Operation: Dard and Devotion

12 | Rage & Revelation

Ahsan seemed to be having second, third and quadruple thoughts of bringing Saad to me.

"Make that thing shut up before I do it!" He furiously paced around the dungeon bath, which was just a few corridors away from the room I had been in. The 'bath' was basically just a shallow well - good enough to give Saad a well-deserved cleanup.

Surprisingly, Ahsan was rather cooperative to my demands.

After Saad and I had slept abnormally well at night, Ahsan stepped into the room in the morning to check on us. I told him about wanting to clean up the baby and he unwillingly led me to the dungeon bath. Then, I quickly washed Saad's garments and asked Ahsan to make a fire for the clothes to dry while I gave Saad his bath.

But now, Ahsan was considerably annoyed at the child's unbearable screeches.

"Don't call him a thing! What kind of doctor are you?" I snapped sharply at him.

"My specialty was not in pediatrics for a reason," he muttered, scowling at the child.

"You're scaring him, that's why he keeps crying!" I scolded. "And also because he's hungry. Will you be able to get some food?"

"I'm sorry," he said with a sarcastic undertone. "I'm afraid I wasn't blessed with the ability to whip out food in the middle of a ghost town at your insistence."

I rolled my eyes. "You gave me food in the cave a few days back while we were in the middle of a desert."

"Well, that's because I was given my portion then. I didn't get food this morning yet."

I blinked in surprise. "You gave me your food portions that day?"

"What's there to be so shocked about?"

"Why did you do that?" I responded with a question of my own.

"Is it now a crime to give someone food when they say they're hungry?" He threw his hands up in annoyance.

"I never told you I was hungry then," I told him slowly, trying to make sense of his actions. "You just...handed me food. Your food."

"Listen, stop the interrogation. Whenever I get food, I'll bring it down here." Ahsan's jaw tightened in an attempt to keep his evil persona intact. His nostrils flared at Saad's next round of wailing. "Seriously, I'm giving you one minute to get that thing to be quiet before I deal with him!"

"His name is Saad!"

"Do you think I care?" He yelled back. "How'd you find out his name anyway?"

"I...uh named him last night," I admitted. "He seems too young to remember his real name and I can't call him 'baby' all the time."

"No, but you can easily replace 'baby' with brat," Ahsan muttered, defiantly crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the stone wall.

"Hey, can you do me another favor?"

"Now what?" He snapped.

"Shut up."

He gave me a blank look. "You're very lucky I'm not Faizan or Zaakhir." He observed my hurt expression, from recalling that I was very close to have been raped, and quickly apologized. "S-sorry. That was out of line."

"Yes, it was," I told him. He looked around awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with his gloved hand. I decided to change the topic as I scrubbed Saad's back. "How are things up there anyways? Aren't they wondering where I am?"

Ahsan scoffed with a slight hint of pride. "They're more concerned with finding out which one of us whacked Zaakhir's head."

"He's not...dead, is he?"