Highest Ranking #1 22.10.1
Jellal never knew things will turn out worse after his beloved's death. Even after eight years all he wanted to do was mourn but it seemed like God had other plans, his brother was assassinated which made him the next emp...
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Every journey has a destination. Or so Jellal had thought. The tiring journey of a month had exhausted him. He seemed like he was wandering around aimlessly. With every moon rise, he felt degraded. Like he had lost each day to emptiness. He saw the looks that Salim gave him, of pity. He had thought of returning. Countless times he decided to turn around. But somewhere, he felt like she needed him. Like she was calling him. It made him restless as he did not know where she was.
What scared him the most was what if she chose to stay? Stay away from Agra, stay away from him? He wondered why she had chose to go with him? Salim looked at him with pity and the same look sometimes flashed in Farookh's eyes. He doubted if they knew something that he did not know.
Each day grew longer and longer and no matter how many breaks he cut from the day, they never seemed to reach. Jellal felt like he was walking only to arrive at the same place.
Finally they arrived at a small village situated at the foot of a mountain. They dragged their feet faster against the stony roads. He did not know why but Farookh seemed quite anxious too. He pointed to a small brick house that stood in isolation beside a small stream.
Jellal didn't know why, he ran. He ran towards it. His legs sloshed in the stream. He crossed the stream. He felt his exhaustion wash away with every step. Fear crept in his heart. Something is not right. He thought. This faction of the village seemed quite empty. There were no children running around like they had encountered on the way.
His steps slowed down. He felt his fear pulling him back. He still trudged forward with heavy steps. He reached the end of the stream. That was when the odour hit him. The same odour that had hit his nostrils in Salim's study that day. Proving his doubt, he saw two rotting corpses at the doorway.
The blood around them had dried around them, their gashes and cuts were already a feast fort moths. He wanted to barge inside the hut see if she was okay. He couldn't move his legs. Fear had grounded him in his place. He wondered if the dead body on Salim's study table was actually hers? As questions and doubts swarmed his mind, Farookh had already barged inside the room.
"Ruh Jaan!" He bellowed in fear.
He stood dumbstruck, the room was empty. Rather it was a mess like a storm had sweeped it along with it. Earthern pots were cracked, its pieces strewn all across the room. Farookh opened the back door and called again, this time faintly, "Ruh Jaan?"
Jellal walked behind him numb. The back of the house had a private bath area with high walls. The grass was high and topped with purple flowers. They were fenced in, indicating they had been planted intentionally. A huge apple tree stood at a side, it's fruits hanging from the branches. From one of it's branches was a thin rope tied in a straight line to a pole. On the clothes line was one of her skirts and her dupatta which she had tied in two knots to prevent from flying.
It was all proof that she breathed and lived there. His chest clumped in pain. He caught the dupatta as his legs gave away. It ripped in his hands as he fell to ground. It seemed surreal as he struggled to breathe.
***
"What is this Farookh? Where is Ruh Begum? I told you to take care pf her. Where is she?" Salim ranted to him.
Farookh couldn't speak as he was thrown down by the blow on his jaw. Before he could recover from the shock, Jellal had kicked him. Salim looked in shock as Jellal hit Farookh furiously. His face held a beastly expression. His eyes were red with streams flowing down from them.
"Where is she?! You killed her! Now you die too!" Jellal bellowed furiously. Jellal threw himself over him and gripped his neck strangling Farookh.
Before something worse could happen Salim tried to pull him away from Farookh. "What are you looking at? Help me!" He ordered the guards behind him. They barely managed to pull him away. He was still trashing in his hold. Salim held him until he calmed down.
"He killed her...the body in your study was hers..." He heard Jellal mutter.
"No Jellal! I told you that was not Ruh. She was with Farookh, here, all these time."
He let Jellal go. "How do you know!" He screamed. "How?! Were you involved with him ?!"
Salim stood in silence because that was the truth. Soon Jellal understood his silence and stumbled back in shock. "You were?" He muttered through gritted teeth. "You were!" Jellal answered himself. He punched him too. Again. Thrice, till he was tired.
"Why?!" He raked his hand through his hair.
"As much as you think Farookh is the bad guy, he is not. I am not too. Why you ask? I don't know which why you are asking about. Why we hid her here? Why didn't we tell you about it? All of it has only one answer, because she wanted it. Ruh begum wanted all this." He said calmly.
Jellal dropped his face in his cupped palms. His shoulders shook as his chest erupted in laughs. He cackled loudly, his voice echoing in the silence. His laugh almost seemed maniacal. "You're telling me, that the woman I love and who loves me dearly wanted to stay at this God awful mountains, away from me! Why? Because she was dying? Why would she do that?" His voice went down to almost a whimper cracking mercilessly.
"She was not dying." That was the first time that Farookh spoke to Jellal in months.
"Don't." Salim stopped him.
"Let him know, he has the right to know." Farookh said after spitting the blood from his mouth.
"No! It would only hurt him like she said, it would not help." Salim tried to him.
"No, Salim. He has the right to know. He is the father."
*** I don't want to hear anyone complaining about the chapter being short and the time between the updates is too long. I'm a busy person. I have an exam coming up and I shouldn't be uploading at all. All my chapters are of the same length, if you guys missed it, I'm an amateur writer, not a professional one. And I'm like in depression bouts these days. I wrote this at 1 a.m. so yeah if you guys can't appreciate it, don't say anything at all.
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Yes, Ruh/ Nadiya wasn't dying. If you guys know, nausea, mood swings, loss of appetite are symptoms of pregnancy too.
