6 Chapter 6

"Wh-what do you mean cursed?" Hooria stammered, caught off guard.

Chammi leaned in closer to her, eyes wide, "We never speak of it. But everyone knows that this palace cursed. That this family has been cursed for generations. They were cursed by a- "

"What are you two doing here?" The deep gravelly timbre of Asfandyar's voice echoed off the old stone walls before dispersing into the cold night air.

Chammi sprang back from Hooria, as if scalded a guilty look scorching her skin, as if she's been caught with her hand in the honey jar.

Hooria turned back, and bit back a gasp at the sight of him, tall and dark, looming in the shadows of the corridor-appearing almost sinister. Like the devil himself.

"Chammi was just showing me around the palace," Hooria replied, forcing calm façade, even as her heart sped up whether in fear or excitement, she didn't know.

"I thought we'd agreed that you were to stay in your room until I came back," Asfandyar said arching one dark brow at her, his voice steady, yet she could hear a small echo of reproach thread through them.

Hooria shrugged, "We didn't agree on anything. You told me to stay in my room, but I don't see how that would accomplish anything other than make me go stir crazy staring at the walls. And besides, I'm not going to cower inside my room just because someone here decided to play a cruel prank on me."

She heard Chammi bite back a gasp, shocked at her tone. As Asfandyar's eyes flared in surprise.

It was evident that very few people if any, ever contradicted him.

He stared at her, studying her for a sometime, as if he were truly seeing her for the first time, in the darkness with moonlight slinking in through the open balcony. As if he'd found something peculiar, something that had evoked his curiousity.

She didn't flinch or look away, even as the weight of his gaze became excruciating, the tension in the air punctuated by his stony silence.

"You're right," He said at last, a small smirk tipping up the corners of his lips.

Breath she didn't know she'd been holding left her in a whoosh of relief, as her muscles relaxed.

"Have you had dinner yet?" He asked her.

"Not yet," Hooria replied cautiously, unsure of where he was going with this.

Asfandyar turned to Chammi, "Have dinner set up for us in the library."

Chammi nodded, as she rushed past them, eager to escape.

Asfandyar watched her go with an amused look on his face, "I think we made Chammi, a tad bit uncomfortable."

Shaking his head, he turned to Hooria his expression sombre again, "We need to talk Hooria. About what happened today, and about…other things. Things we should have discussed before."

A warm a tingling sensation crawled across her skin when he uttered her name. It was the way he said it with vague familiarity, like acknowledging her for the first time. Acknowledging them for the first time.

Hooria nodded, vaguely too overcome to speak as nervousness fluttered in her stomach at the thought of them alone, in a room.

"Shall we," He gestured for her to follow him, as he turned to go back the path they'd come.

Hooria started to follow, when an icy wisp of air brushed through her hair in a light caress. Colder than the breeze blowing before and more…deliberate. Like frozen fingers running through her long dark strands.

She let out a small gasp, as the frigid touch travelled down towards the nape of her neck, the heavy curtain of her hair parting on its own to allow better access.

The invisible fingers-long and thin like reeds, wrapped themselves around her throat, sharp points that felt like talons digging into her skin, almost piercing through. Pressure around her throat tightened and terror kicked in, as she stumbled forward to escape the insidious grasp.

Asfandyar turned from further ahead of the long corridor, eyebrows raised, "What's wrong?"

Hooria spun around, eyes wide and terrified, desperate to see-make sense of the invisible assault on her, coming face to face with nothing but air.

Something touched her elbow, causing her to jerk away her breath coming out in long rapid tufts of fog in the cold air.

"It's okay. It's me," Asfandyar soothed his penetrating gaze laced with concern and confusion.

"I-I felt something-no, someone behind me," Hooria fumbled out, almost incoherently; her mind a jumbled mess as she tried to make sense of something that couldn't be anything but her imagination-a hallucination.

This family has been cursed from generations.

The ominous words played out in her ears, as she caught a flutter of movement, through the open balcony doors, that faced the flowing network of jali that covered the entirety of the third floor.

"There's no one here, Hooria," Asfandyar consoled gently his eyes intent on her face, as she gently tried to turn her away.

"No!" Hooria struggled in his grasp, panic seizing her lungs-was she going insane? She could have sworn she'd felt something-something evil and malicious, trying to choke the life out of her, it'd felt too real to be something conjured up by her mind.

"Someone was here, I felt them behind me," She exclaimed pleading him to believe her, as her hands fisted his white shirt, clutching at him desperately.

"Hooria. Please calm down," Asfandyar said, his voice strong and calm, and excruciatingly gentle the kind one used with a frightened animal ready to bolt. "Nobody is here but you and me. We would have seen someone come and go, there isn't anywhere here where they could've hidden."

Hooria seized her trembling as his calm, soothing and reassuring voice pierced through the haze of panic and fear clouding her mind.

He was right nobody could have crept up behind her or escaped without them noticing. Unless of course it wasn't a human being.

 Everyone knows that this palace cursed. That this family has been cursed for generations.

Dear God. Was she really taking Chammi's words seriously? When she knew it was just local folklore conjured up by locals to add a bit of thrill to their mundane existence, stories they could use  to scare wayward children.

But the alternative was even more distressing, since it meant she was going mad. Her mind turning on itself.

"There was someone," She began and to her horror she tears stream down her cheeks. The events of the past few days, the unsettling visions not to mention the stress of the previous few months all coalesced to push her towards her breaking point.

"I swear. I felt someone touch me, wrap their arms around my throat. For a moment I couldn't breathe. I know it sounds impossible and crazy but I know what I felt."

Asfandyar looked over her head his eyes scanning the area intently, she felt his body stiffen as he pulled her more firmly to his side.

Had he seen something-felt something?

"Hooria, I'm not doubting you. I'm sure you felt something. But you're too distraught right now. Let's go get you someplace warm, okay? And then you can tell me about what happened," His voice a soft lilting tone that made her want to sink into it- sink into him.

Belatedly she realized just how close they were, how she was clinging to him as if he were an anchor-the only thing keeping her from drifting into the turbulent waves of the sea. She felt the heat emanating from his body, chasing away the chill that encased her bones and the security of his embrace alleviating her panic, as she sank into him.

"Okay," She whispered raggedly as she allowed herself to be propelled forward down the long corridor firmly encased in Asfandyar's  iron grip that was perhaps the only thing keeping her from falling to the floor in a heap of limbs and hysteria.

She felt the same chills lick at her heals as they walked down the length of the long corridor.