As Mirnah fights to get out of this dreary and spooky wasteland, a familiar face (or so she thought) comes calling. The judgement is severe and strict and she's beside herself with fear and confusion. Something threateningly inauspicious and unexpected appears out of thin air…. Will things get better for this young lady or worse?
Mirnah slowly peeled her eyes open. Looming over her was an enormous figure, dressed like a man and hovering in midair, his legs curled in yoga style and the bronze statues held to his chest like a treasured item.
The electric energy crackled around him. His form filled a large part of the wasteland while Mirnah appeared like an ant before him.
Oh no! Mirnah felt like her heart would burst out of her chest as her eyes widened in shock to take in the occurrence before her, one she'd only read about in books and seen in movies but not in real life.
She peered closer and realised it was the same man from the shop who’d warned her off the bronze statues. She gasped, her hands clamped over her mouth. He appeared a little different, otherworldly, like a power contained within human flesh and the wasteland was his domain. The way he held the bronze statues to his bosom revealed they were his. His treasure.
"I warned you," he said, his voice gravelly and echoing. "And now you are trapped in my realm of Torture for all time!"
Mirnah fell to her feet, her knees cracking against the sharp stones and drawing blood that stained the ground. She didn't feel it, her thoughts and intention fiercely focused and her hands clasped together in prayer to a god. This god of the wasteland. "Please! Please, I beg you. Let me go. I didn't mean to—"
"You are a thief," he declared.
Everything in the atmosphere ceased. The sheer force of that statement threw the wasteland into utter silence. Nothing moved. Even the wind dared not whisper or sough.
Mirnah froze and stared blankly into space. A depressed feeling engulfed her as she was confronted with a disorder that marred her life. She couldn't say how it started but she knew she tried so hard to stop.
She felt forlorn and the knowledge flooded her mind that there was no way out of the realm of Torture. The statues were ancient pieces and had a spell on them to contain anyone that would steal them. No one would find her. Not Noami, her best friend or her drunken, homeless father. Her mother was dead. She had no one and maybe deserved to rot in the wasteland.
"I didn't mean to take those things," she whispered.
"But you did take them. No one pilfers anything belonging to Sheikh Ai Akfav…"
"Please…" Mirnah begged again.
"The statues are my family cursed into that form by my best friend," Akfav revealed, gently caressing the statues. His eyes turned dark and angry. "He became my enemy because I wooed his wife and made her mine. He did not love her….I did. We were blessed with two children." His eyes changed for a moment, wistful and nostalgic, shocking Mirnah. So this being was capable of feelings?
Akfav scowled suddenly, electric charges humming loudly around his hovering form. "Now I am to mourn them for all eternity and you humans won't let my family be. So I built this place," he waved a hand around, and the breeze dared to sigh from the movement. "A place of penance for me and torture for anyone who dares to touch my pieces or take them!" He growled.
Dreadful haunting cries of her dead mother erupted from nowhere causing Mirnah to scream, slapping her hand over her ears. She writhed in pain on the ground until the cries stopped.
Her breathing was harsh and hurried as she glanced around. Sheikh Akfav had vanished but she felt his presence everywhere.
"Until another thief attempts to steal my bronze pieces and replaces you, this place shall be your prison." Akfav declared, his voice a thunderous boom, echoing in every corner of the wasteland.
Silence.
Mirnah was suddenly very tired. She dropped smack down on the ground, her legs stretched out. The feeling of desolation was thick in the air. There was no point crying and begging Sheikh Akfav. She looked across the dead wasteland, noting the ruins as ashes slowly drifted down from the sky like a flurry of snow. She would have to make a home for herself in this wilderness, if she didn't die of hunger and thirst first.
She pushed herself up from the ground and began to trudge around, counting each step, fantasising that maybe….just maybe, someone, somewhere in the world would steal one of those bronze statues and take her place. She desperately wanted to be free.
Until then, the scary face and haunting cries of her dead mother became her torture.
Image created using meta.ai
Why did it have to end so tragically? 😭
I feel so sorry for Mirnah. Who knows how long it'd take before someone else replaces her and as for Akfav, he's just a mean being cause it wouldn't take anything from him to keep his statue out of people's eyes but nope, he's just the definition of a weapon fashioned against people.
😂 Your comment makes me laugh. Please don't be pissed at Akfav, he's simply a pawnshop owner in the physical world and wants his family statues close to him. Sadly, people's eyes do wonder like Mirnah and they end up in his trap! Thanks so much for reading.
!PIZZA
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@kemmyb(2/5) tipped @teknon