or relax at the thought of him dying though. So what was it?

Suddenly, the heavy door isolating her from the basement's corridors blew open with a strength that shook the entire room.

Layla gasped in surprise, spinning her head to see three soldiers accompanying a Dauha into the room with no other authority figure. The two men who entered last were dragging another figure by its arms with not enough compassion to even allow the lady time to regain her own footing. Instead, her knees slid against the cool limestone with the speed that they pulled her along using.

"Grandma!" The fire sign's eyes widened in terror at the familiar lady being forced into the room. She'd known that the Pharaoh had arrested their families, but something within her never imagined seeing her own grandmother in the grasps of the monstrous people.

Her grandma looked up to catch a glimpse of the girl just as a weak smile pulled at the corner of her lips, but her light expression slipped away when they threw her to the ground a few feet in front of Layla. Both she and her grandmother gasped, but only the Zodiac mustered the strength to pull herself forward.

"What did they do to you?" She asked, noticing the dry blood at the corner of the aged lady's mouth. Just the sight of her caretaker, weak and injured, made something boil within Layla. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you, grandma?"

Layla's grandmother struggled to lift her head with the new weakness that had overtaken her limbs just as it had done to all the other family members kept in prison for the crime of relation.

Still, she did her best to pull the corners of her lips up to brighten her expression toward the granddaughter she'd raised for her entire life. But the fatigue took a toll on the smile that was brought on by the sight of the girl after so long --healthy and uninjured. "Hello, my sweet," grandmother's words shook even though the image of her granddaughter had built an unquestionable strength in the older lady. "I am okay as long as you're not hurt."

"What are you doing?" Layla turned to the men standing around the struggling family member on the floor in front of her. "What did you do to her and the others? I swear to any God out there, if you hurt any of them, I will hurt you a thousand times worse."

But the Dauha standing in front of her with an unusually long nose and skinny frame didn't seem affected at all by the Zodiacs threats. Of all the others, she'd been the most peaceful since their arrival. For all he knew, Layla had no real abilities, making him much more confident while he stood in front of the girl.

He lifted his chin in the air when he spoke. "It's been brought to the Pharaoh's attention that the Zodiac Lotus Ishaq may have attempted to conspire with you on potentially deluded plots. This plotting seems to directly betray the agreement reached between herself and the King."