The Flower of Anubis

Chapter III : Fish and Lemon Cookies

]| Trafalgar Square , 10:36 pm |[

It had been an exhausting day for Mina. Not because she had been talking to Steven all day, but because she had been distancing herself from him so that whatever came out of his mouth was at his own will and not Anubis'. She felt beaten and limp, as if she were starving and dehydrated. The truth was though, she no longer needed food and water to live, a small power that the Egyptian god had given to her. In fact, she couldn't also be truly hurt either. The only way she could die was at the hands of another god, a punishment were she to fail or betray them. Mina never dreamt of such things though. She had no where else to go in life but to live in servitude. It was the one thing she seemed to be good at.

"I only made one, but you can have the other half of it," Steven said, pulling out a soft cold something in tinfoil wrapping from his bag.

Mina looked at it nervously.

"Oh! No, no! Don't worry! It's not spoiled or anything. I know it sounds weird but I keep stuff in the fridge at work to make something in case I forget to cook dinner at home. I get kind of lost in my books," Steven explained, regretting everything all at once as the words came out.

Mina nodded and took half of the food from him. "Sorry," she apologized.

Steven shook his head. "You don't have to be. I understand." He took a bit of his wrap then and looked around the square. He spotted the man posed as a golden statue sitting at the usual fountain. He wondered for a moment if the man had notified him sitting with Mina. They had been in the busy square for an hour now. "So," he continued, saying the word a bit too loud, "what's your story?"

Mina looked at Steven, loss of words. She swallowed her bite. "Well, right now I'm sitting with a new friend and eating this really delicious wrap," she said with a light smile.

Steven smiled awkwardly. "Guess my story's the same then," he said, slightly hurt. He looked away, watching as the people walked by. His stomach began to turn.

"Steven," Mina's gentle voice came then.

Steven looked to her, eyes brimming with tears. "Yeah?" he asked, trying to keep himself from crying. He wasn't good at talking to people. He felt bad for asking such a dumb question.

"I'm sorry," Mina apologized, realizing what a jerk move her comment had been. "That was rude." She sighed and looked down at her food. "The truth is, my story's not really nice. I don't want to upset the you."

Steven frowned. "Are you in trouble?" he asked.

Mina smiled sadly, looking up then, eyes becoming glossy from all the memories flooding back to her. "Not anymore," she said tightly. "I . . . didn't really have a good childhood. My father was shot when I was little and when I was a teenager my little brother was killed in a car accident. It was just me and my mother after that. It wasn't good. When I was old enough, I left home and got myself a job - saved money to come to Europe and attend school here. I graduated with degrees in photography and journalism. Now I live here," Mina said. She looked at Steven then, worried that she had said too much.

Steven was frowning. He looked uncomfortable.

"I'm sorry," Mina said quickly. She looked down at her wrap. "I should've made something up, something easier to hear."