Operation: Dard and Devotion

13 | Facts & Fury

Thankyou @minahil514 for the lovely chapter art! :)

Hours must have gone by, but I had not noticed because I was very preoccupied playing with Saad. He was ridiculously shy with me at first, but then grew accustomed to my presence and the occasional goofy faces I would make at him. I was grateful to Ahsan for bringing him to me.

Saad made me forget that I was still being held hostage by Al-Tho'baan.

He was sound asleep now. I lay beside him sideways, propping up my head on my hand, and patted his little tummy every now and then. His breathing was deep and relaxed with each intake of air; all the muscles in his body were completely at peace.

I gently pushed away some of his dark brown hair from his forehead and admired his beautiful, tiny face. His rosy cheeks and chin still had evidence of baby fat, but he was gradually losing weight. I wondered if his parents were truly dead. Perhaps they were misplaced or were held hostage, like me, elsewhere? I did not expect Ahsan to know the answer; he only brought down one of the many children to me.

Our meals down in the dungeon were limited. Ahsan brought down bread and water, and plain yogurt on rare occasions, twice a day. I gave most of my portions to Saad and Ahsan looked down at me in disapproval.

"What?" I had asked Ahsan during our midday meal. "He's a malnourished child - he needs all the food he can get."

"And so do you," he had grunted. "I did not steal nearly twice as much food just for you to force-feed the kid, who just seems to keep spitting out everything you're giving him." Ahsan observed Saad coughing up even the tiniest morsel of bread that I had mashed up.

"I know, it's because none of this is meant for someone his age to eat." I had frowned. "He needs milk. Do you have milk?"

Ahsan had stared at me, dumbfounded. "Do I look like a cow to you?"

I had narrowed my eyes at him.

"I'll see what I can do." He had rolled his eyes. "No guarantees."

But that was hours ago.

I could probably survive a bit longer without food, but Saad?

Watching his little chest heave up and down made me feel a twang of envy that he was able to sleep peacefully without a care in the world. He was even more adorable than before, especially after his bath earlier in the day.

Thinking of which, it had been quite some time since I had a bath. Furrowing my eyebrows, I tried to calculate how long I had been away from Umm Qais.

Faizan said it was a two-day journey...

I stayed in the cave for one day...

And I was in the seminary dungeon for two days? Three days at most?

I was kidnapped from Jordan nearly a week ago.

Where were the other children?

My mind raced with thoughts since I still wasn't very sure why I was going through all this.

Then, the battered door to the room creaked open. I turned my head slightly to face Ahsan, who had shut the door behind him.

"Why aren't you asleep?" He asked as I sat upright, leaning against the small, metal headboard.

I shook my head slightly. "I couldn't sleep. Why are you here?"

He sat down on the ground across from me, pulling up his legs and resting his arms on his knees. He shrugged. "I was bored. They're in the church discussing some plan."