The Night befell, and the moon rose high in the starlit sky of the boundless Saharan Desert. Torches were lit near the tents, and a campfire was made in the middle. Hachim was resting in his tent. His men grilled meat, and ate to their fill. One of them came to us with food, and gave us plain bread loaf and water to fill our empty stomachs. We took food from him, and distributed it evenly among ourselves. A young boy of eleven was sitting next to me, and seeing him still hungry after finishing his bread, I gave him half of mine as well.

“Where are they taking us?” One of the women questioned after seeing Hachim talk to us before, but dared not ask earlier when his men were around.

“It’s across the border.” I answered, and didn’t reveal further. I  took a bite of bread and busied myself with eating. The women and the man might have suspected something, and I couldn’t risk anything before I was sure of it myself.

“There’s a tale in One Thousand and One Nights about The Travelers Of the Desert.” The boy tore the silence, easing the tension among the group. His name was Kasim.

“It’s said that whenever there’s a group of travelers in the desert, there’s a third entity with them that leads them astray.”  He added, seeing our surprised expressions.

“Are you trying to scare us!” A woman in her fifties scolded him.

“I’m only saying what I have heard.” Kasim defended himself.

“What happened in the story?” I asked Kasim, aware of the fact that the boy was scared and only wanted to pass time through conversation. He was an orphan who lived off the streets through stealing, and was caught by one of Hachim’s men when he tried to steal from them.

“The travelers lost their way in the desert, and realized that there must be a djinn among them who made them go in circles. There were eleven of them and couldn’t find the twelfth one, or they were originally ten, and he’s the eleventh one in disguise. Since, they couldn’t tell it apart, an old merchant suggested to cut one of them to bleed. The unseen wouldn’t shed blood. So, they first cut the youngest one of the group and his blood was red. Then, they did the same to the others one by one, but all of them bled. The question still remained who this third one was.”

Kasim paused to look at us, and saw us completely immersed in his story.

 He continued, “They cut each other again till the youngest one of them bled to death. However, instead of being horrified, they all turned against each other and soon started killing one another till no one was left.”

“Who was the third one?” The woman asked him.

“It’s the old merchant.”  Kasim answered, being  proud of his story. “The merchant  made the humans turn against each other by using their fear. He then, found another group of the travelers in the desert, and joined them.”

“If he’s the jinn, how did he bleed?” The girl asked finding flaw in Kasim’ s story.

 “B-Because, he was in his human form.”

“That’s nonsense!” The two started bickering with each other.

Dylan who had been listening to the story spoke, “There’s no such account in One Thousand and One Nights.”

“But it’s true! I have heard it on the streets.” The boy flushed in embarrassment. I comforted the child and told him that it was a good story nonetheless.

“Sister, will you protect me if something happens to me tomorrow?” He suddenly asked me, and I didn’t know how to answer him. I could barely protect myself, let alone another person. I didn’t know if anyone of us could escape from the desert alive or not, but seeing him look at me in hope, I told him that I’d be with him and promised to get us out alive from the desert.

It’s still before the blue hour of the morning when Hachim asked his men to wake everyone up and put out the campfire. His men tied our hands, and pushed us to walk in a straight line as they led us to the heart of the desert. As I looked up at the night sky of the desert, I saw constellation of stars forming an arch all across the horizon, bridging heaven and earth, and I questioned the existence of man in this endless ocean of cosmos.

Did we even have a choice, or did the first man open his eyes and found himself to be here?

Kasim who was walking in front of me suddenly fell due to exhaustion. The guard beside us barked at us in rage, and I immediately helped Kasim up before he could be whipped.

“Are you okay?” Kasim nodded and continued walking.

 Dylan who was walking behind me said, “You shouldn’t trust this boy easily.”

“Why?” I scoffed at his hypocrisy and asked,” Are you worried for me?”

“Are you not worried about yourself?” He questioned back.

“Worried?” I retorted. I looked at him over my shoulder and said, “The one who should be worried here is you. In case you haven’t noticed, the dawn will appear soon, and I’ll be able to return.”

 Both in the woods, and then in the forest house, I was able to return  when the sun appeared. If this speculation was true, then I would go back this time as well.

We kept walking for a while till Hachim raised his hand and asked his men to stop.

The men shoved us all to the front, and pulled out their swords to guard against something. Hachim took out a jade whistle from his robe, and blew it. Nothing happened for a minute, until we heard a rustling sound in the sand.

“There’s something under the sand.” The girl whispered.

Trails and patterns began to appear on the sand as if the desert was coming to life. Hachim blew the whistle again, and shape of the sand dunes started changing. There’s something giant and huge moving underneath those dunes that caused us to panic.

“What are you calling!?” The woman shouted, and I pulled back Kasim and the girl in fear.

 A wicked smile appeared on Hachim’s face as a giant serpent-worm burst out of the sand dune, sending a storm of dust across the desert towards us. It’s hundred meter tall with the head of a serpent; four eyed and a mouth full of jagged teeth, but had a segmented body of a Mongolian death-worm and a dragon’s tail.

 We all ran, as it dived back into the sand and crawled under the dunes in our direction. It reared its head again from the sand, and grabbed the woman between its mouth. She screamed as it lifted her up in the air, and bit her into two pieces. The single rope that tied us together had got us all pulled up in the process. Dylan immediately grabbed my arm and  I held onto Kasim, as he cut off the rope with a dagger letting us fall on the sand. While leaving the campsite, he stole the dagger from a guard. When Hachim was calling out the sand-devil, it got him enough time to cut himself free and save us.

 Hachim stood in the midst of chaos seeing the serpentine-monster eat people around him.

“All hail to the King of the Desert! I offer Thee, these human sacrifices!” Hachim laughed maniacally as the giant-worm ate one of his man as well. The girl with us tripped and fell behind and struggled get up as the serpent’s tail crept up behind her.

 I stopped to get back to her and grabbed her hands, but that thing had already coiled its tail around her waist and dragged her away before I could even pull her back.

Dylan ran to pull me back and told me to stop as I struggled to go after her.

“NO!”

 I cried as I saw her getting torn to pieces right before my eyes, but couldn’t do anything.

 Hachim pulled out the dagger and cut open his palm to stain the dagger with his blood. The red stone shifted and rotated as blood drops dripped on it before unlocking the dagger into a full sword.

“I need to stop him before he uses the dagger to merge with the serpent.” Dylan told me as he eyed the dagger.

Dylan charged at Hachim to snatch the sword from his hand, but the serpent slammed its tail and sent them flying across the desert. The sword had fallen out of Hachim’s hand, and changed back into its original form. The sand-serpent had become restless, and turned his head towards Dylan and Hachim to attack them. I looked for an opening, and I left Kasim behind running straight for the dagger before the serpent could get to Dylan.

Dylan had rolled out of its way when the serpent attacked again, and picked Hachim in its mouth as his screams echoed through the desert. The man had met his demise for his greed.

Not wasting a second, I picked up the dagger and slit my palm. The blood dripped on the stone and turned the dagger into sword again.

“Catch the sword!” I called out Dylan, and tossed the sword at him.

He caught the sword in his hand, and waited for the serpentine-worm to attack him again. It moved its head again and lunged forward at Dylan who thrust the sword forward piercing the blade through its mouth-palate and straight out of its head. It screeched shaking its head, but Dylan pulled out the blade, not wasting the opportunity to get on top of its head and pushed the sword down into the crown of its head.

 The thing screamed, and tossed its head to shake off Dylan and threw him across the desert. Finally, it could hold no more, and dropped dead on the sand. Kasim and I ran to check on Dylan who sat up coughing out the dust.

“Hachim wanted to kill it and consume its blood to become an immortal.”

“Immortality is a myth. No one can achieve it.” I told him. I looked towards the horizon, as the darkness began to lighten indicating that the dawn would approach soon.

 Dylan stood up dusting himself, and asked me to come with him, but I didn’t move from my place.

“I will not go with you.” I told him as I stepped back from him.

“Why?” He became confounded. “What is it?”

“You and I both know that you brought me to the desert to get to that thing. It’s either Hachim’s blood or mine to unlock the dagger into a sword to kill that thing.”  

Words failed Dylan as he remained silent, and I laughed at him.

“You and I won’t see each other again after this.”  I turned to Kasim and asked him to leave with me. Dylan became desperate to stop me. He called for me, but I didn’t look back.

The blue hour was about to end soon, and the sun would rise. Kasim and I walked across the desert, but after a while I felt that it might not be the same way we had been brought in the desert. I kept walking till I realized that I had completely lost the sense of direction. Even if I couldn’t navigate through the desert, I could have got back to where we had camped the night before.

It’s then I realized that I was going around in circles. The story of the travelers in the desert was actually true.

 I suddenly stopped with my back to Kasim.

“Why did you stop?” He asked me, and a chill ran down my spine when I realized that our situation was similar to those travelers in his story. A Third entity had brought them to the desert, and made them kill each other. Hachim brought us to get that serpent, but something made me turn against Dylan too.

There’s the third one, and it was Kasim. He wasn’t a human being.

‘Sister, will you protect me if something happens to me tomorrow?’ I recalled his words.

“Why did you stop?” His voice changed when he asked me again.

“It wasn’t the merchant”, I said. “ It’s you who made those travelers kill each other.” I spoke without looking back at him. If he’s a shape shifter, he could’ve changed into his real form. These things appearing in their true form before humans only meant their death.

“The young traveler with them was you”, I said to him. The lad who had died first wasn’t human, but Kasim.

“You have finally figured it out” He said. “However, it wasn’t I who killed them. It’s the greed of the merchant who wanted to have their riches. I merely accompanied their caravan and participated in his vicious game.”

Then he said, “ Didn’t you also abandon Dylan for your own selfishness?”

I shook my head, and told myself that I wouldn’t be tricked by him anymore. He had made the merchant kill himself too in the end. He’s resentful towards humans because he himself couldn’t leave the desert.

“I am going to find Dylan!” I started walking away from him. and before could realize, I was running away from him.

“You promised me that you wouldn’t leave me behind!” He shouted, and I dared not to look back.

“I promised to protect you, and I did. Besides, you are tied to this place and cannot leave the desert.” I increased my pace and before I realized, I was running. The light started appearing on the horizon, and I had to find Dylan before the sunrise.

In the distant, I saw his silhouette and called out his name. Dylan stopped and turned to look at me in surprise.

“Why did you return?”  He asked me in disbelief. “It’s almost sunrise.”

“Let’s get out of here!” I tugged at his arm, but he didn’t move.

“The sun is here.” He told me, but I pulled at his arm again to get him moving.

“We still have some time.” I pressed, but he smiled sadly at me.

“There’s no time. Only of us can leave.”

He opened his hand, and there’s the red stone in his palm. “Destroying this stone will get you out of the desert and back to your home. You will not return to this place, nor will have a memory of it.”

“What are you—” I faltered back at his words.

“You shouldn’t have stepped into our world. Hachim was once a human, but being exposed to our world and his greed turned him into evil. You will suffer the same fate as him if you keep coming here.” He explained, and I realized that him hunting down Hachim wasn’t only to kill him and the serpent, but to get the stone for me to return to my world.

It’s said when two people travel, they experience a mysterious third being that always guides them. In the desert, it was no god, no jinn, but Dylan who walked beside me and my shadow.

He’s the Third One.

“Dylan, please…” Guilt settled in my heart, and I was too ashamed to look him in eye. Before I could apologize, Dylan had put the stone down and stabbed it with the dagger causing it release a blast of wind that threw us back.

A vortex of sand appeared in the ground, turning into a giant column of dust  that engulfed us completely. I struggled to reach for Dylan, but the atmospheric pressure was too strong for me to move forward and the dust blinded me.

‘Never come back here!’ Those were his last words before I slipped into complete darkness.

A hand shook me awake, and I turned my head to see a woman standing next to me.

“The station is here.” She told me.

I felt I had experienced the same scene before. I looked around the compartment, and saw young mother with her son and the man folding his newspaper. I looked down in my lap and saw the book that I had been reading before falling asleep on the train, and read those lines again.

‘Those with unfulfilled desire return to a place called Hell.’