Shadia couldn't do anything much. It was true that she used to deal with evil shayaṫīn. Throughout her wanderings, she encountered so many of them, killed them mercilessly, and sent them to the afterlife.
But this time, it's too close to her door, ring her bell crazily, arose her trauma that she buried deep inside with the bloods of those evil shayaṫīn.
She froze there, her gaze fixed on Ḥamād's body writhing in pain as he was being strangled by her husband.
Ḥuwayda's condition was the same. A tragedy happened in the past; she remembered it vividly. Her whole body was shaking because of the guilt she forgot long ago. Tears started to flow down her cheeks mercilessly.
She was the sole reason why her brothers and sisters died. She was the one who led that evil shayṫān to her family, tricked by that bastard's charm and got her family nearly annihilated.
"May God never forgive you, bastard! Rot in hellfire for eternity!"
Gāber's hands were clamped around Ḥamād's throat, his grip vice-like and unforgiving. His teeth were gritted together, a harsh, grinding sound that spoke volumes of his incandescent rage.
His face was flushed a deep crimson, veins bulging at his temples. In that moment, a single, brutal intention burned in his eyes; to kill the evil shayṫān beneath his brutal hold, right then and there.
"What... What did I do wrong?"
Ḥamād said it all haltingly, the choking sensation in his neck making him feel like he was going to die for the second time soon.
"You are a part of them, you bastards! If I let you live longer, you'll become a threat to my kind!" He tighten his choke.
Ḥamād tried everything in his mind to get Gāber to release the chokehold on his neck. Hitting, scratching, pressing, all to no avail.
"But I won't! Why should I?"
"Bullshit! Die here!"
This time, Gāber didn't just strangle Hamād with both of his hands. His mouth was wide open, a purplish blue astral energy came out of it, taking the form of an anaconda, wrapped around Ḥamād's body tightly, along with the breaking sound of his bones.
Ḥamād's vision began to blur. A split second later, all he saw was endless darkness.
***
"It's okay, o human from another world. The road to repentance was never smooth. Redemption is never as easy as turning the palm of your hand."
***
Suddenly, Ḥamād opened his eyes.
He was very sure that he died a second time. He could even felt the strangling sensation on his neck. All of that was real!
But, what the hell had happened?
This is the same exact location I woke up, when I arrived in this world. The same damn hut.
Was i daydreaming or something?
He pinched his cheek, his neck, and every other part of his body. It hurts. It wasn't a dream.
He looked outside.
The sun was high in the sky.
I came back to life somehow. Probably before I met those djinn family. What should I do now? Think, Ḥamād! Think!
Those old djinn bastards, why he killed me? That was nonsense! Even though my orginal-body-owner was an evil shayṫān, I'm not the one. I came from different world!
I wouldn't harm them whatsoever! They saved me after all.
He got the idea. It was said that this body had died because astral energies depletion before. And, before his second death, Ḥamād was familiarized with those type of energies.
He want to test if he was back to life, or someone took him here before he died. In theory, if he could feel the astral energies inside him, that must be Shadia's energies. But if he couldn't, he was really went back to the time he spawned.
Ḥamād sat on the floor, close his eyes, and remembering the sensation of astral energies in his body. A blood-like something that flew throughout his veins and gave him a warm sensation.
He felt it.
But this time, it wasn't like a blood. It felt like two dots inside his spine. Two cold spots. The same exact spot touched by Shadia when she gave him her astral energies.
It's strange.
With all his might, he tried to circulate that cold throughout his entire imaginary body. He could do that, but it was very painful.
"Now cut your palm, so your skins could familiarized with it, and you could absorb any astral energies floating around."
Those cold dots now within his palm. The imaginary knife appeared and made a slight wound. The same exact stinky black blood oozed. But this time, the amount was very little.
He needed to be hurry.
If this astral energies left his body completely, he would died again.
Both of his hands clasped together, he washed the black blood all over his arm, and used it like a radar to detect any astral energies flowing around.
He didn't know how exactly he could do that. But one thing certain was, he could felt the small amount of astral energies floating around him.
He stand, and walked to that direction. As it turns out, it doesn't work the way he imagined.
He thought that the astral energies just had to stick to his skin. It turned out, it wasn't that simple. No matter how many times he tried, the energy wouldn't absorbed automatically by his body.
Ḥamād tried any other method like opened his mouth like he wanted to eat it, sniff it, so on, and so on. No exceptions.
His consciousness began to fade, his body became weaker, he realized that the time he had would soon end.
Desperately, he opened his palm where the imaginary wound located, bring it closer to the energies floating around, and began to absorbed back this black blood.
Succeed.
The black blood that covered his arm re-entered his body, along with the astral energy floating around that was absorbed through the imaginary wound in his palm. Slowly but surely, those energies began to circulate like a blood through his vains.
Compared to the energies Shadia gave him, this amount was a joke. It was very little. But, better little than nothing.
Now, since there wasn't any astral energies left, he looked around the hut. Maybe, there was some clues he couldn't get before.
It was still nothing.
What Ḥamād did next was to went around every ruined hut, and looked for everywhere very carefully. 'Cause he couldn't find any clues about the original owner of his body, he only looked for things that he could use for survival.
Looting.
He found three rusty knife, a sickle, some rope, a pocket full of bronze and silver coins, three gold coins from other huts, and two water carriers.
The sun was almost setting by the time Ḥamād finished collecting all the items. Some how, he got the feeling that those anubises would likely appeared not long after. If he want to survive, he need to make some weapon.
He broke a small wooden pole that supported the cloth canopy of one hut. He tied the knife at one end tightly, and did the same exact deed for the sickle on the other end.
This time, he would stay in this abandoned village, play hide and seek with those anubises, play some ambush strategy, and trying his best to survive.
With all of the small amount of astral energies inside his body, Gāber surely would notice him as shayṫān. That's why went back to them was suicide.
In his mind, Ḥamād would like to test the function of this astral energies, like what Gāber did last time. But, to do that, he should absorb more. And to absorb more, he should be waiting for wehlāl when the night come.
And there was it.
The howling began to break the silence of the night. One after another.
He tighten his grip on his made-up weapon, swung it a few times to test the sturdiness, and sighted heavily.
As the wehlāl's light began to cover the earth, Ḥamād was emerged from his hiding place. He deliberately made a commotion, luring the anubises to chase him.
"Yalla, dog heads! Come and get me!"
As soon as they saw Ḥamād, their drools splat everywhere. They ran with their khopesh, swung it like a mad man.
He fled behind one of hut, turned around several times, jumped like a parkour pros reaching the rooftop of the building.
In his previous life, those anubises would hide too, waited for the right time to gave him an ambush. So this time, he would make sure they came after him.
He crouched down, hiding behind a small wall to hide his body. He peered down and looked for the presence of those anubises. As he thought, they weren't there.
He moved to the other side several times, and found them hiding in the shadows, waiting for their prey to descend, then ambushing him mercilessly.
Ḥamād smirked.
"Gotcha!"
He threw the remaining knives he had, making sure that the throws was precise and efficient.
The first knife stuck in the eye of one of the anubis, and the other knife stuck in the neck of the other anubis. They groaned in pain, with black blood gushing at various directions. Their bodies trembled and fell, before finally becoming motionless.
Everything was according to Ḥamād's plan. After two individuals from their flock died, they stared at Ḥamād with a furious gaze, and began to climb the walls to tear him into pieces.
***