Chapter Two

Vera's eyes snapped open in fear. It took several moments before she was able to orient herself with her surroundings and realize she was still in bed and had only been dreaming. Sweat gathered around her neck and her bed sheets were tangled around her ankles. She was unsure why the dream had startled her so much. It hadn't been about anything scary.

In the dream she had visited the cave again, only this time the snake had been there - or a snake at least. She doubted very much that she had dreamed about the same snake her father and the others had seen. That would be preposterous – not to mention impossible since she hadn't been there to see it.

Vera didn't think it would be wise to dwell on a useless dream, so she put it from her mind and got ready for another day at the excavation site. Perhaps if she could spare time from her own work she might stop by the cave again. But only to see if any progress had been made to discover the markings.

She was in the middle of breakfast when her father wandered in carrying an armload of books.

"What on earth are all of those for?" she asked.

He frowned as he pulled himself away from the page he was reading. "These are books on what Kareem referred to as the 'hidden ones.' Apparently the 'hidden ones' are what we refer to as genies, but they are quite a bit darker than our stories portray them."

She puzzled over the last remark. "What do you mean darker?"

He sighed and put down the book. "Well, I don't want to give you nightmares, but according to these tales they can be quite evil."

"Can be? Does that mean they aren't always?"

"These tales make them out to be a bit mad – having been forced to roam the earth for sometimes thousands of years. They can take on many forms and are said to have supernatural powers, which they often use against humans such as us for their own amusement. As I said, it's all rather dark."

Vera hummed thoughtfully. "Can I read those, Papa?"

He seemed to hesitate for a moment before teasing, "I don't see why not. But if they give you nightmares don't come crying to me."

She grinned and rolled her eyes. "I'm nineteen, Papa. I doubt reading a book is going to scare me."

"I'm heading out," he informed her. "When you get finished here just ask Halsten to escort you to the dig site."

Vera waved him off; immersed in the book he had given her and only halfway listening to what he was saying. Reading had always been her second favorite hobby, another reason her friends and family found her boring. She would much rather stay inside reading the classics than go shopping for the newest fashions or gossip about her peers.

Three paragraphs into the book Vera knew it was exactly the thing Kareem had been talking about. The passage she had just read described what he had been trying to explain to her.

"The word jinn is Arabic and means 'unseen or hidden.' Many who practice the Islamic religion consider the jinn to be a threat. Many also believe jinn to be the cause of many misfortunes, illnesses, possessions, and occasionally even deaths. They are shapeshifters and can live for thousands of years."*

"According to some religious scholars, jinn are claimed to have the ability to shift into the form of humans or animals. However, when a jinni takes on a physical form it is said to be more vulnerable. For this reason, they do not keep these forms for very long, but will instead shapeshift into hideous monster-like creatures to frighten people or keep them away from what they consider their own property," it read.*

Vera shook her head. "Well, that's just silly," she said out loud to herself.

"What's silly?" A tired voice asked from the dining room door.

Vera looked up to find her father's valet, Halsten, waiting for her answer. Her father swore that the man was older than his grandfather, but Vera figured he was only teasing her. Halsten couldn't possibly be much older than her father, considering he had very few wrinkles and there was still some brown hair scattered in amongst the gray.

"Oh, this book," she said in reply. "It's nothing but superstitious nonsense about genies."

"Is that so?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "You believe in angels don't you?"

Vera shrugged. "Well, yes, I suppose so. What does that have to do with anything?"

Halsten sat down across from her at the table. "You don't find that to be superstitious nonsense do you?"

"Of course not, but this is entirely different!"

"I don't think so, Vera. Angels and demons are quite similar to the Islamic belief of the jinn. They share many similarities, in fact."

Vera narrowed her eyes and yanked on one of her curls as she considered what Halsten had told her. "So do you believe they're real? Jinn?"

Halsten shrugged. "I merely wanted to point out that you shouldn't refer to it as silly when you yourself believe in something very similar."

Vera nodded. "I suppose."

He stood and made his way out of the room. "Will you be going to the dig site today?" he asked, turning his head back in her direction.

She shook her head. "No, I don't think so. I want to finish this," she said holding up the book, "first."

He nodded, but said nothing else. Eventually Vera made her way into the sitting room, completely engrossed in her reading and not paying much attention to her surroundings.

"Jinn are untrustworthy and unpredictable because they make no distinction between good and evil. While technically more amoral than they are evil, they can be quite wicked. They use whatever means are necessary to protect themselves and their territory. Jinn are masters of deceit and illusion and can be invisible to humans unless they choose to appear, giving them a great advantage. They love to lurk and spy while they wait for opportunities to strike."*

"Well that's a bit disturbing," she mused aloud as she continued to read.

BANG!

Vera jumped, startled by the front door slamming open and hitting the wall with such force it left a large dent. No wind was blowing, and no one stood outside, so she was unsure what or who was responsible. Rising from her comfortable chair and walking over to close it, Vera looked around for the culprit. It appeared the door opened by itself. She chuckled and shook her head at her thoughts.

Papa would laugh at me for being scared of that silly book.

Vera returned to the sitting room and shut the book after marking her place. Making her way into the kitchen she decided to make herself a cup of tea. Chamomile, preferably. It was her favorite, and no doubt it would help calm her nerves.

Ruffling through the cabinets, she sighed in frustration when she was unable to find any tea.

"Halsten?" she called as she stuck her head around the doorframe. "Please tell me we aren't out of tea!"

Vera grumbled under her breath when she received no reply. He had probably left the house to go running errands for her father and she hadn't noticed. She pushed back her unruly hair and the sleeves of her blouse in determination and decided not to give up on her search so easily. In a display of her usual stubbornness Vera started rifling through the lower drawers in an attempt to find what she was after.

"There has to be some tea in this house! We're English for heaven's sake!" she shouted.

As she opened the last drawer, she happened to spot a familiar tin jammed at the very back. "AHA!"

Her fingers wrapped around the metal tin, but it was stuck at the back and refused to budge. Vera continued to tug on the immovable box, but only succeeded in making it wiggle slightly. Taking a deep breath Vera planted her feet - abnormally tiny feet her cousins had always said, and pulled as hard as she could. With a screech and a pop the box finally came loose, but her momentum from the pull sent Vera flailing backward. She watched as the tin she had worked so hard to retrieve tumbled out of her hands and spilled its contents all over the kitchen floor.

"This has to be some form of cruel joke," she complained.

The sound of a low snicker caused Vera's eyes to narrow in anger. "It's not polite to laugh at someone's misfortune, Halsten," she snapped, turning toward the kitchen door.

But Halsten wasn't there. No one was there. Vera frowned and walked over to the door and peered out into the empty hallway.

"Halsten?" she called. "This isn't very funny!"

Nothing but silence answered her statement. Feeling spooked but refusing to show it, Vera straightened her spine and marched toward the back of the house where Halsten's rooms were.

"Halsten? Are you here?"

His rooms were empty, as was every other room in the house. When she reached her father's study Vera found the note Halsten had left for her.

"Going to the market. Be back soon," it read.

Vera's heartbeat accelerated. Whose laugh had she heard in the kitchen if not Halsten's?

"You're imagining things, Vera," she reassured herself. Her father's smell permeated the small office, and soon the familiar scent helped calm her down. It wasn't long before she drifted off to sleep in her father's chair.

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A/N: Vote if you like it or comment and tell me where I need to improve! Thanks for reading!

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*This information was put together from various books, websites, etc. about jinn. Obviously I am not a scholar on this subject. Most of my info came from Encyclopedia Brittanica and Wikipedia.