Operation: Dard and Devotion

38 | Zapped & Zealous

I wanted to collapse on the floor right after taking in his slightly disfigured face. From the picture in the newspaper clipping, I knew he had bruised his cheekbone somehow, but he also had another one forming at the end of his jaw, right below his left ear. On top of all of that, the dark circles under his eyes were heavier than before. However, all I could manage to do was to freeze in my tracks while my hands shook within my long sleeves.

"Why are you staring at me like you've never seen me before?" Ahsan asked, not unkindly.

"Oh." I blinked, not realizing that I had been gawking at him. "I...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare. I just-"

"No worries," he assured me. "So you're here for half an hour?"

I nodded, untying my veil because I suddenly felt as though I was suffocating. It took all my energy and willpower to not lock my gaze with his own because I didn't want to make him uncomfortable again by staring - even though I did not want to take my eyes off of him. And so, I stared at everything se in the room.

Heat flared up my neck when I noticed, through my peripheral vision, he was staring at me.

He broke the ice and followed my gaze around the room. "I used to be in one of those cells with the metal bar door a few weeks ago. It was really damp, moldy and cramped. There was a guard assigned to each inmate. They shifted me to this side of the prison just about a week ago - perks of being a good boy." He smiled at me expectantly and then continued when I remained silent. "It's nicer on this end. It's clean and quiet." He briefly glanced towards the armed men on the other side of the glass wall who stood on either side of the doorway, occasionally looking inside.

"There's even a digital clock built into the walls," Ahsan said, pointing to the large clock right above the door, "which is great because without any windows in here to see the sunlight, it's a bit difficult to know the time of day."

After tomorrow, he won't be able to see the time of day ever again.

The reality of that hit me even more so because he was inches away, and I suddenly bursted into tears.

"And they also- Hayat, why are you crying?" Ahsan nearly reached out to tug on my wrist but quickly pulled away when he noticed that one of the guards had checked up on us.

Wait.

Is it possible that Ahsan has no idea...?

Oh my God!

I wiped my face with my sleeves before turning to, my eyes and nose were most likely visibly red. " D-don't you k-know?"

"Know what?"

God, God, God, why do I have to be the one to break the news to him??

"Don't you know what t-tomorrow is?"

Ahsan nodded casually, unperturbed. "Tomorrow is Monday, right?"

My bottom lip trembled, disallowing me to speak coherently. "The n-nineteenth," I said with emphasis.

"Oh," he said, nodding again. "I didn't know the exact date. Lost track of days, you know."

My heart sunk to the pits of my stomach.

"Tomorrow is Monday, the nineteenth of October," I stated more firmly.

"Yes," he said slowly, searching my face with a peculiar expression. "You just said that."

"And after tomorrow-"

"It'll be Tuesday."

I couldn't hold it in any longer.