The Mind Manipulators

Darkness Consumes the Desert

Chapter 2

          The light snowfall morphed into blowing sand, the night sky into harsh sunlight. I squinted, my eyes not able to adjust so quickly to the change in light.

My clothing had also changed. Instead of heavy winter clothes I wore light, draping robes that covered my whole body and hair. I saw a large gathering of people ahead of me so I ran quickly through the worsening sandstorm. As I approached a man broke off from the group and waved me over, beckoning with his hands. When I reached him he spun in the same direction I was going in and kept pace with me. I opened my mouth to speak, but he shook his head and gestured to wait a minute. We got to a cluster of tents with camels nearby. The man ducked into one and I followed suite.

“Just in time hey?” He said in a strange language. Somehow though, I understood him and responded,

“We cut it close for sure!” He smiled and I suddenly knew him, and especially his joyous grin. His name was Ata, an Egyptian name meaning twin.  At that moment an exact copy of him stepped in quickly, his face not lit up like the other, instead turned down in a scowl. Ata, seeing what mood his twin was in, decided to speak first,

“Atsu, I don’t believe you’ve ever met my dear Kesi before have you?” We both shook our heads.

“Well then, Kesi, meet Atsu; Atsu, meet Kesi.” I hated my name. It meant ‘born of a troubled father’. I didn’t need any reminders of my father; the scar that ran down my back was more than enough. He’d given that to me when I was a few years old. Not that anyone really counts the passing of the suns and seasons very much. I paid more attention to such things, so I had a general idea of my age. I figured myself to be fourteen or fifteen years old, around the right age to be married. In our tribe there were currently only two eligible bachelors, Ata and Atsu. Of course, I could be sent to marry someone from another tribe, but all the tribes other were pretty far away and there hadn’t been any clashes lately, so I would most likely marry one of them. I really hoped it would be Ata. Although I hadn’t formally met Atsu before, I had seen him around before. He was not a nice man and liked to leer at pretty women. I was sure that he’d caused plenty to cheat before. As soon as Ata had finished speaking and Atsu and I nodded our heads at each other, their father had stepped in. Their father, Ubaid, was the tribe leader and had a lot of power. Before my father had gone off the deep end, he had been Ubaid’s closest adviser, so our family still had some powerful connections through him.

“Hello Kes,” he said starting with me respectfully and calling me by my shortened, preferred name. He then continued on to address his sons,

“Good day Ata, Atsu. Nice weather, hey?” He laughed. He had such a great sense of humour and a wonderful laugh. I smiled at him.

“You are so pretty Kes, isn’t it time you got married too?” He said.

“I am of age,” I replied calmly, containing my excitement. As I had no family of my own, but for my very frail nearly deaf grandmother who I shared a tent with, he often filled in as my father figure. Perhaps he meant to give both blessings in the marriage to one of his sons? I crossed my fingers under my shawl for good luck.

“Both of my sons have asked your grandmother and me for your hand in marriage. As I’m not actually of your kin, I left it up to your grandmother to decide which you should marry. She took awhile to decide but I few days ago she approached me and told me of the vision she had received. In it she saw you carrying one’s child. So, in accordance with the Gods desires, she chose for you to marry…” He paused for a torturous moment, “At-”

At that exact moment a two daggers tore through the cloth of the tent, ripping it, and another flew straight through his heart. His whole body spasmed and his eyes rolled backwards into his head. Though I rushed to his body to see if there was anything I could do, I knew that it was already too late. Ubsaid, the only tribe leader I had ever known, and really the only father I had ever known was now dead forever. I supposed that he would now go on to the afterlife, but at that moment in time it didn’t matter to me. I started traditional words of passing when I realized that there was a battle and sand storm raging around me.

When the daggers had flown into the space Ata and Atsu had frozen in shock. They quickly regained their senses however, when a sword cut through the tent, almost cutting one of Atsu’s ears off. They both were now engaged in the fight and now that the sandstorm was nearly over, I peeked my head out of the flap and could see that our whole village had been ambushed. Everywhere I looked, I could see my people being slaughtered. I stepped back in to see Atsu plunge a silver dagger into Ata’s stomach. He drew out it’s now scarlet blade then jabbed it in again and again. Ata screamed and howled in pain. Atsu looked up, saw me watching and self-preservation kicked in. I no longer thought of Ata on the ground, I thought only of the blade Atsu held in his hands menacingly. The blade flashed and – he drove it back into his brother’s abdomen, twisting it a few times then brushing himself off, he walked out of the tent, unhindered by both sides of fighters. I almost went after him, about to grab the dagger that would kill his brother to kill the traitorous cheat when the tent fell down on top of me. I crawled over to Ata to ease his passing when he spoke,

“She chose me you know,” was all he managed to croak out. I felt tears run down my face at an alarming rate.

“I know… I always knew,” I finally told him. We shared a knowing look before his face then twisted in pain.

“Poison!” He cried. To intensify his pain, Atsu had most likely dipped the blade in poison. The sick pig. I drew the blade from his stomach quickly and briefly looked into his deep brown eyes. In them I saw understanding and acceptance.

“You will soon be free Ata,” I whispered soothingly. I lifted the blade and drove it cleanly through his heart. At once he was still. I didn’t need to check to see if he was dead.

I could hear footsteps crunching debris, squishing on corpses and padding on sand. I laid down and stayed still, for if they discovered me alive they would surely take me to provide ‘services’ for them. The footsteps passed then paused. I held my breath.

“Torch it?” A voice inquired.

“Of course,” the other replied. Atsu. I heard flames crackle and panicked as I realized what they meant. I was going to be burned alive. The flames caught quickly and the snapping, crackling flames came at me rapidly. I groped for the dagger imbedded in Ata’s chest to kill myself faster and less painfully when they reached me.

Pain overtook my body. There was no room for any other thought except for the pain. In fact, there wasn’t enough room for the pain at all, but it was still there anyway. I burned and as I burned I unconscientiously screamed. I screamed with what little air I had and when that was gone I gasped for what was not there under the tent. I could feel the blackness coming, edging closer into my vision filled with bright flames when, quite abruptly, the darkness consumed me. In that moment of reprieve between our world and the many others, I had room for one pain-free thought.

I love you Ata. I’m sure your unborn baby does too.