Chapter 25: Suriani & Halo

SURIANI

Suriani handed her daughter the keys as they stood outside their little shop. It was a warm evening.

They were closing up late, so the streets were quiet. She could hear the rush of traffic from the main highway beyond.

Although they’d had to stay behind longer than she’d hoped, at least they wouldn’t have to contend with rush-hour traffic. It could be hell in and around Kuala Lumpur.

“Damnit,” Kylie muttered, struggling with the lock.

“Here, give them to me,” Suriani said, holding out her hand.

“No, I’ve got it. There!” She slipped the keys into her pocket with a smile, then straightened her blouse and brushed her long dark hair from her shoulder.

Suriani watched her daughter with a smile. She was beautiful, talented, successful. God had truly blessed her with an incredible ~accident~.

Kylie grinned back. She wrapped her arm around Suriani’s waist, and they walked back together to the car.

“Good amount of customers today,” Kylie said.

“All to do with your marketing.”

“More to do with your creativity, I think. I wish I could sew like you.”

“But you don’t like sewing.”

Kylie laughed. “That’s right. I forgot.”

They both reached the car, and Suriani paused to look up at the sky. She cocked her head. “What’s that?”

Kylie looked up, the keys halfway in the lock. She gasped. “Wow! Is that a shooting star?”

It was drifting, an orange globe in the sky. It looked a bit like a beam from a flashlight.

“Maybe. But how can it be if it’s not shooting?” Suriani asked.

They both jumped. Suriani dropped her purse.

“There it goes!” Kylie cried.

Suriani watched as it streaked across the sky. It was the most astounding shooting star; it seemed to be burning. They watched as it arched over the buildings, then over the trees. It vanished.

They both jumped again as a flash of bright light lit up the night like fireworks.

“Wow!” Kylie exclaimed.

Kylie might be excited, but Suriani wasn’t so sure. She picked up her purse. “Let’s get in the car.”

“Why the hurry?” Kylie asked.

“I don’t like this,” Suriani said.

“It was just a comet, Mama.”

“Are you sure about that?”

Kylie turned and frowned at her. Then she smiled. “You and your superstitions.”

But she pushed the key in the lock again and opened the door. She turned to look at Suriani, then froze.

Suriani spun around. The tops of the trees were waving in a strong breeze that seemed to have picked up from nowhere. The scarf around her neck fluttered.

Suriani narrowed her eyes. Up ahead were two figures. It was hard to see much in the darkness, but they looked like men.

“Where have they come from?” Suriani said. There was nothing beyond the trees but a highway.

Suriani looked at her daughter, and her daughter looked back, the same insane thought crossing their minds. Kylie yanked open the driver’s seat door, and Suriani hurried over to the passenger seat. She clipped on her seatbelt.

Kylie’s hand was shaking as she tried to turn on the engine, but it kept sputtering. It wasn’t unusual. It needed time to warm up. Time they didn’t have.

Suriani looked over her shoulder. They were definitely men. And they were close now. Too close. How fast were they moving? She blinked. Was it just her fears playing tricks on her, or did they look big? ~Real~ big? They couldn’t be Malays. They had to be foreigners of some kind. Peculiar ones. ~Dangerous~ ones.

“Hurry up, Kylie!”

“I’m trying. I’m trying!”

Suriani tried to calm herself. It was probably nothing. ~Definitely~ nothing. These two men had nothing to do with the comet and the light. It was a coincidence—that was all. It ~had~ to be. And there was every possibility they weren’t criminals out to hurt them. Maybe they were lost. Maybe they were looking for help.

She looked over her shoulder again and yelped. They were right upon them!

Kylie sucked in a breath. Again and again and again she turned the key, pushing down on the accelerator with no effect.

Suriani reached over. “Stop. That’s enough. You’ll just wreck the engine.”

Kylie released the keys. “It’s probably nothing,” she said, taking a breath as the two men approached on either side of their car.

Suriani’s heart leapt in her throat. Realizing they hadn’t even locked the car, she pressed the button. The locks clicked into place.

The man on Kylie’s side leaned into the window. He tapped it with his knuckle.

Kylie rolled down the window a sliver. “H-hello. Can we help you?”

On Suriani’s side, the second man leaned in just as close, so close his breath was misting the glass. Suriani was right—they certainly weren’t locals. They were black and very tall with long braided hair, and yet they didn’t look African or from any race Suriani recognized. She couldn’t explain it. There was something wrong with their jaws, with the overall shape of their faces.

But that was hardly the strangest thing. She sucked in a choking breath. Their eyes! What was wrong with their eyes? Were they high on something? Drug dealers. They had to be drug dealers!

“Oh my God!” Kylie yelped. Quickly, she rolled the window back up.

The man on Suriani’s side was tapping on her window now.

“Kylie,” Suriani gasped, reaching over to grip onto her hand.

“Mama…”

Suriani’s heart was thudding in her ears as the man on Kylie’s side tried the handle. He paused to glare at them through the glass with those terrifying golden eyes.

“Leave us alone!” Kylie screamed.

He tried the handle again. This time he wrenched at it. They both screamed. The door was buckling!

“Mama!”

Suriani wrapped her arms around her daughter and pulled her close, trying to protect her, as though she could do ~anything~. They screamed again as the man on the other side wrenched at Suriani’s door.

Releasing her daughter, Suriani grabbed at the handle futilely. She prayed under her breath. Finally, with a screech and a ~bang!~ Kylie’s door wrenched free. It swung open so hard that it came off one of its hinges. Then the man was grabbing for her daughter.

“No!” Unclipping her seatbelt, Suriani lurched across the seat, across her screaming daughter, bashing at his hands and scrabbling at his arms.

She turned at a second ~bang~! Now there were hands and arms around her too as the second man tried to pull her from the car. Gritting her teeth, Suriani clutched onto her daughter. Her daughter clutched back as the two men tried to rip them apart.

“No, no, no! Don’t take her! Take me! Take me!” Suriani cried.

The man grabbing her was babbling something in his language in a low, gruff voice.

Kylie screamed as she was yanked from Suriani’s grasp.

“No!”

Then she, herself, was dragged bodily out of the car, stumbling beside the huge, wild-looking man.

She couldn’t stop staring up at his eyes.

“Who are you?” she said.

He didn’t answer.

He probably didn’t understand her.

“Please don’t hurt me. Don’t hurt my daughter.”