Page 7 of Releasing the Djinn
Nadira was setting the tray to the side when Mrs. Gurung spoke again.
"One last question Nadira, and this is important. Have you had past relationships?" The shrewd look the woman gave her was so menacing, it was if she was already convinced that Nadira was going to confess that she had a string of previous lovers.
It was as if all the sound in the room was vacuumed out by the mere insult of the question. Glancing at her father, Nadira could see him lurch in his chair as if shot in the chest as he processed the highly intrusive question. Her mother, on the other hand, needed no time to process her own response. Fury so dark and pure shown in her mother's dark eyes, Nadira had to stop herself from stepping back from it. With just a tiny glance, her mother conveyed all Nadira wanted to hear—that she was excused to leave this travesty of a meeting.
Mumbling a polite excuse to leave, she left the cretins sitting on the opposite couch and quickly made her way up the stairs and back to her room.
Opening the door, she eyed the stone necklace lying on the floor across the room. The reddish cognac tone of the stone seemed to glow against the drab beige carpet of her room. Closing the door quietly, she tiptoed silently towards it. Her instincts blared against her cautious nature, warning her to leave it where it lay.
Stopping only a few feet away, Nadira wrung her hand nervously as she stared at the stone.
"Hello?" she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Her stomach knotted in fear as she stepped closer, stopping right in front of it.
"Hello?" she said again.
She waited, but she heard nothing. Shifting restlessly on her feet, she froze as she watched the red and orange hues of the stone shift dimly. Was that a trick of the light, or did something inside actually move?
Going against every instinct within her, she reached out and plucked up the stone. Instantly it brightened in her hand, radiating a soft warmth like a tiny flame.
Encouraged by this, she backed up and sat at the edge of her bed, keeping the stone in the palm of her hand. "You spoke to me, didn't you?"
For a brief second, she feared she was losing her mind when there was no response.
Finally, it spoke that familiar gravelly voice. "I did."
Alarmed but intrigued, she brought the stone closer. "Who…"
"I felt your pain, I understand your loneliness," he admitted. "I am all alone too."
His voice was echoing in her head she realized. She should be screaming right now, instead of sitting here listening assomethingspoke to her from inside of an ugly stone necklace.
"Who are you?Whatare you?"
"I am Idrak," it said, its deep voice filling every nook and cranny of her mind until her chest felt full with warmth. "I am a djinn."
Frowning Nadira looked up to the opposite wall as her mind tried to search the word "djinn" for any recognition. Whatever adjinnwas, she knew it couldn't be human. She wanted to know why he or it lived in a necklace and why did it take him so long to talk to her but her thoughts stuttered to a halt when a little needling feeling at the back of her mind finally stopped and she realized something.
"It was you, wasn't it?!" she stared accusingly at the stone. "In my dreams, it was you."
"Yes," dark amusement colored his voice.
Incensed by his glib tone, she began to bounce her knee in pent up frustration as she sputtered back a reply. "You-y-you have been messing with me somehow in my sleep, haven't you?!" The voice was silent at her accusation, which only made her want to let out a growl in frustration. She wanted answers, dammit. She wanted to know how or at the very least why he was talking to her and invading her sleep, leaving bruises in intimate places. "The vivid dreams—the bruises," she continued. "What have you been doing to me?!"
"Did you know that you clutch the stone in your sleep?" he asked with an evil mirth to his tone as he evaded the question.
Nadira shuddered as she snuck a quick glance over her shoulder. Nothing was there, but it felt as if he was right behind her, leaning over her, encompassing her in a heat she never once felt speaking directly into her ear.
"I can feel you, Nadira," his voice lowered until she could swear, she felt puffs of warm air hit her cool skin sending goosebumps up and down her body. "I can feel your needs, and your wants radiate around my prison, calling me to fulfill them. How could I deny such a simple wish?"
He said, "prison," that had to mean he was locked within the stone against his will. Just what was he? "What wish?" she asked with a frown. "I wished for nothing from you.
"Ah, but you have," there was a gleeful smile in his voice that made her heart twist in fear. "I can feel your yearning for someone to save you, someone you can trust, someone…to hold you."
The meaning of his words felt like stone shattering through the glass surrounding her heart. Everything seemed to stop.
"Have you…" her voice stopped midway, she could barely utter the words.
