To avoid confusion (and for phonological fluidity), Qatila will be referred to with she/her pronouns when she is controlling Kiah's body, but with it/its pronouns when anyone refers to it separately.
Qatila, having possessed Kiah's body, levitates off the ground and stares us down from afar. Her hair is afloat in the air like a vulture's wings. Fingers crossed we don't become carcasses. The inai on her arms glows a sinister red all the way up to just under her eye in twisted patterns. Her torso is heavily burnt on the left. All of Qatila's grotesque features being transferred onto Kiah's physical form is something I never wanted to see.
The chipped horn is on her forehead, alongside the mangled patches of skin and bones sticking out. What have you done, you bastard? What has she done to deserve this?
"No bloody way. Makira, there's just no way that's her. Right?" Ramya asks in disbelief. She pries her eyes away from the djinn when she realises that I'm not replying.
In an instant, I can't breathe in any air into my lungs. I cough and sputter out saliva while putting my hands on my throat.
This telekinetic force is all too familiar. Kiah's abilities have fused with hers.
Qatila grips the air and drags me upwards by the neck. As she closes it into a fist, I can feel my larynx tightening in on itself. I flail my legs around as some semblance of resistance, even though amidst my panic, I know it's worthless.
"Is this the spirit hunter that plans on doing away with me?" mocks the djinn in her grating voice. Oh, the torture. "You humour me. You may be physically strong, but your emotional attachments have made you weak. For your hesitancy–" my airway constricts even further–"all of you will perish like Najma did, and Masyitah Rukyah will serve me as a vessel."
The sound of flickering electricity cuts through her painful taunting. A yellow flash lights up the room for a split second. In the next, the flash bolts towards Qatila.
The vice grip on my neck loosens. I'm dropped on my feet and take deep breaths to recover. Ramya's dash attack leaves a lasting trail on the ground. Her trajectory ends right in front of Qatila.
She charges up her electrical power and delivers a hard punch in the djinn's direction. I couldn't even catch up with the attack itself, but all I could see was that Qatila parried it without any issue. She's not even pushed back an inch.
Ramya's shocked, I'm shocked, everyone is. Nothing and no one has ever gotten out of the way of that. Qatila lifts her up and throws her against a table, shattering it into pieces.
What worries me the most is how effortless she makes it look. The only reason we're still standing is because she wills it. Our humiliation is more valuable than our annihilation.
Casey controls the smoke from his incense sticks and sends in half a dozen illusions after her. She dodges their punches, guards their kicks and sends her own hits their way, finishing off every clone with an onslaught of iron nails. The clones disappear in a puff of smoke.
She directs an iron nail and a scowl straight at me. The nail impales the wall, missing my ear by a hair. I scowl back, but I'm also no idiot.
"Get us out now, Xiao."
He nods and takes his face mask off.
"Kembali semula." / "Return."
>>
What's going on with my body? It feels like I've skipped time somehow. Rain pelts down on me in armies of water droplets. We're still in Penang.
This voice in my head is controlling me. I hear it, but I can't understand anything. I try moving my legs, but they instead jerk and jolt forwards like a rusted cog in a machine. I trip into a puddle and hit my head on a tree stump. Fuck, sakit sial.
YOU ARE READING
Kisah Masyitah Rukyah
ParanormalNik Masyitah Rukyah binti Nik Razali is a telepath living peacefully in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. She was born with the ability to read minds, move objects via telekinesis and even revert the physical state of objects with enough concentration. How...
