Alexandria, Egypt, December 17, 2009.Farah was laying on her bed listening to her favorite songs and thinking about her life. She had always felt captivated, every day for the past eight years she asked herself the same question; why she couldn"t just disappear. She had this thought running through her mind most of the time, a daydream where she could leave everything behind and simply vanish. With every day pa.s.sing, an unreasonable aching feeling crawled into her soul slowly leading her to lose all senses of reality.
For the past eight years, she kept having weird dreams, she couldn"t recall fully yet she vividly remembered how it felt every time she had one. She sighed and looked at the ceiling defeated; she felt a yearning for something more important than what happened to her the last couple of days.
As the song played loudly into her ears, it was a good one with great lyrics, the singer"s voice was clear and dominate; she knew every word and memorize every sound in it. This song especially connected to what she called weird dreams; it was like a gate for her to escape. The singer"s deep and calming voice always put her on cloud nine, for a moment she didn"t care about time and let herself drift with the song, it carried her away from her reality, away from her body. She felt her soul leaving her body and floating through the air, she felt light and alive and for the first time, she truly felt out of her body.
The realism of her feeling got to her scaring her to the core, she opened her eyes swiftly confirming what she felt, she was floating in the air and right above her peacefully laying body. She blinked and watched herself closely, she looked foreign and not real. She moved away and reached the floor to stand, as she walked toward the mirror, she didn"t see her reflection or any other reflections.
She saw a golden halo inside the mirror, she felt a strong need to touch it. She looked at her hand and slowly reached to touch the halo. She felt attached to whatever behind the halo, she felt like she was walking on a memory lane. The so-called dream always stopped at this moment; with her about to touch the mirror and never knew what was behind. Yet this time was different, it felt real and not a dream anymore.
She wasn"t scared or confused; she was simply following her instincts. The golden halo flickered when she touched it and quickly spread all over, she looked back at her laying body and saw how the halo covered it and swallowed it whole. She found herself standing in a golden luminous void that slowly transformed into another room. It looked familiar and nostalgic.
A hypostyle room with one ma.s.sive golden circle table on the middle and ten golden chairs. Farah was standing at the far end of the room; golden wisps flew from above her head toward the chairs and then transformed to ten strained men. In the middle of the table were hundreds of papyrus and books. One of the men stood up and start walking back and forth with his hands over his hips.
He was talking in a low tone that Farah couldn"t hear him from where she was standing, she walked toward them and stood behind one chair and eyed each one carefully. They were all wearing long white linen shendyt with golden belts and long-sleeves tunics, some wore plain silver neck collars and others wore gemstones silver ones. Most of them were bold and with clean shaved beards. They all shared similar clothes, yet each was weirdly different from the other; they were like all belonged to the same culture but from different time eras.
Farah narrowed her eyes while looking at their faces; she could swear on her life at this very moment that she saw these men before. She knew each one of them and knew exactly what they were talking about yet his mind nor her body let her react or even talk.
"If our calculations are right, we have to move fast, we cannot let them take our right to fight," the standing man said and looked at the other men. The third man from the right looked at him intensely before standing up and walked to stand beside him. He looked different; he had full dark brown beard and hair and he was wearing more layers of clothes than the rest.
"I tested everything; they are here"— he sighed and eyed the rest of the men who shared the same worrying reaction— "they are in disguise, recruiting weak souls to get to the heart."
The man sitting in front of Farah gasped and said, "but…how?"
"I tried everything to prove that they are not but… if we didn"t stop them, we will lose everything."
"They are not even born yet! How would they get it?!" another man asked.
"I tested every possibility and it all led to the ma.s.sacre"— he rubbed his face roughly with his hands— "I saw it with my own eyes." He sighed and looked at the man next to him. "Did you find him?"
The man looked at him and said, "He is in seventy-three and he already got the message… he was connected with the oracle, he will get here at any moment now."
Another man stood up and went to the right to a huge brown door. "We have to get the girls before it"s too late." The rest nodded their heads agreeing with him, he nodded back then grabbed the doork.n.o.b; a loud noise hit the whole place the moment he opened the door.
…
Farah gasped for air, she looked around and found herself laying on her bed, she couldn"t call it a dream anymore, she looked at the clock next to her; it didn"t move even a second. She could remember everything this time but within a minute and without she could even realize her mind covered it up leaving her again with nothing but yearning for something she couldn"t remember.
She blinked several times before sitting up. She grabbed her iPod to switch it off before leaving the bed, her eyes went from the iPod to her left hand, there was a cicatrix between her thumb and index fingers, it looked rough, whatever had caused this old wound, it was never st.i.tched nor treated. For years she thought maybe the accident she had when she was eighteen was the reason behind the scar.
Eight years ago, she went into an enormous car crash; she was driving on El-Gaish road when suddenly her car flipped multiple times causing her to become heavily disoriented, the only thing she remembered from that day was the world pa.s.sed up and down in a blur. After she woke up in the hospital, she couldn"t recognize anyone and when the doctors asked her if she remembered anything but her name.
The doctors said that her memory loss was due to the accident and it might not get back. Surprisingly after one month, she was remembering everything except her childhood memories; even the things she remembered were more like feelings from the past, not genuine memories.
For anyone who knew Farah; would mostly envy her. She had a perfect looking life; she was the youngest member of one of the wealthiest well-known families in the country. She had the money and the power to have anything she wants yet it wasn"t as luxurious as it sounded. She wasn"t free to decide anything major in her life, she must follow her family"s footsteps, her life felt more like a role in a movie she had to play and not real life.
She was the only granddaughter of the Nezar family; her family dominated her life in its every aspect. It wasn"t bad to have a comfortable life ready for her to lead yet feeling captivated was drifting her away and she didn"t know why she kept feeling this way.
She didn"t celebrate her birthday after the accident; she couldn"t even remember if her family ever celebrated that day, three months ago, was her twenty-six birthday, her cousin Malika decided to throw her a party even though it was a hectic day for her. Malika called Farah to convince her to go to the party she arranged for her at her favorite restaurant. It took Malika thirty minutes of begging until finally, Farah agreed to go.
Farah smiled remembering that day, Malika always used begging to convince her. She looked over her room while heading to her closet to start getting ready, there were many pictures of her with Malika hanging on the walls. Despite having different personalities, they had a strong friendship. Their mothers raised them to love and protect each other as they did. Farah opened her closet and there was a picture on the closet door of their summer trip two years ago in South Korea, she remembered how crazy this trip was. "If I only knew all that c.r.a.p will happen just one year after this photo," she said sarcastically and looked away.
After she went to the bathroom to have a quick shower, her phone ranged, she looked at it and started to blow dry her black wavy hair. She had a kind of beauty that women love to hate; with a willowy figure, glowing light-olive skin tone, heart-shaped face, almond brown eyes, long curved eyelashes and naturally full round light red lips with rounded cupids bow.
Her phone kept ringing, two names kept calling her: Malika and Adam. She finally answered one of them after taking a long deep breath. "Farah!! Please talk to me." Adam"s voice was a bit strained.
"Don"t call again." she hung up the phone before Adam could say anything else. She went to her room to wear her heels while holding her phone blocking Adam"s number. She checked herself over in the mirror one last time. "Will it ever end?" she said and grabbed her bag.
…
Malika"s House, 8:30 am.
Employees from Malika"s parents" private hospital crowded the house. Malika smiled at them while she was going downstairs to her mother; she couldn"t hide her anxiousness that washed over her face. She had an attractive beauty with hourgla.s.s slim body, round face, long eyelashes, curly brown hair, full round naturally red lips and hooded light green eyes that shines encounter with her olive skin tone.
Like her parents, she studied medicine to run the hospital with them. She was known for being the smart one. Her obsession with ancient civilizations was taking over her life, she wanted to study it deeply, but her parents weren"t fond of it. She made a deal with them; she would study medicine in return she would travel every summer to any country she wants and get the chance to explore the world.
Being an only child made it a little easier for her to get what she wants. She went to the backyard garden where her mother Layla was having breakfast next to the pool. Her mother was a psychiatrist. She was known for her calm and friendly personality. "Good morning Mama," Malika said and sat on the chair next to Layla.
"Good Morning," Layla said without looking at her. "Did you sleep well?" she asked and then eyed her noticing how Malika looked anxious. "Hey, what"s wrong?" she asked and tapped slowly on Malika"s arm.
"I"m worried about Farah," Malika said, taking one toast to eat.
"What happened yesterday was a lot to take in," Layla said and held her cup of tea and took a small sip.
"I can"t believe what he did; how could he hurt her like that," Malika said angrily.
"Did you call her?" Layla asked.
"She didn"t answer, and I tried to call her yesterday, but her phone was off," she said and sighed. "she always finds a way to keep herself busy and not share what she"s feeling."
"Not everyone knows how to express their feelings so don"t leave her; she definitely needs someone with her," Layla said and eyed Malika again.
"I won"t," Malika said and quickly ate her breakfast.
After a few minutes, she kissed her mother goodbye and pa.s.sed by her father"s office to see him before heading to her car. She tried to call Farah from the minute she woke up, but Farah didn"t answer. Malika decided she would get Farah her favorite coffee first before heading to her office.
…
At the Nezar corporation, 9:10 am.
"Sorry Mr. Adam, you"re not allowed to go inside," the security man said firmly.
"I want to talk to her now!"— Adam held the man"s collar roughly— "move."
The security man held Adam"s hand shoving it away causing him to slightly lose his balance and said, "You"re not allowed to enter, and your belongings are here." Adam looked beside the man to see one big brown box with all his belongings.
It took Malika a solid forty minutes to get to Farah. After she parked her car, Adam was heading to his car in the parking lot, he noticed Malika and went to talk to her. "Malika," he said loud enough for her to hear him.
"Yes?" she looked at him furiously.
"Can we talk? Please," Adam said and left the box next to her car. She cringed at his action and quickly shifted her body and walked away yet Adam followed her fast steps. "come on Malika, just give me a chance to explain myself!" Adam begged. Malika kept her fast steps leaving Adam standing behind her and about to cry.
She kept walking mumbling angry cursing words till she reached the elevator b.u.t.ton. She rarely gets angry; she has a joyful optimistic personality yet when she gets angry or nervous; she curses nonstop. The elevator reached the ninth floor where Farah"s office. Everyone looked nervous and were running. Malika walked slowly as she reached Farah"s secretary"s desk and found her about to cry. "Lena! What"s wrong?!"
Lena"s whole face was completely red. She was trying hard not to cry; She was known in the office for her humble personality and her plus-sized short body that gave her the look of a twelve-year-old with her perfect natural redhead curls and colorful big round gla.s.ses she always wears that gave her unique unforgettable look.
"Everything is messed up…she is furious, and I don"t know what to do!" Lena blubbered.
"Calm down, go wash your face and I"ll talk to her," Malika said it hopefully she would be able to calm the beast inside who she could hear her loud voice from behind a closed door. She knocked on her door and opened it to find Farah standing in the middle of her office, talking in high angry pitch and not paying any attention to anything else.
Malika entered and sat on a chair in front of Farah"s desk. "You have to finish this d.a.m.n project before the end of the year!!" Farah"s voice was getting higher and angrier. "what! Now you realize that we have a problem! We had one year to finish! But now we only have TWO WEEKS!!" Farah screamed which made Malika jump a little. Malika whistled shrilly. Farah glared at her; Malika smiled and pointed at the coffee. Farah moved her eyes and continued her call.
…
After painful ten minutes of yelling, Farah hung up the phone and sat on the chair across to Malika. "Hey, angry bird," Malika said with a big smile trying to change the mood. Farah smiled at her. "what happened here?"—she put sugar in her coffee— "everyone is running, and you made the poor girl cry!"
"Who?" Farah said surprisingly, raising her eyebrows.
"Poor Lena, is it Adam who makes you yell at everyone?"
Farah stood up suddenly. "Did she really cried?" she asked, Malika answered her and waited for Farah"s answer about Adam.
Instead, Farah left the room and went to check on Lena. After five minutes, she got back to her office. "Hey, I asked you a question, are you okay?" Malika asked.
"Yeah, great," Farah said, holding her coffee.
Malika held her hand and said, "I"m serious."
"I"m fine really," Farah said while resting her back and took a sip of her coffee.
"I want you to tell me the truth and I know all of it is overwhelming, so you have to open up your heart and tell me how you feel—"
"I am fine, nothing is overwhelming but this coffee needs sugar."
"—you"re clearly not okay! You were screaming hard on the phone and obviously, you"re furious."
"It"s the norm of my job, packets?" Farah said and opened her hand waiting for the extra sugar packets. Malika had extra sugar packets inside her bag; she always carried some with her, she liked intense sugar taste any time she drank coffee counter to Farah who only drank it black with no sugar.
"Don"t lie to yourself"—Malika took two sugar packets from her bag and put them on Farah"s opened hand — "what happened yesterday turned you into this angry yelling person."
"No, I"m always an angry yelling person in here, it just how it works," Farah said and put sugar in the coffee.
Farah took a sip and looked at her phone expecting a text while Malika eyed her calmly. "What the h.e.l.l happened to you?!" Malika snapped, looking deeply into her eyes. Farah frowned and looked at Malika who didn"t blink. "two days ago, you looked like you"re about to explode and now you look fine! You"re even putting sugar in your coffee!" Malika sounded surprised.
"You don"t want me to put sugar in my coffee? Because I"m pretty sure you have more in your bag or you don"t want me to be fine?" Farah said deadpan.
"What"s wrong with you?!" Malika shouted. "I need an explanation now!" she said, pointing at her angrily.
"About what?! It just two sugar packets!" Farah took another sip of her coffee.
"I"m not talking about the d.a.m.n sugar, it"s about what happened yesterday! you left my house and supposedly heading home, but you went to the airport and you didn"t even tell me. Yesterday I kept calling you, but your phone was off all day!" Malika said.
"I told you I was going to the airport and yeah I went to meet Noah," Farah explained calmly.
"Noah! Our Noah?!" Malika said and frowned.
"I don"t think we know any other Noah." Farah held her phone, writing a text.
"And?"
"Nothing we just hang out and I came back," Farah said calmly; that always made Malika angrier.
"So, you went to Noah and talked to him and not me!" Malika said and gasped.
…
Ten minutes had pa.s.sed with Farah writing a long text and Malika staring at her. Farah finished and put her phone on her desk and looked at Malika. "Blink Malika," Farah said and laughed at Malika"s serious face.
"Don"t act like this," Malika said, still not blinking nor changing her seriousness.
"Like what?" Farah sneered that made Malika angrier.
"You just went to his shoulder to cry on and not me!"
"Who said I even cried on his shoulder?" Farah said, laughing.
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"I"m disappointed, you went running to Noah and not me"—Malika rested her back— "why do you prefer him over me?" she blurted out. "You know him for only two years, I know you all your life," she said and pointed at herself.
"I don"t remember anything before the accident; so technically I know you for only eight years," Farah said in a deadpan tone and shrugged.
"You don"t remember but I do!"
"Really? Can you recall any childhood memories we had together?" Farah said and raised one of her eyebrows.
"Well..." Malika looked at the floor and opened her mouth for ten seconds trying to remember. "No, I can"t recall anything now, but of course, we had childhood memories together."
"I doubt it… we don"t even have any pictures when we were young. I mean I think I have ones with my brothers but not with you. Actually… I don"t have any pictures before the accident, not with you or anyone"—Farah shrugged her shoulders again— "I don"t think I saw any childhood pictures for neither of us… that"s odd."
"Maybe the pictures were lost in the accident," Malika said, looking more relaxed.
"Even yours? I was in the car alone… probably we"re aliens," Farah said.
"No, you"re not that cool to be one." Farah smiled and looked again at her phone. Malika took a sip of her coffee and remembered her anger over Farah running to Noah. "wait, don"t change the subject, I"m still mad."
Farah laughed; she knew Malika would never get jealous especially when it comes to Noah. Farah got up and head to her door calling for Lena to get her the number of the company"s lawyer. Malika"s phone ranged; it was her mother. "Malika, where are you? Your shift is about to start," Layla said from the other side.
"At Farah"s office, I"ll be there on time, Papa signed for the new equipment, right?" Malika said and waited for her mother to respond but instead, she heard her talking to one of the maids.
The maid called Layla informing her about a mystery box arriving at the main door of their house. The maid sounded confused when Layla asked her who put the box there; she said a man was already walking away when she saw the box, but he suddenly stopped and turned. He told her to give the box to Malika and then gave her a white envelope and immediately left without looking back.
Her mother asked her if she ordered anything which she didn"t and felt odd when her mother told her the maid though the delivery man looked suspicious. "I didn"t order anything," Malika whispered after she hung up.
"Did you say something?" Farah asked without looking at her.
"No"—Malika put the phone in her bag— "so, what did you do to make Lena cry?"
"You know the project we have for the Sweden Company?" Malika nodded. "well some morons are ruining it, apparently, they didn"t follow the exact designs for two buildings and I"m pretty sure the Sweden company is going to sue us," Farah said while checking some work papers.
"Does your father know about it?"
"Yeah! I have been in this mess since yesterday," Farah sneered, and her office phone ranged.
"I have to go; my shift is about to start," Malika said while heading to the door. Farah waved at her and started the phone call with the same high angry tone.
…
After a while, Farah knew that she had to go to her father"s office downstairs to tell him the updates. Lena entered the room to give her another bunch of work papers she needed, she gathers everything she needs tightly between her hands and stood up. She took a deep breath and went directly to the stairs to head to her father"s office. Her feet were hurting her from wearing the heels; she hated them. She took her time going downstairs, she wanted to focus her feelings on the pain rather than her overwhelming anxiety.
She could hear his angry voice from distance, she stood in front of the door breathing loudly and praying he wouldn"t yell at her, she raised her hand to knock on the door before entering the office. The moment the door frame revealed her body, everyone eyed her anxiously. She bitten her bottom lip roughly feeling the improbable tension filled the room. Her father looked at her frowning with his anger clear on his face. "I called our law department and we sorted everything out," she said with a low steady voice.
"How could you let those idiots put me in this situation!" her dad said furiously.
"I did everything right and they got everything on time," Farah said defending herself. She looked at everyone except her father who was sitting on his desk in the middle surrounded by the head managers of every department. His office room was the biggest in the company. It was separated into two parts— one part had his desk and the other part was a small conference room— both parts were crowded with the managers who all shared the same anxious almost fear reaction.
"I gave them the designs and the instructions correctly—" she looked at her father, her breath stuck in her lungs and time seemed to be frozen everything and everyone in their places. Behind her father"s desk was a ceiling-to-floor gla.s.s wall showing the beautiful Mediterranean Sea on its full glory. On the other side, a group of golden strings suddenly flew in the air and slowly transformed into an angelic golden bird. Its eyes were almond in shape and its gaze was an incandescent blue fire astounded her to the core. Farah blinked and the bird disappeared. "—it"s not my responsibility."
"You"re the head of design and implementation; It is your responsibility!" he pointed his finger at her with obvious anger on his face. She looked at him and sighed; she knew there was no way to convince him that it wasn"t her fault. She looked back and the wall behind him; nothing but the glamorous sea view.
He kept blaming Farah on everything that went wrong in the Sweden project and how she turned out to be a great failure— Farah felt a burning sensation in her chest eating her heart, she wished for a moment when he would stop and everything to be just quiet. It wasn"t her father"s anger or what happened two days ago…it was something more…something she couldn"t explain— finally he ended his long speech by telling her how irresponsible she was.
"I alr—" Her father waved his hand for her to get out when his phone ranged; it was the executive manager of the Sweden company on the other side. She felt embarra.s.sed and her cheeks got shades darker than its natural pink shade; she eyed the other managers who gave her apologetic looks. She left his office feeling oppressed, she walked slowly to her office and told Lena to arrange a meeting with the executive team of the project in half an hour. She left Lena and went to the roof of the building.
It was an incredible view; the company was surrounded by a huge garden and on the other side of the street was the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. She reached the rooftop railing and took off her heels. The moment she put her hand on the railing she started to cry and a flashback of the last couple of days started to pop in front of her eyes.