Meri Musibat [Tere Bin FF]

4. 20, 23 - Part 2

The oppressive heat bore down on Murtasim and Meerab as they began their journey towards the village, driving through winding roads that narrowed the further they got from the city. The sun blazed with an intensity that seemed unnatural, casting shimmering waves of heat over the cracked asphalt.

Sweat beaded on Murtasim's brow as he drove, with the air conditioner working in overdrive, doing its best to battle the stifling atmosphere inside the car. It was the kind of heat that signaled a tempestuous change, a stillness in the air that almost begged for a storm to break it.

Inside the car, a similar kind of storm brewed. The stillness echoed the quietude of nature before a storm, a deceptive calm that hid the turmoil lurking beneath the surface. Murtasim found unable to tear his eyes away from Meerab, who sat in the passenger seat of his black Mercedes. His gaze lingered, taking in the delicate curve of her nose, and the softness of her lips, and the vulnerability of being alone with her when he knew she was going through emotional turmoil.

In the creeping silence, Murtasim's mind began to drift back to the village, a place where tensions had been simmering, threatening to boil over at any moment. The village was a tapestry of complex relationships, intricately woven over generations, bearing witness to allegiances formed and betrayals suffered. In this intricate web, rival factions saw the marriage as an opportunity to renegotiate their standing in the community, to settle old scores, and to assert their dominance. Disagreements over land boundaries, water resources, and other ancestral disputes were common, often escalating to a point where violent confrontations became inevitable.

It had been a delicate dance, navigating the fractured relationships and the underlying current of hostility that permeated the atmosphere. A wedding, a symbol of joy and unity, had instead turned into a battleground of old grudges and unsettled scores. Murtasim had tried to ensure safety by sending a fleet of guards ahead, men who were trained to handle such volatile situations. But even that hadn't been enough.

His trusted aide, Bakhtu, a pillar of strength and loyalty, had been caught in the crossfire between his and Malik's men, sustaining injuries that rendered him incapable of offering his usual support. Murtasim felt a void, a strange emptiness that gnawed at him as he realized he was truly alone for the first time in a while, without the comforting presence of his men who usually followed them or waited ahead. Their presence would have offered a buffer from the silence in the car, but he had no one to call upon right then, no one to pretend to be occupied with, leaving him ensnared in the thick, almost suffocating silence, where his only company was his whirlpool of thoughts and the enigmatic woman beside him, a situation that seemed to exacerbate the tension building up inside him.

His grip on the steering wheel tightened as he tried to push away the thoughts, but being unable to in the unsettling silence, a far cry from the spirited debates and occasional heated arguments that usually characterized his car rides with Meerab, ones that always took his mind off of everything else.

Murtasim decided to test the waters and sped up, taking a sharp turn a bit more recklessly than necessary. Normally, she would've snapped at him for his erratic driving. But today, she did none of that. Instead, her hands clenched tightly around the sides of her seat, her knuckles turning white.

Troubled, he slowed back down. Making Meerab talk had never been a problem. In fact, it was usually the opposite.

"What's wrong?" He finally asked, breaking the silence, his voice tinged with a worry he didn't want to admit.

"Nothing." She muttered, looking out the window.

"You're too quiet." He noted.

"That's a problem too?" She replied, still not meeting his eyes.