It was just a regular evening, and I was just about to dry off after my bath at the lake, when Nassar spotted me.
“Are you done taking a bath?” Nassar said.
“Are you done jerking off to a woman taking a bath?” I retorted, as I dried myself.
“You’re hardly a woman, Melika.”
“I might be naked, but I can still punch you.”
“Still, though, you should be careful. Many of our men haven’t seen a woman for a long time, aside from you. They’re getting pretty desperate.”
“They could always use the whore budget. We have that in place so that situations like this don’t happen.”
“It’s not nearly enough, they’re rationing their funds.”
“What about you then? As a high ranking soldier, surely your budget is larger.”
“I might be a womanizer, but I also have standards.”
“Then your standards are pretty low if you’re trying to get off from me.”
“Don’t say that, you might be a bit boyish, but you’re still attractive.”
“I thank you for the compliment, but right now, I’m more interested in doing my job, flattery does you nothing, and during war, there is no time to flirt.”
Nassar sighed. “Look, Melika, I’m not here to try and get you to bed, I’m just saying that you should be careful.”
“So you’re saying you’re not interested in having sex with me? Despite showering me with compliments?”
“No, I definitely am interested in having sex with you, but that’s not the point. You are still unsoiled, which makes you that much more desirable.”
I dropped my towel, as I was done drying myself anyway.
“You do have a point,” I said. “So, what are you going to do about that?”
“What do you mean?” Nassar asked, a bit flustered.
“Come to my room when you figured it out.”
Em and I were laying in bed. It wasn’t really cold, and we both had our regular clothes on, yet I couldn’t really get to sleep. There was a lot going in my mind. Just a few hours before, everything was new and overwhelming, but once everything settled, it all hit me.
Em and I were alone in this world, or at least in this place. I wasn’t sure if there were other people still living, but for now, there wasn’t any indication that this was the case.
I felt my heart beat faster, though it wasn’t because of anxiety or anything. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t know why.
It was because of Em.
It was strange, though, it felt like I haven’t seen her in ages, yet at the same time, it also felt like I’ve been with her my entire life. I missed her, and even though my feelings were in vain, I couldn’t help but fall in love with her all over again.
I decided to get up and go downstairs, as I wasn’t going to fall asleep anytime soon.
“Where are you going?” Em said.
“Just going outside, taking a stroll,” I replied.
“Mind if I come along?”
“I don’t mind.”
While our room was pretty warm and cozy, it was rather cold outside, almost as if it was a completely different time of day from a few hours ago. I guess the sky was also a bit darker than usual, the purplish hue was now more of a shade of dark blue.
We decided to take a stroll around the temple, which was rather big. It almost felt like some sort of palace, and yet, the distance between the temple and the edge was still significant.
“It’s still amazing how smooth this place is,” I said. “I wonder if there used to be other buildings here.”
“Maybe,” she replied, in a familiar way, the way I remembered Em.
“I wonder if we’re the only ones in this world,” I said.
“I’m sure there are others,” Em said. “Not that I mind it being just the two of us.”
“And that’s because?”
“Well, it’s pretty quiet here, not many people to get annoyed by.”
I laughed. “Yeah, that’s pretty much like you to be saying something like that.”
I looked at the temple again. For such a big building, there didn’t seem to be that many rooms. Then I noticed something, and pointed at it.
“It seems like there’s a balcony there.”
“That’s nice,” Em replied.
“I wonder how we could get there.”
We decided to head back inside, to figure out the layout of the temple.
“Why?” I said, holding the lifeless body of Nassar in my arms.
“Well, I guess it’s just jealousy,” one of the soldiers said. “And the best part is that you can’t do anything about it.”
He was right, there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t retaliate. Nassar and I were near the city, way outside our camp, which meant that we could have been attacked and killed by anybody, especially the enemy. It didn’t matter that it was our own men that were the ones who did this to us.
If however I killed them, it’d seem as if I was targeting Nassar, and the rest were additional casualties. I was already known as the Calamity, the Silent Killer, the Lone Wolf. Only a few knew about my sexual relationship with Nassar. No, at this point, it wasn’t even purely sexual. I already knew it, I just didn’t want to admit it.
“Get it over with,” I said.
“What did you say?” another soldier said. “Get it over with? Oh, you thought we were just going to kill you.”
Laughter filled the air.
“No,” a third one said. “We’re going to ruin you, make you take every one of us, and then maybe we’ll kill you.”
Up until now, I never realized how far our own men, who were lauded as being honorable, would stoop this low, resorting to killing one of their own and raping another. It didn’t matter, though. I’ve had stronger men underestimate my power. As long as I didn’t kill any of them, I could escape.
I could see several approaching me, reaching out to me. With a swift move, I kicked them to the ground. Several others ran towards me. I grabbed one, and threw him against the others, toppling them all. If this would go on like this, I would probably have been able to take them all out, but they were smart, they knew sending just a few at a time would be a waste. Instead, they all came at me at once.
I managed to knock some to the ground, but there were too many of them, they easily overwhelmed me.
“Why don’t you just kill them,” I heard a voice say.
No, it wasn’t just in my head. I could see the commander standing on top of the city wall, giving me the okay.
That night, we lost quite a few men, and as much as I wanted to continue to fight on, this was the last day of my time in the army.
“Woah, are you okay?” Em said.
Apparently I dozed off while standing on the balcony and almost fell down.
The balcony wasn’t hard to find. There were multiple stairs going up, and there was a walkway right outside the bedroom that would lead outside.
Even though we were outside, it was still warm. For some reason, the temple’s heat extended to the balcony.
“Maybe we should head back inside,” she said, “get some sleep.”
“Yeah, you might be right.”
I composed myself for a bit.
“Maybe you should go to bed,” Em said.
“Yeah,” I replied, “maybe I should.”
Even though I felt tired, I wasn’t sure if I would actually get to sleep. There was something happening in my mind. I wasn’t exactly sure what it was. It could have been the panel, it could have changed me, changed us.
I didn’t think I was awake for long, but by the time I woke up, something definitely was different.
“Commander, I can still fight,” I said.
“Melika,” the commander said. “Take Nassar home.”
“I’ll return as soon as possible.”
“No, Melika, you’ve done enough for the country. Now it’s time for you to settle down. Now I want you to take this.”
He handed me a note.
“What is this?” I asked.
“It’s the location of a witch. She’s on your route, so you won’t have to take a detour. It might be a long shot, but she might be able to return to you what’s been lost.”