Operation: Dard and Devotion

19 | Waver & Woe

Thankyou @mominabatool75 for the awesome chapter art! :)

A bird above us stretched out its wings and swiftly soared past where we were standing, as though it could sense that the majority of people down below were up to absolutely no good.

Lucky bird; at least it had wings to escape, whereas I only had a sledgehammer in my sweaty grip.

A sledgehammer!

The victorious idea that I could knock off Faizan's head with just one swift movement flurried around in my head with complete oblivion that I could very well suffer consequences.

Why don't I just-

My face gave away my thoughts because Faizan reconsidered giving me the weapon and briskly grabbed it from my hands.

Damn it.

He stepped forward so only I could hear his infuriated words. "Nice try."

My shoulders slumped and I turned away from him, sadly gazing back at the engraved column. I just couldn't bring myself to destroy this or anything.

"Feeling sad?" Faizan stepped to the side, running his hand down the chiseled carvings on the column, and mocked me by pouting. "Hundreds and thousands of years of history will soon go poof!"

I hate him.

He ripped his eyes from the column and narrowed them at me. "If I give you the sledgehammer, can I expect you to not behead me?"

"I'm not making any promises," I hissed, glaring at him. Throwing his head back in an amused chuckle, he patted my shoulder playfully.

"Oh, how very sweet of you! Regardless, I will give you the benefit of the doubt." Faizan placed the sledgehammer in my grip after he tightly wrapped his fingers around my wrist. "If you dare try anything with this other than what I order you to do, I will not hesitate to ram this against your pretty little face. Understood?"

He did not wait for me to respond. The burden of the sledgehammer was suddenly equivalent to the weight of the world, and I felt it gradually slip from my clammy hands. With a tilt of his chin, Faizan motioned for me to slash down the archaic monument.

History was my favorite subject in all my years of schooling. Many people disliked it because it was normally presented as a dry collection of dates and facts. The best method to learn and love history was to string up historical events into a story. History is an enormous jumble of drama, action, grief, adventure, love, innovation, and so on. I had loved going on field trips to history museums and was purely in awe at every relic preserved from the ancient world.

The fact that someone out there had created such fine things with fragments of culture and art, especially without the technological advances that are available today, always captured my attention. Even with all of the 21st century's inventions and modernization, to create a life-sized replica of any major structure from the past would be nearly impossible. History received nothing but adoration and appreciation from me.

But now, I was ordered to tear it all down.

My hands shook and I clenched the tool stiffly so it would not crash on to my feet. "I...I can't."

"Hm." Faizan tapped his chin thoughtfully as he considered my shaky frame. "Very well then, I'll let you go on this one."

There must be a catch. There's no way he'd let me off this easy...

"As an alternative, you will accompany some of the men to the graveyard and assist them."

I knew it.