Qurban

•19• Watcher / نگران

The plain white walls of the clinic seemed to be closing in on Zainab as she sat on that damn chair with one foot crossed over another. Leg shaking and hands constantly fidgeting, she faced her doctor. The woman was dressed in the finest of clothes, her hair tied tightly back in a slick back bun. Her body covered with the white coat while she wrote on her notepad, seemingly at ease while a thunderstorm was raging inside Zainab. Eyeing the doctor, she started speaking, her voice agitated, like she's standing at the edge of a cliff

"I...I think there's something going to happen. There's this...this feeling...this awful, awful, unignorable nagging in the back of my mind."

The doctor's eyes met her's and they were soft. Like a mother's gaze.

"It's okay to feel agitated. Your father has been very active with his campaign. You're scared for him."

"No... that's not.."

She abruptly got quiet and faced the window, watching the birds flew by. But something wasn't right. It just wasn't. Zainab's eyes darted to the doctor again as she spoke to her

"Have you been taking your medication? It's necessary to take...."

"Yes! I'm taking my medication."

She literally snapped at the doctor. Crossing her arms across her chest, she glared at the floor below her feet like it had been her sworn enemy. For moments, there was silence. Just deep pregnant silence. Zainab could even hear the faint ticking of the clock hung above the wall. Seconds later, she heard the click of the pen and then the thud of a notepad falling onto the centre table. She could feel the doctor's eyes on her yet she grounded her teeth and refused to look at her.

"I understand you're under stress. I'll write you some new medication. It will help you with anxiety."

A taunted scoff escaped her lips and the doctor's pen stopped mid air for a nanosecond before resuming its work. Zainab pursed her lips and eyed the doctor as she wrote a list of meds on a sheet of paper. Once done, she forwarded the paper to her which she snatched with more force than necessary.

Getting up from her position, she walked out of the clinic with hurried angry strides. On any other day, she would have properly bade farewell to her doctor and even thanked her for listening to her rant, but she didn't do any of that today. She dashed outside the door and hurried to the car waiting outside to fetch her. However, her steps faltered when she saw a shadowy figure behind the trees. At first she thought she was imagining the branches, but then the figure moved and faced her. She couldn't make out the features of the person but the look in those eyes, it was so utterly disturbing and creepy that a breath whooshed from her lungs. Her mind reeled at the worst possibilities.

Hammad!
Blood! Gunshots!

Her grip tightened on the door handle until her knuckles turned white. Her heart was beating so loudly in her chest, she feared it would fall at her feet. The person in the trees kept his eyes on her like he was having a silent conversation with her. Something passed in those eyes, a darkness of some kind and that's when Zainab finally came to her senses and threw the door open. Literally falling inside the car, she shouted at the driver, her words coming out shaky

"Let's go. Hurry!"

The driver pressed on the pedal and Zainab turned to look behind at the person in the trees. But to her complete shock, no one was there. Her eyes frantically searched the area as the car moved, blurring her view to actually point the person out, but no one was there.

May be you imagined all of it!
You have been feeling stressed lately, it must be a fragment of your imagination.

A voice of reason spoke and it had Zainab questioning her sanity. Was it really someone she saw or was the voice in her head right?