W O R D C O U N T: 2016

"This boy has lost his mind now." I just kept my mouth shut and secured as Bibijaan continued to talk. I was too shocked and whammy to say a word honestly. Even my aunt had never done this to me. I didn't weep anymore. My tears had literally dried and parched by now.

"I don't even want to think about what could have happened if I hadn't come." Apparently, I was sitting in Bibijaan's room. She and Maliha shared this room.

"Look at that, she is now having a bruise around her neck. How can he do that?" Bibijaan was shaking her head vigorously as if trying to calm and compose herself.

I was trying to act all calm but the moment her hands pressed against my neck while applying the embrocation, all my strong and brawny demeanor flew out of the window and I began to grizzle like a baby.

"Bibijaan it stings a lot. It's paining." I said in between my sobs. Maliha tried to soothe the pain by caressing my shoulder.

"I know habibti. Just a little

more and we will be done." Bibijaan explained to me like she would to a 4 year old.

I squeezed Maliha's hand as the pain and soreness kept on intensifying.

"I don't understand why would he do that. He knows you weren't aware of it." Maliha spoke as if she finally came up with a conclusion.

"What am I not aware of?" I catechise. What is she talking about?

"You don't know about Bashar Uncle. He passed away." My hands immediately covered my mouth as this little piece of information shocked and traumatized me.

"How? When? I mean why didn't anybody tell me? But I had just seen him a couple of weeks back. He was fine." Tears soon pool around my eyes. I looked demented as Maliha facepalmed herself.

"I am not talking about Farhan Uncle. Bashar uncle passed away a few years back. It was a car accident. Humza bhai was 17 back then. He had just learnt driving and he was the one driving that day. He still blames himself for his death." Maliha further explained and to say that I was shocked would be an understatement now.

"He wasn't like this before. He was such a sweet little boy back then. He changed after his mother's second marriage. He wasn't ready for it. He has never accepted Farhan Bhai as his father. For all we know he despises him the most. Nobody talks about his father in front of the boy." I could feel a little bad for him but no way on earth did I deserve the brutal treatment just because I had taken his father's name. I remembered his father's name from the time of wedding, offcourse I didn't pay heed to it when the qazi had mentioned 'late' before his name.

"What about Malika? Why does he support her so much?" I couldn't help but ask this question. It bugged me a lot.

"That question will be answered some other day. You need to take rest now. Sleep here." Bibijaan's love was so pure and unalloyed. You could feel it. Now that I think about it, the pain on my neck had subsequently subsided as well.

"I'll just go back to my room." I proposed as I got up from the bed. Their room was just like all the other room's in the house, enormous and beautiful.

"Maliha go with her. I don't want her to face Humza as yet." Maliha nodded in agreement.

"No.. No I swear, I'll be fine." I assured them. I then gave a small peck on Bibijaan's cheeks

before mumbling a thankyou.

She smiled meekly, I then strode away.

As I entered the foyer, there was absolutely nobody in there. I then ascended up the stairs all the way to the second floor.

The moment I entered the second floor, Voices of someone bellowing and voices of things crashing on the floor, both echoed in the corridors. I was terrified.

I looked around but all other doors were bolted. The voice came from the third floor.

And me being the silly me began to mount the staircase to the third floor as well. I had never been there before. With each passing step the voice only increased and escalated. I looked around. The third floor

Didn't have the same number of rooms as the second floor. There were only a few rooms there, all left ajar.

I followed the voices. It wouldn't take a genius to recognize that the voice belonged to the only male in the house, Humza.

I peeped surreptitiously in through the first door which was a humongous one. No doubt it was his room. My conscious kept on telling me to stop this foolishness and go back to my room but I chose to shrug that part away.

The bedroom was the colossal one in the house and probably the biggest one I had seen in my entire life even though I had just seen half of it, the other half would be visible only after I entered the room. There were glass pieces fallen on the floor. I couldn't see much as I was just standing by the door. Humza wasn't in sight and the voices too had ceased.

So I peeked in even more. The ceiling looked to be made of expensive wood, with a beautiful chandelier hanging at the center with tiny bulbs which were lit up, casting a soft glow and luminescence on the bed.

My eyes widens and fattens in sheer terror at the sight before me. All the belongings of his room were scattered on the floor and his back was visible to me. He was bending over his night stand. I couldn't perceive what he was doing until he raised his head. There was a white powder on his night stand. He eats powder?

It took about a few seconds for my stupid brain to figure it out that those were drugs.

Anger seethed through my veins. He is a drug addict as well? I looked at him with pure disdain. His hair was disheveled, like he had been messing up with it. His eyes were puffy and blood shot red. I wonder if he was crying or whether it was an effect of drugs.

Almost immediately Humza's eyes darkened and he strode towards me with fury and spleen.

Out of reflex I began to take steps back. I didn't want to have another bruise.

He stopped right in front of his door. For a minute I though he was going to welt me, rather he shut the door at my face.

I let out a breath that I didn't even know I was holding back. I then made my way back to the second Floor and then into my room.

I slumped and plummet on the bed as I reached it.

What the hell just happened?

Better not think about it.

My neck still hurts and impairs but it was better. I turned to reach my phone. There was a message from Nabiha. I unlocked my phone to read it.

Uzair is coming back tomorrow. Wish me luck.

My heart literally fell at that. I wasn't ready to face him. What would I tell him if he asked me why didn't I wait for him?

For all I know he wasn't going to take this lightly and timidly, at all.

I fell asleep soon.

I didn't know for how long had I been asleep but I had no plans of waking up as yet.

But I had to.

I saw Him at my door. "I need to talk to you." Humza looked vulnerable to be honest. He looked like a mess.

"I don't want to. Go away. I don't even want to see your face." I shut the door at his face. I was no more going to take shit from him.

As soon as I shut my door, my surroundings began to change. The cream wall of my room was no more there, I was in a beautiful meadow instead.

I dreamt of Uzair. He was standing before me in the meadow. We were holding hands. As a boy he didn't attract girls much. He was very skinny and his cheek bones further added to his skeletal look. By fourteen he was filling out. By the time he was nineteen, he was muscular than any other boy of his age.

He had the kind of face that would stop you in your tracks. He was handsome but he was beautiful from the inside as well. He had the heart of a lion and a soul of an angel. I wouldn't blame Nabiha if she fell in love with him. Anybody would.

He is a few inches taller than me. He's muscular with an almost symmetrical face. His rich chocolate hair had tousled grimness which promised finesse. He had strong arched eyebrows and eyelashes so thick, it could be illegal. He looked at me intently.

"Why didn't you wait for me?" He questioned. "I did but I was married to him forcefully. I can never love him. He is a monster." I whimpered in Uzair's embrace.

"I'll rescue you. We don't have to live apart." He smiled.

A loud gun shot soon after the words left his mouth echoed in my ears and my eyes immediately shot up in horror. My hand was covered in blood, Uzair's blood. His face was pale as his body flumped and collapsed down on the ground.

"No.. No. You can't leave me. Uzair. Please wake up" I cried over my fate and his cadaver.

I looked behind him to see Humza. He held the the silver metallic pistol in his hand. His smirk didn't falter. I was terror stricken.

I don't know if this happens to a lot of people but I was immediately pushed into an another scenario. Uzair's corpse and Humza no more in sight. Instead I sat in the back seat of a car now.

I realized where I was. I was in the same car, my parents were seated at the front. It was raining heavily. We were going back home. It was the night of the accident. Beads of sweat covered my forehead.

It was a nightmare again. I tried to wake up. All my efforts falling in vain.

"Please not again." I whimpered curling into a ball. I could see my parent's laughing. I could see as death was advancing with each passing second. I began to tremble in fear. Almost immediately I felt myself being pressed up against a muscular chest. I remembered the only person who did that to me.

"Uzair." I cried again. Hoping he would just wake me up, like he always did. I didn't want to experience and encounter it again.

"Shhhh! Everything is fine. It's just a dream. Stop crying. I am here." His voice cooed and I felt my body relaxing in his arms.

"Open your eyes." I was forced to follow his voice but I still couldn't open my eyes. My eyelids felt heavy. The reminiscence of my dream slowly fading now.

He kept on cooing nice and soothing words to me until he was sure I was awake and no more trembling. It had been so long since I last had this dream. I was sweating profusely. My hands were cold.

I was thankful to Uzair. I don't know what would have happened if he wasn't there by my side. I knew I loved him and I have loved him for a very long time. I was forced to maintain distance from him. I Had been assuring myself too. I wanted Nabiha to be happy but this time I couldn't stop myself from saying what I actually wanted to say.

"I love you Uzair." A smile captured my lips but I couldn't fathom as to why did his body stiffen and his muscles grew tense.

Also just so you know, Uzair

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