"You've helped me so I'll help you," Rana said as she headed for the door. "Maybe you're right. Maybe I didn't really leave the home of the devil the same as I went into it. Maybe the only home I have in this miserable world is the home of the devil. Maybe I'll hand you the letter one day to tell you why I'm leaving. Maybe I'll do it now. Why wait? You're not the man who will bring me roses. I know that much now. You're not the only man in the world -  millions are better than you. Even if you were the only man left on earth I don't want you. A convent is a better place for me; being there is preferable to being with you."

She was still standing in front of him but her face was disappearing from his vision. Nothing remained in his mind of her existence except her voice, and the voice was faltering, and it was ready to disappear as well. There's nothing to lose anymore, he said to himself. If she must know one day, let that day by today - now. He moved quickly. He held the edge of the door firmly and obstructed her way out. Shaking violently he screamed: "Rana! Why did you protect him?"

She had pushed his arm away to leave but the question rang in her mind like a bell. She reduced the pressure on the door and turned to him. "Protected who?"

"Elie," he yelled. "Elie! Why did you stand between him and his death? After all what he did to you, after all the poor children he massacred, their mothers and all the other hapless victims - how could you? How could you protect him with your life?"

She remembered. That's not what happened. "I didn't protect him," she said vaguely. "He pulled me towards him to protect himself."

"In the beginning - yes. But you shielded him afterwards. Why?"

Rana shook her head. "I protected him?"

"Yes!," he screamed. "Yes. You stood in front of the car's window and shielded him thus," he added while spreading his arms.

His description was too real. His arms were wide open and his chest was upright and ready, exactly like her. "How do you know that?"

He shook with anger. "It doesn't matter. He went to hell certain that you loved him to the very end. How could you have left the devil's home the same as you went in? How, how, how?"

Doubts crept into her mind. "Did I protect him," she said more to ask herself about something she doesn't remember than to answer Ali. She shook her head repeatedly. She slowed the movement of her head and stopped. Her memory stopped as well. There were scenes she had decided never to bring out again. It was painful again to view them again but she had to be sure. She was. She doesn't remember ever that she tried to protect Elie with her life. Why would she? He ravaged her soul and came very close to tear her apart. She could tell Ali again she didn't protect him but the scenes lingered and screamed to be viewed once more.

All what happened, she remembers, was that Rola went out to buy something from the grocer. The shop was closed. As she attempted to turn back, she saw Elie's car parked just across the steps leading to Al Hamra. She ran and alerted her. Rola's father had earlier brought a newspaper and showed them the scene of the explosion. He told them that Katia, Rana's former friend, was believed to be responsible. She was as scared as Rola but she cried too. She called Ali in Abu Dhabi to tell him what had happened but he wasn't at home. She called the company but was told he was away in Bahrain for a three-day assignment, and that they'll let know she called the moment he contacts the head office. The telephone calls were over and there was nothing else she could do but she kept the phone in her lap and held it tightly in both hands for comfort.

When Rola told her that Elie was waiting down, anger superseded her fear . She put on her jeans over the pyjama and rushed outside...

"You killed Katia and killed all those innocent people along with her," she screamed at Elie. "Who's next, Emma? Me, if you could?"

He asked her to lower voice. With a low voice, he denied responsibility. He said Katia was recruited by another organisation unrelated to his own, and that Emma had left him like all the others. He did confess, however, that they're searching for him because they know of his relationship with Katia so he can't stay for long.

"Why, then, did you come?"

"To take you away with me," he said. "I want you to come with me."

She didn't believe her ears. He repeated his offer. He then said he still loves her despite all, that he wants her to be his wife, that he'll take her wherever she wants to go and she will be given anything she asks for. "I know the captain of a ship that will be leaving Junieh for Cyprus tomorrow morning," he said. "And I want you to be aboard that ship with me."

She looked at him with disdain and swept him and his offer with the back of her hand. His face stiffened. He reached to open the door but she stepped back quickly and turned to make sure Rola was still near the street corner where she saw her last.

He pulled back and smiled. "I've something for you," he said as he reached for the glove compartment. He took out an organ envelop and wave it. "The photos. They're all here so you may know I don't intend to cheat you."

She hesitated. She looked back at Rola but before she looked at him again he had thrown the envelop at her feet. She picked it up, opened it quickly, glanced at the corners of the photos and pushed them back inside. They were of her dancing without a bra at Katia's flat. Her rage blanketed her caution and she advanced towards him. Standing up on her toes, she looked inside the car as if searching for more photos. "Are they all here?" She said shaking the envelop.

He pulled away from the window. "All," he said. "Nobody saw them but me." Then he looked at the glove compartment pretending to search more and opened his eyes wide as if in astonishment at seeing something he didn't expect. He pulled another envelope. "The negatives, of course," he said, and stretched his hand with it. Rana stretched her hand and snatched the envelope, but before she could retreat he pushed his right hand through the window and caught her right wrist. "You, too, want to abandon me now?" He scream while pulling her towards him. "You are coming with me. Had you not opened your legs for that dog in Abu Dhabi we'd be in France now instead of being hunted like a stray dog. Come!"

Elie opened the car's door with his left hand while still pulling Rana with the other. Rola rushed and pushed the partly opened door with her foot, closing it shut. Rana raised Elie's hand and bit him. He let go with a scream. As Rana retreated away from the car while still looking to take action if he tries to get her again, her back pumped into a rigid body. She didn't look preferring to keep her eyes on Elie but Rola did. Speechless, she just managed to pull Rana's pyjama sleeve to alert her. Rana turned back for a moment and saw him. She couldn't recognise the shape at first and she panicked. Then she vaguely remembered him. He was the old familiar broom vender but there was something odd about him, unlike anything she can remember. He had brooms of various sizes and bristles down his chest and back but smaller brooms were added in front and these covered him all the way down to his knee caps. Elie moved from one angle to another and tried to identify the vendor. He shouted at him to get lost but he was ignored.

Suddenly Rola held unto Rana's arm and whispered something about Mary and Jesus. She turned to her to enquire what was scaring her and she saw fear in her eyes. Rola let a sharp, deafening scream. Rana looked back at the broom vender. He seemed very old but he was unusually agile. She saw him part the brooms and open a gap in between. Advancing in long, firm strides, he headed straight for Elie. She didn't notice what was in his right hand but his path crossed the sun's rays and she knew from the sudden reflection it was a gun. She saw a gun once in Katia's hand but this one was different. It was longer, heavier, scarier and it didn't shake in the hand of its holder as it did in Katia's.

And she thought she must be the target. She saw herself in Katia's flat and saw herself with her on several other occasions. If she can see herself with Katia now, others must have done the same in past, and they've come to her to send her after Katia before she could send others to their death in another booby-trapped car. She raised her hand, made the sign of the cross, closed her eyes as if waiting for nothing else and stood motionless.

But she wasn't the real target. Elie knew this man, however he really is, came for him. He tried to turn the engine on. There wasn't enough time. He tried to open the glove compartment again. There wasn't time either. Desperate, he pushed his head and arms out of the open window and pulled Rana back. He then moved his head sideways to escape the death coming to him. He suddenly realised he can't escape. The death was coming to him and he'll allow nothing to block his path. That was when he screamed: "Mummy," screamed Elie, "mummy, mummy!"

Rana looked at Elie with the corner of her eye and saw fear on his face. It was the fear she imagined on her own face when Katia pointed the gun at her. She saw him cowering in fear and wondered how could the devil look so scared. Then she knew. The devil wasn't scared. He wasn't there. He must have realised at one stage that he won't be staying with Elie for much longer and decided to leave. What he left behind was a child. A child who saw himself suddenly confronting death and he felt fear. All children do that. She felt pity for the child. Without realising what she was doing, she opened her arms wide in front of him and blocked death's way.

Suddenly her head was struck violently. She screamed. The broom vender banged her head against the top of the car's door again and again she screamed in agony then of fear. The gun's silencer was pointed at her temple and it made a hole in her brain even before it was fired. She screamed again and again and moved her head away from the gun but not her body. That was kept firmly glued to the door to protect Elie. The broom vender shook with rage. He dug his hand in her shoulder and pushed her aside, he then lowered his gun, positioned the silencer against Elie's convulsing temple and squeezed - pop.

Rana saw bits of Elie's right temple shoot across the inside of the car and onto the wall and she wailed with horror. As the broom vender's cold eyes met hers, she shook violently, felt weak and collapsed. Her hand's firm grip on the orange envelop was relaxed and the envelope fell nearby. The broom vender lifted the bundles of bromes over his head and dropped them close to the Elie's car. Slowly, he knelt down, picked up the few photos that had scattered around, looked at them briefly and threw them back at Rana. When he raised his hand again with his gun, it was trembling. He walked back to Elie, pushed the silencer in his ear and squeezed. He hesitated for a few seconds, made to turn to her but stopped himself. Slowly, he began to ascend the steps.

Translated by Menamedia