یہ ہے دنیا... یہاں کتنے ہیں بے وفا۔

Ye hai dunya.. yahan kitne hain bewafa.

••••••

The world came crashing down.

No words were to define what Shahvez could say to Ejaz or even do. Utter silence spread across the room for the next minute.

Noor put her palm on her mouth hearing what he just said with open eyes that were swiftly turning into a deep red. She looked at Sara who held her arm and pressed her own hand on Noor's mouth to prevent any sounds into the room, dragging her away.

"Today evening. The post-mortem will take a few days but the identification needs to happen as soon as possible." Ejaz said to Shahvez getting up to leave.

Shahvez just looked at him, nodding slowly.

"Shahvez sahab..." He bent down and extended a hand to his shoulder, tapping it before leaving out the door.

Madiha came rushing into the drawing room.

"What did he say? Where are they??" She shaked him, her voice breaking apart.

But he was still and silent.

"Shahvez SPEAK!!!!" She knelt down to the edge of the sofa.

"They have found someone dead.. we have to go identify in the evening." It left his mouth.

Madiha paused fidgeting and her face went pale.

"N..No... your lying right? That's not true." She came close and held Shahvez's knee.

"Esa nahi ho sakta. Bolein naa..." She pulled his hand with sore eyes.

Fahad refused to go, he couldn't do that to himself. He stayed locked in his room for the entire morning.

"Open the door.." Iqra asked for the 10th time.

"Please go away. Just for a little while."

"No!! I'm not going anywhere Fahad!" She shouted.

He opened the door and turned around immediately, hiding himself when Iqra turned him back around and hugged him. He broke down as soon as she held the back of his head.

"I can't Iqra.. this is too hard..." He laid his face on her shoulder.

She cupped his face and wiped his drenched face with her thumbs.

*****

Iftikhar, Shahvez and Madiha entered a sector into the murda khana led by Ejaz. The corridor was cold and narrow until opening up to a complete room in the middle of which was kept a stretcher. And on it... laid a body, wrapped in a white cloth head to toe. Ejaz stood on the opposite side of it, holding his arms behind him.

Iftikhar took a breath and turned towards Shahvez for him to proceed but he shook his head and stepped back. Madiha stood looking at the ground, tugging the edge of her clothes continuously avoiding the ocean escaping from within. Her heart was beating so fast that it came out as mild hiccups.

"Bhabi...," Iftikhar asked her to step ahead.

She looked back at her husband, shaking with fear. He looked almost lifeless but yet not a tear was visible through his transparent eyes as he glanced back at her.

"Mujh se nahi-"

"Meri beti hai vo Madiha. Agar jaan di bhi hogi to Ba-wasooqi or fakhr se!" Shahvez pointed to her to lift up the cloth.

She walked towards the stretcher slowly, her hands were severely shivering and burning with sweat. She reached out to the cloth at the top of the head when her lips trembled holding back her nerves.

"Ya Rab.." She whispered under her breath, touching the white cloth but being unable to pull it.

Her eyes finally repelled and drops fell out of each, one on the other as she pulled it off, suddenly taking back her hand and holding it tight into the other.

"Nahi. Nahi mere Allahhh....." both her palms pressed against her mouth as she stepped back into blankness.

•••• •••• ••••

*Previously*

"Look at her. She can't even lift herself up and she dared to threaten us? A joke!!" Rehana exclaimed standing behind Anwar who was eyeing her.

Anwar shook her leg with his foot aggressively and pressed on the deep, unattended cuts that were visible on her skin causing her to wake up.

"Bohat gurur tha tujhe apne baap par. Kahan hai vo? Why didn't he get here yet?" Anwar turned her face towards him.

He reminded her of her family once again that she fell asleep shrugging off of her mind. Low breathing was heard as she tried to slide away from Anwar.

"He did. But too bad he wasn't fast enough!" Rehana laughed.

Zaina swallowed from her parched throat, hearing Rehana; imagining what her baba must be going through.

"Chal! Now you pay for what I had to listen to from him," Anwar pulled on the ropes which sat her up straight.

They opened up to a long pathway with grey, cemented walls which consisted of jailer cells on each side. As they walked through, most of them were empty except some in which there were people who looked like abandoned stray animals, completely unrecognizable.

It hurt her to see mankind in this dreadful form.

She was brought to a stop in front of the thick black steel bars and Anwar began unlocking them. She moved again, telling them to free her. But it was ignored and she was thrown inside within the next second.

"Ejaz lugari..." One of his men informed him.

He tensed his eyebrows, looking up.

"One of the top level detectives. Has never lost a case in his career."

Ismail tracked the report down to hold up Ejaz's picture in between his thumb and index finger up into the sunlight.

"And he's after which kohinoor this time?" He asked, angling his neck at it.

"She's the daughter of his close friend and has gone missing..." He replied briefly.

"He's looking for Anwar."

"Most probably."

"I want him to look for Ismail instead."

"But...."

"The only way I can take him off the way without exposure is if the kohinoor he's looking for... is with me."

***** *****

"Himmat... kabhi kabhi dhoka dey jaati hai. Jab insan ko koi aur rasta nazar nahi aata to vo khud ki peshan goyi kerta hai. Aur jab usme bhi nakaami haasil ho tab vo apne aas paas istaqaamat dhoondta hai... jo milti hai to surkh-roo ker bhi sakti hai, nahi to apne talabgaar ko thukra jaati hai. Aur aakhir mei uss mitti k putley ko uska bananey wala hi yaad rakhta hai..."

I desperately wanted to move but my body didn't support me even though I was now fully untied but caged. I slid until the bars pulling different parts of myself with great strength. There was darkness in every corner except the cell which was in front of mine. I saw someone laying on the farthest corner of it, a hint of a flash beaming onto her neck. Everyone in this place looked bad to a point where even their skin colour wasn't visible. But this person...It was Minahil. It had to be!

"Minhail!!!!!!" I spoke up. My torn voice echoed in the hallways in the midst of the pin drop silence. She seemed to have moved but it was hard to tell.

"Get up!!" I was about to break down again realizing the situation we were in. Then I didn't cry, I kept calling her.

I could now hear her breathing which relieved me but she didn't wake up.

*Hours later*

It was around midnight, I figured. I was still banging the steel bars so she would sense the noise when suddenly she moved, trying to get hold of herself.

"Here!! I'm here Minahil..." I waved and shouted restlessly, still with my paining body.

"Z..Zainaa?" She crawled forward and reached the bars at her end.

"Are you ok? Did they hurt you again?." I couldn't control it anymore as I sobbed, trying to look at her.

"I..... " She broke down crying as well.

"Humne konsa gunah kiya tha? Kyu humei ye saza mili? Kyu humpe reham nahi kiya gaya?" She asked me with a thousand sorrow in her eyes.

"Ese mat kaho... hum abhi bhi khush qismat hain. Look around you, have you seen them?" I tried helping her.

"Kaash tum uss waqt meri baat maan gayi hoti." She complained to me. I could see it.

"I'm sorry..." I knew I was responsible for her condition but I also knew that I tried a lot for her to leave somehow but that was no justification.

She sat quietly now, resting her head on the wall, slightly weeping. I was thankful looking at her that she wasn't excessively hurt besides the deep bruises which he caused to her at the beginning.

I smiled with numb eyes now looking at my own self. My cut arms, blue risen skin, stripped blood stains and dried muscles.

"Alhamdullilah" My lips whispered.

••••

We heard some people's footsteps as they got closer to us. They came up and opened our doors one by one. I couldn't guess what was about to happen.

"Don't touch me!" I yanked myself behind as one of them approached me.

He still pulled me out of the cell. Minahil was in line with another one of them as we walked out. They brought us outside the building from a main gate into a deck led by a short staircase.

It felt like I had never seen the sky's dim blue light going down in years. And the moist breeze ran through me, causing shivers to my weak structure. We were both held with a knife beside each other. In front of us was a shallow but long jungle, filled with just bushes.

It was Anwar standing parallel to us, his back facing us as he spoke.

"I hope you two learned from the very competent lessons you were taught over the past few days."

I rose with anger. If there was anyone I would want to see suffer in front of me. It was him.

"Now... I have a deal for you!" He turned to us. We stood silent.

"I'll release you... but only one of you." He said, shoving a disgusting smile on us. What was this new torture about? I went into thought.

"You decide. Who will go and who will stay in the place of the other?"

"Get to the point. Your trap won't work."

I spoke, looking directly at him.

"I have to let one go anyways, so why not you choose by yourself." He tapped his fingers on the handrail.

"You have exactly 1 minute to think." He suddenly stopped smiling.

I didn't turn my head to look at Minhail. If this was true, my decision was obvious.

As I was just about to tell him to let Minahil go, she had spoken to him.

"I want to go."

That's when I turned to look at her face but she didn't look back at me. Her voice came out firm, with no second thoughts whatsoever.

I didn't know why I felt something shatter deep inside of me. It scattered on my soul as tiny sharp pieces. I couldn't look away from the sight of her.

"Wow." Anwar clapped slowly, surprised.

"What do you think..." He asked me in a mocking way.

But I was too numb to focus on him.

"Are you sure?" He looked at her.

"I said I want to go!!!" Minhail yelled.

"Set her free..." I said, staring in her eyes from the side angle with my blurry ones.

Anwar had signaled the man behind Minhail to back off.

"Jao. Mujhse koi gila mat rakhna.. please." I poured out the last thing I could remember I wanted to say to her.

She twitched but didn't say anything. It killed me. Completely. I let out little sniffles trying to control my urge to cry loudly and endlessly.

She started running, off the stairs and ahead into the jungle. I wished deep, deep within that she would turn to look at me, strangled below the knife's hold for her. That something in her would force her to. But she didn't. Not once.

I watched her go far and far away, not knowing which one hurt more. The fact that she completely forgot me with a single affliction of life or that she would forever think I was her culprit.

I was still standing there, witnessing her freedom, immensely happy from a perspective when I saw him take out his gun from his pocket and point it straight ahead...

"No...." I was struck when I realized what they had done.

He pushed on the knuckle and put his finger on the trigger.

"NOOOO...." I ran towards him, screaming; not caring about the knife anymore. My heart stopped.

As I approached him, I grabbed his arm and pulled it towards the other direction but it was a second later than he pulled on the trigger, releasing the bullet.

I fell agonizing on my knees, dragging his arm with me. My mouth went shut as the loud fire of gunshot was heard into the atmosphere. She sagged into those bushes, far somewhere. Not to be seen anymore.

****

Minhail~

{"Bas dukh itna hai k zindagi gair mutawaqqa hoti hai. Kab iss se nijaat paa li, pata hi nahi chale ga."}

•••••• •••••• ••••••

Hassan sat in the corner of the masjid, unaware of his surroundings. He was lost in his ibadat. The one which he was led to by a woman. The woman he loved dearly and constantly but since when? He didn't know himself. Once, he longed for her companionship. Today, he craved for her presence again.

His open palms joined and rose upwards as soon as he presented his salam on both sides of the shoulder.

"Ae Maalik, mei aaj apne iss dil ko tere dar pe hazir kerta hoon aur gawahi deta hoon k mene aaj tak teri zaat se kameyabi aur ek ache muqaam k elawa Kuch nahi manga... mai ek gunahgaar shaks hoon, jissey apne jagah par sirf tune pohanchaya hai. Aaj meri iltajah ek dusre bashar ki khwahish mai hai."

He looked down at his hands. They were empty but filled with a thousand words to be offered. He bent down into prostration once again, closing his eyes. His nose and forehead touched the ground as loosened pearl beads scattered on the floor.

"Allah pak, tu uski zindagi ki hifazat meri zindagi ki amanat ker dey. Meri chahat ko adhura rehne se bacha ley. Ussey mujhe lauta dey mere Allah. Mujhe lauta dey."

Ismail walked through the interior of Anwar's place, keeping a check on the time. He extended his hand towards Ali who handed him his shades.

"What's going on in your mind?" Ali asked reluctantly.

"Nothing." He answered calmly.

"Bhai, that girl is pure trouble!" Ali invited his shaamat.

"Are you her uncle?" Ismail gave him a death stare.

"No.." Ali decided to shut up right there.

They approached Anwar who was talking to someone over call when he cut the phone immediately.

"You could have called me over.." Anwar tried to say, avoiding eye contact with him.

"Where have you kept them?" Ismail asked immediately.

"Why-"

"I only need the damn answer of what is asked of you!" Ismail said to him with his signature dominance.

She was sitting on the same ground from where they took them both from, it had been days. She hugged her legs and kept her head sideways on her knees. Even the tears had given up. Her face was dry and meaningless as she stared into nothing on the floor, without blinking.

The sound of a snapping whip was heard as he, the one who tormented her previously came closer. Once again seemingly for another round of his torture.

Zaina dug her fingers onto her legs tighter, expecting an extreme wave of pain any second but didn't bother to look up.

The noise was suddenly suppressed when it was lifted in the air to strike her and she squinted her eyes as strongly as she could.

But what was this? Nothing touched her. She quickly looked up in surprise.

He stood with a raised arm into the air, holding the lash but someone else stood behind him, who had grabbed it in his hand as it swung up; preventing it from hitting her.

The very next second, the man behind had pulled the whip backwards, releasing it from his hand.

Zaina was shaken when he punched him with a vast force which flew him back to the wall beside her. He fell with a bleeding nose and a broken tooth. She quickly moved from beside him, her heart rate quickening.

He then swung the lash up to hit the man on the floor when she screamed, putting both her hands on her ears. He stopped. And threw away the lash on the side.

Ismail was now looking at her. Standing still, analyzing something.

"Ali!!!" He shouted, slightly trembling the girl who was wrapped up in herself on the ground.

"Jee" He came running in.

"Didn't I tell you to keep an eye on what Anwar is doing with them??" He was red with anger.

"Bhai he kept them alright on the upfront. I wasn't aware that they were caged." He was speaking the truth from his end.

He wanted to say something to Ali when his attention turned towards her. She was staring at him from her two expressionless eyes from under the niqab.

"YOU!!!" She yelled, her voice was unmended.

"YOU KILLED HER!!!!!" She was now pounding in screams, getting up with difficulty.

"I will kill youu..." She sobbed as she stepped ahead and pushed him backwards.

Ali quickly moved towards her as a natural instinct when Ismail showed him his hand to stop at his place.

"WHAT DID YOU GET? What did she ever do to you? ANSWER ME!"

Ismail now understood what was going on. If Anwar was in front of him right now. He would have been dead.

"Get her water." He said to Ali, rough and sarcastic.

He was the man Rehana was telling her about, she knew instantly. They worked under his order.

Ali extended a cup to her when she unexpectedly snatched it from him and threw the water on Ismail. Ali had never in his life witnessed such a thing.

Ismail tightened his fists and took steps towards her until she touched the wall behind. She looked at his wet face uptil the entire top portion of his shirt. He took off his glasses, tensely furrowing his eyebrows at her. A wave of that same scent rushed past her, causing weird flashbacks that she was unable to define.

His hypnotic amber eyes clashed with her round brown ones for the first time. They closely reflected into hers; which were tender and surrounded by wet eyelashes.

"Tumhari dusri galti..." He said.

Then backed from her, overtaking his temperament.