Why, We Fall (Book One)

12: Eye Of The Storm

The guy had some nerves.
The minute he saw Hasan's car stopping at the side of the road, he was thinking about bolting from there.

But he hadn't have anything to snort, inject or swallow for two days!
He was badly in need of some illegal boosters.
So, watching the girl walking alone in the middle of the night was the best thing that happened to him in days.

He wasn't ready to let the opportunity of snatching all that's valuable with her go. But the car had him rethinking this ordeal.
That was untill he saw only one guy coming out of the car. He was tall and even with the suit he was wearing anyone with half an eye could see he had some muscles about him underneath. But he was alone.
Without any weapon.
This night was yet to go to a waste. Maybe he could rob two of them instead of one and judging by the suit, this guy's loaded.

"Now now. Don't get any ideas here babe. It won't take me two seconds to push Lloyd down your throat. Fancy pants here won't be able to save you. " Aleya hoped hard that by Lloyd, he meant the knife. Not anything else.

She didn't even find the time to be surprised at seeing Hasan getting out of the car of all people.

The knife was dangerously close to Aleya or Lloyd was dangerously close to her as the mugger liked to call it.

What kind of psycho names a knife!

Hasan too couldn't stop but take a few steps towads Aleya. But he had to stop himself.

"Hey, what did I tell ya? Don't get any ideas here fella. If you don't want to scrape her innards off of the street, you stay where you are and toss your wallet here. "

Hasan's face turned a shade of dark.
His fist clenched then unclenched. He looked at Aleya who was surprisingly calm at the moment. He couldn't risk anything happening to her, so he reached his jacket pocket for his wallet.

"Yeah not happening buddy. Sorry. " Aleya said calmly out of nowhere as if the sharp blade of Lloyd wasn't staring her right in the face.

"What!" The mugger exclaimed and Hasan looked up. Both their expressions mirroring each other.

Aleya just shrugged," I'm a Bangali, man. We would rather give up our lives than our belongings. Do you know how hard it is to move people from their home in bay areas in Bangladesh even when a cyclone is approaching? They would rather die in their homes with their possessions than leave them." She crossed her arms over her chest in the middle of her poetic babbling. Totally composed in front of the eye of the storm.
It took a few seconds for the mugger to comprehend the complete turn of event.

He didn't understand all that the crazy girl was spouting but what he did understand was that she is refusing to give him money.
In his career as a mugger this was certainly a first.

He half wished to get back to bank robbery.

"I don't think you understand what I'm saying here love. Don't think the sharp blade of my Lloyd won't taste the soft flesh of your skin. I am no rookie hon. I've done this before and I will do it again, without any shilly-shallying. " The various endearings he was addressing Aleya with didn't dull the sharpness of his words one bit. They just made it more scary.

He advanced at Aleya with a dangerous stealth. The Ugly of his soul could burn her given the chance.

"Sorry man. I don't want to do this anymore than you do. But it's in my blood. I can't give you my wallet. Or anything that belongs to me for that matter. " She really sounded sincere. As if she was the one feeling guilty for not being able to give this person every single thing she owns.

The mugger raised Lloyd to procure another deadly threat but at that point Hasan must've had enough of this insanely bizarre night as he frustratingly said, "take mine. My wallet, phone whatever you want. Just let her go." He all but pleaded. Just to end the night if not for anything else.

The guy looked at Aleya with disdain. Then moved towards Hasan to take the wallet from his offering hand.

He was a bit out of reach from where the mugger and Aleya stood.

As he took a step towards Hasan's direction to secure, what would supply him this weeks ration of drugs, before he could reach the long overdue wallet, a shrill scream disrupted the still air witnessing the play-by-play incidents of the fateful night.

It was Aleya. The second the mugger moved away from her with the godforsaken Lloyd in hand, she took two Steps back and screamed with all her might.

She didn't only hate to part from her own things, she also hated when people had to part from theirs as well and the people in question was no other than Hasan. The one person she wished wasn't here witnessing her foolishness and misfortune, let alone pay for it.

The scream was IT for the poor mugger though.

First this tall and all muscley "men in balck" guy shows up out of nowhere who can easily best him in a fight, for God knows the crack he has been feeding his body all these years didn't do him any favor, then this crazy girl with a screw lose in her big head refuses to even budge at his threats let alone give him her money. Even Lloyd didn't scare her. Then the scream to wake the dead to prepare for the Judgement Day and all of these without his daily dosage of crack were too much for him.

He looked over at Aleya startled out of his wits, crunched his brow at the strength of her voice and lung capacity, threw Lloyd on the pavement out of frustration more than the fear of someone calling the police.

"Fine. I give up. " Then he half stormed and half sprinted out of there.

***

"What were you thinking? Taking him on like that? What if he hurt you?" Now it was Hasans turn to scream. Well, more like shout.

Aleya was half keeled over, crouching her knees. The exhaustion of keeping it together through the whole event finally catching up to her.

"Are you listening to me?"

Hasan was overcome with worries for a minute after the mugger left. Asking her if she was okay. Once he made sure she wasn't hurt or anything he started to scold her.
Literally started to scold her.
It's been a while since Aleya was scolded by a teacher.

"Why didn't you just give him what he wanted? Do you even realize how dangerous it was? He had a knife Aleya. He could've killed you!"

"He forgot Lloyd. " Aleya said from her crouching position.

"What?"

"He forgot Lloyd. " Aleya pointed at the knife laying still on the street.

"Are you kidding me?" He said out of frustration, more to himself than Aleya. Pushing his ruffled hair back from his forehead for the umpteenth time he approached Aleya with determined steps.

In a moments notice he walked over to where Aleya was still crouching her knees. Grabbing her by the arms he straightened her up and brought her closer to him.

He urged her to look at him.
So, she did.

It was etched with concern and fear.

"Do you have any idea how scared I was?" He wasn't shouting anymore. He was whispering. But his tone was still accusatory.

Aleya looked at his eyes. She kept on looking. It was marred with so much emotions. Aleya couldn't grasp what it was. It felt familiar like she has seen it before. But couldn't recognize it. It was so overwhelming. She couldn't fully deduct it but what she did deduct left her breathless.

How did she miss this?

"Why did you come to the hospital today?"

Aleya was as surprised as Hasan by the question. She didn't know out of everything she could've asked, how did this question found a way out of her mouth.