Chapter III: The Ritual of Deliverance

Days after the incident, the father and Haridi’s digging efforts failed to locate Mustafa, who had vanished without a trace or a voice. The situation had been resolved.

The wise guy approached the father and asked, “How are you, Saleh?”

Without waiting for an answer, he added with a reproachful look: “The sounds of your digging tonight are audible, Saleh.” Your neighbors are debating your attempts to go to the cemetery…

The father cut him off, saying, “We’re in search of Mustafa with the goal to find him alive.”

The wise man: I told them that we couldn’t stop you from attempting to save your kid, but after over a week, are you sure he can’t survive?!

Unfortunately – may God have mercy on him – there is no hope.

-Well, then, stop digging because we don’t want to cause controversy in the village; we’ll deal with the burial later.

He said, “How is your daughter?”

-She is constantly crying as she grieves for her sibling.

-Is her behavior any different now?

-Yes, she appears to be more daring. This morning, she yelled at me. She stated that you are to blame for what happened to Mustafa.

-I’ll see you later tonight. I need to look into that. I believe she has been cursed.

The wise man sat in front of Fatima in the evening, exposing her face. She was a brunette with some red color on her cheeks, the blood of fear flowing in her face, or perhaps it was the blood of anger, her beautiful eyes, her plump lips, and her delicate and soft features. She was a young girl in front of an elderly man in his seventies with the full authority to decide what he wanted about her.

His face took on a peculiar expression as he seized her eyes with his fingers, opened them, and started to peer into them as if he were searching for something. He let her go, went back, and immediately made a decision. She was struck by the ancients’ curse.

Chaos erupted in the space; her mother hugged her, her father was speechless, and Zainab had no idea what was happening. But she had thoughts about a young lady who was supposedly cursed with a terrible fate!

When the men emerged, holding the girl bound by ropes and pointing her in the direction of a blazing oven, she was playing. She chased after them to see what would happen to her. But because she didn’t want her to witness what would happen to her, her mother caught her and took her home.

Mother: “Wise man,” spare me the pain of losing her after Mustafa.

The wise man said, “I’ll try my best.”

Father: We have to save her at all costs.

The wise man approached the father at the door of the home and said, “Hajj Salih, listen to me.” It is one of the most powerful curses and is reckless. A malevolent spirit who is familiar with all the cemetery’s secrets resided there. We won’t permit her to reveal them with her tongue. Either I try with your daughter or she shall burn to death.

-This will not happen; it will work, I am sure it will work, and you’ll be successful in treating her since, after all, you’ve done it before.

He hesitated before responding, “Yes,” but the rituals will be hard on her. She might not be able to handle it, I fear. We’ll have to give it a shot.

-When do we begin, then?

-Bring her over to my house outside the village tomorrow. The ceremony must be conducted in silence. She would be murdered before dawn if the populace learned about her curse.

The following day at midday, Fatima is alone outside the village in a room in one of the man’s homes. She tried to talk her father out of doing the ceremony, but he resisted because the wise man believed she had a curse on her. Even if she thought she was fine, this did not help the situation. Her denial can be evidence of their existence rather than negation because curses have never acknowledged their existence within a person.

The father was instructed to depart and come back later by the wise man. During the curse’s removal, it is essential that everyone connected to her by blood leave the area to prevent her from returning to her body and settling there. There must be caution because the rites are sacred.

This particular kind of curse favors switching from one blood-related body to another. Because the entire family is in danger, everyone needs to be away from the house when it is being evicted.

Fatima was seated on a mat when he entered the room, and he sat down directly across from her.

Listen to me, Fatima, he murmured in a fatherly voice. You have been cursed with a wicked, malicious spirit. As soon as it has complete power over you, it won’t hesitate to spill the beans it has been holding in with your tongue. This is what the Council of Elders will not allow. In an effort to break the curse, the villagers will burn you to death. Obedience to what I require of you is the key to your salvation.

Fatima: I don’t feel like there’s a problem with me, Sir! Apart from my sadness for Mustafa, I am exactly the same as I usually am.

-You won’t feel it right away, and once you’re certain that it’s there, everyone in the village will realize it, at which point it will be too late for me to offer any assistance. Instead, you must get it out before it can harm you.

-How are you going to do this?

-I’ve dealt with similar curses before; your eyes say; these are her looks, not yours, O Fatima; they belong to a young girl who is seeking something she wants, and they are filled with desire.

-What kind of desire are you referring to?

-You’ll understand, but going forward, you need to know that everything I do is done to help you and for your own good. I’m not the villain you’ll imagine, nor am I the devil you’ll see. The rituals will be difficult for both of you and me, so I am not interested in what will happen. However, the removal of this girl who had been inhabiting you is of utmost importance, for your sake, O Fatima, so that you do not end up being burned alive in the oven. Since there is no death worse than this one, it would be extremely painful.

As soon as she heard his final words, which were delivered with great seriousness since he knew that the villagers would carry out his threat without a second’s hesitation, as they have done in the past with others, she felt a chill run through her body.

She pleaded with the wise man, saying, “I want life; I’m still young, and I don’t want death.” Death is not what I want. not in this dreadful manner, nor in this agony.

-A little pain will be felt right away, although it will be considerably less severe than the pain of an oven.

He stood up from the mat, made his way outside the space, and then returned carrying a whip.

-What age are you?

-She spoke in a shaky voice, “Fourteen years,” while staring at the whip in his palm.

-How old are you?

She shouted at the top of her lungs after he raised the whip and threw it at her back.

-As I previously stated, fourteen years.

-How old are you, exactly?

-I swear to God fourteen- years old; kindly end.

Every time he asked the same question for the third or fourth time, she finally gave up and said, “What do you want me to say?”

-I’m interested in learning your age, not Fatima’s.

-Anything you want, I’m 25 years old. Will you please quit now?

-Tell me your name.

-Fatima.

What’s your name? is repeated as she receives additional lashings as the whip slices her delicate back.

-Fatima… God help me, I’m Fatima, I swear. Do you want me to respond to anything?

-what is your name?  Are you pharaonic? 

-Shaking… weeping… Fatima, I swear to you, Fatima, she yelled, raising her voice to the top.

Get out of this body, he whispered with his eyes closed while speaking incomprehensibly in a language she had never heard before.

He rephrased his appeal to leave this body but nothing changed; he was ignored.

After several minutes of nonstop suffering, he left the room and returned with a pot of water and some cotton wool.

-Take off your clothes without any introductions or shame!

She responded in astonishment: What!

-You heard me when I said to take your clothes off.

-I’ll die before I do this. Where is my dad? My dad, please!

-Be at ease; I will treat your injuries.

-I’m unwilling. Where did Dad go? Mama will take care of things, let me go home.

-O Fatima, permit me to do this, he said in a soft, loving voice. I have always said that I am not as evil as you will feel; but, this curse has you under its spell, you are compelled to follow my orders. Otherwise…..

-Despite your best efforts, I will not allow you to see my body.

Without any introductions, his condition changed once more, and the whip started to beat her back again, harder and more brutally. Fatima writhed in agony on the ground and pleaded with him to stop.

-If you don’t, I’ll massacre you once again, just like they slaughtered you in that crypt, he said, pulling a knife from the table.

-Leave me alone, please.

He drew a knife and approached her, placing it on her neck,

-Come on, take off your clothes; I’m going to kill you again, cursed. I’ll follow you everywhere you go, and I’ll kill you anytime I find you. You have no business being here.

She started to pull off her cloak as blood covered her back and skin markings after her trembling body gave up, turned her face against the wall, and continued to do so.

She was moved aside by the wise man, who then submerged the cotton in water and started carefully tending to her wounds.

-You poor Fatima. Mustafa was killed by your father’s avarice. He put you in this situation. Little girl, don’t be afraid. Whatever it takes, I’ll do my best to save you.

Will you tell me what your name is, he continued.

Being silent indicates a lack of response.

-Fear not; I won’t hurt you any longer; all I want to know is your name.

Her mind started to wonder if she should say “Fatima” or perhaps he would start wielding the whip once more. I don’t know, I forget it, she said.

-You poor thing, thousands of years in that crypt must be enough to make you forget your name, but try… try to remember, don’t be afraid of me.

-I’m Hatshepsut, she whispered while squeezing her eyes shut.

-Hatshepsut, what do you want in exchange for leaving this body, he continued as his hands treated her wounds.

She sobs inconsolably, “Sir, I am Fatima, and I do not feel that I have anything else inside of me,” in a crying voice.

-Well, Fatima, tell me what you want, he said in a soft voice and a more loving tone.

-I want to return home.

He threw the cotton out of his hands and started gliding his fingertips over her back. There was an odd thing going on. It was something she could feel.

-Do not tell anyone what is happening between us here; the villagers won’t believe you, nor even your family, because curses usually tell lies and stir up strife among people. I am the wise; they won’t dispute me and believe a wicked curse, he added.

She asked: Why did you say this? while she sputtered and gasped for air. His fingertips on her back did not feel nice.

-The evil spirit that resided inside of you appeared to be a human curse that could only be released through specialized rituals. I was aware from the start, but I chose to use the whip nevertheless in the hopes that it would work.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t work,” he continued. The absence of rituals would leave us with nothing but the oven in front of us. If you tell the villagers that I can’t get it out, they will burn you to death.

She asked: What are the rituals? burning with misery as she sobbed about what would occur.

-You will understand everything. You were possessed by a perverse spirit, a lustful girl who couldn’t get enough of sex, who was killed in the crypt as punishment for thousands of years ago, and who is looking for anything in exchange for her release.

-What does she want? she said as she sighed and closed her eyes.

-To sate her appetites and desires.

-What does this mean?

-Don’t argue and remove the remaining items of clothing, otherwise…

She comprehended. She was young, but his intentions were as obvious as the sun as she knelt at his feet, kissed them, and begged him to leave her alone since she was looking for her father and didn’t know where he had gone.

He started stripping her of her clothes while still holding her firmly. She cried out to her father incessantly, pleading for assistance, but he never responded as she resisted and endured beatings more and more.

She finally gave up on her fate after being tortured for several minutes, and he hugged her as a hyena catches its prey, a pig gnawing on her body while emitting an offensive odor similar to that of a corpse, and other animals. In the name of the curse and the Council of Elders, he humiliated her with what he did to her; He assaulted her viciously and sexually.

The father came back shortly before dusk. The wise man was unable to break the curse today since it is a human curse that was discovered as a result of the killing of a human, and these curses take longer to break.

She was in so much pain that she could not stand. He held her close to him as looked at her and saw that she had been tortured, showing the scars from the whippings and the blood on her mantle. My daughter, don’t be concerned; the wise man has beaten the curse. The whip is a must for the curse to depart your body. He is familiar with ancient secrets, and sooner or later he will unavoidably be successful in removing it from you.

Fatima remains motionless, says nothing, and keeps her eyes firmly fixed on the ground. She appears defeated and frail. Who will believe her given that she was too afraid to tell him or anybody else what had happened? Over and beyond the belief in a girl possessed by an evil spirit, speaking on her tongue., the wise elderly man is more highly regarded.

One session will not be enough to remove this careless curse. Fatima must be continually brought to him in order to sate the ravenous hunger of this soul. The oven escape ritual brings an end to the healing procedure.

-Bring her back here two days from now, the wise man instructed.

While her mother cared for her wounds at home, Fatima appeared restless, weak-willed, and helpless. In addition, something seemed off about the expressions in her eyes.

-My daughter, tell me what happened. Is there something wrong? she questioned.

But ever since she returned, Fatima has been mute, refusing to talk, and it appears that she is also unwilling to listen, acting as if she had never heard her mother.

In the hopes that he would be successful in getting her to chat or possibly to fall asleep a little, she left the room, leaving her with Zainab.

-Saleh, Fatima remains silent in the next room, acting as though she can’t hear me.

-This is a curse. We ought to closely monitor all of her actions, the wise man advised. He anticipated her undergoing changes. She might seem uncharacteristically aggressive and nervous. This represents a curse. It resists.

-Will she get a whipping once more?

-He remarked that the toughest day had passed and that the following one wouldn’t be as difficult.

Zainab was in the room with her, sobbing for her as she sat next to her on the bed. “Thank God, it’s over, my sister,” she said.

For the first time since her return, Fatima spoke, her voice shattered with the pain of what had occurred to her. She said, “It is not over, Zainab; this matter has not and will not end.”

-What makes you say that?

-He requested my presence after two days; this pig will do it once more!

-The wise man? Did we just refer to him as a pig?

-Yes, Zainab, a pig, he raped me, she said in a tone of anger as her cheeks began to flush.

Zainab started speaking. Her sister’s words were lost on her. She leaped off the bed, spun around, sprinted for the door, shut it, and then went back to her side. What did you say, O Fatima? she questioned in a quiet voice.

-He violated me after flogging me all day, torturing me, and raping me, she said repeatedly.

She burst into tears, sobbed loudly, and repeatedly: He has humiliated me, Zainab… He had raped me.

-Stop, Fatima, please stay quiet, my father will hear you, Zainab said, putting her palm over her mouth.

She detailed everything that had happened when she had calmed down a little.

From the moment she entered, the tender fatherly manner in which he began his speech, “I am neither the evil you will imagine nor the devil you will see, he remarked, hinting at his goals from the minute she arrived. However, she did not comprehend it from the start”.

The more she spoke, the more at ease she appeared to be. But as she continued, the wailing unexpectedly and unnoticeably resumed in quiet, and in that instant, somewhere between a moment of serenity and a collapse, she had finished telling everything.

Fatima: He made a knife-wielding threat to slay me.

She suffocated-like felt her neck with her hand. He placed it on my neck, she remarked. After I told him I was Hatshepsut and was 25 years old, he threatened to cut off my neck if I didn’t satisfy his desire.

Zainab exclaimed with shock, “Who is this?!”

Fatima: I’ve heard that in the nearby city of Luxor’s tomb of the kings, archaeologists a few years ago found the mummy of a powerful queen. One of the most powerful pharaohs ever, Hatshepsut that was also a stunning woman.

After a little period of silence, she said, “After the suffering he inflicted on me, I thought that salvation would only be by confessing what he wanted.” The queen was the first person I thought of when he asked me if I was a pharaoh. I proclaimed to him that Hatshepsut was my name.  I thought that acknowledging Hatshepsut’s spirit within me would put an end to the suffering.

She started crying once more: but nothing changed. The elderly man argued that Hatshepsut was internally ravenous with sex and that she desired sex in exchange for her exit and then he raped me.

Zainab: What should we do at this point?

-I have no idea; if my father finds out what happened, he would kill me and bury the shame that he felt caused by me.

She said, with the innocent assurance of a young child: “I’ll go with you the next time; he won’t dare come near you in my presence.”

-No, Zainab, I won’t let this disgusting person see you. Returning to him is inevitable, but maybe God will somehow deliver me from his grasp, she said as she moved closer and held her.

Even though she became more obedient and resigned to her situation over the course of the ensuing weeks as the father led her to the wise man, he insisted on occasionally flogging and beating her. He claimed that it was a must-have ritual that gave him pleasure and satisfied his lust.

He continued to beat her despite her pleadings for him to stop until she started to groan and endure the torture in silence. Then, out of nowhere, he changed into a kind, considerate, caring, and affectionate person! The tone of the understanding father is back, as is that wise man.

-Do not be upset with me; I suffer as you do; I am forced to do this, to save you from death. O Fatima, I do what I do only because she wants it; she wants sexuality and intercourse, and what I do is to appease her. At some point, she will be satisfied, and as soon as she is, she will leave you without coming back.

He then embraces her in a delicate lover’s hug, tending to her wound for a short while before bringing her close to him and grabbing her breasts to start the ritual. She then discreetly expresses contempt for him, which triggers the ritual to start again as retribution for what she did.

She now understands that in order to please him, she must make him want her and yearn for her vagina. This stinking old man is lacking something. He purchases love in exchange for relief from suffering and salvation. He manipulates her as though she were a puppet, beating her sometimes and tending to her wounds at other times. He is cruel, mean, and vindictive.

Except that this elderly man, like a volcano, has no control over when and why his lava will erupt in your face, the tormenting episodes did not end despite her expert ability to amuse and delight him.

And if he didn’t ask for her for two or three days, she was filled with dread and fear, doubting herself:

What made him not ask for me? What just happened? Did I mess up somehow? He may have had enough of me and bemoans his inability to break the curse, and I might as well be consigned to the oven..

She was eager to see him. However, at this point, a person loses the ability to recognize his true emotions, including whether he has grown attached to his executioner, wants to go back to him, wants to appease him because he is the kind and compassionate person who heals his wounds and keeps an eye on his life, or whether he despises him and fears growing apart from him because he believes that there is no way out except for him.

With the exception of Zainab, whom she shared the events’ daily progression with and who was aware of more specifics, she kept these feelings and all that occurred to her inside her chest. She was in a great deal of anguish.

Fatima gradually grew used to it and it eventually became usual for her. This routine must come to a stop, but in the meanwhile, it must be kept secret in the hopes that God may provide a way out for Fatima.

The elderly man is not in a rush, yet she has realized how dependent she is on him, to the point where her main objective in life is to please him.

Father and mother don’t inquire as to why the curse is taking so long to end. Fatima’s tardiness whenever she visits him, as well as the burns and whipping scars on her body, are all due to the curse, which has undoubtedly taken possession of the girl as they watch her change day by day for the worse.

They no longer recognize Fatima they once knew; now, she is a neurotic wreck who frequently damages things and goes into fits of hysteria when something disturbs her. The wise guy thought that the curse must be what causes this. She was possessed by an evil entity that would not leave her and invaded her without her consent.

They didn’t even consider whether Fatima was altering as a result of the brutal rituals of treatment. Bravo! Or if the old man was doing something to the girl that drives her insane, the curse has taken over their thinking and they are unable to see anything else. In this case, everything the girl says and does is associated with the curse, which may have long since settled in the minds of everyone in the village except for Fatima. No one knows!

In thanksgiving for God’s favor on the wise man, who works assiduously to save her, they worship throughout the night. He is a noble guy, a chivalrous knight from the ancient ages of the Pharaohs, who will not let her burn so easily despite the fact that the remedy is simple—the oven. He is here working really hard—for free—without expecting anything in return, a blessing from God’s blessings upon them.

Fatima told her sister in-depth information about everything that had occurred to her. Every time Fatima came from visiting the wise man, she told her everything, as there is no one she could reveal to, except her.

A ten-year-old girl experiences the story of Fatima and Hatshepsut, that ancient woman, day by day, in all its details.

After two months of routine, almost daily sessions, the wise man gave good news to the family, the soul came out of her, she succeeded in saving the girl, but the danger still exists. She may return to her at any moment. The girl is near me all the time.

-How is this possible?

-The issue has an easy fix. Make her my wife. Gold and money are abundantly available to you. Your entitlement to receive her dowry is unaffected by the fact that I married her in order to keep you and her safe and your secrets’ privacy.

The last time they met for therapy, she asked him, “Why do you want to marry me? you said it was over, so leave me alone!

-Fatima, what’s wrong with you? What will occur to you after I am gone? Who will you marry? You’ve lost your virginity. You’ll live with the shame of it. In case they suspect you, they might kill you. I had to wed you now. You will be here with me until my passing. Your lifespan will surpass mine. then you can wed anyone you want.

What a sage, a good man, very generous! He treated her by raping her for two months out of his will.

Here, he is more biased against himself; he would marry her and pay the father a lot of money to accept him. He does this to undo the harm done by the medical procedures that spared her life and gave her the chance to get married to someone else after his death without causing a scandal.

Fatima didn’t perceive anything but hatred and cunning in this wisdom, so perhaps it really is this way. If so, how did he find someone to accept him in the first place? except for a rose-like fourteen-year-old girl?

In this country, males maintain their vigor and live incredibly long lives. It is not shocking that the elderly man lives to be at least 100 years old. In the prospect of his death, which might not happen soon, she may have lost the blossom of her youth and the freshness of her existence.

She confessed all that had happened to her mother and pleaded with her to believe her, saying, “O mother, this old man hurt me in that way.”

-Oh no, my daughter, has the curse returned to occupy you once more?

-With great astonishment: I swear to you, Mother, this is what happened!!

-Nobody will believe you, and if someone does, your father will execute you right there and then. This scandal never encounters life. You have no other option except to marry him. My daughter, it is over.

-But he claimed I was recovered! What makes me want to marry him?

-More than your father had anticipated was paid as dowry for you. From this choice, he won’t back down.

-He killed Mustafa out of such avarice, and now he’s killing me!

One individual pulled her arm and planned an escape with her because she had already believed her in advance, Zainab.

Fatimah grew more powerful and psychotic every day. As soon as she was free of the whip, she calmed down and began to speak to Zainab about his mannerisms and how he treated her, including his use of whips to beat her and his attempt to kill her with a knife. She also described how he would suddenly become angry and whip her before treating her wounds, and how he would sometimes treat her while they were together like a raging bull with no mercy or compassion in his heart.

Fatima, though, is no longer fully conscious. Only those who are familiar with her well can tell that she has turned insane.

Her condition changes abruptly! Nothing but the name of one person, the wise, can restore her serenity as she transforms from a quiet girl to a manic wrecking everything in her path.

She remains still in the room’s corner as soon as she says his name.

No one would believe you, as the wise man said, and even if my father did believe you, he would kill you right now and bury this shame forever, she urged her: Do not accept that this vile person exploits you more. Only men and their desires are respected in this culture. It won’t punish itself, and its people’s consciences won’t chastise them for what happened to Mustafa and you. Instead, it will murder you before the issue is brought to the attention of the entire population. There is no other option than to flee from this situation.

Fatima gathered her courage on the wedding night and ran with all her might.

In the morning, inevitably – the oven – her fate is undoubtedly tied to it with ropes, Zainab fled to see what would happen to her. Her grieving mother was unable to hurry up with her.

The elderly man cast a pitying and reproachful look Fatima’s way, his tongue uttering, “Why did you do this?” You rewarded me for trying to assist you in this way!

At the top of her lungs, Zainab yelled, “Stop!” This old man is a liar and deceiver.

Just as she was about to say something, a man with a thick mustache slapped her face, slashing her forehead. She was unaware of his identity!

-You scumbag, stop talking. Have you the gall to charge the wise man of telling lies and deceiving people? You’re such an arrogant jerk.

The wise man approached her, examined something in her eyes with suspicion and anxiety, turned back in terror, and said: Damn, poor you, don’t worry little girl, I’ll make sure you’re okay.

Directing his orders to the men: Hold her tight, let her see what will happen to this evil spirit so she may learn.

When the father shut the oven door, Fatima was screaming inside, pleading with him to open it, and then, everyone assumed, she stopped speaking forever. Suddenly, a tremendous, final wail resounded, and its echo could be heard in the tombs of the long-dead Badarians.

Then Zainab suddenly collapsed…