Light flashed behind her eyelids, pulling her from the comfortable oblivion. Groaning Nadira tried to turn further into her pillow, but the light seemed to pulse brighter, forcing cognition to her tired brain. Sitting up angrily, Nadira squinted through the blazing orange light and stared at the stone gleaming on her dresser. As if sensing her gaze, the stone flared up brighter, beginning to pulse madly. It wanted her to pick it up, that much was obvious.
"Will you stop! I am trying to sleep," the stone flashed even brighter in response, nearly blinding her as if yelling a determined "no" in response. "Fine, fine," she growled, tossing the blanket aside, she swung her feet to the floor. "But you were the one that yelled at me, remember."
As she stepped closer, the pulsing light died down until it was as weak as a small flame. Picking it up by the braided cord, she carried it to the bed and laid it on the edge of the mattress far from her side of the bed. Not acknowledging the dimly glowing stone, she turned back into her pillow and prayed she could go back to sleep.
The digital clock read three-thirty when she finally shifted in her sleep, and the warm skin of her arm touched the stone as she settled deeper into the bed for comfort—giving him all the contact he needed. He watched with a smile as his weight caused the bed to sink with a creak. Nadira slept without stirring as he placed each fist on either side of her head. Sleeping on her stomach, the young woman hugged the pillow beneath her, allowing him only to view one side of her sleeping face. Leaning down close, he watched as some of the hair covering her face stirred at his breath.
"Do you think you can manipulate and control me?" his sharp teeth snapped dangerously close to her ear.
Dropping his gaze to her neck, he did not resist the urge within him as he lifted a hand and let his claws run through her silken ebony hair revealing more of her profile to him. He wanted to taste her. He wanted to run the length of his tongue against her warm flesh, tasting the salt of her skin, and the beat of her pulse thrash against his tongue. His body craved to hear her cry out in shock as he sank his teeth into her skin and watched tears of shock and betrayal cloud her naïve gaze. He wanted to hear her beg for him to stop. He wanted her to beg…he wanted her to beg for more. But he would do none of those things. Sitting back into his haunches, his legs straddling hers, he looked down at the girl with a sneer. His thoughts were chaotic when it came to this girl, and he hated it just as much as he craved it.
"Soon, my little master," he promised, fading into the dark.
~*~
Sitting with her knees pulled up high, Nadira stared out through the small window on the far wall. She was in between classes at the moment, the odd forty-five minutes she had between her classes on certain days, was too short for her to drive back home and come back and just long enough to feel awkwardly displaced while waiting for the next class to begin. Today she decided to wait in her favorite hidden spot on campus. Next to the fine arts building was a smaller brick building built in the sixties, oddly laid out and severely dated, it contained an odd staircase tucked in the back near a fire exit door. When Nadira first found the stairs, she thought she had somehow slipped into Alice in Wonderland. Completely normal at the bottom, the stairs changed as you ascended, becoming smaller and smaller until the average foot was just too big to settle normally against them, forcing you to walk on your toes just to maintain your balance. At the top of the stairs was a small landing and a narrow door that led to the roof. Here on the small landing, she could look out the window on the opposite wall and listen to students talking down below.
Reaching into her bag, Nadira paused as she pulled out three of her favorite granola bars. This morning she was positive she only packed one before she left, she knew because she distinctly remembered feeling sad that it was her last one. Her puzzlement only lasted a few seconds before a knowing smirk touched her lips.
"You didn't have to give me anymore, you know?" she spoke quietly, aware of her voice echoing off the walls.
"You are wasting away to nothing, don't question, just eat," the djinn commanded.
It had been like this for the past few days now, ever since that night in the library. Nadira had woken up the next day to find her mother awake and cooking breakfast, claiming she couldn’t sleep and had the urge to cook. Barista's at nearly every coffee shop Nadira passed suddenly remembered about a special they were running that just so happened to give her any free item of her choice. Little things here and there, all helping her in some way or another, all helping rebuild the rift between her and the djinn in a series of unspoken apologies.
Smiling, she unwrapped the bar and took a bite. Thinking for a moment, she asked. "Do you eat?"
"In my physical form, yes," he answered.
Nadira thought back to the book she checked out of the library. In it there were several depictions of djinn, some showing them as horned humanoid monsters with ghastly faces and sharp teeth. Some drawings showed the djinn as ape-like creatures or lion-like in the face but with all black fur, while in other drawings they appeared manlike with a body of flesh and part smoke. She couldn't help but wonder which one was it, which physical form did Idrak take on when freed, or was it nothing like the pictures she found? Remembering a paragraph, she noted down previously, there was a Persian myth that believed the djinn stole and devoured the souls of their victims with each granted wish. Swallowing the last bit of her granola, Nadira looked worriedly down at the stone. Did Idrak eat souls?
"I eat food just like you," Idrak said bluntly.
Guilt heated her face. "How is it that you always seem to know what I am thinking? Are you reading my mind?! Tell me you are not," she demanded.
Idrak laughed. "I do not need to read your mind when your thoughts are so easily read on your face."
"How can you see me when I can only hear you?" she muttered, grabbing another bar and ripping off another piece of the chewy granola bar.
"I am a djinn," he said matter-of-factly. "If you begin asking me how I can do things, your questions will never cease."
"Ok, fine," she conceded, propping her back against the narrow door, she got comfortable as she thought of her next question. "Then tell me this, you mentioned your physical state, which could only mean you are not in one now. What is it like within the stone?"
A moment of silence passed before he answered, his voice low and thoughtful. "It is like a dream that never ends, a void that swallows the sound of your voice reminding you constantly that you are alone."
Touching her throat in horror, Nadira's mind conjured an image of an endless black room. "That sounds like a nightmare."
"Indeed."
~*~
"Ok, I think I am ready to ask you something a bit more hard-hitting," Nadira chewed at her bottom lip as she stared at the empty street ahead of her. She was sitting parked out in front of her house with the car turned off, her seat tilted backward, and the windows slightly cracked. The cool evening breeze slipping in and out of the car felt good against her skin.