A consolation for those who have been always ashamed of themselves, of their nature, and of their sins, the ones who couldn’t afford looking at themselves in the mirror, seeing their blood dripping from their nose when they’re anxious, and screaming when a glass shard enter their feet… Life isn’t about running away from yourself, but running after it, grasping its core and healing from wounds.
*** Chapter three/ final chapter: The angler’s daughter***
Once Sidra enters the portal, she begins to reminisce. She finds herself in the middle of an old, abandoned college campus. She reads the palms and the cups of those around her, causing them to twitch with fear for their future.
A voice taunts her, "You can't deny the happiness you're going to obtain, seeing them trust a human like you!! A fallen angel, fallen for a sin you couldn't resist, fallen for a man, a murderer!"
Sidra tries to speak, but her mouth is sealed shut, full of glue.
The voice continues, "It all started there. If you can get out of that campus safely, then you can defeat me easily. My doubts, you're not the first but not the last either. Whoever goes through me goes through hell, and hell burns all."
Sidra couldn't understand his gestures. She was also unable to contact her allies. She had totally switched realms and was unable to see any of them to request a savior. There was none, only the abandoned campus.
The angels are praying. Odam and Asham are looking for Sidra, all wondering where she disappeared. They lift their sacred swords, hoping to retrieve Aba and her and put them in the custody of the angels. The demons they were also fighting, yet sometimes looked similar to the angels. It was either a camouflage from the devils, as the hits of the angels become more fragile, or it was them fighting their own reflections in a mirror. Prayers are rising. The shadows started to leak from the portal.
In parallel, Sidra found the entrance to the science department. The access to the laboratory had been blocked until today. The section rooms are full of dust—the seats, the blackboard that had symbols and names written on it, and the broken windows. Sidra couldn't feel a thing passing by those rooms until her heart started pounding fast, like a compass guiding her where she was supposed to be.
She enters a dressing room. An angler sits there with his fishnet, a fish fighting for life inside his bucket, and his bloody eyes. "I couldn't protect her, I had to risk it, I'm starving," he mutters. She couldn't distinguish if he was talking about the fish or a real person. She picked up the piece of paper from his hand. It was wet, with a fading, hand-written phone number. She couldn't find a place to dial it yet, but she kept looking for a clue.
*****
Asham saw Odam bleeding and healed him with a spell. But the crowds on the devil's side were plentiful; they couldn't even rest for a moment. Odam fainted from the amount of pain he felt while bleeding, and Asham tried his best to wake him but failed. He knew Odam was healed but couldn't wake him yet. So, he chose to put him beside a giant rock and continue the battle.
Meanwhile, Odam saw fragments of memories. They included Sidra getting jailed in the laboratory, located somewhere downstairs. He also saw a diplomatic man trying to dictate to her what to say: "I won't tell nobody what Mr. chairman did to the angler's daughter, or I'll meet a real bad destiny just like my mother!"
Odam gasped and woke up. He didn't know where he could go to find Sidra. He saw Asham fighting nonstop, took back his place, and told him about his vision. Asham stopped in silence, then grabbed his hand to arrive at a place where Sidra's mother used to teach theology. It looked almost identical to the place Sidra was trapped in right now, but they couldn't hear her or see her.
"Sidra!!!" they called once, twice, a third time, Sidra could hear them, but not clearly. She tried to get closer to their voices, but they totally disappeared. Asham tried using a piece of coal to write on the floor, "Where are you?" as he sensed footsteps coming closer. "Closer," is what they saw appear on the floor. They tried following the pattern until they found someone, and took her, but they found out it wasn't Sidra who was contacting them; it was Aba. Now they have to look for Sidra. They asked Aba about Sidra, but she definitely knew nothing. However, Aba mentioned something about Sidra’s mother.
Her mother is the key to the story.
Odam asked Asham about Sidra's mother's connection to this place. "Is it possible that Sidra's mother did something to the angler's daughter?!" Odam whispered to Asham, eagerly waiting an answer,
"Sidra's mother used to open charity in her college and her orphanage. She used to teach the angler's daughter of the town for free. But then a diplomatic affair between her and a politician rose in a short time after he funded her and her campaign. He asked her to lead one of his election projects since she was a good representative. However, there were rumors that he sexually assaulted 'Jerome,' the college student of the science department that went missing afterwards. They even denied her existence or enrollment in the college, and since she never paid a penny for the organization, there was almost no evidence to prove she was there, hence, prove the politician's incident. The elections went well, and he won. But when Sidra's mother acted strange the last period, she also disappeared."
"Wait! Are you trying to say that her mother might have been complicit in this all?" Odam asked.
"Not just this, but Sidra's father might be that politician, and she might not be the daughter of that one fallen angel who sinned with him, but might be the granddaughter of the angler!" Asham said, his voice laced with fear.
"She was brought to an unfinished business. Where have you seen her in your dreams again?" Asham asked.
"Somewhere like a lab," Odam replied.
They checked every room and everywhere to eventually find the lab downstairs. Asham casted a spell on it to open its door, but it didn't work. How come?!
*****
On the other hand, Sidra is looking for a payphone around, or any phone she could dial that number on, or even a door lock or a safe. She went downstairs and found a laboratory room, locked with the same amount of digits. Lost souls around her seem to be trying to act helpful. For now, she opened the door. It automatically opened on the side too.
Asham and Odam wondered, then shortly entered after Sidra. It was full of cobwebs, dust, and different irritating smells. Odam was ordered to put a rag on his mouth and nose, and Sidra did the same. They entered to find two different scenes. Odam and Asham found a corpse of a teenage girl, around 17-19 years old. Sidra witnesses a scene from the past.
"Why me?" Hidaya asked in terror.
Mr. Chairman was chasing her slowly in circles, saying, "Good question, young lady. My daughter got enrolled here with high grades. I used to beat the shit out of her to study. She studied. She studied hard to get enrolled in this, one of the best colleges around. I'm paying for her monthly and yearly what could make you travel back and forth to the Maldives and have the best honeymoons ever. But a girl, a daughter of a dirty fishy angler, who stinks from the back of the corridor to the front of it, just gets a scholarship for free, gets paid for her whole educational program, and gets high scores without having private lessons. And even after her scholarship terminated, she still got the privilege of continuing her educational journey with high-class students! And a stupid cunt like the principal thinks this is charity and we all should adhere!"
He gets closer to her, tears her uniform, and pushes her over the lab counter. He rapes her while her face is aimed against his.
After he finished, he looked at her in irony. "My daughter would've never allowed a man to do that to her. That's the difference between a low life like you and my daughter, you cunt!" He said and left while tucking his shirt into his pants.
Afterwards, Sidra saw Hidaya running after him and trying to pierce his eyes with a scalpel. But it ended up as if she had started this all. The security came, took her, and called the police. He used this as propaganda to boost his campaign, and it actually succeeded as a main title in the news: "It's in their blood - Poor people are hostile even though we try our best to give them the best chances!!!"
“Jealousy brings death and death brings pain and nothing else - no charity, no education and nothing if you killed every rich man on this earth.”
Fareed's daughter, the politician's child, gathered her friends and marked a day to punish Hidaya., Sidra tried to follow the steps of Hidaya, to where the girls started it all.
"It should look totally normal, no one should doubt a single ounce of it," she said to her friends.
Then they took Hidaya from the bathroom straight to the lab and spilled acid over her face, then called the ambulance. Though it looked suspicious, nobody doubted the credibility of Fareed's daughter. While Hidaya was checked by the hospital, they figured out that she was pregnant. Her educational program was terminated because they thought that she was the one causing problems out of nowhere. Her baby was born to be part of the orphanage after her father died all of a sudden from a heart attack.
*****
Odam felt the shock after he saw the corpse. Asham concurrently touched it to see what's behind it not just out of curiousity. "Just a young lady, with a deformed face screaming while giving birth," he reported.
"Sidra, call her Sidra," the vision continued. She gave the baby to who is supposed to be called Sidra's mother. Sidra was unaware that her adoptee, who was also complicit in all this. Meanwhile, she also felt guilty. She had to run a DNA test over the baby and found out it belonged to the politician. She had exploited him spending time with her and took a hair strand from his pillow. She found out the truth, and when she tried to anonymously write a report to a journalist, she was murdered and hid the same day the politician saw her scattered papers and checked them out. She didn't expect him coming back after their fight she initiated to push him away. But he had his doubts.
Asham said, "I knew it. That lady was blessed but also was a sinner. She was just gifted but she wasn't an angel, though they treated her like one..."
Odam asked him about what he saw, and he told him. Sidra is still trapped, and Aba was just kneeling on the floor and closing her eyes.
"I found her," she yelled. Odam and Asham ran towards her.
"Where?" they asked at the same moment.
"I'll guide you." She took both their hands and guided them to the same room where Sidra was stuck. They called her and she heard, but she couldn't see them.
"It's your turn, Asham, you can bring her." Aba and Odam started praying as part of the ritual, and Asham recited his phrases to bring the portal back and pull Sidra from her place. He did. The portal opened, but before Sidra got in, the devil manifested in front of her.
"Have you learned everything yet? Can't you get it? I can help you, but in return, you give me your powers."
"Never. I'd rather die than give a filthy creature like you any blessing of mine."
"Of yours, you said? It was given to you by who so called your mother. You were born of a poor, talentless family."
"Cut your bullshit." Then she started reciting, as he was lifting her up slowly and laughing.
Asham was wondering still why she couldn't enter. "The devil," Aba said. "Let me enter with her." She begged Asham, who was scared to lose her again, but he trusted her.
"Sidra, none of this was your fault. Don't listen to him. Sinners can be good too. He can't buy you with that broken record." Aba screamed shortly after she entered the portal.
Sidra opened her eyes suddenly and fell from a height.
"Big words coming out from a tiny little girl like you," the devil said. He tried to control her, but she stood in front of him, casting a spell he couldn't even hear. Then Aba said, "Not this time." She held Sidra's hand and they both started reciting, as did Odam and Asham and the angels by the main portal.
The devil started becoming agitated. The angel troops are still fighting their enemies, and faith is becoming bigger than fears.
"You know what! I could eat both of you right now and become more undefeated!" He laughed in terror as he started to feel both girls grabbing him with their powers, then lifted him up.
"Aren't you wondering who your real mother is, Sidra?" he taunted.
Sidra ignored him, then responded, "That was always your game, emotional manipulation. And I'm not falling for it. If I ever wondered who my real mother is, I won't be sitting here listening to your horseshit."
Aba urged, "Sidra, stop talking to him, he is distracting us."
"It matters a lot, Sidra, since you're going to be a mother soon," he said. Sidra suddenly stopped, throwing the burden of fighting him onto Aba alone.
"Please, Sidra..."
"There you are." She started coming closer to him but then grabbed him so close with her powers and broke the wall with his weight, causing the building to collapse gradually. Aba was in shock. Before she could react, Sidra took her hand and asked her to pray nonstop until they burn that entity. Then the shadow of her adoptive mother appeared and held their both hands. The devil started to shrink and cough blood as parts of his body were burning like a wooden log.
Sidra called on all allies to widen their circle and bring everyone, human, devils, and angels to pray, not just the chosen. Apparently, in the end, everyone was chosen. The devil burned totally and left nothing but ashes, and the building was demolishing brick by brick.
They all had to leave as soon as possible. Aba and Sidra entered the portal and gathered with Odam and Asham. Each one had their own power that helped and was part of that success; no one could be excluded. After they came back and everyone cheered, they closed the portal forever.
Meanwhile, Sidra told Asham about the visions she saw, and he told her the truth. The devil made her feel ashamed of being human, but she recognized that humanity is also a blessing and a privilege. She chose to become a human forever with gifts rather than be an angel again. She chose to raise her son with Odam, who also decided to adopt Aba and give her the parental love nobody gave her before, the very reason she was weak and under attack by exploitative entities.
Despite Sidra had a huge inheritance from her real father but she rejected all his dirty wealth and lived disowning him for the rest of her life, on the other hand, forgave her mother, and will commemorate her real one every year and remind everyone how could power be deceiving and evil at the same time, making the poor suffer the most, be dehumanized and called with labels like “hostile and barbaric” meanwhile the hostile and barbaric ones could wear suits and drink champagne!
Maybe some prophecies the devil could utter were correct, but that doesn't make him all truthful,
Sidra still sees things, and she couldn't just give up on that part of her, therefore, she now reads palms and cups, relieving sometimes people's curiosity and sometimes flip them into their worst versions of themselves for telling them what they never wanted to hear, the difference between her and a con artist who tells people only what they want to hear.
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