Echoes Of Tomorrow : Raif Al-Darazi

chap 2 : The Girl In The Front Row

The stage lights were blinding, casting sharp beams of white and blue across the arena. Raif stood at the center, his breath steady, but his mind was somewhere else. His fingers gripped the microphone with practiced ease, but the rhythmic pulse of the crowd—their collective excitement—was a faint buzz in the background. His eyes, however, were elsewhere.

There she is.

In the sea of faces, one woman stood out.

She wasn't like the others; she was different. She had this... presence, something Raif couldn't quite explain. She stood in the front row, just a few feet away from the stage, her long dark hair framing a face that seemed like it belonged to another world—soft, serene, impossibly beautiful. Her expression was unreadable, but the way her gaze was fixed on him was unmistakable. She wasn't like his fans—there was no adoration, no excitement in her eyes.

Who is she?

Raif closed his eyes for a moment, his body swaying to the rhythm of the music as he sang into the mic.

"Tak mungkin ku tahu, rahsia yang ada pada dirimu..."

The lyrics flowed through him, but his mind was far from the song. His gaze remained fixed on the woman, her presence pulling him in like a magnet.

The world seemed to slow down as he sang the next line.

"Yang tersembunyi, hanya aku yang mengerti..."

His voice trailed off slightly as the migraine hit him like a wave. His thoughts became jumbled. The lights around him blurred. His heart raced, and for a moment, he couldn't breathe. The pressure in his head grew, sharp and unforgiving. The music around him continued, but it was fading, replaced by a sudden dizziness.

He tried to steady himself, but his vision distorted, the edges of his world melting.

No... not now.

Raif staggered, gripping the mic stand harder. His knees buckled, and for a split second, everything went black. The sharp thump of his heart echoed in his chest as his body hit the stage floor.

____________________________________

Raif awoke with a jolt, his body heavy and unresponsive. His head throbbed like it had been crushed under a thousand pounds of weight. His eyelids fluttered open, but all he saw was the harsh fluorescent lighting above him and the sterile white walls of a hospital room.

"Ah, look who's awake," Malik's voice greeted him with an exaggerated cheerfulness. "Enjoy your little nap?"

Raif groaned in response, trying to sit up but wincing as the pain in his head intensified. "What happened?"

"You fainted, genius," Malik replied, clearly amused despite his obvious concern. "Just passed out cold in front of all those people. Really, Raif, I can't leave you alone for five minutes."

Raif rubbed his temples, still disoriented. "I don't pay you to annoy me like this, you know."

"Yeah, well," Malik shrugged with a grin. "If I didn't annoy you, you'd probably pass out again from the boredom of it all." His tone shifted, a hint of real worry creeping into his voice. "Jokes aside, you good?"

"I'll live," Raif muttered, still shaking off the fogginess. "But... the girl. Did you see her?"

Malik raised an eyebrow. "What girl?"

"The one in the front row," Raif said, trying to focus his thoughts. "The one... I don't know. There was something about her."

Malik paused. "The one who wasn't screaming and fainting like the rest of them? Yeah, I saw her. What about her?"