Qurban

•46• Revelation / انکشاف

Zainab folded the last bit of laundry and finally heaved a deep sigh. Her eyes strayed to the window watching the sun set behind the clouds as the Maghrib call of prayer echoed in the atmosphere. Her eyes chanced a look at the clock and her forehead deepened in a crease.

It's been hours.
Hours since Altamash left home.

"I'll be back in a bit. Just some work."

She remembered those words so accurately. But he's been gone longer than a bit. He's been away all day. She tried calling him, but every time the call would go through voicemail. Her fingers grabbed her phone as she dialed his number once again.

"The number you have dialed is currently-"

She cut the call and threw her phone on the bed frustratingly. Worry captured her heart in a fist. She felt a tremor running down her spine, a fear seeping in her bones, horror flowing in her veins. Horrid flashbacks of a  previous night, same as this one haunted her.

Hammad missing for hours.
Subhan announcing that he died.

Her breaths started to shake. Her hands started trembling. She felt her chest churning, her lungs constricting. Putting her hands onto the ground, she heaved a deep breath, trying to control her erratic breathing.

She was getting a panic attack.

As the realization dawned on her, she quickly acted on her impulses and crawled to her bed side table. Her clammy hands grabbed the pills, her hands constantly shaking as she dropped the pill in her mouth before gulping it down with water, some of the water droplets trickling down her chin. She folded her hands on her knees and rocked back and forth. The sky turned darker. The night quickly falling, taking away the last bits of light with it.

Zainab's eyes were glued to the door. Like it would burst open any moment and Altamash would come running in, his solid arms cocooning her in his all so familiar warmth, the sense of security and safety would surround and all her worries would be gone. But all she felt was the cold gust of wind, taunting her, mocking her of the fact that she was lonely in this desolate dark night. Zainab's fists clenched on her knees as she begged for only one thing

'Come home, Altamash.'
****************

Six hours.
For six hours Altamash has been driving around endlessly after receiving that unexpected and shocking call.

For six hours he's been trying to wrap his mind around the fact that his father was very much alive and well. Not that he ever believe he died. Call it intuition, but he knew he was alive. That he was out there somewhere. He just decided to abandon him and his mother.

All his life he believed his father was a bad guy. A man with no morals or qualms. A man of no dignity and even less honour. A man who wouldn't even bat an eye and abandon his family like a used tissue paper.

Now that the prospect was in question that may be his grandfather had played a role in damaging yet another of one his relationships, he was in a dilemma. If what Humayun said was true than Altamash couldn't know what could be more worse. Him blaming his father when he was innocent all along or him confronting his grandfather for his heinous crimes.

For all that matters, he firstly had to find out the reality. The truth that was buried deliberately to satisfy Idris's demands and advances.

Altamash's eyes chanced a glance at his watch. The clock was about to struck ten in the night. He's been waiting for over an hour. He came early as he had nowhere else to go. He wanted answers so he came here and decided to wait.

Suddenly Altamash felt a presence surrounding him. The glass of the passenger window knocked and he heaved a deep sigh before moving his eyes up to the sound of the noise. Momentarily, his breath suspended. Breathing became a foreign process as he stared, spell bound at the same eyes he inherited.