Operation: Dard and Devotion

6 | Defy & Delusion

Nausea erupted in my stomach and slowly made its way up my esophagus.

God, forgive me.

I forcefully gagged, making every effort to vomit everything that I had just eaten onto my plate. Faizan and the men roared into laughter; I did not look to see if Ahsan had joined them. Either way, I didn't care.

"Oh Hayat, you should be thankful for the food you've gotten at this hour in this barren desert," Faizan reprimanded me with a sarcastic tone. "Allah will not be pleased that you've easily thrown away your portions."

Allah?

I was not as outwardly religious as I was expected to be; my spirituality was more personal. However, I knew that Faizan had absolutely no right to address God in any manner.

The children around me were still choking on their food and began muttering prayers to God to forgive them for what they had unknowingly done.

"Alright," Faizan spoke up yet again as he watched me stick my fingers down my throat as far as they could go in order to vomit anything that was left. "It would be rather unkind of me to let you go to sleep without some food. Since you weren't satisfied with dinner, perhaps you'd like some dessert?"

Oh, no!

"Don't look so distasteful," he scolded me quietly and knelt down to meet me at eye level. "I believe I have a stock of infant liver. Or perhaps you'd prefer a heart?"

A warm putrid feeling was rising up the throat. The horrid taste filled my mouth and with all the strength I had, I spewed bile directly at Faizan's face.

His eyes widened as he faltered backwards; he looked taken aback at my abrupt eruption and a tiny part of me felt victorious.

But not for long as Faizan, infuriated, wiped the remains of my meal from his face and lunged for my throat.

He pinned me against the sharp, prickly cave wall as the children scattered around, and his gloved hands tightened over my throat. Faizan stared at me like as a predator would, assessing his prey. He leered at me, his eyes glazed with disturbing excitement. I felt my own eyes water from the pain, but before everything around me completely blurred, Faizan was furiously ripped off of me with great force.

I crouched over, resting my hands on my knees, and tried to regain my breathing as my mouth had gone dry. My body froze as a person with a familiar pair of black eyes sharply strode towards me, shoving Faizan away from him.

Ahsan glared at me with an endless depth of anger and rage, and continued to stare me down as he hissed, "Follow me."

I couldn't see how I could have possibly disobeyed; he tightly gripped my upper arm and showed no signs of letting go.

Just as Ahsan was leading the way towards the corridor, while I was mentally determining how he would take out his fury at me, a bloodcurdling scream broke through the air.

I spun around to be faced with Faizan, who triumphantly clutched a bloodied dagger in one hand, and held onto a little girl's braid from the scalp so that her head would not unhinge itself from her neck.

....so that her head would not unhinge itself from her neck!

Faizan had actually slit her throat a bit more than halfway just so her head was solely attached to the back of her neck, but not the front.

What was her name? Rabia...Rania...something...

Ahsan let go of my arm at the same time Faizan let go of the child. Her throat had unhinged as she crashed to the floor, blood gradually poured out of her torn esophagus and trailed in a wavy, rouge path on the ground.