Love is Faith (An Islamic love story) *completed*

Being consumed...

The time was passing. He and Rehan were acting normal and never talked about his past.
Zohaib too tried to keep himself busy in his work. Children were totally in love with him. They would gather round him at night and tell him the whole day's happenings. He was trying to make himself happy with all this but something was not right. He was being consumed slowly by something fatal. He could not detect what it was but knew that it would get worse. One of the evidence came into scene when one day sitting in his room the door creaked open and a lady entered, with a glass of water in her hand. She was the cook there and had brought water for he had asked for it.

Zohaib was still busy in his work sitting beside a little table. He permitted the person to enter upon knocking but did not look up from his work.

The lady extended the glass with both her hands, one was holding the plate beneath it and the other held the lid over the glass. He was so engrossed in his work that he tried to hold the glass without looking up, while their hands accidentally brushed. He pulled away his hand abruptly like a reflex and jumped up from his seat with pale face and round eyes while the glass slipped from their hands and clanked into pieces on the wet floor.

"I'm sorry....!!I'm sorry!!...I didn't mean it....I'm sorry..."

He felt a burning sensation on his hand that  touched hers. The woman stood astonished.

"It's okay sir..."

She tried to calm him down but he was not in his senses anymore. He kept on repeating the words. He was not apologizing for the broken glass, she knew.

"I didn't mean it...I'm sorry...!!"

Repeating this he rushed out of the room and walked swiftly towards the balcony at the back. He ran his hand through his hair and tried to calm himself and even his breathes but they didn't. Some scenes from the past flashed in front of him. He held her hand. She was screaming but he he did not care.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

It felt like he was drowning in deep water and was trying to take in air and breath properly but he was unable to do so. He felt suffocated and his breathes got even worse. He held the railing to keep himself intact. This had been happening with him every night after he saw those terrible dreams and woke up panting with a thudding heart.

"Hammad are you okay?" He heard Rehan from behind him but couldn't respond him.

"Oh my God w...what happened to you??"

Rehan came closer and saw him breathing hardly and took him immediately to his room and called the doctor from nearby.
He was diagnosed with Asthma. The doctor told them that he was under big stress due to which his health was getting worse and that he must take care of himself otherwise this could lead to many other problems, that might be fatal too.

   *****

Naveen took a vital part in taking care of his health. She delightedly did that. He had to keep the inhaler with him all the time now. She would scold him for not taking his medicines on time or not eating the breakfast and he would get amused by her attitude. He saw his reflection in her. He too was like her once, stubborn and dominating.

"I'll tell aunt Sara that you haven't finished your meal, you know she scolds us when we do this!"

Naveen placed her little hands on her waist and scolded him in an angry tony furrowing her light eyebrows. He smiled at her.

"Okay ma'am as you wish." He resumed his meal.

    *****

The dreams never stopped horrifying him to death in the nights and he would rarely sleep. He tried hard to smile and to conceal his inner storms in front of others. He did not want anyone to know anything about him. Only Rehan knew about him but he too avoided to talk over this issue.