The Hooded Hijabi

Incomplete

"Baba", I whisper. "Baba, I miss you."

"I miss you, too, my baby", I hear him say.

"Take me with you, baba. I miss you", I say as a tear rolls down my temple.

"Stay strong, sweety. For Ali. For your Ma. For me. Stay strong. You've fought so well, my baby. Baba's proud of you. Don't give up so soon. Baba needs you to fight. Baba loves you, Amina. Baba loves you and Ali", he says with the smile I had missed seeing for years.

"Baba", I whisper yet again as his face begins to disappear in thin air.

Gradually, all the voices surrounding me begin to get clearer and the faded block pattern on the roof becomes clearly visible. I hear something falling hard on the floor followed by footsteps of someone running.

I tilt my body sideways, laying on the cold floor and see Ali attacking Raymond. The ropes that tied Ali were lying on the floor beside an old pocket knife.

"Ali", I struggle to get the words out.

"Ali!", my voice getting slightly louder. I put my hand on my bullet wound to stop the blood flow and raise my head slowly. I get on my knees and force myself up on my feet, my head getting heavier with every step I take towards the men struggling to overpower one another.

Lila intently watches the two men fight, puzzled by her inability to figure out what to do. As soon as she sees me staggering towards Ali, she rushes towards me.

But before she could reach me, Ali grabs hold of the handgun lying on the floor a few steps away from his feet and points it towards Raymond.

Suddenly it's so quiet, I can hear the blood in my ears. For the first time I see fear in Raymond's eyes. Fear of losing his life. Ali's fingers are wrapped so confidently around the gun that Raymond and Lila do not dare move. Only I see the twinkle in Ali's eyes, the subtle movement of his toe and a bead of sweat crawling down his neck.

Ali, please don't. Ali.

The silence in the gigantic room becomes deafening and unbearable with every passing second.

In an abrupt motion, Raymond lunges at Ali and grabs hold of his shoulders while Ali struggles to aim the gun at him. Meanwhile, I rush forward and the next second the pocket knife in my chest is removed and I aim for Raymond. 

Stay strong, sweety. For Ali.

Lila tries to get me off Raymond but my grip on his shirt is too strong. "No!", Ali shouts and shoves me away.  I land flat on my face and hear a gun shot.

I lift my head and see Raymond falling on the floor, blood oozing out of the gun wound in his neck. Time must have slowed down because in a second that seemed like minutes, I am unable to comprehend what just happened.

Lila lets out a scream and rushes towards Ali. She twists Ali's hand and points the gun in his hand towards his chest. P-taff! She shoots him right in his chest. In a blink of an eye, Lila becomes the second murderer present in the room.

Tears appear in Ali's blank eyes as he stumbles and falls down. I stumble in an attempt to get up, my eyes fixed on my baby brother and mind hazy. I force my legs to move and reach Ali, suddenly unaware of any pain in my body.

Meanwhile, Lila grabs hold of Raymond and begins to cry over her brother's body lying in the pool of his blood.

I hold Ali and put his head in my laps, softly telling him,"Shh, it's going to be alright. Sshh, I'm here, Ali. You're going to be okay." We sit there with my hand clutched to his chest, trying to slow down the blood flow.

I look around for a mobile phone and see one lying on the table. I am about to get up when I hear sirens of a police car. Lila sits with her head buried in her brother's chest, unaware of her surroundings.

Ali's body begins to shake lightly as he struggles for breath, his body losing blood faster than before. I cup his face in my shaking hands as tears from my eyes drop on his cheeks.

"Sor-ry, I...couldn't ..pro-..tect you", he struggles to whisper as I hold him in my arms. I hear footsteps behind me and a familiar voice calling out my name.

"La illaha illalahu, Muhammad ur Rasoolullahhh", whispers Ali. In the laam and hay Ali takes his last breath.

I feel his stiff body slowly relaxing in my embrace, his hand slipping off my back and landing on the ground. I raise my head, still crying and see his jet black, lifeless eyes stare back at me unblinkingly. I gaze at him, unable to comprehend the look on his face.

"Ali?", I whisper. "Ali?", I repeat, shaking his shoulder slightly. I shake it even faster when my fifteen year old brother ignores my cries.

"Ali!", I cry out. "Wake up, Ali! Wake up! Wake up, Ali! Why won't you wake up, you jerk! Ali!", I shout at the top of my lungs. "Why, Ali, why? Why didn't you let me kill him? Whyyyy?"

It finally hits me that my baby brother was asleep. Fast asleep. He was with baba. "Ali", I say, my voice barely audible. My scream of agony fills the whole room as I sit there with my dead brother in my arms.

I feel a hand on my shoulder but my eyes refuse to see anyone except Ali. The hands around me slowly pick me up from the ground, wrapping them around me. I cry out Ali's name in the chest of a man as my tears wet his shirt.

He caresses my head and holds me tightly, making sure I don't fall down. I hear some men pick Ali up and I get myself out of the man's arms. A few young men in white uniform take Ali, Rachel and Raymond on stretchers whereas, two policemen handcuff Lila.

"Ali! Where are you taking him! Ali!", I yell and take a step forward but the man holds me back and hugs me from behind saying,"He's going home. Shh, he's going home. Let's go. Let's go see Ali."

I turn to face him and see Azan looking dolefully at me, still holding me from my arms one of which is bleeding. "Ali", I whisper as a tear escapes my eye and I look into his eyes pleadingly.

"Yes, Ali", he says reassuringly and nods.

Azan helps me get on a stretcher as two ambulancemen take me to an ambulance. As I'm taken outside I catch a glimpse of a man leaning on his heavy bike in a corner. Our eyes meet for a brief moment, his eyes immensely sad. He takes a step forward but then stops.

The next moment I'm lying inside an ambulance with Azan sitting by my side, holding my hand. As selfish as it may sound I could not care about Mustafa or Rachel right now. I just lost my brother; the man I love the most, the man I spent fifteen years of my life with, the man who could give his life for me, the man who completes me - completed me. I will never be whole again.

"Ali", I whisper as I close my eyes and drift into sleep because of the sedatives injected into me.

<End of Chapter 36>

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Author's Note: Hi, guys. For the first time I'm going to make an unusual request. I do look forward to your feedback but let's not give any suggestions for this chapter (about how the story should've proceeded).

Writing this chap had proven to be rather difficult for me since Ali's character is based on my little brother. So imagining his death scene and putting it in words was pretty emotional.

I'll try my best to write better in shaa Allah. Loss of Ali will leave a mark and I hope that someday Amina and I can cope with it.

With that said, peace out.
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Update:
Before the edit, Amina was the one who killed Raymond but that would have meant Amina was liable for manslaughter under the UK Law. This would not have allowed HH to have the kind of ending I had in mind so yep, things had to change and Ali is officially the one to kill Raymond.

Our big boy saving the world, eh! His world. Dayum. (All those feels, though)