The Girl in The Green Scarf

S i x

CHAPTER SIX
HAMSA

"Animals don't hate, and we're supposed to be better than them."
―Elvis Presley.

I run through the garden, flowers all around, engulfing me with their beautiful scent. The grass tickles my bare feet and I keep going. I look over my shoulder to see my mother blindfolded and walking with her hands extended in front of her.

"I'm going to catch you," she says in a playful tone, a huge smile on her face.

"You won't." I giggle running to the backyard where I hide behind the oak tree from which hangs a swing that Yahiya made for me from a piece of rope and a stick.

"Misa, come out, come out wherever you are." Dad's voice reaches me and I clamp my hands over my mouth to stifle my giggles. They aren't going to find me here.

I hear rustling and then everything goes silent. I peek slowly from behind the bark, my eyes scanning the place. I see no one and step out sure I won, a grin on my face.

"Boo!" Dad jumps from the branch above me.

I squeal loudly, laughing as he picks me up and runs with me through the garden and into the house. He throws me on the coach and attacks my stomach, tickling it and I giggle hysterically.

"Yaya! Thave me," I shout for my brother who comes darting into the room a wooden stick in hand.

"I'm here to save you, sister," he exclaims dramatically, pointing the stick at dad.

"You have nothing against my superpowers young knight." Dad picks up the iron rod by the fireplace and extends it in front of him, jumping over the table. "Surrender your weapon!"

"Whoa, Whoa," mom says coming through the door, taking off her blind folds. "No fighting in the living room, take this duel outside."

"Mommy, Mommy," I shout, running to her. She kneels down, opening her arms to engulf me, and picks me up twirling.

"Daddy got you?" she asks flicking my nose. I nod and she looks at dad who has smile on his face.

"What should we do with her, sir?" she asks, raising an eyebrow at me. I giggle and look at my father, waiting for his answer, but when he speaks his voice is full of malice and is not his at all.

"Get rid of her."

I suck in a hard breath and my eyes fly open.

The first thing I register is pain, not just in my back, but a throbbing ache in my head and a harder one in the side of my abdomen, like a knife pressing against it. I struggle to steady myself, blinking numerously to push away the remains of my nightmare, but instead I blink away tears.

Something underneath me creaks loudly as I try to turn over and a hysterical feeling builds up inside me as everything comes rushing back through my hazy mind: the sounds by the river, the unconscious boy, the men in the woods - one of them was about to kill me; I even said my Shahadah.

What happened? Where am I? All I recall is a searing pain and a flash of white before I sank into darkness.

I have a moment of complete panic; my breath hitches as I look around frantically, trying to make out my surroundings. Shapes and outlines assert themselves slowly as my eyes adjust to the dim, flickering light coming from a small ceiling bulb. I am in a windowless room, lying on a cot that is barely long enough to hold my length. It has a thin, worn-out mattress through which I can feel the cold, hard metal underneath me. Another cot is on the further opposite side of the small room, and I barely make out a body lying on it.