With You

Chapter 5

"Ryan, it's just a matter of sometime and besides she is sleeping." 

Hamida told him, didn't know why she always feel to do things going out of the way. Her daughter, Maira was sleeping on the back seat and Hamida wanted to have a look at the department store on the corner. Ryan had with so much difficulty gotten a place to halt his car, so he didn't want to leave it and was making Hamida understand this point too but she never listened. 

"Okay fine go. We're already late and I'm starving here."

Hamida hugged him quickly, "Great. I will also bring some food over."

Ryan glanced at the back seat to make sure his niece was still sleeping as his sister left the car to move towards that department store. They had left their house in morning and now it was the time after sunset, Hamida seriously needed to grow up. She had managed to take a trip of whole Amroha in a single day. Only Hanan could tolerate her!

Today there was a different kind of haunting silence in the air or maybe his mind was playing tricks on him as he knew the condition of his city of morning. The night was growing darker so was his anxiety. 

A noise of commotion broke the silence around him as Ryan saw from the rear view mirror; a mob coming near the place where his car was, with dangerous strides as they chanted some slogans of justice. They were looking dreadful holding fire torch in their hands, some kind of ribbon around their foreheads. What the hell was happening? Where the hell was Hamida? 

He was about to exit the car but the mob had started breaking the cars and vehicles around them, burning some of them too. Ryan couldn't leave Maira alone here. He moved his car ahead in haste, trying to call Hamida to stay where she was but to no avail. He stopped his car in a secluded place where Ryan felt they would be safe. Something grave had occurred, he already was feeling it. Amroha was getting stressful; those people from the mob with the fire torch and their activities were the proof. His sister wasn't receiving his damn call!

A loud blast broke his surroundings into pieces as Ryan bent down a little to save himself from the noise. His heart palpitated menacingly in thought of his sister. He didn't even want to dwell on the worst consequence his mind was producing because the sound of blast had come from the direction where Hamida had gone. The sound had also woken up Maira who was now crying, growing his worry to a new extent.

***

Zarah walked a little more, reciting in her heart whatever verses she had learnt from the Quran. The haunting silence got broken by the loud noises of people as if they were about to ruin something, an angry mob. 

She clutched her bag tightly and ran towards the other side from where nobody could see her. Zarah saw a car coming towards her and stopped at a little distance as the man inside it was continuously looking at his back and then dialing some number on his cell phone. 

These riots and curfews always made the life of normal people a living hell. She stood at one side; resting her back on the wall and as she was about to open her bag, a loud blast disturbed the peace around her. It came from the other side and maybe from the department store which had opened recently. 

Zarah gulped down the lump of fear, eyes wet with unshed tears. She was frightened to say the least. What she was stuck with? She closed her eyes, a silly hope in her heart that on opening her eyes all would come back to be fine. But it was the harsh reality which couldn't be erased so easily.

On opening her eyes she saw the man from the car moving out and running towards where the blast had happened, a little girl who was now crying, in his embrace. Was he the man from the grocery store? What the hell was he doing? Was he out of his mind? There was an angry mob; a bomb had been blast where he was running without thinking about the girl in his embrace.

"Wait, hey. Stop!" Zarah's voice wobbled as she ran behind him, trying to stop him from running towards the danger. The man threw a glance at her and then at the crying kid in his embrace; quickly picking the little girl in his hands, he shoved her in Zarah's hands, surprising her all over.

"I have to look for my sister." The man mumbled, wiping his eyes with his sleeves. No! No! Please his sister be safe. Zarah had met this man only twice and those meetings were never pleasant but now standing here, she couldn't think of something bad happening to his family. She didn't want any bad happening to anyone. 

Zarah carefully handled the baby, cooing in her ear to stop her crying. She shoved out a packet of biscuit from her bag and began to play with it in front of the girl's eyes. She slowly stopped crying, talking in her gibberish language while playing with the biscuit packet. 

***

The fire brigades were moving, there were heavy sirens of ambulance, police jeeps and people yelling, crying. But all Ryan could hear was his heart thumping near his ear. The department store was burning; nobody could tell it was the newest one which had opened just few weeks ago. 

Hamida would be safe. She would have finished her shopping by the time the bomb blasted, she would be near somewhere. He just had to find her. Ryan moved towards the police officers who were standing with the fire staff rescuing people from the store. 

Some were children, ladies and men. Outside there was a rush of people who were trying to find their family in the injured ones. Seeing them, the fear again clawed his heart, making his gut roll in an unpleasant manner. 

"This is my sister. Have you seen her?" Ryan showed a photo of Hamida from his cell phone as the police officer shook his head on his query. He moved to every person to ask for Hamida but to no avail. Didn't know where she was? 

"Nobody has come to ask for her." As Ryan was moving from near the ambulance, he heard two nurses talking with each other. He quickly ran towards them to ask about Hamida but his steps halted in their place seeing the body on the stretcher. 

"What happened to her?" He asked to the nurse on which she watched him skeptically. "Tell me what happened to her?" He barked on not getting any answer.

"Are you her famil-" 

"I'm her brother. Just tell me."

"She was inside the store when bomb blasted and we tried to recover her but she just lost her life." The nurse answered him fully seeing his anger and Ryan dropped on the floor like a lifeless leaf. 

She just lost her life! Those words ringing in his head, ears and shaking his body badly with their weight.