Raising the gun in his grasp, Lucas gestured at the shattered window and said, “What in the hell was that thing?”
Still horrified by the sudden appearance of the creature, Tariq managed to whisper, “It comes from the word janna, meaning to hide and conceal in Arabic, but jinn are like angels, supernatural creatures created by Allah. In the Quran, Surah Al Hijr verse 27, ‘And the jinn We created before from scorching fire.’ In Surah Rahman, verse 15, ‘And He created the jinn from a smokeless flame of fire.’”
He paused, staring out through the window, shaking his head in disbelief as he said, “At the time of Prophet Mohammad, a group of jinn were turned into Muslims when they heard the recitation of Holy Quran. The jinn live in a parallel world, where the flow of time is different. The jinn are said to live around 1500 years. Jinn can see us but we normally cannot see them. The only way to keep ourselves safe from the evil beings is to pray five times, to walk on the path which Allah and His messenger has shown us, and to follow the teaching of Quran, Sunnah, and Hadith.”
Shaking his head back and forth, he warily walked over to the window, peering out through the broken shards of glass, straining to see any sign of Ahmed and the jinn pursuing him. Still aware of the gun the American kid was holding, he said, “Holy Prophet said the jinn are also asked to worship Allah. They are ordered by Allah to do good deeds as humans do. They are supposed to obey and worship Allah. In Surah Al-Dhariyat, verse 56 : ‘And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.’”
“So,” Lucas said, “if they are supposed to be angelic beings, how come the raghead fled as if the hounds of hell were after him? It seemed more like a demon to me than an angel.”
The wail of an approaching siren caused the two boys to look at each other with the realization that they both needed to get out of the house before any of the authorities arrived. If anyone discovered them inside the place, they knew there was no way to explain themselves out of the trouble they were going to be in. Concerned as he was about Jenna, Lucas knew there was nothing he could do for her. He realized with sudden dread that she might already be dead. There was a lot of blood on the floor, and her wound was still bleeding profusely. The best he could do for her was to make sure the front door was unlocked so that paramedics had easier access to her. He had assumed by the kid’s reaction to the man’s accusation, that it had been the man who had injured Jenna, and yet the boy had broken into her house, perhaps as an accomplice. And yet, a citizen’s arrest of the Muslim boy seemed pretty lame under the circumstances.
“What were you doing here?” he said, startling Tariq.
“You would not understand,” the boy said, forlornly. “I have failed. The best I can do is die a martyr. I am not dilia as Achmed claimed. I am no coward! Doc Mac made it seem so. She stopped me. My friends died without me because of her. Just shoot me now. Shoot me and send me to meet Allah!”
The sirens grew louder. The ambulance was getting closer.
“I’m not going to shoot you,” Lucas said, flatly. “And that’s warped to lamely believe you’ll go to Allah if I do. You’re whacked, kid. Totally whacked. Get out of here! Dive out that window and get yourself gone! I’ve nothing more to do with you!”
Lucas then lowered the gun and wheeled around to run to Jenna’s front door, hoping as he did the Muslim boy would just vanish into the night as he’d instructed him to do.