Qurban

•52• End/ اختتام

The rainy clouds, the dark grey sky, the thunder of lighting. The silence of the birds, the hollowness of the wind, the thump of footsteps. The feel of wet ground beneath his feet, the sight of the body dropping down in the rectangular hole, the dirt that stuck to his nails, hands and arms.

Altamash was immune to everything going on around him. His brain was shut off. No thoughts entered or left. It was like he was acting on robot mode. He knew he had to be here. He knew he had to act strong. He knew he had to keep it together. He didn't think about anything else. All he knew was he had to take care of everything.

As the body lowered into the ground, he suddenly stilled. His hands shivered in the pelting rain as he stared at the dead body of his father.

His father.

The man that he reconnected with just a few weeks before.

And now he was dead. And he was lowering his body six feet underground. Burning him in the dirt.

A touch on his shoulder jerked him alert from his stupor. Subhan looked at him and said softly.

"It's okay, Altamash."

He didn't know if the words registered or not, but he nodded anyway and the body was put in the grave. Wet sand covered the grave hole and suddenly Altamash had lost his father forever.

He wasn't coming back.
He was gone, never to return again.
He was dead.
And he was alone.
*************

Zainab stared at her mother in law from across the room. Nafisa looked like she had aged ten years in a span of two days. Her face had lost all it's colour. Her eyes had sunken through her skin, her cheeks were hollow and her colour was bone white. She resembled a ghost.

Zainab could relate to her. The woman only found out a few days earlier that her husband was innocent all along and never abandoned her. That it was her own father who ruined her life to built his empire. And now her husband was dead. It was a kind of a pain that just couldn't be taken away. It would stay forever. For eternity. Haunting you until the very last breath.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Zainab's bloodshot eyes met Safa's who sat beside her, cradling her sleeping daughter to her chest.

"Hmm." A mumbled response left her lips. She didn't know if she was okay. No. She wasn't okay. She was hurting. Hurting for the mother and son that just lost the most important person in their lives. Hurting for her husband who just got his father back only for him to be snatched from him by a psychopath who couldn't handle the truth.

Yahya Haroon was taken to the hospital at the urgent. By the time, he arrived at the hospital, he already had lost a lot of blood. He undergone surgery, but his wound was fatal and he slipped into a coma.

Two days later, he was pronounced dead.

And that's when their entire world came crashing down. Yahya Haroon was dead and Altamash was unfeeling. Zainab could still see the haunting expression on his face when he heard the news. He was so....quiet. He didn't act. He didn't cry. He didn't shout. He just stood there, as still as a rock, staring at his hands. She tried to talk to him, but the man wasn't opening up. He had shut himself off from the rest of world. Robotically, he made all the funeral arrangements and handled everything perfectly.