QAIS

Chapter 7: Diabolical

♛

Out of the government vehicle stepped Mir Shams and his wife. The servants behind them carried loads of shopping bags with them.

She looked at her husband happily who smiled back at her but as soon as she turned around his smile slipped off. It was getting harder and harder to appease her. The gifts just got more and more extravagant. But Shams didn't care as long as it kept her distracted from his secret affairs.

"Are the kids home yet?" He asked the guards while his wife headed into the house. He had two teenager children in highschool.

"No, sir. The driver's gone to pick them."

"And Yusuf? Has he sent any message." He asked about his assistant. It wasn't like of him to disappear without a word.

Before the guard could answer an abrupt shriek from inside the house alarmed them. It was of his wife.

The guards and the Mir all ran inside anxiously.

His wife was sitting in the doorway of their bedroom, badly pale and screaming her mind off. Mir Shams was baffled. "What is it?? What's wrong???"

But as he neared her, the color drained form his face and he involuntarily stepped back from the room. Horrified eyes fixed on the body hanging morbidly from the ceiling of his bedroom.

It was his assistant.

Attached to the lifeless body was a
rough sheet, scribbled with red that said, "My condolences."

Mir Shams all but vomited onto his expensive Persian carpets, an action that evoked an even louder scream from his wife.

♛

The sun seeped in through the large windows. All the curtains opened except one that faced the lake at the back of the mansion.

Lounging in a rocking chair the rays danced in his raven hair. Falling onto his skin as if it was an honor. His usual blue eyes were slipped close. From afar it looked so serene. Like a renaissance painting even. But only he knew the riot that was going on under those closed eyes.

He had dreamt of her again. Even as he lay next to another woman, she was all he thought about. He thought it was mere attraction that had her on his mind. But not once did she come to his mind during the act.

Even as he tried to think of her, she'd fade from his mind like the smoke of a failed fire. As if it was forbidden to think about her during something so sinful.

But she'd always return when he'd fall asleep.

She had plagued his mind, like a parasite. Conquered over his senses like an enchantress. Feeding on every last bit of his sobriety.

He regretted not killing her then and there. Why had he let her go? He still couldn't figure it out.

Because he didn't want to ruin her belief in the good of the world? Because he didn't want her innocence tainted?

Except it was all a lie. There was no good in the world, especially in a world where there was Qais. And he did want to taint her innocence. He had done it in his mind then and there.

Then why did he let her go?

Could it be that he didn't want to ruin his own belief in the good of the world? Or because he didn't want to taint the little innocence that had by some miracle of fate accidentally slipped into his vile life.