She stared absently at the full, steaming plate before dropping the metal utensils. The loud clatter of metal against China broke the cacophony of gossip and the dark eyes turned to the slumped girl. 

"Are you okay, Leda?"

Snapping out of her daydreams, she turned to her right. 

"Oh... um yeah I just I'm tired from the plane ride here, you know?"

The eyes shifted away from her once again as the voices started up in whispers at first, then turned into a loud array of raucous sounds. 

She focused her ears on the voice of her mother, waiting for the melodic, firm accented voice that she had heard distorted over a phone for several months.

"...her poor madar. No...no... he's a loser." The serpentine voice followed a meek mumble of curiosity.  "Sahar is an absolute disgrace."

She cringed at the remark, fearing that one day her name would slither from lip to lip with the same disgust. The piece of turkey felt lodged in her throat. 

"Pathetic-"

"I hope they-"

"Snake-"

Leda pushed her chair back, the wooden legs clawing against the once smooth floorboards. The eyes looked up at her, criticizing each movement as she moved backwards, slowly. 

"I need to use the bathroom."

With her mother's disappointed eyes firmly on her back, she stumbled out of the dining room. The deep cackles of men from the backyard echoed through the empty house as she trudged up the stairs. In spite of the rays of light which filtered through the thick windows, she strained her eyes in the darkness of the hallway. After heavy steps, the girl stopped at the familiar door and grabbed the cool metal knob before walking inside.  A wave of dust rolled throughout the entirety of the room with the sudden jolt, spraying into her lungs menacingly. The wood creaked under her wary feet and she felt out of place in the cold room. Yet, she still moved towards the bed, sitting down on the firm mattress when the spring beneath croaked out in deadly whispers. The bare walls began to collapse then, as they had four years ago. Thus, like a mouse in a trap she scattered and threw herself out into the hallway once more.

Her feet moved five steps before halting in front of the dark wooden door. Her hand moved unwillingly to the door knob before she pried it away, not wanting to wander into the valley of memories, or rather lack thereof. 

Instead, she stepped towards the familiar spot in the hallway. Grabbing the metal handle above her head, she pulled it downwards, opening the door to the dusty realm above the house. The ladder slithered down, clicking into place within the dents on the floor. She held her breath as she climbed up the unsteady wood, her mother's warnings fanning against her shoulder; warnings of the poisonous creatures which trenched this dangerous land. Painting colorful images of beaches, coffee shops, and forests within her head, she  pushed herself further into the darkness. Her fears dissipated with the light as she walked deeper into the attic. 

A layer of dust covered everything within the small area, from the cardboard boxes to the old decor which held only a smudge as evidence in their exile. Her eyes focused on the scratched white and blue vase: her grandmother's vase. Passed down from generation to generation, the vase suffered the wrath of materialism when her mother incarcerated the object forever for the crime of "kharab boodan" (being broken). She scoffed lightly before nearly tripping on a medium sized cardboard  box. The messy handwriting was unreadable and Leda failed to make out anything more than two letters. Yet curiosity nibbled away at her before pushing her to move eye level with the box. The harsh splinters in the worn wooden floors scratched and injured her knees as she kneeled in front of the package.

Her lean fingers grasped at the duct tape, ripping away hurriedly. A cloud of dust flew up as the folds opened. The brunette felt around in the box, squinting her eyes  at the mystery objects within as the dust felt down in waves and rivers. Her fingers grappled around the cold surface of the metal device. The brown eyebrows rose in confusion as she searched her jumbled brain for the faded memory.

"All the pictures we took were on his phone..."

"Sorry Leda, Kai's phone was lost in the crash."

The dazzled girl pocketed the ancient sliver of the late boy and returned back towards the hole of light through the ruins. 

Devilish roars echoed within the wooden cage.