Over again

Chapter XX

Aaliya prepared breakfast while Zain took shower. They didn't talk. They sat down together and ate. Sometime's it's good to have someone beside you with whom you can be quite.
"Zain."-she called him quietly. He looked up from the plate and looked at her. "I want to tell you today. All you need to know about my past. It's time."
He nodded and felt nervous in his stomach. As if something would happen. He helped her clear up the table and sat down together on the sofa. She turned to him and started:
"It was twelve years ago. I was twelve and Aayat wat ten years old. I remember that I went to school and she stayed on the porch behind me. My sister had a friend who lived across the street. When she briefly disappeared somewhere we knew where to find her. That day was the same. My mother thought that Aayat was with Jannet. I went home and it was like any other day. Mom was in the house and made cake for Aayat and dad rested in the small garden behind the house. We were one peaceful family. I've never seen parent fighting. In front of the house there was a large chestunt tree. We had a swing on the tree which was our favorite place.
That day I stopped to shop and bought Aayat her favorite chocolate. I quickly went up to my room, threw the bag on the bed and changed. The window of my room looked out on our street and chestunt tree. I noticed something strange on the branch of the tree but couldn't figure out what it is. Out of curiosity I came down the stairs outside and found Aayat there. She was dressed in her favorite pink dress. Under her feet lay's her favorite doll. I don't remember her face as if she didn't have it.
Later they told me that it was stress and fear that caused me to forget. I don't remember her face. I was a child. A little girl who found the body of her younger sister hanging on their favorite tree. I remember that I loudly screamed her name. I don't know when my father came to her body. I remember that he fell in front of her feet, kissing them. I turned toward the house and on the porch saw horrified and frozen scream at my mother's face. I looked at my father who kissed Aayat's feets.
It was the first time I saw my father crying. It was the first time he shouted out loud but the pain couldn't be solved. In the next moment around us was the whole neighbourhood. Women's were crying and approached my mother and men approached my father. I watched the horror on their faces and my heart was filling with the immense pain. No one looked at me.
I pushed through the crowd and began to run down the street. I don't know how long or how far I ran. I haven't felt the pain in my legs. I just wanted to get away from the lifeless eyes of my mother and helpless sobs of my father. I ran and ran I don't know how far. Next thing I remember is that I woke up in my room.
The house was eerily quite and peaceful. When I first opened my eyes I thought that all this was just a bad dream and that Aayat will any moment enter my room. But she didn't. Somehow I got up on the meager legs that were bandaged. I walked up to the window and looked at the street. Old chestunt was no longer there to wish me a good morning. Outside was raining and in my heart was this pain that I couldn't breathe. With difficult steps I went to the door and opened it.
The house was still at peace. Down the stairs I heard quite talk but the voices were unknown. I went down the hall to the room of my parents. I found my father asleep on the bed and around him the empty bottles of alcohol. I left him to sleep and went to look for mother. I found her in Aayat's room. She lay in her little bed. She herself seemed small. I approached her and stroked her hair. She looked up at me and pushed me coldly. She was looking at me as a foreigner, as I'm not her Aaliya.
And so flowed every day. They didn't look at me as their daughter anymore. When I was making trouble father would disapprove me. If I was good even then I would be mocked. When I came to him last time to tell him that I'm going to police academy he turned to me and said: 'Go where ever you want. To me it means nothing. You mean nothing to me. I wish he had killed you and spared my Aayat. I'd gotten over you. But I will never get over Aayat.' Even my mother didn't say anything. It was the last time I was in my room in my house full of beautiful and painful memories. I went without looking back. I left everything and went.
I later found out who that man was. I know who's the man who took my sister from me and turned my parents into the walking dead."-she completed her painful story. Aaliya didn't cry. She couldn't. She looked at her hands and again lived her past.
Zain watched her. He slowly got up on shaky legs and came to her. He crouched next to her feet and took her sweaty palms in his. She looked at him.
"We'll find him. We will avenge you family happiness. It's a promise. I swear to God and my love for you. He will pay for whatever he did to you."-he swore putting her right hand on his head and his right hand on her head.
Aaliya smiled.
"Tell me his name. I will find him"
She again looked at him and with the hatred in her voice she said his name:
"Usmaan Abdullah."