Page 8 of Releasing the Djinn
"Taken your maidenhood? Touched you deeper than any man ever has?" he offered with a taunting purr. "Not that I could in this form, though I can promise you that if I did, you would remember every last detail.
"I do not want that, do you understand?!" she stressed. She was so tempted to shake the blasted stone to get her point across, but she resisted. She couldn't help the thought of shaking some poor trapped creature inside.
He said nothing.
Standing up, she spoke firmly. "Tell me you understand or I will throw you into the trash or—or—the ocean." The sudden animalistic growl at the mention of the ocean nearly made her drop the stone. Her blood raced as she froze in silence, judging if she should continue or not. Softening a little, she held the stone tighter. "Please, I know you may think I want your…attention like that, but I don’t. It makes me uncomfortable, please tell me you will stop."
The smile was gone from his voice, replaced by a tone that almost felt void of life and rehearsed. "If that is your wish."
Not sure what else to say or do, she sat the necklace on her nightstand and stepped back. She needed to go to the bathroom, but the sudden thought of her mother coming in and seeing the necklace gave Nadira pause. Taking the necklace from the nightstand, she stuffed it on the underside of her pillowcase, feeling much more confident in its safety, she left the room.
Long after the Gurung family finally left, there was a long conversation that mostly consisted of her parents yelling at her before eventually turning on one another to continue their argument. Each one blamed the other for the "embarrassing scene" as they coined it, but Nadira knew as she slunk away, that they would eventually simmer down, and both agree that somehow, it was her fault for everything anyway.
Laying down in her bed that night, she stared at the stone in her palm. As if sensing her, it began to glow dimly in her hand.
After minutes of debating internally, she finally asked. "What do you want from me?"
For a while, the voice did not speak, and she feared it wouldn't.
"The same as you," he said finally. "...freedom."
