Jaleh knocked on the door, hoping that someone would open it.
She knew Rebecca was inside the house, but did not know if anyone else was home, and wasn't sure if Rebecca would be in any mood to answer it. If she'd still had access to Jessie's powers, she could have reached into the girl's mind and make her feel an urge to get up and come answer the door.
But with Jessie gone, she had returned to the resonance she'd had when alive, which meant she was merely saMpadyate.
She was able to look into her mind, however, and determine that she intended to stay in her bed and hope that whoever was at the door would go away.
Jaleh had no intention of honoring that wish, however. She knocked again, louder and more insistently, then rang the doorbell twice.
She sensed Rebecca's annoyance, but she still intended to just wait it out, so Jaleh rang the bell three more times, and knocked again, even harder, until she finally felt Rebecca give up and drag herself out of bed.
A minute or so later, the door swung open.
"Jessie?" Rebecca said hopefully looking out onto the doorstep.
Jaleh just shook her head. She could see the hope on Rebecca's face turn quickly into anger.
"Get the fuck away from here," the blonde said as she started to swing the door closed.
Jaleh reached her foot into the doorway to keep the door from closing.
"Please, don't shut me out, Rebecca. We need to talk. I swear on Ahura's name that I had no idea Hamid was planning to do this. I honestly had no idea he was even capable of any of this. I am so, so sorry that any of this happened."
"Why should I believe anything you say?" Rebecca spit out, still trying to close the door in spite of Jaleh's foot being in the way.
"You probably shouldn't," Jaleh said dejectedly. "You have every reason to hate me. But please, just let me in for a moment. I need you to know that I am every bit as upset by what Hamid has done as you are. Maybe even more upset because I thought I knew him, which makes all of this feel like a betrayal to me. I think we both need a friend right now."
Jaleh felt the pressure on the other side of the door let up. It was only a little, but it allowed the door to swing open just enough that she could step inside of it. She immediately wrapped Rebecca into her arms and gave her a big hug.
"Ahura, I am so sorry," Jaleh said to the girl.
She could feel Rebecca sobbing into the hug, so she just held her, using her foot to close the door behind her.
Rebecca pulled back from the hug.
"So, I guess that you're not pregnant yet, since it is still you and not Jessie?"
"Actually, I am pregnant, or
was
pregnant, anyway. But that isn't what completes the spell. Hamid never actually told us what completes the spell, so he never actually lied, and no one called him on it."
"Wait, what do you mean you
were
pregnant?"
"I got pregnant," Jaleh explained. "But I am not going to stay that way. I can feel the hormones my body wants to secrete to make a place where the babies can grow and develop, and I am making sure those hormones never get made. It will be a very short pregnancy. Once I found out what Hamid's real plans were, there is no way I want to go along with them."
"So, what are Hamid's real plans?" Rebecca asked.
Jaleh sighed deeply and closed her eyes, not wanting to admit what Hamid, the man she had always looked up to, had done.
"To keep these bodies until they die, then transfer our consciousness into the children. Then repeat that process, over and over again, living with young, healthy, powerful bodies forever."
"Jesus," Rebecca whispered. "That's why he said he would have many concubines."
Jaleh nodded.
"So where are Jessie and Ethan?"
"I don't know," Jaleh admitted to her. "Hamid destroyed the book."
"He what?"
"He said he burned the book. I can no longer feel Jessie. Nor can I access her memories."
"She's... she's,,, gone?" Rebecca questioned.
"I don't know. I really hope not. But I can't feel her anymore. I hope that Tom can still feel her when he gets home. Maybe then we can figure some way out of this. He's an incredibly smart man, with a connection to Jessie much more powerful than mine."
Jaleh could see the look in Rebecca's eyes. She didn't even need to reach inside the girl's consciousness to know what she was feeling. There was deep, deep sadness, and a sense of incredible loss, but mostly there was rage. The rage was mostly directed at Hamid, but there was enough of it that it definitely spilled over onto Jaleh.
"So, you've truly fucked it all up, then," she practically spat out at Jaleh.
It most definitely was
not
time for defensiveness.
"Yes," Jaleh admitted. "All my life I had this idea that Hamid was almost perfect. He always seemed so wise, so compassionate, and so forgiving. Of course, I have always been selfish, and petulant, and impulsive, so I think I never really dug deeper to see what he was truly like, as I was too focused on my own desires. I got hints of it towards the end, when I saw where his obsession with saving me was taking him, but by that point I was too sick to care. I just wanted it to be over."
She paused and took a deep breath. Then shook her head.
"Not that this is any excuse," Jaleh continued, "but he clearly fooled Jessie as well. Perhaps that was because most of his interaction with her involved him trying to make her see me the way that he sees me. Perhaps it was ultimately his love for me, which I believe is very real, that made us both believe he was better than he really is."
Jaleh could sense that the rage Rebecca felt towards her might be tempering a little.
"What's important now is trying to figure out a way we can stop him. I have no intention of allowing his plan to succeed. I will not bear him the children that will let him live forever. Eventually he will realize I am not pregnant anymore. I have to hope I can keep him from realizing I did that on purpose, and that I am keeping myself from ever getting pregnant again, also on purpose. I have to somehow keep him distracted until Tom gets home and we can see if there is still some hope of bringing Jessie and Ethan back."
"Fuck," Rebecca said through clenched teeth. Jaleh could feel her steeling herself to do something she didn't want to do.
"What?" Jaleh asked her.
"I think I know how we can do that," Rebecca said.
"You don't need to be involved, Rebecca. This is my mess to clean up."
"I know I don't
need
to be involved, but if there is any hope of making this all right again, I
want
to be involved. Even if it's going to hurt like hell."
Jaleh stepped forward and wrapped Rebecca in her arms yet again.
"I am so sorry about this, Rebecca," she said quietly.
Hamid stepped up onto the porch, and tried the handle. The door was unlocked. He smiled to himself as he turned the handle and slipped quietly into the house. This couldn't have worked out any better. He knew Jaleh was upset with him, but he knew that eventually she would come around. The power the two of them would wield, in a world unused to having anyone with this kind of power, would be intoxicating, and Jaleh would be unable to resist its call to her. Of that he was quite certain.
He walked quietly through the house, knowing exactly where he needed to go, he could feel them, and knew where they were. He stepped up to the door into a room at the back of the house. Once again, the door was unlocked. He turned the handle, slowly opening the door and stepping inside, seeing the two women sitting on the bed, with Jaleh's arm wrapped around the woman who was to be his first concubine.
"Ah, my queen," he said as he stepped inside the room, "thank you for leading me to this tasty little morsel. I was afraid she was going to get away from me before I could properly break her in."
"You are welcome, my king," Jaleh responded. "I am sorry I overreacted when I learned of your plans. I had grown rather fond of Jessie during my time with her. I am grateful that we can finally be together again. Thank you for making this happen."
"Anything for you, my queen. It has always been about you. You know that."
"Yes, my king. Thank you for that."
Hamid smiled as he took in the sight of the lovely blonde on the bed with Jaleh. He of course knew her name, he could easily see that in the memories he had explored from Ethan before he had burned the book, and he could also see that in her own memories as he explored them. She would never be known as Rebecca to him however. That would be part of the process of breaking her. He looked deep into her eyes.
"Stand up, Agrima," he said to her, pushing an understanding into her consciousness that this was to be her new name as his concubine. It was a name derived from the word meaning first in his original language, fitting for her as his first concubine in this new body of his.
He could sense the words she was forming to speak to him in her head. She wanted to say 'fuck you, asshole, get the fuck out of my house,' which didn't seem appropriate to say to her new master, so he prevented her from saying them, and instead put his own words into her mouth.
