The Heart of the Sphinx

Chapter 6

The man had unzipped her jeans and he yanked the down past her skinny hips. His arousal is pretty evident and his trousers are bulging with the hard c**k that is trying to strain free from its confinement. Never more had been a man more vulnerable to attack.

None of them hear me coming. One moment he is unzipping his fly and the next moment he is on the floor. His teeth scattered on the ground with a strange noise which sounded to be beautiful music in my ears. His jaw was shattered and his throat was slit at the same time almost. I could kill men like this every single day of my eternal life and yet I would not be bored for even a moment.

Youth and inexperience had landed the young girl in a calamity which she could not possibly escape if I was not there to help her. As fierce as she might be, she was green and untrained and the inevitable would have happened in my absence. The men are nothing more than lumbering buffaloes standing before my agility. They were stupid and helpless against my strikes. They fell down on the floor with a thud and their heads rolled off from their body on the floor in a grotesque manner.

The girl looked at me. And she looked at me properly for the first time.

Then she did not say anything and just sat up.

“Are you hurt somewhere?” asked I as I could not offer my bloodied hands to her.

She nodded her head saying no and then she kept looking at me like I was something to be watched for amusement.

Then she suddenly asked me,” What the hell are you?”

“That is something you will come to know later on. The question for now is how do you talk to the one who saved your life and dignity?” I asked and she snorted at me. When my eyes narrowed at her she looked immediately contrite for a moment.

“I am sorry. But seriously tell me, what are you?” asked the girl again.

“You are an absolutely impatient creature. But you did not have your food yet, right?” I asked her as I saw the can that she was trying to open was now scattered on the floor all crushed down in the commotion. Not fit for eating anymore I guess.

“That does not matter. There is a soup kitchen nearby along with the bread to eat. It is not very good but it is enough to sustain me for the night,” said the girl.

I nodded at her saying hmmm.

“But tell me how did you kill those men so easily? You did not even move much and you killed them without even breaking a sweat!!!” the girl exclaimed and then I could understand that she could not see me completely. The lower half of my body was still in the dark and neither could she see my wings.

“I think in order to come to understand that you have to see me in light. But I promise you that if you make one sound then I am going to make you wish that you were never born and you will die here slowly with no one to even care for your gurgles and whimpering,” I said and the girl nodded her head slowly. Her eyes held a brief flash of intelligence and curiosity which made me glad that I had chosen her and not some other bumbling fool who would make mistake every way.

She gradually found the candle which had been snuffed out and then she got out the lighter and burnt the candle and held it before my face. I turned and shifted slightly to my side in order to let her see my whole body. She saw me properly for the first time and her eyes were wide with fear. I knew that she wanted to scream at the top of her voice but she did not make any sound which made me believe that she had taken my previous words pretty seriously.

“Wow…you are so gorgeous,” said the girl and I raised one of my brows at her. It was strange that she would ever find someone or something like me gorgeous but I gave her a tight lipped smile.

“You are hungry. So I think you should wear your clothes and then you should go to where you are going to get food while I accompany you. After that we can talk,” I said to her and she nodded.

“What is your name?” I asked her in order to have something to call her. I did not feel that any of the words that came into my mind after looking at her would be any way proper to address her as such.

“Bella,” said the girl as she straightened her clothes and then we both went out of the building while I climbed the walls with ease and told that I would be with her on the ledges and the windows and roofs so that no harm would befall on her. She seemed to be a bit relieved to hear me speak so.

Finally when she had her food and everything I thought that we should talk. We again came back to the same place where I had decapitated the three men but it was a different building and not the same place. I could understand that how I would have to make this place my lair just like Bella…I did not need to sleep since I had done that for hundred years but after all I also needed to rest some time or then in the day time.

“How did you come to be here?” asked Bella to me and I just smiled at her.

“Well there are some people in this city who have taken something from me which is very precious to me, and I have come back to take back what is mine,” I replied and she nodded.

“Do you not have your parents to take care of you? Why are you living on the streets?” I asked her and she looked at me with such venom in her eyes that I was taken aback for a moment.

“My mom is a junkie…and my dad is the pimp who kept selling her to men for paying for her drugs. He tried to sell me off too when I was twelve but I kicked him and slashed his eyes and ran away from them,” said Bella and I felt that the hairs on my body rose just to make the ones who had done this to her pay.

“Do you want me to kill them?” I asked.

“What?” she looked at me with shock.

“I am asking if you want me to kill them…I would understand that you would want them dead. They did not do anything proper in their lives apart from giving birth to you and I know that,” I said and she nodded at me saying no.

“Look it is actually great that you want to kill them for my sake and it means a great deal to me that you want to do this for me but actually I think that they are really going to get what they have it coming for them of their own accord. I mean to say that they are going to make their own lives and their future and then they will pave the way for their death themselves,” said Bella and I nodded at her. She was awfully wise for her age and she did not have this need for revenge like I did. This was something I did not think was possible for me to ever attain like this child had done here.

“What did they take from you?” asked Bella and I looked at her.

“Something which is very precious to me…without that it might be almost impossible to save mankind,” said I as I smiled at her and she visibly recoiled. I understood that my canines must have scared her to the core.

“You don’t have to kill all of them do you?” asked Bella, and she was scared to the core.

“I do Bella. I really do… you know they have to understand that it is never right to take something from someone because they think that the one to whom it belongs does not matter but they do need to have it. They have to pay for the crimes that they had committed in their life by taking away what was not theirs,” said I as she nodded at me with understanding.

“But do you think that killing is going to make any difference?” asked Bella as I sighed.

“Well it is going to make to me so I don’t care what happens to the rest of the world. It is my duty and my privilege to be able to protect my dignity and honour and I have code to live by which I need to protect,” said I as she smiled nodding again.

“I don’t know your name. You know mine…” she said and I smiled back at her. Children, always so inquisitive.

“Medusa,” I replied, the name rolling off my tongue after several centuries.