"What the hell bro? A lot of weird shit has been happening and now, you can control minds with your words?" Aesir was on the verge of freaking out. He paced the room back and forth.
"Aesir, calm down a little," Derek pulled his hand to sit beside him. "I don't know what's going on but we are going to figure it out."
Aesir looked at him, "Are you sure? I heard everyone from school died. And the other day when we just arrived, we watched on the news about terrorist attacks at our school." He grabbed Derek by the shoulders, "Bro you don't understand? There are calling it terrorist attacks. The people that did that are clearly powerful. Powerful enough to twist the news. How do we go against something like that?"
"I don't know. But we will figure it out. If we panic now, we will just end up making mistakes and getting caught."
There was a short second of silence in the room and Aesir raised his head to look at Derek before suddenly laughing. Tiny and Madeline looked at him in surprise. "Has he finally lost it?" There thought. But soon after Derek joined him in the laughter. A look of the puzzle was plastered on the girls' faces.
"Are you guys alright?" Tiny asked. She could not understand what was so funny.
Derek and Aesir suddenly went on their feet and performed a very complicated handshake that even involved leg tapping before a hug.
"You have figured it out haven't you?" Derek asked Aesir
"Yes, I have. This is so exciting. I can barely hold myself back."
Tiny looked at the lunatics and had the fleeting thought to kick them. She was about to ask again when she noticed the smirk on Derek's face. How could she not realize immediately? These guys were bonified OTAKUS in and out. And this entire idea of being chased around by super-powered freaks actually got them excited.
"Do you guys think this is one of those silly comics? We almost lost our lives." She grabbed Aesir by the ear and pulled him to his knees.
"Hey, What did I do?"
"What did you do? We almost died and you are here celebrating." She twisted tighter.
"But...but I was not the only one."
This girl was just too impartial. Aesir cried to Derek and Madeline for help, but they pretended not to see him. Who wanted to get on the bad side of this monster. Aesir screamed like a little girl.
Laughter came from the door. Four of them looked back and saw Kareem carrying a tray."You guys get along so well. Am a bit jealous."
Tiny let go of Aesir's ear and assumed the bearing of a lady immediately. "It's not what you think. i was just checking his ear to see if he washed it properly."
Aesir could not believe what he was hearing. "Check my ear? The hell, Are you, my mother." But he did not voice those thoughts for fear of more bullying.
Kareem laughed again, "Yes you were." My mother said I should give you guys this. It is called Falafel, a delicacy here in Egypt. She had heard about what happened and thought you guys might hate it here and would not like to come back. She hopes a bad impression has not been left on you."
Aesir immediately rushed forward to take the tray of food from the boy. He had totally forgotten about the ache coming from his ears.
"Tell her we are grateful and that we have no intentions of leaving here any time soon. Thank you very much." Tiny patted his head with a smile. "Right everyone?" She turned her head to her companions for acknowledgement but to her embarrassment, they were already stuffing their mouths with the food. She frowned her brows and repeated herself, "right EVERYONE!?" But no one gave attention to her.
Derek was digging into the food like a hungry lion. He had not eaten for days. His stomach kept on urging him to fill it with more food.
Tiny turned to Kareem again and apologized politely for their inappropriate behaviour. She was also hungry, but she had a sense of discipline that was etched in her bones.
"It is not a bother at all. am glad you guys are enjoying it. I still have chores to do. I'll come back later," He waved his hands and walked out the room.
As he left, Derek that had his attention on the food before him raised his head from the tray for a breather. His eyes came in contact with Kareem as he left the room. For a second there, he could have sworn that he just saw Kareem slightly phase-out of Kareem. No, that's not right. It looked more like Kareem was trying to come out of Kareem. "Am I now seeing things cause of hunger?" He thought. He continued with his meal not giving any mind to what he had just seen.
The moment Kareem walked out of the door, Tiny bounced on the tray of Falafel with them. They ate greedily. not letting even the tray leave ith crumps.
After there were done, Derek was voted unanimously as the person to take back the tray to Kareem's mother. He entered the kitchen and gave thanks to Mrs Bahiti for the meal. She was surprised at how empty the tray was. She had expected leftovers, especially since her guests were tourists. It was only natural for foreigners to be picky about food in another land. If only she knew how unselective of 'anything free' these freeloaders was.
"I see you are feeling all better. The night you all came here, I suggested we took you to a hospital, but the short girl with the afro said not to worry. I see she took care of you well."
Derek did not know what to say. It's not like he could tell her that they were running away from super-powered freaks that killed all their friends and wanted them dead.
Tiny was probably concerned about their safety, that was why she insisted on avoiding the hospital. He felt good inside. Both he and Aesir were injured, and Madeline was probably panicking when they got here but Tiny was the glue that kept them alive till now.
"Your sister is a nice girl, you should treat her well. Okay?" She stretched a little to tap his shoulders.
"My sister?" He thought, "She must be talking about Tiny." He nodded his head in a thank you for the advice.
"Kareem darling, come take the tray from our guest." She called to Kareem who was at the sink washing dishes. He responded and came to Derek.
Derek handed over the tray, giving another 'thank you' to Mrs Bahiti before leaving the kitchen.
He had only taken a step out the door before the loud sound of the tray hitting the ground sounded behind him.
He turned sharply in reflex but what he saw, still took him by surprise.
Kareem was on the ground. His body shook at intervals. Mrs Bahiti screamed and ran over.
"Help me take him inside. He is having a seizure." She employed Derek while checking Kareem's vitals.
Tiny was scolding Madeline and Aesir on their manners when the sound of a scream stole her attention. Her eyes widened in worry and she ran outside, in the direction of the scream. Aesir and Madeline looked at each other and followed after her. There got to the kitchen and found Derek carrying Kareem in his hands.
"What happened?" Tiny inquired but the only answer she got was the rush of Mrs Bahiti passing by her in a worry.
Kareem was taken to Mrs Bahiti's room. She opened a box by the side of her bed and brought out medical equipment. The way she handled the equipment proved that either this was not the first time this was happening or that she was a very experienced medical practitioner. The explanation that followed after she was done treating him, proved the former.
This was not the first time this was happening. In fact, it had been going on for years now. The doctor diagnosed Kareem with a brain infection about two years ago. They said he had meningitis. His parents had spent a lot of money on hospitals and quack doctors for a solution, even going broke but it had only gotten worse with time. Kareem's situation had brought great worry to his parents. His mother had to go as far as quitting her job just to take care of him at home and his father had taken too much loan from the bank. At this point, they were only waiting for a miracle.
While everyone else was busy listening to Mrs Bahiti's story, she sat on the bed close to her son. Derek had his eyes on a corner of the room. There sat Kareem weeping his eyes out. Derek was not sure of What he was looking at, but he knew he was not mad. There were two Kareem's in the room. one was passed out on the bed and the other one was in tears at the opposite end of the room.
Derek looked to his left and right, he noticed no one else could see the other Kareem at the corner of the room crying.
"What the hell is happening?"