House of Ashes [Complete]

44. Annihilation | تباہی

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The charcoal hair fell over his strained forehead, amongst the obsidian eyes, mimicking the turmoil sweeping across his bones. He had never felt this weak. This hopeless. This fragile. Losing her was something that never crossed his mind let alone it happening, and on top of it, hurting him. Why? Why did it hurt so much? It didn't make sense, but then again, when has love ever made sense? Love is stupid. It happens on its own accord. It doesn't take anything into account. It just happens. And then, it hurts...so much!

The harsh veins jutted through his forearms as his grip on the steering wheel tightened. The sleek vehicle ran harshly through the secluded roads of Islamabad as the mountains cowered ruefully as if aware of the tragedy. In this time of catastrophe there was only one person he needed. Someone who understood him and loved him more than anyone in this world.

******

Sameena folded the prayer mat and put it on the table. Taking the drape off her head, she turned around and a loud gasp escaped her lips. There, by the door was standing a crestfallen Azlan. Hair disheveled, eyes bloodshed.

"Azlan, my bacha! (Azlan, my baby!)" She let out as she almost ran towards him. "Are you okay, bacha? What happened?" She held him from his biceps as his shoulders slouched and head drooped.

"Nothing's okay, mom! Nothing is okay!" He rasped as he shook his head repetitively.

"Ya Allah! What is it?" She cupped his face.

"I lost everything, mom!" His breaths came out in staccatos as he rested his chin on Sameena's shoulder. "Everything!"

"Come on, now, you are scaring me." Horror evident in her widened eyes.

A muffled cry escaped his lips, inexorably, as he held on to her. "Ya Khuda, Azlan!" Wrapping her arm around his shoulder, she made him sit on the south side of the bed and poured some water in the glass. "Here. Drink it!" Reluctantly, he took a sip and put it back.

Sliding down he flopped down on the floor and put his head on Sameena's laps. "First, I lost them. Maa and baba." He barely spoke, his voice wired pain as it grazed his body, shattering each and every bone. Nothing could match the hate he had grown up possessing for his parents. His real parents. But, now everything had turned into a fib.

She stayed quiet and let him vent as her hand ruffled through his unkempt hair, but nothing could sooth the tornado coiling around him. Not even the holier touch of the woman who gave him his life back and became his entire world in no time.

"Then, I lost Irtiza. My baby, my brother whom I had promised to always protect. But, I couldn't." His eyes welled up with umpteen tears. "I couldn't protect him." He sniffed as a thirteen years old Azlan came alive in his eyes.

As the man hit the girl swirling around amidst the lewd eyes of pedophiles, she crashed on the wall. The wig came off, revealing a thirteen years old Azlan being disguised as girl. But he didn't cry. He had become stubborn, now. The more he cried, the more these wolves tortured him and he had learned not to succumb to what they wanted. He gawked at the man, angrily, as his nostrils flared.

"Who you looking at like that, you filthy piece of shit?" The man spat out and it only triggered Azlan more as he clenched his teeth and bored his scarlet eyes more into him. Seeing them getting angry placated him, even if it cost him lashes. It was worth it.