PART TEN:
The manifestation of an oblivious phantom:
Methus was still in a fit over Rifra's newest revelation about his 'sister's' illness. And the head housekeeper's nearly perpetual sour mood was now on the verge of rotting. However, Rifra knowing his master very well went out of his way that week to do his duty and far beyond. That over zealousness bought him a seasonal stalemate and temporary reprieve. Methus had sent three of his best maids to the queens quarters. They were as teachable and flexible, as they were conscientious and ardent. He had not heard any complaint nor comment whatsoever from the queen. Until then, he really did not have much to say to Rifra. As long as the King and his queen were comfortable, he could take any occupational hazards and disruptions in his stride. But if need be and he deemed it neccessary, he could also nip same disruptions and hazards in the bud.
Rifra was not ready to act on the kind old healer's advice of finally letting 'the cat out of the bag'. Why instigate another disturbance and confusion, in the wake of a murder investigation and the search for a missing child? He would take Ashea back to their family to be cared for. Then after the baby was born, she could remain there. He never really wanted her to work in the palace anyway. But she had craved the fulfillment of a childhood fantasy, of being in the vicinity of the grandeur that royalty accorded. He would plan to take the trip overnight and return very early the next day. That would minimize or completely erase any effects of his absence. The real problem he envisaged, was transporting Ashea in her heavy condition and very sickly disposition. As he contemplated his mode of movement, he felt a very sharp pain in his neck and then on his forehead. Another painfull jab on his neck again, would send him reeling forward.
No servant, officer and/or member of the royal family for that matter was in the main palace hallway when Rifra staggered across it and towards the servants quarters. He was clutching his head in excruciating pain when he got to the door of his room. Subsequently, he felt a jolt of heat go right through his body. Much like someone had lighted a match, after soaking him with gasoline. He pushed open the door with his weight and just as quickly began to tear off his clothes. As he stared at the clothes strewn on the floor, an action which had apparently provided no relief. The fiery heat still coursing through his body, he heard a whimper behind him and turned sharply. Ashea sat on the floor muttering to herself as she repeatedly stabbed her stomach with a knife.
Ashea's hair was matted and plastered on her sweaty face. Her eyes were blood shot, as she successively poked the knife at her swollen belly. At each attempt, the knife would bounce back into her hands as if it had hit a concrete wall.
"What are you doing Ashea?!" Rifra shouted incredulously as he rushed to take the knife from her thrusting hand. "I am going to cut this thing out of me!" Ashea shrieked as they both struggled to control the knife. "Cut this thing?! Have you gone mad?" Rifra was still expressing shock as they both struggled. "You would kill the child and yourself too!" Rifra managed to gasp. "This is not a child!" Ashea shouted, as she struggled vehemently to retrieve the knife now in Rifra's hand. "This thing is killing me, it is not a child! It is not normal! Even the kind old healer said it!" Ashea was now writhing on the floor and screaming in agony. "I am dying, I can feel it. This thing is taking away my life. It is not human and I won't carry it anymore." She managed to finished with a moan, as she tried to catch her breath. Her head slightly lifted off the floor, as she panted heavily.
When she got no response from Rifra, she lifted her head a little higher as she wiped her drooling lips with the back of her hand. What she saw next made her gasp in terror. Rifra was suspended about five feet horizontally, encircled in a ball of flames and groaning. "Hanad?!" "No. this is not Hanad, neither is it Rifra nor any other foolishness." The voice was coming from Rifra's immobile body still suspended above ground, but it sounded nothing like the servant. "Now listen carefully. You have been chosen to carry that child and you will carry it until it is ready." The voice was callous, coldly and stern, as it echoed in the room. "This is a seed that would mix and populate with your kind and we will not let you destroy it." Rifra's body appeared to sway briefly, as Ashea watched in frozen horror.
A frozen state that was short-lived, as the voice continued. "Humanity has something of which we don't have. But it is something we desperately crave and need to function." The laughter that emanated from the voice was mirthless and bone chilling. "Your specie could have ruled over us. But in convenanting and partnering with us, we rule over them." An even deeper and more sinister cackle permeated the room mocking jest. A laughter so scornful, it was provocative. "You cannot fight an enemy that you sleep with now, can you?" More creepy and loud laughter. At that, Rifra's body dropped to the ground and Ashea fainted.
A will to live or to die (Part three) 'She fought from the grave':
The queen and the prince watched the king closely with the utmost intensity and rapt anticipation. If only they could see what he was reading by watching his eye balls darting from the left to the right. The queen heaved a heavy sigh of nothing in particular, while the prince giggled. But the king was not distracted from his reading. Then the queen sneezed, just as the prince began coughing while they held on to each other. "Are you both coming down with a cold?" Asked the king with his eyes still glued to the parched sheet as he read on. "Actually we are both coming down with a serious case of curiosity, if you don't let us know soon enough what you are reading about." Answered the queen as she and her son looked at the king with sheepish and pleading eyes. "And don't forget, there is also another smaller sheet still in the satchet." The queen was playfully gloating on that reminder. "Yes I know dear. But listen, this is amazingly interesting." Began the king still looking at the sheet. "It seems like a secret puzzle that may have answers to questions we might not even know to ask." He finally lifted his head and looked as his wife who had now lain back on her royal lounge chair in exaggerated fatigue.
Prince Amil was almost besides himself in giggles. This was the first time he had as much as smiled in almost a month. First it was Debeh's murder and then the disappearance of the princess. Maybe the curtain of gloom that enveloped the palace these few weeks, might finally shift for a spate of light. Howbeit a dim one for the moment. "I can help with the puzzle, father." Volunteered the prince with an enthusiastic wave of his hand. "Yes he can indeed," complimented the queen with an admirative tone. "And I can help usher you both out quickly, if you do not tell me what was written on the sheet." Finished the queen with a wink and a smile at her husband. "Well, it appears you were right my dear, Debeh may have been trying to tell us something. But if she wrote this before she was killed......" The king paused and stared quizzically at the queen. "Did she know she would be killed?" A vague silence settled in the room for a few seconds, before the queen reached out to the king, to take the parched sheet.
When the king handed the current object of intrigue to his wife, she began to read it out loud:
"A descendant of maids, blessed and secure
A friend to a queen scorned yet so pure
A server of kings who reigns amidst snakes
A revealer of truth for the foundation it shakes
A threat to a royal whose sorcery trascends
The child that she stole and facts she often bends
The seed of the flies will cast the fatal blow
Though his beginning and end he still does not know
The seed of the wounded will triumph above all
Through tracherous oppression to answer destiny's call
For at last in the end, when the kingdom's will meet
A treasure and it's true love will on this throne seat
The seed of darkness its weapon had brandished
What son would start the mother had finished
Though now derelict, without mother or father
Yet a golden destiny need not fret nor bother
As sure as the eagle must soar to its height
So definitely it will pass just as He did write....." (The MONITORS 2015 by Chioma Onwudiwe)
"........ Oh!" Exclaimed the queen suddenly and loudly. "What happened my love?" Responded the king just as quickly as he moved immediately to her side. "The baby kicked, that's what happened. The baby kicked as if Reinah had entered the room." Her majesty tried to suck in and expel air with a pout, as waves of langour cascaded through her body. "Where is Reinah by the way? You two men took up all my time and I forgot to ask for Reinah." The queen grumbled to herself as she re-arranged her shoulder wrap and adjusted her feet on the lounge chair. "Amil dearest, can you find Reinah for me? I bet she can help us with the riddle or was it a puzzle? Hurry, the baby won't stop kicking." Sighed the queen in slight irritation. The prince moved indeed, hurriedly. But only into his father's waiting arms, as they both clung to each other for respite.
The Monitors (A prolific session):
The six heads stayed bent and silent, not just from habit or the usual protocol. This session would require a greater intensity in deliberation and a more pronounced propensity for deceit. A session that would definitely propel their diabolic propaganda to the next level. More importantly and ceremonially, the fly-lord was present. The two junior monitors, stood-up and turned their backs to the four lighted candles mounted at the entrance of the crypt. The shadows cast by their silhouettes, would keep the fly-lord's buzzing arrival from killing the flickering flames completely. Ironically, though their master was a complete antonym to light and truth. He still needed the light to confirm and emphasize his darkness. And a truth that he could twist and lie against.
Thus as agents of the dark, they were technically subject to and dependent on what they railed and rebelled against. But not everyone would know and understand that of course, which was of massive help to them.
"Why in this fiery abyss, is the process taking so much time and wasted effort?" The fly-lord was his usual impatient, unimpressed and angry self.
"My lord, we keep getting spurts of interruptions here and there." Heinus was careful not to sound overly defensive. "However, our main obstacle has been taken out." The head monitor said with almost a tinge of triumph. "How are you sure she is the main one? Hasn't history taught you anything? You forget our enemy is an entity whose mastermind trumps every other." The fly-lord grunted scornfully still unimpressed. "So why do we bother scheming then, if we know we are already at the loosing end?" One of the junior monitors intercepted cautiously. The fly-lord's eruption at his question if deemed foolish, could cost him an additional dose of relentless and enternal torment.
"Aha! 'We know' is the operative word here. But the fools do not know what we know. At least most of them do not." This animated addition was from Xitus who was now waving one of his limbs to stress his point. "The real work here is to mess up as much as we can and are permitted to. If not permitted, then we manipulate and deceive. But mess and destroy, we must!" The fly-lord was emphatic as he looked from one monitor to the other.
"Permitted? How so?" The junior monitor was feeling more secure as he plowed in. "When they cross their lane, and dabble with ours in the various ways that they do. They activate a legal access that allows us to have our way with them and use everything that is originally theirs for our devious plans." Xitus quickly supplied as he had noticed the fly-lord starting to look around. An action which often suggested his interest in the on-going chatter was beginning to wear thin.
"You mean like bearing our infiltrating seeds? Offsprings that will undetectedly and sometimes even undetected by their ownselves, furnish an insidious agenda." It was more of a declarative statement than it was a question."
The subsequent bellows of laughter behind the cryptic walls, signaled a unanimity in agreement.
How was your meal my dear? Sika's mother asked Reinah with a very broad smile on her face. She had piled up the princess' plate the next day, with what appeared to be more than the usual ration of food. It was very good mama Sika. Thank you so much. Came the princess' reply, as she tried to muster up a smile just as broad. It was? Really? A look of uncertainty suddenly crossed the woman's face, then dissappeared just as quickly. An action that was so fleeting, it was only possible for a 'knowing eye' to see. As the older woman wore back her broad smile, she proceeded to ask. You finished it, did you not? Her lips quivered as she voiced her question. Unsure if that particular interval might require a smile or a reprimanding yell, depending on the answer she would receive.
Reinah scanned the family room one more time. Sika's father was at his usual corner, tinkering with his tools and some heavy wood. Ocassionally, he would lift a metal object and hit two seperate planks of wood together to join them. It looked like he was building a large wooden box with strings for bars. Sika had stayed on her hay bed most of the morning, refusing to get up. She had days like that, so it was not a strange occurrence. There was no formal gathering for the meal time this day and Reinah never saw the husband and wife have their meal either. So when Sika's mother gave her a bowl full of their usual morning delicacy, she thanked her and carried it into the room where she and Sika slept.
About half an hour later, the princess emerged from the room with an empty bowl. She was apparently Just in time, as she almost collided into Sika's mother. That one towered over her gleefully, as their conversation ensued. Reinah took a step backward and just stared at the bowl without responding. You finished the food, did you not?! The smile initially on the woman's face, had faded abruptly. Still silence, and yet another step back. At this time, the furious woman's husband had stopped his banging ruckus and was looking their way. He made an attempt to stand up, but decided against it as he looked on. Are you dumb or something?! You foolish girl! Shouted the woman. Reinah was still mute and merely shuddered at the visible veins popping on the woman's neck. You have an empty bowl in your hands. Where is the food that was in the bowl?!
It was now obvious that Sika's mother had flown into a full blown rage. As she lifted her hands and advanced towards the girl, she suddenly froze on the spot. Immobilized by three little words. Words so softly spoken, it was almost inaudible. I fed Sika. Sika was hungry and I fed her. The scream that followed that revelation was blood curdling. As the woman slapped her across the face. Then she forcefully shoved her out of the way, knocking her to the ground. Her screaming never stopped, even as she raced into her daughter's room. Reinah picked herself off the floor, wiped the blood from her mouth and walked out the door. She walked out into the beautiful sunshine, never looking back at the house.
.