The Lake Girl (full story) by Asmaa Nada

of mine today at the celebration who turns thirty years old. And since you know a lot about the village you know that I cannot refuse. Anyway Youssef told me that if I get pregnant in my womb He will take his child and we will travel and she will stay with my father and he will take care of her.
The strange man As he told your mother before.
Samar What?
The strange man got up then looked at the sky and said It is almost time for sunset and they will return.
He extended his hand to her and said Come with me I will show you something
Samar got up and took his hand as she felt confident in him despite her ignorance of the reason and she moved with him as he headed to the shore of the lake but he took her and hid behind a giant tree and whispered to her sayin
Look at the ships coming and who will get off them.
Samar stood leaning against the tree as she looked at the ships returning from the heart of the lake and he stood behind her. For a few moments the place became dark even though it was not nighttime and a white circular moon appeared in the sky casting its light on the ships. Samar opened her mouth in astonishment then with an involuntary movement she closed her mouth. She could see the horror of what she saw. Skeletons with no flesh were landing from the ships and as soon as the skeletons settled on the shore the flesh began to cover the bones and they returned to their human forms. They were nothing but their fishermen.
The fishermen advanced back to the center

of the village but Youssef approached the governor then stood in front of him and said
Today I will marry Samar and after two days it will become clear whether she was pregnant with a boy or a girl. What if she became pregnant with twins like her mother?
AlHakim If they are two girls that is wonderful. If they are a boy and a girl we will kill the boy and his mother as we did with Donia and her mother.
Youssef No I will not bear a boy burning me again. We will let one of the village girls leave with the boy and keep the girl.
The ruler was silent for a while then said Okay that is fine for you but if you become pregnant with two girls you will kill a girl with her mother at the Well of Eternity.
After they agreed on what they would do they moved back to the heart of the village. Samar turned and looked at the strange man and said
Why? How could he do this to me? What does Joseph mean by not allowing his son to be burned? Does he mean that I am his daughter?
The strange man took off the cloak with which he was hiding his face revealing his distorted face and said Yes you are my twin sister. Yes Joseph is our father and he was the one who slaughtered our mother at the well and set me on fire then he pushed me and my mothers bodies into the well but fortunately she did not die. My mother was able to get out of the well after we were submerged in water. My mother swam and she carried me to the other side of