Now let me tell you a story:
None of the heavenly books specifically mention the fate of Cain after he killed his brother Abel out of hatred leaving for his body in the dust, but there is a legend that talks about a partnership that brought him together after that with Satan himself. As Satan became increasingly jealous of the creation process, he wanted to attribute a similar miracle to himself, and with the help of Cain, he wanted to acquire a new creature from dust and fire to prove his eternal power, thus challenging the Creator. So, Cain brought him some of his brother's blood to mix it with a handful of dust before Satan breathed his breath into it. But what came out of that process was far from a human creation; it was a monster, a mixture of a demonic spirit, fire, and an inherited hatred towards humans to feed on their survival, an entity from hell that almost destroyed Cain had Satan not prevented him from doing so, so he forced Cain to live as an outcast for the rest of his life. Since then, this monster has been stalking the males of mankind, coming to them at night in their nightmares, repeatedly raping them until he kills them. Satan has tried to prevent news of his failed project from spreading, but his creature has gone out of control, declaring his disbelief and disobedience, and continuing to kill, which has become too big to be a secret.
This is what happened to Abdel Fattah.
This was the story told by Abdul Azim, the conscript with his dark skin and rotten teeth, as he lit a cigarette from another he had just finished, sitting in front of his friends on the bed at night in one of the military barracks. He was describing the condition of their colleague Abdul Fattah, who had been plagued by nightmares since he joined them in that isolated spot in the desert. They almost wouldn't have believed him if it weren't for the marks and wounds that appeared on Abdul Fattah's body after the epileptic seizures that used to afflict him at night subsided. As for Mustafa, he looked at him mockingly, then said:
- "prattle".
He untangled his feet, then left the bed that had gathered them, turning his back to them. Abdul Azim shouted:
" What I'm saying is not nonsense, Mustafa. Look carefully at the wounds on Abdel Fattah's body. Where did they come from? Can you explain this? We are all in imminent danger now."
Eid, who was still sitting with them, put his hand on Abdel-Azim's foot to get his attention, then said:
- "Leave Mustafa alone, and tell us what we should do now?"
Abdul Azim replied:
- "The Quran, only a lot of Quran recitation can save us from it."
As for Mustafa, he shook his head mockingly, then took out a bottle of water from a sock that he had hung on the window to make it cooler so he could drink it. He drank from it, then put it back in the sock and hung it up again, then went to bed.
That night, Mustafa could not sleep and was plagued by nightmares. When he woke up and lifted his shirt from his stomach, he was terrified when he saw claw marks on his body. He never knew where they came from.
In the following days his condition worsened so much that they had to send him back to his home. There in the house he stayed in bed and was not in a better condition. He would see that terrifying entity in front of his bed, standing and staring at him in the dark, then pounce on him and continue to torture him, raping him in lust, so Mustafa would have tremors and epileptic fits.
Despite all the attempts of his brother Adel, the doctor, and his doctor friends who interceded to save his brother, Mustafa passed away the following week.
The grieving mother could not get over the catastrophe, even at that hour when she woke up to find Mustafa lying in her arms telling her that he was fine, telling her that she was dreaming and that he was fine, embracing her and patting her on the shoulder, so she turned around to find her husband sitting next to her with regret in his eyes and he said to her: "Mustafa is dead… you are dreaming now" and she woke up from a dream within a dream.
Since that moment, it was a common thing for Adel to be called a failed doctor, which would wake him up until he came back at night to sleep. Who is that fool who couldn't save his brother from death? Your brother was better than you. You are evil, Adel, but your brother Mustafa is unmatched in his kindness and tenderness.. An unfair comparison between the living and the dead, between a dear absent one and another who, no matter how much he defends himself, his sin is enough for him that he is still alive.
Adel's feelings towards his mother turned from pity to anger and resentment, and towards his deceased brother from longing to jealousy. Who wins in a race in which the winner has been announced before it even starts?
His eyes were fixed on a picture of his brother that he had placed on the wall when his wife invited him to take the plate from her hand to put it on the table. Hisham, the vice chairman of the board of directors, was sharing the table with him at his home that day and his family would be attending. The table included a great banquet in which Adel spared no food and put it on it. Of course, the banquet was also not without some clichés such as : "Who would believe that my wife is the one who cooked all these dishes?! " or "I hope you are satisfied, Dr. Hisham." Hisham would reply that he must have tired her out a lot, and that this fatigue was too much for him... and so on.
After the feast ended, Adel and Hisham were alone on the balcony, claiming that they had a cigarette to light.
This event was a guilty one; this interview was what Adel needed to convey his ideas to Hesham, to fold him under his wing and recruit him for what he intended to do. Adel knew that for the rest of the board members, he was a young man with inexperience, no one would listen to him, but if Dr. Hesham, the veteran man with twenty years of experience, supported his theory, then they would certainly submit to his demands.
Adel took a drag from his cigarette, then exhaled a puff of smoke before saying:
" Do you know, Dr. Hesham? I always look at this cigarette and convince myself of some philosophy."
Hesham took a sip from his cup of tea, then said:
- "What, philosopher?"
Adel answered, looking at the smoke coming out of his mouth:
" This cigarette makes it seem like you're sucking it in, and you might spend your whole life in this deception until you realize that it's the one sucking you in, sucking your life little by little without you realizing it, and before you realize it you find cancer knocking on your door, a cancer like the one that's now rampaging through our friend Adam's mind."
The cup almost fell from Hisham's hand:
- "What? What are you saying?"
Adel sat up straight as he looked into Hesham's eyes, gloating that he had won his attention:
- "Brain cancer with no cure, and the countdown has begun."
The latter's eyes widened as he looked at Adel, who nodded at him, and Hisham said:
- "How did you know?"
Adel smiled proudly, then replied:
" I have my sources."
Hisham lowered his head for a moment, then said:
There is no power or strength except with God .
- " Do you pity the scoundrel? "
The other was silent for a moment, looking at a star in the sky, then he said:
Death and its majesty.
Then he turned suddenly and continued, saying:
- "Have you confirmed the news?"
Oma Adel nodded, then Hisham continued:
- "Dr. Adel, Dr. Adam didn't fire you from the company because he doesn't like you, but you know why."
Adel replied, saying:
" Doesn't he make mistakes? Don't we all make mistakes? Don't you?"
He looked at him angrily, then leaned aside to put down the cup of tea, then said:
" What you did wasn't a mistake, it was a disaster; you caused the biggest entity that was against the company to leave, and even made them hostile to us. Excuse me for what I'm going to say, but I'll say it anyway: if I were in his place, I would fire you too."
Adel replied in his feminine tone, the veins in his swollen neck about to burst:
" If, by what you said, you mean the Armed Forces Hospital file, then I did what I thought was right . "
The evidence is that he did not fire me because of this behavior."
Hisham shook his head in mockery and said:
" Yes, of course. He fired you because of a calendar error, you immature idiot. Dr. Adam knew, and was even keen to complete the contract that you see as a losing one. This contract that you caused to be cancelled, even if it seemed a losing one to you, had other dimensions. In return, other services and deals were being passed under the table in our favor. You looked down at your feet and did not see the whole truth. You ruined the whole thing with your stupidity, just to prove that you were right and he was wrong. You put us in a predicament with the army that we had no escape from after the largest entity in this country opposed us, and God alone knows the consequences of this catastrophe."
Adel's mouth was open because of the successive slaps, and when he closed it, he finally said:
- "I didn't know."
Hisham shouted firmly:
" You have no right to know, you should have just done what you know how to do and not improvised; there are things that shouldn't come to light, but you've ruined everything."
Adel stood up as if he was speaking to the void to save it from the discussion.
Hisham continued, saying:
" The rivalry between you and him, which I do not know how you got, has blinded you. You have always thought that he is not worthy of his seat, so you have begun to act in this manner with blatant recklessness. This was his way of taking revenge; when he punishes someone, he does not punish him for his mistake, but rather for some other trivial reason in order to destroy him in front of everyone."
Hisham stood up to announce the end of the conversation:
" One piece of evidence, give me one piece of evidence that the disease is affecting his mental health and I will be the first to rally the board to vote against him . Only then can we talk about this after you bring me the evidence."
Adel was about to say something, but Hisham interrupted him, saying:
" After we bring the evidence, Dr. Adel, we will talk, not before that . "