Zodiac Story

Into The Murky Sea Green Depths We Dive Part 3

Days passed. Khalid hadn't shown up in a while. Nahla performed on the stage twice, neither performance requiring a transformation. Samir finished his book, wrote another letter to his Portuguese pen pal, and was now attempting to grow a beard. His progress amounted to a few thick bristles that itched him and more than a few teases from the men of the village. Nahla thought it would take longer. A month or two at least.

After the third performance, Nahla and Samir were discussing the merits of teaching men to dance when they found Khalid's silver car parked nearby. The doors slid open to reveal Khalid waving from the backseat.

"Nahla!" Khalid ran up to her, only stopping short of Samir's glare. "I was looking for you!"

He was? Where had he been these past few days?

"I wanted to invite you to a party."

"Where is this party? Who's at this party?" Samir asked, a sharp edge in his voice.

"The party's at my house." Khalid was visibly nervous. "My father invited a lot of people, and I was hoping that Nahla would join me."

A minute of silence filled the air. Nahla looked to Samir with his dagger-like stare and then to Khalid with his pleading eyes. "We need a minute."

Samir and Nahla walked off to the stage, far away from Khalid.

"Please tell him no. I don't trust him." Samir sighed. "You've only known him for a week."

"And in his dreams," responded Nahla.

"Did he know it was you?"

A pause. "No."

"Then it doesn't count. We also never met his father. We don't know what he is like."

"If we meet him, we can tell if he is nice or not." Although judging from Khalid's mentions of him casted an ill shadow on him.

"If you are truly wanting to go to this house, I'm coming with you. You can't ask me to leave, and you will not be spending time with Khalid alone."

Nahla accepted those conditions. Why would she argue with her brother?

She told Khalid with his bright eyes like the sun her answer. Afterwards, she kept smiling to herself as she tended to the irises.

A day later, she wasn't surprised when a limousine was parked directly in front of the village. Samir peeked inside.

"These flowers are a waste of money," he grumbled.

Irises of all colours filled the limousine. Blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, black, white, peach, rose, all were placed around the limousine. Nahla found the fridge stocked with kiwis and took one. She offered a kiwi to Samir, but he declined.

The holographic displays that peppered the limousine informed Nahla and Samir that their destination would be reached in one minute. She looked out of the window and suppressed a desire to drag Samir to the windows. Khalid's house was massive, the size of ten houses squeezed in together, and decorated with tall white pillars. Peering out Samir's side of the window revealed two rectangular pools, neatly trimmed hedges, a few date and palm trees, and a veritable gaggle of women conversing amongst themselves. The limo parked itself inside a discrete room close to one of the pillars. It was still larger than her house. Streams of cool air poured out of what Nahla believed to be small vents, although she couldn't observe where they were located. Samir's face remained as still as the undisturbed surface of a pond, though Nahla could tell that he was equally astonished by Khalid's house as she was. She looked for Khalid, before the doors suddenly slid open and a trail of gold coloured lights lit up from the doors to an entrance glowing in the same gold light.