The One after my Heart

'I wonder if that's what they're discussing. Are they planning on breaking out from here? ' wondered Kyra. That must be it. 'But what language are they speaking in? Where am I?!'

"Kyra", called out Nisa, and she gestured at her waving her hands, and she pointed to Kyra taking exaggerated, deep calming breaths as she looked at her with an encouraging smile as though everything was going to be alright.

Kyra nodded back as though she was alright. Whatever they were planning, she would give them her full support. After all, if she did manage to get out of here, she needed a local's help in getting back home.

By now, she had inferred she was definitely in a different country. She had no idea how long she was unconscious or how she was brought here. She'd best stick with these girls for now and then plan her next action. Maybe with their help she could locate the nearest embassy and then proceed from there.

Bree had her eyes fixed once again towards the exit taking on a look-out role in case someone came by.

"Maya", beckoned Nisa as she called her younger sister towards her. Maya reluctantly walked over to her sister's side. Nisa whispered a few words with gestures to her little sister to which the latter nodded.

Upon Nisa's instructions, the little girl started searching for something around the cell. Soon she returned to her sister with a disappointed look and waving her hands, saying she found nothing.

Nisa cursed aloud in frustration, and upon Kyra's questioning look, she turned her head and instead spoke to Maya.

Upon her elder sister's instruction, Maya opened up her palm. She looked towards Kyra and held it over the chains connected to the wall which Nisa was tied to and made a sawing action and then pointed towards the exit.

'She wants to cut the chain to escape', realised Kyra. Maya was probably looking for something sharp in the cell and had failed. But she wondered if it would be enough since the chains seemed pretty sturdy to break.

"I understand", Kyra nodded towards Nisa, indicating she understood what was going on. She wondered if she had anything on her that could be of help but could think of nothing noteworthy.

"I'm sorry I've nothing sharp on me apart from maybe an old safety pin in my jacket", she chuckled ruefully, looking down at her jacket.

"Satey Pen?", questioned the young Maya with a curious expression as she came over.

"No, dear, a 'Safety pin'.", corrected Kyra, "Though it's not sharp but just pointy."

"Pointy?"

Upon Maya's questioning stare, Kyra beckoned her to come closer. She brought up her shackled hands to her chest and managed to unbutton half of her jacket from the top. She pointed to Maya with gestures and had her unbutton her jacket completely. On the left inner pocket was a safety pin pinned to a small seam that had been torn a long time ago. Kyra had used it as a temporary fix back then and had never got around to sew the ripped seam.

Nisa looked ecstatic as she hurriedly asked Maya to bring it over and take a look. She looked at Bree and threw it over to her, who looked at it with a frown for a while but then nodded, saying it would do.

Bree called Maya over and whispered in Maya's ears. Little Maya's eyes went wide, and she looked horrified over towards Kyra. She vehemently refused by shaking her head. But then her older sister Nisa soothed her, and upon her and Bree's coaxing, she finally agreed. Kyra had no idea what was going on that the little one seemed so rattled.

Maya looked guiltily towards Kyra as she walked back towards her taking back the safety pin from Bree.

"Walker", spoke Bree, suddenly getting Kyra's attention on her. She pointed at Kyra and started mumbling a few words like a chant. Soon Nisa started accompanying her in the chanting words, which made no sense to Kyra. But it sounded so calm that Kyra's eyes went into a hypnotic daze as she slowly felt the world spin in circles again and fell asleep.

The second Kyra fell asleep, both Bree and Nisa immediately got into action. Their chanting got louder as they brought their hands closer to their respective mouths and bit hard into their right thumb. Both of them winced but continued their chant. Bree slowly brought her bloodied thumb and drew a star sigil on Nisa's forehead. The latter did the same by drawing a bloody star shaped sigil on Bree's forehead.

Bree then called Maya over and drew a horizontal line on Maya's left hand while Nisa drew a horizontal line on Maya's right hand.

Nisa gestured towards Maya to go to Kyra without stopping her chant as she gave her a warning glare. With a bitter look and reluctance in her eyes, little Maya took a deep breath and nodded.

She grabbed Kyra's right hand and placed the safety pin between Kyra's index and thumb, using her fingers over Kyra's, making sure they held the pin firm. Then with her left hand, she held up Kyra's left thumb. It seemed like she was trying to make it look like Kyra the next deed herself.

And then immediately punctured a deep hole into Kyra's thumb. As Kyra's thumb started bleeding, Bree directed Nisa to squeeze out more blood.

Maya was directed to collect a few drops of blood in her left palm as she ran over to her sister.

Nisa dipped her right index finger into the blood that Maya was holding and drew a small circle at the centre of Kyra's forehead. She then drew a horizontal line across the ring, piercing it through the middle.

Once it was done, she turned towards Bree and extended her shackled hands out. The latter mirrored the same, and they crisscrossed their fingers like a crab. Upon Bree's direction, little Maya placed herself between her older sister and Kyra. She put her left palm on Nisa's forehead and proceeded to her right palm on Kyra's forehead on top of the drawn sigil.

The moment her right palm landed on Kyra's forehead, her eyes went white immediately.

Meanwhile, Nisa and Bree, who were chanting, shook violently with their chains rattling wildly against the wall. The air around got hotter, and there was a gale of wind that swept within the cell, throwing up dust in the air.

Soon little Maya collapsed on the floor. Both Bree and Nisa unclasped their interlocked fingers with a wide grin on their face. Nisa pulled the unconscious little Maya onto her lap and let her rest after checking her sister to make sure she was alright.

If Kyra was awake, she would've noticed the blood sigils drawn on all of them vanishing slowly as though nothing was there in the first place.

--------

When Kyra came to her senses and woke up, she found little Maya sleeping peacefully on Nisa's lap. She had a splitting headache that throbbed now and then and felt a lot weaker than usual.

On the other hand, Nisa looked rattled and paler than usual as she looked at her younger sister worriedly. There were palm prints across her cheeks.

Kyra worriedly touched her face and looked at herself, to find out that nothing had happened to her, unlike her cellmates. There was a bowl of dirty water kept across that was probably meant for them to drink. Kyra's share of food was held aside on the rusty metal plate it was served on.

"Ugghh- what the hell just happened?", mumbled Kyra as she stretched her fingers towards the stale bread. As she took a bite out of it, she realised it was disgusting but didn't stop. She was starving -anything to stop the hunger for now.

As she chewed on the dry stale bread, her eyes sneaked a suspicious look at her fellow inmates. She didn't know if it was due to weakness or it was because of the head injury she'd got the night she was attacked, that she'd passed out just now.

Still, it seemed extremely weird to have passed out right after Bree called out her name, and both Nisa and Bree started to chant in some weird strange hymn. It seemed too suspicious. Kyra had also noticed the small pricked wound on her left thumb after waking up as it itched.

"I wish I could ask them what the hell is going on and find out where am I right now, but they don't seem to understand a single word", grumbled Kyra in a low voice helplessly. "And what in the world is this tasteless awful thing am I eating anyway?!"

"That's just stale bread you're eating made from the local grain meant for cattle.", replied Bree in a low voice as she finished eating up and turned to look at Kyra.

"Also answering your previous question. You've been imprisoned by stragglers along with us. And you are currently in the Spratian domain of Ethra", Bree continued unhurriedly as a small grin slowly crept up on her lips as she looked up to a spluttering confounded Kyra.

Nisa cracked up madly in laughter between them in the background.

"Now, we girls can finally...talk!"