Kadian

The Great Village

“It can...take a while, sweetheart.  These things can take awhile.”  Shetani stroked Alaba’s braids as he rested his head on hers.  The two were sitting on the ground, Alaba between his legs, slouched against his stomach and torso.  Alaba had taken the rock off of the table, and looked at it with bloodshot eyes.  Shetani gently tugged at it, and this time she let him take it.  She closed her eyes.

“You tried, I know you did.”  He kissed the top of her head.  “But these things can take awhile,” he repeated.

Alaba slowly opened her eyes and spoke for the first time since the night of Kadian’s battle.  “What is “awhile’?” she asked softly, but irritably.  “What is that?  Because that-” she reached over grabbed the rock, and quickly muttered ‘I want to see’- “took awhile.  My baby, my creation, took awhile.”  

The orange bulky creature was seen in all of his former glory on the rock, racing around and growling.  Alaba set the rock aside before the two made it to the woods.  

“That took me much longer than a while.  And that didn’t work.  So tell me love, what is awhile?  Because the Love Fest is coming up, in awhile.  He is about to get distracted in a while.  In a while, he may finally move on from that bald headed homewrecker, and that fat cow.  Meaning that he's bound to move on from me, in a while.  So tell me Shetani, what is awhile?!”  

Shetani frowned.  Instead of answering her question, he said “You’re not in this for the right reasons, LaLa”

“I told you not to-!”

“I’ll call you whatever the hell I want, this is my place you’re living in, I could end you!” he snapped.  

Alaba quietly asked, “What’s your problem?”

“My problem is you.  We did this with the intention to help you take this girl down, because what happened to you at Shango just wasn't right.  We're also taking the little sleaze down for stealing your former husband.  But most of all Alaba, we're supposed to be angry that the brat even has the audacity to think that she can just come along and change everything.  This was not some sappy mission to get your ex back.”

“Why else would I do all of this?”  Alaba felt Shetani stiffen.

He took a deep, husky breath.  Somehow, it reminded her that she was cuddling with the Devil.  Alaba scooted forward , but Shetani pulled her back and grabbed her left hand.  

“What is this?” he asked her.

“A ring,” Alaba answered.

“A wedding Band,” he snarled.  “We married one another.  You married Shetani.  Nevermind the reasoning behind it- I’m your man now, Alaba.  Not him.  Not Mohassen.  Don't make me do something to the boy that you'll regret.”

Alaba stared at it her hand as though it were an alien.

Shetani sighed.  “Now if you want my assistance, it needs to be for any reason other than ‘I still love him.’ Got it?”

Alaba was silent.

“I once loved him,” Shetani said.

Alaba whirled around.  “What?!”

“Repeat after me; “I once loved him.”

Alaba stayed silent before deciding that Shetani’s silence was more unsettling, and repeated his words.  They felt so foreign, so strange coming from her mouth.

“Good.  Remember to tell yourself that whenever you feel like you're slipping.  Now do you want my help?”

She nodded as she stared at the beaded strings on the ceiling.