A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS #ONCEUPONNOW

05 | COMES THE DAWN

05 | COMES THE DAWN
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"MY NAME IS SHAZA, AND I HOPE YOU SURVIVE TILL DAWN." 

I was startled by those words he said. The guards had left, leaving me and him alone in the room. The room was dark, feeling solitairy with only a stranger for company. 

My heart beat erratically. I nearly imagined the king could hear my heart thump out of my chest. I had thought I was prepared to face him, but in reality, being so close to someone that had killed so many terrified me. 

I remembered all the girls he had killed. I remembered all the evil deeds he had committed, families he had wronged. And then in the back of my mind, I remembered him sobbing as bullets pierced his mother's body and her gasp as the life leaked out of her. 

And I felt a furor within me that I could not quench. The trepidation I had transformed itself into rage. 

How could someone that had lost their own mother be so willing to kill so many woman? What kind of monster could stomach such deeds? 

I imagined scales forming around my skin, diamond hard and impenetrable. I would be a harbinger of death and justice. 

It takes a monster to defeat a monster. 

And I will be a monster to save my country. 

"Well." I said, pushing down my rage and forming a mask of cold ice, "Since we have till dawn, shall I tell you  a story?" 

The king looked at me, startled for a moment. His dark eyes were swimming with emotion, and I did not understand how a killer can have emotions. But then, I suppose those who kill because of feeling are more dangerous than those who kill because of thought. Or perhaps, it is the other way around. 

He is ying, and I am the yang. He is the dark, and I am the dawn.  He is the fire, and I am the phoenix, rising from the ashes of the destruction he has caused. 

"Yes." The king said, "I have not had anyone tell me a story since I was a child, my mother..."

My heart stopped for a beat. I had not expected the king to have feelings, to be human. But I guess the greatest monsters disguise themselves as man. I push my barrier back up, shove my heart down.

"Then, there is no time for the better." I said, "My story is long and tedious, but will you hear it, your Highness?" 

The king paused, "I will be more than willing to hear it, my Queen." 

I peered at him, "I am not your queen. I have not survived until dawn." 

"And as I said," the king said quietly, "I hope you do survive until dawn, my Queen." 

"So do I." I said, "So do I." 

There is a pause of silence for a moment. It is neither comfortable nor uncomfortable. It is deadly and dangerous, and I carefully break it. My words are the only weapons I can use to find my enemy's Achilles heel. 

"I will tell you a tale from another country." I said, my voice low and enchanting, "It is a great story, your Highness." 

"It is the story about a woman, brave and fierce. She is nothing but a slave girl, but she is loyal  to her master. Her name is Morgiana, and her master's is Ali Baba." 

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