LIGHT FROM THE DESERT✓

||CHAPTER 22||

||OMAR||

This long trip is getting on my nerves. The car is so uncomfortable. My back hurts. My stomach is hungry. It won't stop grumbling and I'm hating all this. Curse those women. They should have been good girls and kept their mouths shut. None of these nightmares would keep recurring. It's their fault I'm not having a normal day as I should. If I ever get my hands on them they're nothing more but dead meat. They are lucky I'm in chains otherwise they would have tasted hell before I made them land on it face first.

How unlucky of me. Everything has gone down in the blink of an eye. I have lost everything. Something I never dreamt of happening. But it's my foolish love for that Salo woman that landed me here. If I hadn't gone there, perhaps I would be a free man. Or not. Those men had drawn their plans well. Congratulations to that brat of a daughter, Zawadi. Her going to the city saved their crooked lives. Damnation for all of them!

☆☆☆☆

"Omar," Salo called over the phone in a panicked voice that alerted me.

"What's wrong?" I asked in concern.

"You need to get here, as quickly as you can," she said breathlessly.

She was desperate. I couldn't resist. It seemed like she was in real trouble and I needed to be her knight in shining armour as the westerners call it. She was my sin and secret. No one knew about her until that bastard of a neighbour's son, Hussein uncovered the truth through his clever detective skills. I hate enlightened people. They're very dangerous and will always get you into trouble as they did me.

I left the camels grazing in the field and ran to her house. Typically, the house was a gambling den. She only lived there because the owner of the den was her cousin. They let everyone believe that it's a normal homestead from the outside but on the inside, it's a den of money thirsty gamblers.

When I got there, the door wasn't locked. It swang open. Normally she never left her door flung wide. My heart raced as I rushed into the house thinking that she was in deeper trouble than I imagined but only to be caught by surprise. She was roped to a chair and three officers were by her side. All three holding guns. My legs trembled. My first instinct was to run. But it was too late. The moment I entered through the door, someone locked it. Hussein. Clever bastard. I was stuck with them.

"Wasn't so hard to get him," a huge officer mocked.

"Like chicken on a rainy day," a female officer added.

"What's happening?" I asked in pretence.

It was obvious that I had been set up. By who, I hadn't figured that. And I wanted to know that more than I wanted to know why I had been set up. I looked around the room to the eyes scanning me. All with smug looks on their faces. They were enjoying it. Crooked scumbags.

I stared at Hussein as he dialled a number on his phone. He called a woman on the phone who I later learned was Zawadi. They had been working with the police behind my back. It was so stupid of me to have fallen into her trap. Her sudden return from the city was nothing but a schemed plot. The woman had grown another brain. No wonder she won herself some rich urban man.

"What did you do to her?" I asked when none seemed to be interested in speaking.

They were all waiting for Hussein to make a few calls. Salo looked at me with the least of caring eyes. I had never seen that look before. It was a hateful look. They must have told her everything. She never knew about my other worthless family. So they used that to turn her against me. They had roped her to a chair to scare her then use her to lure me into the den.
They didn't hurt her. She was nothing but collateral to them. Hussein finished his calls and the fierce female officer walked towards my scared self with cuffs on her hands.

"You're under arrest Omar Abdallah. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. Step aside from her, hands up!" I obliged to her commands. She was speaking good English. She was foreign. Perhaps from the city.

She cuffed my hands while another untied Salo. She stepped into a corner like a scared little puppy and let them sweep clean the gambling den leaving her with just utensils. The poor thing would get it from her cousin if she didn't choose to run for the hills. They took me to their truck and drove me to the familiar detention centre. It was always easy to get out before but this time, they had reinforced security. Doom was raining on me and I felt useless cause I couldn't do anything to get myself out of it. There was no escape.

☆☆☆☆

The air is changing, nature too. I can see it through the small transparent window of the back door. Urbanisation keeps growing by the minute. I'm adjusting to all of it. If I am honest, I'm excited to see this whole new world I have never seen before. The famous capital. The officers with me are very alert. They keep scrolling on their phones from time to time. Fooling me that they are not alert but I do know they are very much active. They have been properly trained. It's a check for them. Though such little tricks are cliché and we do know about them. They should upgrade for better reviews.

I'm tempted to tell them to stop being a bore but they'll just get angry and start giving commands. I would hate to have a more terrible trip than I'm already having. But surely, can't one of them think of talking about their failed attempts to nab criminals? It would be fun to listen than just keeping quiet like dumb people. But it would be much better if they considered putting the fierce female officer at the back with me. I could use a pretty face like hers on such a boring trip. Lacking something else to think of and stare at, I shut my eyes and force myself to sleep as I fantasize myself escaping these dummies leaving them in awe. As if that would happen.