Arthur and the Djinn: Chapters 5, 6 and 7.

Chapter 5

Isabelle slipped straight in to bed when she got home and locked the door. She curled in to her pillow and ignored the Djinn as she called out constantly to Isabelle.

'Isabelle. Isabelle.'

Isabelle shut out the world and the Djinn who cried out to her until she fell asleep hours later.

Leonard left but the Djinn stayed, watching Isabelle as she cried and screamed out in her sleep, tossing and turning.

Chapter 6

Isabelle felt the cool wet sand under feet and peered in to the darkness beyond the fire lamps that burnt around her and the little straw hut which stood in the dark to her side. She faced the ocean where the water was still. Only darkness lay ahead in the water.

Isabelle was confident at first as the beings approached her. These demonoid creatures that were tall and thin with leathery skins and dark red veins crossing all over their body. She laughed at them as they came as she knocked them back with her will and the motioning of her hands.

But they kept coming.

They began to laugh too along Isabelle and increased in number and speed. Isabelle kept motioning them away, casting them out, vanquished.

Just keep going.

Closer now. Too many.

She wasn't sure why this was happening.

Still confident, she continued but they were now touching her, grabbing her, pulling her, laughing, still laughing, before she cast them out.

Isabelle continued until that one, that horrible one came. It walked right up to her and nothing she did could stop it. It grabbed her by her arms, smiled and laughed at her. A laugh which she felt and heard deep in her mind and ears as hid her fear.

She was afraid.

Arms and hands held still, she was surrounded.

Isabelle screamed.

The Djinn continued to watch Isabelle sleep. The Djinn could enter many dreams but this one she could not.

Chapter 7

In the morning light Isabelle looked through the box of photographs she had kept. She wondered how she had accumulated so many throughout such a crazy life and disturbing childhood.

Isabelle looked at the picture of her sitting in a cardboard box at the top of the grassy hill, facing away from the camera and ready to slide. There was Leonard too. She remembered what her mother said when she told her Leonard was in the photo. Her mother had called her a liar and said that her lies were inviting men in to her life who would do things to her and it would be her fault. It may of seemed innocent enough except her mother had also beaten her for being a liar and said that the men would do violent and invasive things. Isabelle had been only four.

Another photo. School. She wished she had listened to Leonard more at school or that she had let Leonard teach her to wash her clothes. Her mother had cut her school skirts short, yelling at her that Isabelle wanted this. Her clothes were always dirty and had a bad smell. Isabelle had been afraid to use things without asking. She was instead perfectly obedient. It meant she was hurt less. She still got hurt for other things and her mother always said it was her fault.

A whole stack of photographs. When she went overseas. That was good.

Another school photo. Didn't like that one. She had sever eczema as a child. She was bullied till she had forgotten how to make friends. Embarrassed, she stopped talking to people. She remembered Trinka. Trinka still screwed her face up at her 15 years later at their high school reunion. Some people don't change.

Another school photo. Those ones were ok. It had that friend in it who got bullied then went weird on her and blamed her for the way everyone else treated her.

Another photo. The lake. A recent one. Nice.

Another photo. Leonard. Was just testing that out.

Younger photographs. These were ripped but she kept them. Until she started keeping the photos her mother took she had kept forgiving her. Isabelle had stolen these ones during the last time she had let her mother bully her. Her sister said it was not their mothers fault and that Isabelle was the bad person. These were the pictures that her mother had taken to embarrass her later in life or immediately, depending on how funny she thought they were. There were photos of her in the shower, up her skirt, when her hair wasn't brushed, on the toilet. Bullied until she snapped. Isabelle remembered the time her mother teased her until she screamed. Her mother had recorded this and then played it back to her constantly. Some things never got old.

More photos, old workplaces. Staff and team photos. Christmas parties. That useless former Team Leader of hers who was.... well useless. She was the leader that gossiped about other people and had bullied Leslie until she quit. Isabelle didn't belong there so one day she quit too.

Isabelle threw the photographs back in the box and exhaled sharply.

'What the hell si wrong with these people?' thought Isabelle.

'If you go tonight you will regret it' came Leonard's voice from behind her.

Isabelle turned around and looked at Leonard and gave him a sarcastic smile.

He was never wrong.

'Stop being so grouchy' she said, looking back at the box.

Tonight was the next fundraiser night for the Performing Arts Centre.

There would be tasteless dresses and cheap wine but it was lots of fun.

How bad could it be?