About us.

Closer,hopefully.

It had been almost two days. Two days since Hussain. As I much as I hate to disagree,I had started losing hope. I just started imagining everyone to forget about him. All of us. Even myself.

All of us will get over the fact that there was this one night,when Hussain never came back. And we searched for him for days. Weeks. Months. Even years. But then we stopped. Because our hearts were tired and our brains were numb. Everybody got used to it. We got over it. And lived life the normal way,minus one important person. And then one day,Hussain will come back. Looking shabby and his clothes reeking. With a long beard that hides all his emotions. One day.

But then I looked at Shehry. And the way there was always this hopeful look on his face. And that shimmer in his eyes. It always told me that Hussain will come back soon. And that he's okay.
We had now told Hussain's parents and Maha about Hussain. We had subtracted a few parts,but we still told them. They were all now at our apartment. Obviously we all had to stay in the city where Hussain was last seen.
The police department were doing their best in finding Hussain,but all of the efforts were in vain. Then,one night,I decided to go look for Hussain myself. I knew that I wasn't going to do any better than the police,but maybe I'll be able to search for something. Anything.

At 10 pm at night,I took my bag pack and started stuffing torch and stuff like that in it. I decided to not tell anyone about it,because they would try and stop me. And I was so not ready for more arguments. I was tired. And the only thing that could give me strength right now was Hussain's scent. And his smile. And his arms around me.

I was sneaking outside when all of a sudden somebody turned on the light beside me.
"Hania?" It was Shehry bhai.
I sighed.
"Please,bhai. Don't stop me. Mein Hussain ko dhoondnay jaa rahi hun." I said. And I knew that I sounded pretty childish,but I had nothing else to say. And I wanted to go right now. So bad.
Both of us remained silent. I hadn't turned around to face him,I was still facing the door,my hand on the knob. I could've ignored him and runaway,to the taxi I had called earlier. But I knew that Shehry bhai didn't deserve this. He was feeling the same as me. Probably worse.
"Paanch (5) minute ruko gey?" I heard him say.
And then I turned around and he was already looking for something around the house.
"Whaat.." I whispered.
And then he found his car keys and came towards me.
"Chalo." He said,almost out of breath.
"Uh..nai. Aap kiyu-" I said but he cut me off.
"Hania. We don't have time for this. Please. Lets just go before amma or anyone else wakes up."
And then he opened the door and I followed him. In the parking lot,I apologised to the taxi driver but he started shouting at me because I had him waiting for 30 minutes and now I was asking him to leave. Shehry had to give him 100 dollars,to shut him up.
After that,we sat in Shehry's car and silently drove out of the parking lot.
"So?" He asked.
"So?" I replied.
He raised his eyebrows,"whats the plan? Kaha dhoondna hei?"
I was speechless.
"Oh wow. No plan? Nice."
"Shehry bhai I told you,you didn't have to come.." I whispered.
"Okay,I'm sorry. Lets follow the route to his office. And stop at every remote place in between and search over there." He said. And it looked like he had already planned on doing this too. I nodded and he drove away.

The way to Hussain's office was simple and easy but there were a lot of stops in between. And one of the road passed between two forests. The forests were on each side of the wide road and they weren't so thin. But they definitely looked pretty scary. The road at this hour of the night wasn't so crowded,so we parked the car at one of the corners and got off.
"Is your torch ready?" Shehry asked me.
"Yes." I said. And then we started walking inside the thin forest.