Vision in Red by Sajjad Rasool - HTML preview

Children of Olive

At 3:00 AM, the phone on her nightstand buzzed.

It wasn't a ring. Amal had set it to silent. It was just a vibration against the wood. Zzzzt. Zzzzt.

In the absolute silence of the room, it sounded like a drill.

Amal’s hand shot out and grabbed it. She squinted at the screen.

Yasmin.

A cold knot tightened in Amal’s stomach. Yasmin never called this late. Yasmin was the one who slept like the dead.

"Hello?" Amal whispered, keeping her voice low so as not to wake Fadi.

"Amal."

The voice was barely audible. It was a whisper, thin and stretched, as if Yasmin were speaking while being strangled.

"Yasmin? What's wrong?"

"They're here."

Amal sat up, the duvet falling away. "Where? In your apartment?"

"Outside. At the window. The fourth floor, Amal. I'm on the fourth floor."

"What do you see?"

"Red. Just... red lights. Two of them. Floating outside the glass."

Amal could hear the terror in her friend's breathing. It was ragged, shallow gasps. Hhh-uh. Hhh-uh.

"Don't look at them," Amal commanded, channeling Huda's voice. "Yasmin, listen to me. Close your eyes."

"I can't. They're... they're calling me."

"They don't have voices, Yasmin."

"Not voices. Thoughts. They're putting thoughts in my head. They're telling me to open the window. To let the air in."

"Do not open the window."

"But it's so hot," Yasmin whimpered. "It's suffocating in here. The air is gone."

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