Footsteps sounded coming towards the door. They were slow and uncertain. As if it weighed a world to lift a step towards the door. The sound got louder and then slower. Nearer and then farther. Once and then again. As if the person was fighting a conflict within himself. There was a silence then, and then through the oak doors came he, his blue orbs that seemed to anchor to the ground in her presence raised to the bed. Almost instantly his brows furrowed at the empty bed. There was heartbroken confusion in them before a resigned sigh escaped him in realization.
It was a dream. All a dream. She was like a faraway star for him. Even if he held it in his palm, he would not believe it. It was impossible after all.
A breath of relief escaped him, embittered by bits of broken heart. A drunkard like him, used to the mirages of his imagination, must have reached madness after all. He had hallucinated. It was a dream. It was all a dream. But how real of a dream it had been…
Sitting on the cold floor of his grand castle he leant back against the doorframe, a pang of heartache igniting in his chest. It was both a consolation and a tribulation. That she wasn’t in his wretched life. This life was far too corrupted for her. Yet it was also far too empty without her.
Like the amaltas guiding him to her, the moonlight too seemed to pity the state of the yearning lord. A glimmer of jewel had his eyes fall on the sparking silver and tarnished red in the corner. The moonlight glinting off the sterlings of her silver dress. Casting her like a diamond in a mine.
His nirvana.
The faint dust in the moonrays between them seemed to fall to a still. As did he, the moment his eyes laid on her.
It wasn’t a dream or a hallucination or his delusion running wild. It wasn’t his madness. It had been real.
It was finally hitting him. Her presence with him. The collision of their worlds. He only just realized how until now she had only felt like a figment of his imagination. Absolutely surreal.
It was ironic really, how he in his black attire looked as devilish as could be and she in her light glistening clothes and the halo of moonlight around her looked like a cornered angel. But the state of their hearts was the exact opposite. He was cornered, heart and soul by her. Caged and imprisoned for eternity.
He didn’t see the trauma and terror in her eyes, all he saw was the sweet pools of honey he had long since drowned in. The blood stained glistening wedding dress, that should piss him off reminding him of how it was for another man, it barely bothered him now. Because he was too transfixed with her being. All he could see was just how beautiful she was. And how close and reachable she was. Not an unattainable divinity of heaven. But material like him.
Sudden fear clawed him.
A deathly realization tearing through his senses. Like a needle forming from the last little shreds of conscience in his head. Steeling and sharpening. Rising like a phoenix from the dark corners of his wicked mind. It was only a needle. But it was deadly as it made him feel a pain he hadn’t felt for ages. Fear.
He could not lose something he didn’t have. But now he had her, and with it came the fear of losing her. The fear of being near her. He was vile, body and soul. Filled with unimaginable sins. And she was saintly, body and soul. Filled with unimaginable good.
The needle throbbed and gnashed at his consciousness. His steps felt heavier, like tons of weight anchoring him.
Was it even allowed for him to feel so blessed? For her to be here?
YOU ARE READING
QAIS
Romance"She was his mirage, a dream he could only chase. He was her living hell, a nightmare she could not escape." Layla Mustafa is the only girl in her family allowed to go to university. Belonging to a strict patriarchal background, Layla, the shy and s...
