"I'm lost in the darkness residing in me... consuming my existence, bit by bit untill I'm left with nothing but ruins..."
Zainab Aqeel has lost her will to live. She's withering away like a flower does in fall...only she may never bloom again.
"The...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Screams and smoke.
That was all Zainab could hear. One moment there were giggles and laughter of children and the next moment everything burst into flames.
Quite literally.
She felt pain stabbing her from all sides. Felt her limbs twisting in pain as smoke surrounded her from all four directions. She couldn't see. Couldn't move. Couldn't even breathe properly. Her lungs felt constricted. Her chest felt like it would explode any second now. Her breathing was laboured. Pain attacked her from all sides as she laid on the floor half conscious half unconscious. Her eyelids were getting heavy and she thought that may be, may be....her time had come.
There was smoke and smoke everywhere. Red hot fire everywhere. She could faintly hear the crackle of the fire as the ballroom kept burning. Kept making it harder for her to breath. She couldn't even remember what happened. All she could recall was hearing a massive boom and the rushing of footsteps and screams and shouts of fear and worry. She recalled running with Kiran while gathering the children, but she was left behind. She must have fallen down, stumbling upon the debris of what was left of the tables and chairs. She could feel a trickle of... something slithering down her back.
Blood, must be.
She thought. She'd been laying there for may be minutes, but it felt like hours.
I have to get up.
She thought. She couldn't die without trying. But as she tried to lift her body up, intense pain shot up her arms and legs making her fall forward. Her forehead was slicked with sweat and she felt the temperature of the room rising. The hotness of the fire felt like stinging needles on her body.
Try again.
She did. And failed again. She must have hit something while falling down because it was impossible for her to move. The smoke was already making it harder for her to breath. Still, she gave it her last try and failed again.
In the distance, she heard a sound. Like something had fallen hard on the ground. She could faintly smell the dust and it didn't take her long to guess what had happened.
The ceiling must have collapsed.
I cannot make it!
The thought made her immobile. Even if she crawled her way out there, there was too much smoke for her to see properly where she was headed. And given that she was bleeding somewhere from her body was not going to work in her favour.
May be it's time.
Tears left her eyes as she laid flat on the ground for what may be the last seconds of her life. She felt scared. So scared. She thought after Hammad died, she would welcome death with open arms, but now as it knocked at her door, she was hesitant to open the door.
