Khalid headed north, making his way through Massachusetts. He was sitting on the beach, his arms wrapped around his legs, staring out at the rolling waves when he felt Lee’s rebirth. 

He was born far across the world, on the island of Sebesi, in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra. Tears welled in Khalid’s eyes as he felt the birth. He stood, brushing the sand off of him.  

This time, it was going to be different. This time, he would keep an eye on Asim from the start. 

Khalid began the journey to meet him again in this life. 

*****

The journey took some time, but when Khalid reached the island of Sebesi, he was ecstatic to come across Asim on his very first day. The island was small enough that it was easy to find a little baby. And find him, Khalid did. 

Khalid looked into the eyes of Asim’s mother, and found out that Asim’s new name was Lestari. It meant undying beauty. Khalid prayed that this would be the life where not dying was what Asim truly wanted. 

He picked up sweet baby Lestari, and held him, looking into those big brown eyes as Lestari coo’d at him. It was strange, seeing him so young. In his first life, he had known Asim since birth, but he obviously could not remember being babies together. Here he was now, a tiny little thing, mere months hold, chewing on his little fist for comfort. 

“Your child is beautiful.” Khalid said to Indah, Lestari’s mother. Upon his arrival, he had seen her anxiety at this newcomer, and had pushed a thought of ease and calmness into her mind. He wanted her to think of Khalid as a friend. As someone safe, and kind. 

Khalid sat down beside her, rocking Lestari in his lap. He thought about taking him, bringing the young baby with him on his journey to whatever destination he so chose. He could bring his mother along, or force other women along the way to care for him.

Somehow the idea felt wrong. 

Little Lestari was so happy. A sweet little baby, being raised by a mother that would do anything for him. On an island that was exceptionally beautiful, and so protected from many of the horrors of the world. Khalid held this precious baby, and knew that he needed to step aside. He had to let Lestari’s mother raise him. Let this village raise him. Looking around, Khalid saw nothing but love and community. A life full of love and purpose awaited Lestari, if Khalid could only let go for a while. 

He gently kissed Lestari on the head, then handed him back to his mother. 

“You have a truly wonderful child.” Said Khalid. “I know you will give him the life he deserves.”

Khalid wiped his visit from Indah’s mind, and everyone else whose eye he managed to catch. He did not want them to dwell on the presence of this stranger. 

He headed north, towards Sumatra, and began to explore for the next few decades. Every few days, he would check in on Indrah’s mind to see how her baby was progressing. He watched Lestari’s first steps, and felt his mother’s pride. He saw Lestari learn how to fish, and become such an expert at it. Lestari always offered a prayer of thanks to the fish for giving their lives for him. 

Sometimes Khalid had to push Indrah to spy on Lestari, something she would not otherwise have done. When Lestari caught her doing this one time, he questioned her, a giant grin on his face as he wondered why his mother was watching him fish. 

Khalid spoke through Indrah’s mouth, “Because I love you so much.”

When Lestari turned eighteen, Khalid made the journey back to the island. He feigned a boat crash, happily praising and thanking everyone who rescued him. To his delight, Lestari quickly offered for Khalid to live with him, finding him extra blankets and bedding and preparing a space for him on the floor of his modest hut. 

“You are so gracious to welcome me in to your home.” Said Khalid. “How can I ever repay you?”

“No repayment necessary, my friend.” Said Lestari. “I do it out of the kindness of my heart, as any good man would. I know you would do the same.”

After all he had been through over the years, Khalid knew that there were few people he would go out of his way for, fewer still that he would sacrifice for. Of course, Lestari did not need to know that. It was wonderful to see that he was just as kind and giving in this life as he had been in all of the others. Even Cody had been mostly pure of heart, if a little overzealous about his paternal love for his young ward, Colin. 

Khalid’s precious Asim. His perfect soulmate in every life. Still so young now, but incredibly mature and kind for his age. 

For four years, Khalid lived on that island. Four years he just enjoyed existing together with Lestari. He never pushed a relationship. Lestari still felt too young, even when he turned twenty- two years old. When Lestari mentioned how Khalid reminded him on an uncle, Khalid began to wonder if it would ever feel appropriate to be with him in this lifetime. He had held him as a baby. It was strange and beautiful to watch him grow, and he wondered if their relationship might have changed. 

Khalid clearly was not against pushing boundaries, but this one was different. He wondered if the two of them might be able to live eternal, not as lovers, but rather as adopted family members. Something akin to uncle and nephew. He could swear he saw the flash of turquoise on occasion in Lestari’s eyes. What Khalid would not give not to spend eternity alone, even if it meant that their relationship was entirely new. 

Of course, Khalid never had a chance to find out what their new life would have been together. In August of 1883, not long after Lestari had turned twenty-two, the Krakatoa volcano erupted with such force that Khalid and Lestari fell over from the shockwave and the excruciatingly loud eruption as they stood on the beach fishing. Khalid grabbed Lestari to help him up, and saw that his ears were bleeding profusely. Khalid felt blood trickling from his own ears, and found the world strangely muffled. 

“Are you okay?” Khalid shouted. 

It seemed Lestari could just barely hear him. He nodded, wiping blood from his ears. They both turned in the direction of the volcano in time to see a plume of black rising up into the sky at incredible speed. They stared in awe. 

Khalid watched in wonder as the ocean suddenly pulled away from them, the water disappearing. He vaguely heard Lestari scream at him to run, but it would not have mattered anyway. 

The tsunami came rushing in, grabbing them both violently and dragging them underwater. Khalid surfaced just long enough to scream for Lestari, seeing his head bobbing just above the water some ways away, then the wave consumed them again and he was pulled down, deep into the water. 

He grasped onto the trunk of a tree as close to the ground as he could get, and in a moment, he felt that horrible wave of pain wash over him as he knew the tsunami had claimed Lestari’s life. 

Something knocked forcefully into Khalid, rendering him unconscious. 

He woke up some time later. 

The wave had receded.

There was a dark cloud over the entire sky, completely blotting out the sun. Khalid lay there on the ground, staring up at that cloud, feeling the one in his soul come creeping back. 

Khalid stood and walked across the island, seeing death everywhere he went. The wave had been like a blanket from the underworld, covering soul after soul, and dragging them down, down into the darkness. The stench of the island was horrendous, much like the stench of a battlefield. Strange fish had washed up, lying exposed on the ground. Khalid looked at them as best he could under the dark cloud of the volcano. They were so out of place on the land, clearly once so vibrant and beautiful under the water. 

He found a boat that had not yet been destroyed, and made his way past floating pools of pumice to the north. The devastation on Sumatra was almost as bad as the island. Khalid continued along in his somber journey.  

A month after the tsunami, he felt Lestari’s rebirth. He was reborn back in Europe, in Ireland. There was something strange about this birth. It almost felt like there was more than one person, but the image Khalid had was clearly of one little baby. A screaming infant boy, with black hair. 

Khalid began to head to Ireland before he stopped. 

He recalled how strange it had been to watch Lestari grow up. How much their dynamic had changed. He decided he was going to give this latest version of Asim a chance to grow up into the young man he was meant to be, without Khalid’s influence. 

So Khalid traveled through Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and China. He met many interesting individuals, and began to accumulate a small fortune. He figured that at this point in his life, it was important to have assets. He was over 400 years old, and had always just sort of taken what he needed. He began to wonder what it would be like to have wealth, real wealth. The kind that made the world stand up and look at you in awe. He wondered if he might be able to use this wealth to create a better world for him and Asim.

He collected gold in China. Mounds of it, which he put in a will for a future family member, who it would turn out would end up looking a lot like him. Exactly like him, in fact. 

He headed west, and did the same thing in India. And not just gold, but jewels and other treasure. He made sure it was kept safe by individuals who would suffer the consequence if they let anything happen to it. 

He continued along like this, doing the same in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Poland. He even bought land. Huge swaths of it, that would be protected as a family investment, with only him carrying the deed. By the time he reached England, he was worth hundreds of millions. Nearly a billion. 

One day, it might matter. 

He made his way to Ireland on a boat. Specifically, to the island of Inismore, in the Aran Islands in Western Ireland. 

Khalid stepped off the boat with a bag full of deeds and banknotes, the receipts of his fortune. He immediately hired a carriage. It took only looking into the driver’s eyes before he understood that he was on an island where everybody knew everybody. He did not even need to ask before he found the handsome man with the dark eyes and dark curly hair. The man that was tending the chickens on his farm when Khalid arrived. 

The man whose sister was his spitting image, with big brown eyes, long dark curls, and a curious look on her face as Khalid pulled up. 

Twins, Khalid had discovered. The two people he now greeted as a stranger to their land from far away were twins. 

Born the exact same night to the exact same mother, who had long since passed away from an illness no one could pinpoint.

Aidan and Ashlin. 

They were beautiful.

It was strange though. When Khalid looked into Aidan’s eyes, he saw the soul of his dear Asim looking back at him. A sort of sensation, sent throughout his body, to tell him that this was the man he had known for over four-hundred years. 

When he looked into Ashlin’s eyes, he did not get the sensation that she was Asim, but for some reason, he could not read her at all. Nor could he push a thought into her mind. It was strange, unnerving even. 

Aidan was happy to welcome the new stranger to their little farm. He took to Khalid immediately. They spent many blustery days tending to the animals together, following into something of the old routine that Khalid and Asim had shared in their first life. It was absolutely delightful. Khalid had missed the simplicity of farming. Not that it was always easy, but that he always knew what he needed to do, when to do it, and what the next project was going to be. 

On one particularly sunny day, when Aidan had removed his shirt to cool down, Khalid caught himself staring. Aidan’s dark curls danced in the mild breeze. There was a grin on his face as he tilled the ground. He stopped to wipe his brow, and clocked Khalid looking at him. 

“What?” Aidan asked, in that delightful Irish accent of his. “Have I got dirt on my face?”

“Hmm?” Khalid snapped out of his reverie. “No, uh, it’s uh, sorry.”

Khalid glanced toward the house, blushing, which is when he caught sight of Ashlin glaring at him out the window, a cup of tea in her hands. 

Ashlin, apparently, was not so certain about Khalid’s intentions. He wondered again why he did not have the ability to read her mind. He theorized that it was because she was Aidan’s twin. By sharing a womb with him, perhaps she had taken on some aspect of his abilities. Or maybe it was something more. He could never be sure. 

“What brings you to our little island anyway?” Ashlin asked at dinner that evening. “I know you come from far and that, but you never really mentioned why you come all the way here to the middle a nowhere.”

Aidan stopped chewing his dinner to look curiously back and forth between Ashlin and Khalid. 

“Now you ask?” Said Aidan. “After he’s been here these many months? Are you sweet on him, Ash?” 

“Mind your own business.” Snapped Ashlin, looking directly at Khalid. “So what’s it then, Mr.? Are you here for summat charity like the family my brother sailed off to Wales? A sorry lot they were. Better off for my brother’s kindness. Are you here for the same? Did you cross them and think, ah, there’s a mark I’ll do well to pursue?”

Khalid smiled and shook his head. “I have no intention to use your family in any way whatsoever. I feel blessed that you would take me in at all with how different I am to those around here.”

“African.” Stated Ashlin.

“Yes.” Said Khalid. “I’m just wandering the world, really. Looking for somewhere to fit in. And you lot took me in without a glance askew. I love it here on this island. I love being able to help you out. If there’s anything more I can do for you both, please let me know.” 

Khalid leaned over and placed a hand on Ashlin’s. She quickly pulled her hand away. He was unsure if it was out of annoyance, or a shy sense of perceived impropriety. 

Aidan changed the subject to the cow that was showing signs of giving birth soon, and they spent the rest of dinner chatting about the farm.

That night, when Khalid was sitting outside, staring up at the stars rather than sleeping, he heard someone come around the corner of the stone fence. He looked up to see Ashlin, her dress and coat billowing in the breeze. She walked toward him, keeping some distance between them. 

“Good evening, Ashlin.” Said Khalid, standing and brushing his clothes off. 

“I see how you look at my brother.” She immediately hissed. “I’d be blind not to.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” Said Khalid, his heart thrumming at her sudden anger.

“I’ve packed your things. I’ve readied the horse. Tonight, imma take you to wait for the ferry. I want you never to look back. It’s not natural, what you’re doin’. My brother is best off without ya.”

Khalid put his hands up to placate her, but she merely shook her head and turned to hurry away. He followed her, around the stone wall and up the path where, sure enough, the horse was waiting with the cart. Ashlin pulled herself onto the cart, and turned to look at Khalid. She pointed at his belongings, which were sat on the ground, just beside the cart, presumably waiting for him to throw them in. 

“Well?! Let us not be waitin’ all night!” She snapped. “I want you gone and forgotten before my brother knows what’s what.”

“Ashlin, I think you’re confused.” Said Khalid. “This is all some strange misunderstanding.”

She leaned down toward him, “I know you mean to get up to some buggery with my sweet brother. I’ll not have it in my house. Get in the cart, now!”

It all would have been so much easier if he could have just controlled her mind. Khalid looked at the horse, into its big dark eyes. He had experimented with controlling animals before, with reading their minds. It was not the same as it was with humans. Their thoughts came across more as feelings. Hunger, fear, the memory of excitement that came with soaring through the air as a bird. He looked at this horse, and felt confusion, discomfort. The schedule was off. He was not supposed to be out this late. He was meant to be asleep. 

Khalid pushed one singular thought into the horse’s mind. One thought that would change everything. 

Run. 

Run until the point of exhaustion, and keep running.. 

Just run. 

Khalid stepped back, and the horse took off, with Ashlin screaming from the cart.

There was nothing she could do to stop it. Khalid went and quickly put his things back into the house where they had been, before he headed out to find Ashlin. 

A few miles down the road, he saw her. She had been thrown off directly into a stone wall, snapping her neck instantly. He kneeled down beside her, brushing strands of her hair out of her face. 

“I’m sorry it came to this, Ashlin. I truly am.” 

With that, Khalid picked her up and carried her mangled body home. 

Chapter 36 – Madness