Roya was sitting alone on a pub, as usual. She started drinking some glasses of wine cause she knew she was gonna get hammered that night and at least in the start, she wanted to feel fancy. She passed to neat whiskey and then to pale ale. Suddenly she was laughing and talking with some drunk brutes, trying to teach them how to play Tarneeb, a card game from her homeland. They were not bright and the only thing they could do with cards was playing poker or using them to help roll their stinky tobacco.

Suddenly she felt heavy inside, like the darkness within was approaching. She needed to get rid of it, she didn't want her demon to show up. So instead of fighting the feeling, she decided to embrace it and let it out smoothly. She made herself heard amongst the loud men:

"Hey, assholes. Since you like bets and games so much, i have a bet to make! I'll tell you a scary story from my country and my childhood and if you don't find it scary, i'll pay all rounds til morning. If you guys get scared, each one of you will pay me a round til i pass out and you're gonna work as my bodyguard when i need. Whaddya think?"

The men stared a her for a second and then bursted laughing at the same time. The leader of them, a gigantic tanned bald man with an enormous ginger beard, said:

"If you would bet that little sweet butt of yours!" All the men laughed and he continued, grinning: "We'll take that bet! Let us see if you can scare us, hehe!"

Roya laughed too, her demon's rage burning inside her, thinking that this man's head would look amazing hanging on her wall. She brushed those thoughts away and started her story:

"This is the story of The woman who steps." The guys laughed for a bit, but she continued anyway. "A family, consisting of a man, his wife and a daughter, had just moved to a village in Al-Mansura, they arrived from a crowded city and didn't knew the small village's traditions. The man was extremely overprotective and didn't let his wife or daughter out of the house, except in laundry day. The village had a comunity well, where women washed their family's clothes. The woman had 1 hour to do this chore and then go back home, escorted by an old male servant."

Roya asked for another pale ale. The men actually seemed to be enjoying, as they were almost all quiet and listening to her. So she finished her drink quickly and resumed the story: "It was laundry day and the woman went to the community well. She saw it hundreds of meters before she reached it. There was women screaming with each other, gossiping, beating their kids and rubbing their clothes. When she was almost reaching it, an old crooked woman grabbed her Hijab and said 'Never sleep after eating. The woman who steps will step on your belly and you will be stuck in a nightmare forever! Do you hear me?' The old hag started pulling the woman's Hijab with dispair on her eyes, the woman got scared and started screaming. The male servant kicked the old hag and they went back home."

Roya stopped for a bit, she suddenly noticed how all the men were quiet, all their attention on her story. She grabbed the bearded man's cup of beer and drank in one gulp to finish her story:

"The woman reached her home and closed the door behind her, feeling safe. She took 2 minutes to calm down and giggled at that stupid village superstition and felt pitty for that poor old sick lady. She asked a female servant to go do the laundry for her and she would make dinner, even if according to their tradition, the woman of the house should wash their clothes. She made her husband's favourites dishes: Maqlouba, which was a dish with lamb, vegetables and rice. She also made Baba ghanoush, which was an eggplant salad. They had fresh Curd too. Dinner was served and they were feasting. As the male provider and leader of the family, the men always ate more. And as it was his favorite food, he stuffed his face. He felt heavy later and said he was going to nap on the tapestry, with no interruptions. The rest of the family left to their rooms and he stood laying there."

"His eyes were closed. Suddenly he felt a presence, something not human. He tried to open his eyes and move, but he couldn't. With extreme effort, he opened his eyes and saw through the roof. It was like a dream. He could see though his rooftop and a crooked old woman with a ragged hijab was sitting there looking straight at him. He could barely see her, but her red glowing eyes were damned visible. She started slowly crawling through the wall in his direction. He was trying to move and squirm, all in vain. He was paralyzed. She was approaching. Now up close, he noticed how she was tall. An old tall terrible looking woman. Her eyes glowing red and a maliscious smile on her mouth, that looked like a black hole of agony. She suddenly jumped on his belly and chest. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't even gag. She kept jumping and jumping. The only time he could breathe was between her jumps. Then she stopped jumping and just stood there on the top of his belly. Looking at him, helpless lying there, gasping for air. She crouched, still on top of him, and stared in his eyes. He felt like he was going to explode. No air. Red eyes glowing. Suddenly he was able to move and gasped for air! He stood up holding his own neck, trying to breathe and said to himself 'it was just a nightmare, alhamd lilah, thank Allah!' He looked at where he was standing and saw himself there. He couldn't understand. He was lying there, his eyes bulging out and his face purple. He looked at his side and the woman was there. She grabbed him by the belly, squeezed and held him up. She said 'you're mine now' and disappeared with him."

Roya finished her story and looked at the men. Their jaws were dropped. She smirked and said:

"Bartender! Please send me your best wine and put it on the men's tab!"