I stare toward the house. I see a tiny glow at the window. A living soul? The house is supposed to be empty.
Fuck! I have to warn Karim.
I co out of the car and rush after him. As I get there, the man is already lying in a pool of his own blood.
I look up at the window. I notice that Karim has seen her as well.
He starts marching to the building, after pulling his dagger out of the dead man’s neck and wiping it.
"What are you going to do?" I ask, afraid that he wants to harm the little girl.
He does not respond.
I rush after him.
He reaches the room from which we saw her and kicks the door open. The door is locked.
He kicks it again with a lot more force and it bounces open.
It’s a cute little girl.
Her hands are tied and she has duck tape on her mouth. Had she been locked up in here?
The little girl looks not more than five, if my presumption for the age of humans is right.
She has dull brown hair and big eyes. She has a black eye from a severe beating. Her lower lip is splitted and red with blood.
Her entire arms are bruised. All she is wearing is a huge top, probably ant for an adult.
Her ankles are red with bruises.
Anger washes through . Had she already been raped? How could soone do this to a little child? A cute child. My heart goes out to the little girl.
Karim turns to look at . The anger I see in his eyes mirrors mine.
I turn around and trut down the stairs. I walk to where the dead man’s body is and summon his spirit back.
I am so furious I can barely see clearly.
Karim cos out with the little girl in his arms.
"Take the child away! I don’t want her to see what I’m about to do". I say.
The mont the asshole rises up, I kick him in the stomach. He coils. He has a confused look in his eyes. He thought he was dead.
"I won’t let you off the hook so easily!" I grunt and kick him again.
I kick him and kick him until I am panting from my exertions.
When I lift my leg to kick him again, I feel arms around my waist, pulling away.
"Die! You rotten pig!" I yelled.
He fell flat on his face again. I watched angrily as his stupid spirit ascended.
His soul can no longer join the others and reach the abyss.
I pulled his soul out of line and now he cam never join the line again. His soul is now dood to roam the forgotten lands.
"He’s dead already, Arya. Let’s go". He whispers in my ear as he puts in the back seat with the little girl.
My anger dissipates as I see her.
She is staring at her bruised hands on her lap.
I say nothing because I don’t want to frighten her.
What are we going to do with her? She saw us kill the man that had been abusing her, we could not let her speak to anyone about it.
"Thank you for saving ". She whispers in a tiny voice.
I look at her. She looks so gentle. Her soul is gentle within her. It looks as broken as she does physically.
I hope she does not think of us as heroes or anything short of role models. We are mainly doing a job and she happens to be a liability. But even with that, I find myself wanting to take care of her.
"What is your na?" I ask gently
She looks up at .
"My na is Clara Windsor". She says.
She has a wonderful na.
"Do you know your parents?" I ask.
She looks up at and tears fill her eyes.
"He was my daddy and my mommy died last year. He pushed her down the stairs." She replies.
I saw karim’s hand tighten on the steering wheel. He is obviously as angry as I am.
"Did your father touch you?" I ask her.
She just continues crying and I wonder if she will answer. Then she says, "He forces every ti he cos back from work."
"We need to take her to the hospital". Karim says to quietly.
I just nod but say nothing. He pulls up in our driveway and the gates slide shut.
I carry her into the house and take her up to the guest room. Well, every room apart from our room is a guest room.
I put her down on the bed. I go into the bathroom to set things up for her to have a shower. When it’s ready I co out and call out to her. She shakes her head and begins to cry. I go to her to find out what is wrong when she says that it hurts to bathe.
Just then, Karim pokes his head at the door.
I look at him and shake my head. He gets the ssage.
"I’ll go make you sothing to eat." He says to the little girl with a smile and leaves.
I try again and she follows into the bathroom. I lift her up and put her into the tub and help her wash up. I am very careful around her sensitive areas and her bruises. I wash her hair thoroughly and dry it with a dryer.
I dress her up in one of my night shirts and take her down to have dinner.
Karim is preparing so steak and rice.
"Are you hungry?" He asks.
She bobs her head, her curls bouncing up and down prettily.
I and karim exchange glances across the table. He drops a plates of food in front of her and pauses to watch her eat.
An unspoken question hangs in the air. We are both wondering what to do with her.
Do we adopt her?
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