You fancy a life of ease. Free from responsibility, and free from the hardship of earning or keeping that fortune. So security and luxury both sound incredibly enticing to you.
Even now, as you caress the page option, you find it hard to care about what your life will be like. Brushing you finger back over the line, you find the text has been wiped away. The ink vanished from the page, as if the book had sensed your resolution.
A whirling gyre of light spirals out from the book until it surrounds you. Some magic holds your finger on the page. Looking around frantically for some escape nothing appears. As the giddying light fills your vision, encompassing you. The world you know vanishes from sight, until it feels like your cocooned in a blinding sandstorm.
The cocoon, flickers and flashes, and your stomach lurches. You feel as if you've moved. But it's impossible to tell as you have no fixed points to see.
As the dizzying light eases, you catch some glimpses of the world beyond your cocoon. But, they're too fleeting, caught first in one place, and then elsewhere. You try and build a comprehensive picture, but there's a stifling heat. You collapse and faint before you can work out where you've reappeared.
Your dreams are unsettling, both vaguely of 'The Wizard of Oz', and calming, you know deep inside that you are safe. That you are secure, and a life of luxury awaits you once you wake.
You see a circle of concerned face surrounding you. Well, it's mostly eyes, their faces hidden by veils. It takes a few more moments to orient yourself, and see that you're lying on your side. The world isn't running vertically up and down.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/76/b4/d8/...
One face looks at you with seductive feline eyes.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/64/a8/99/...
Another hints at piercing eyes, flashing with fiery passion.
Tired of the games, you weakly try to pluck at one of the veiled faces. But the girls recoil, you try to talk, to calm them, but the dry heat takes the moisture from your mouth leaving you mute.
The world spins again, just exhaustion, you recognise that, as a concerned face looks down at you with concern, and a hint of offence.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/74/9f/a7/...
- - - - -
Overhead, you slump onto your back, and as your eyes flutter closed, you recognise the roof of a tent. It's high and wide, suggesting great wealth to you. A smile on your face, as you realise you're a desert nomad, with a harem of beautiful women.
You dream sweet dreams, fantasizing about bedding all your women, enjoying the endless peace of the wide desert.
You don't know how long you slept, but as you wake, soft feminine hands help you upright. Propping you in a sitting position, hands gently pluck away your head gear, revealing your mouth to the warm dry air. Others gently tip a glass of water into your parched mouth.
Your thanks are muffled by the reflexive swallowing. You empty the glass quickly and easily, before you push the empty glass away. You hear another glass glugging as it's poured from a jug into a different glass.
They tug it back into place, as you wonder about being too warm, as the women waiting on you worry about you dehydrating. You give them a tip of your head, deferring to their experience. Surely that knowledge will come with time. Listening carefully, you realise you understand their chattering conversation. At the same time, you know it's not English. You snort in amusement, you hadn't even realised it, but you instinctively understood Arabic.
Looking at your hands, you admire the rings there, another sign of your wealth. But other sensations intrude, first tickling the back of your mind like an itch you can't reach, before crashing over you like a tsunami.
You're not a Sultan, this isn't your harem. You're a harem girl, safe and secure and free from any resposibility. Hell, of course you are, you aren't considered a person. You're property to be cared for.
You recall the pink painted nails that went with those rings. You catch your reflection in a metal mirror hanging from a tent pole. You're as gorgeous as the others.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/40/c8/8b/...
As the cascade of wrongness threatens to overwhelm you, a wave of calm washes through you. You are Ayesha, you are safe, you are protected, you are valuable, you are valued. The nightmare visions of living in the West, of a tortutous chimera of delusion. You relax into your sisters' caring hands, as you sink back to the cushions that make up your bed.  |
You've come to the end of the story. You can: - Step back to the previous chapter.
- Start reading the story from the beginning.
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