“You call her by name too? Who do you think you are? I don’t care if you descended from the goddess directly, I won’t take this lightly from you!”
Oh, it’s because of that then. I looked at the other females. They were astonished.
But I had remembered to put the Queen title right? So, what was the big deal?
No one was allowed to say Aliana together with the title? Or was it reserved for the elites of the so called communistic community?
“I didn’t call her by her name. I added the Queen title; in case you were deaf to that.”
“We are not allowed to do that, at least not us.” The same Gabriella, her voice still of the same tempo, although she sounded like I would turn on her.
I would have loved to tell her I wasn’t like Chyra and the others, but this didn’t seem like a good place and time for buttering.
“Oh, I didn’t know that. Apologies then, Chyra. You can leave with your friends.”
Gena and Nina tightened their hands on their bags. Nina bent even and took Chyra’s bag which Gabriella had left on the floor, when she moved to my side. They wanted to go. But Chyra hadn’t moved.
“Chyra, let this go. We have to leave before the shopkeeper comes here, or Raul.”
That was if the both weren’t choosing to watch from their phones and see how this would play out.
We have been down here for close to an hour, and no one has come down here in that time? Nah. They must be aware. They just love the drama unfolding in their boring community.
Chyra shifted on her feet, darting her eyes between I and Gabriella; anger riling her the more, when she saw Gabriella putting the phone more forward as if to capture her expression more clearly.
“You bitch! I will deal with you in a minute.” She shouted, already walking toward Gabriella who snuck to my side.
I sighed wearily, before pushing Gabriella gently behind me like a mother would, and standing before her.
“You will have to get past me, if you want to get to her.” I stated boldly, beginning again the praying mantra to whatever power that resided in me.
It seemed I would be needing it, especially with Chyra smiling like that, like she knew something I was hiding.
“You think I didn’t see the surprise on your face when you dodged my ball. You didn’t know you had it in you. And the reason why you want us gone, is because you have no way of activating it again. You are still powerless.”
“You want to test the theory out?”
It wasn’t me.
It wasn’t me that spoke this time around.
Yes, my mouth did move, and my voice did speak, but the words weren’t mine. It belonged to someone else.
Was I possessed? I thought, feeling the merging of my soul with another. It had been that individuality of my mind!
I had wondered why then, why my mind seemed to have a mind of its own. But all this while, it hasn’t been my mind. Not really. There was just another inside me.
I found myself walking toward a Chyra who backed up a step, before speaking again.
“You think you scare me?”
There was no response from me or my other, nor did I try to get away from the possession. I would discuss about it when I met Laura. They would know what to do about this situation.
For now, I let the other lead me to Chyra, and then to poke Chyra on her head like she had done to me earlier.
Once, and then twice.
I knew what was coming before the energy scurried to my hands because that’s what Chyra had done to me.
I, or rather my other in me, pushed Chyra.
It seemed small, the way the pushes went, like I would push Diana if we were playing; but then Chyra was flying past the door-shattered the door and went through I mea.
She landed with her back on the wall of the hallway for a second before slithering to the floor, her eyes and mouth open in shock.
I was still ruminating on that, when suddenly a ball appeared in my hand, smaller than the one Chyra had used earlier.
However, from the last attack, I knew that the smallness was just a decoy from the power it packed.
This might kill her.
Her friends thought so too, because they suddenly fell on their knees.
“Please, Dora. Please let her go. We are sorry. Please…”
I stopped, but the ball didn’t disappear, neither did my hand go down. Rather my head turned toward Gabriella. “Should I let her go?”
Gabriella was still videoing, still on live recording. At my question, she opened her mouth, and then shut it, as if not believing that I had asked for her input.
“Gabriella, we are sorry.” Nina and Gena turned toward her.
I looked at Chyra then. She was barely conscious. Her eyes kept drifting open and close at intervals. She needed to be taken away to Laura’s clinic.
“You can let them go.”
Good answer, Gabriella.
I breathed in relief, when the other left my soul and retreated back to my mind. It was done here.
‘Who are you?’
There was still no answer.
***
When I and Gabriella stepped out of the storeroom, we saw the shopkeepers, three of them, including Peter’s friend, standing amazed, with Raul and the other workers.
They said no word as I walked past them all with Gabriella.
She had pocketed her phone immediately sh let Chyra go.
Chyra wouldn’t know how lucky she was. I thought, aware of Raul’s stare that was burning holes in my back.
I wondered what he thought of all this.
Having noticed the phones in their hands, I was aware they had all watched it.
From the scurry of feet, I knew a few had rushed at Chyra to carry her to Laura’s place. I wondered though if my guardian would treat her.
She would. Laura would.
I breathed in deeply when I came outside, a short smile appearing on my face when I saw Levina on her bike, with a helmet on one hand, and her phone on the other hand.
A smile besotted her lips too.
“Thank you, for today.”
I turned to Gabriella. She had a big smile on her lips, and her eyes were twinkling so much now that it made all the fuss worth it.
“You’re welcome.” I said, before tapping her gently on her shoulder, and moving toward Levina.
It was time to go home.