CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: UNEXPECTED

I still lay on the floor with my head bleeding. Nancy...doesn't even care if I am a relative to her or not. Or don't they care? All of them. I'm becoming too emotional. I'm sick of this whole thing. This whole Legends thing. I think it is better when you don't feel anything. When you don't even have feelings to begin with so you don't feel guilty. So you don't feel heavy cos of having a conscience.

"I'm sorry, I can't do it." I feel a hand squeezing my throat. I'm longing for my former self but this...this whole empathy thing is killing me. I can't feel my heart beat. I can't breathe. I am so entwined in my thoughts and a picture comes to mind.

...

'Where is he?' I see her, Mrs Hussein in my head. Yes, that's right. I forgot about Laylah. What has happened to her? Has she died? Not yet? I still struggle with my breathing and I see her?

'I said, where is he?' She repeats herself in a softer tone but commanding. In a voice that says she's so close to loosing herself, she asks the receptionist.

'She's...he's..' Mrs Hussein didn't even bother looking at his face she just walked past him with Nabeenah by her side. He couldn't even stop her. As I am on my way to death, I see these shenanigans. And the book dared to call it a blessing. It dared to say I am for a good cause. Isn't this a punishment?

That I am suddenly for a greater cause nullifying my former self like a painting brush covering up my sins. I let the tears fall freely till the ground. Letting the salty water caress my skin and fall.

'I..we..tried but...'

'I'm suing you all. I just came to tell you that. Get prepared.' Mrs Hussein says in the skirt and gown top she was putting on. The combination is...she looks unkempt. I do pity her. I let her be cos I'd be in that position too if my child went missing. She didn't tie her hijab well. Only her daughter, Laylah's elder sister, looked kempt.

' I suggest you get ready cos when she says something. She means it. We kept quiet about the other kid missing and you all was sure to keep it underwrap. But now it's different. You'd not cook up a story this time saying it was the child's fault and it was unintentional. Don't you think something is wrong when another kidnap is happening after only 2 years since that boy was reported missing and later found dead? And what did you people do about it? Nothing, you washed your hands off it. Have you even questioned the gateman? '

His face says something otherwise.

' You didn't.' She scoffs. Have a blessed day. She bows and walks out of the principal's office following her mom who is already outside of the school. She pauses when she gets to the gate and takes a glance of the gateman. He stands standing at her too. That stare you get when someone's trying to block off the energy from you so you don't get to read them.

Unconsciously, she takes her eyes to his ankle boots and then turns to face the front before walking out of the school. She drives herself and her mother away from the building by car. "Where's their father?"

I think that then he comes to mind, their father. He's on a vacation with his goons. He's in a cruise swimming with others. I smile to myself with lots of emotions.

My mind trails to where Laylah is as I lay on this cold bare floor. And she comes through. A clear vivid picture more like a video. She's sitting on a big piece of rock amidst tall trees and watching the sunset in this cold snow. The sun is setting. I bet that's the place where Nathaniel sent her to. A safe hideout.

She suddenly folds her leg and does meditation. She closes her eyes as the skies shows wonders. There is someone up there, isn't there? Someone who's controlling all of this? God.

My eyes are still shut. The wound refuses to stop bleeding. She says something, 'please be well.' I hear her vividly, Laylah. "What was that? I was so alarmed that I open my eyes.

Abruptly, I look ahead of me and I see no one. I face Feline when I fell to the ground. Why isn't she here? Was she moved away? I struggle to get up and I do. My legs feel heavy like they've been attached. I stagger but I get back to my right senses.

I stand up straight and Feline really isn't here. I turn around and no one is here. No Dad, no Nancy, no Nathaniel. "Where's everyone? What happened here? I don't recognize here." This wasn't how it was before. Everything has been cleared up. There's no single belonging here. It's just an empty big space.

I turn around and take a good look at what I see. It seems different. I feel a surge of headache. I walk ahead hoping to find something but there isn't, at least not yet. I open the door in which boy Nathaniel and I came through and there it is, the glowing sun. As it sets, I see it's magnificent beauty. I don't feel out of breath again. "What is this? Where's the cold?" Autumn's here. "How's that possible?"

Everything around me is golden brown, the leaves I mean. I see the piece of rock on which Laylah sat in my mind but she isn't there. "Was she caught too?" I go there and unconsciously do the position she did, a meditating position. The yoga position.

I close my eyes and breathe focusing on my breath. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. I continue till I see it, Feline's book.

"Why does it keep coming to me?" I see it in my mind opening up from the first to the last page. I read this whole thing sometimes ago. "Why is it still here?" Then some thing I don't expect happen. Another page is here. Another page comes to life. It wasn't...that wasn't there before. "Why has it been added now?"

"Dear You. I call you to accept your life destiny. You are there. You seeing this means, you are ready. I give my blessings to you my dear. Bless you, God guides you. Now go for it. Kick arses. '

I thought Feline's book, was professional, no crude words allowed. Slowly, I feel relieved like a huge load is being taking over my chest and I hear a voice in my head.

Siphoned. Siphoned! Veronica Siphoned, you have been given the gifts and now you are ready. Go back and fulfill your destiny. You've been given time.

I get up suddenly. Like the hand on my chest is being taken away. I feel empty. Free. I look around and see all of that has happened in my mind. I see myself, where I least expect, with Laylah.

'Hey...' She waves at me smiling. 'What is...'

WHERE'S MY DAUGHTER?