Her Encounter | Islamic Story

Chapter 25

Since the morning, the house had been turned into a sort of graveyard. A quiet breakfast, probably because Abdullah wasn't allowed on the dining. Everyone talked in low hushed voices as if death was already upon us. Mrs Azar would give me reassuring smiles at every eye contact, which made me guiltier, considering the fact that it was I getting her daughter into trouble and it should be me giving her reassurances. But I couldn't give her that for I wasn't even sure myself. To say we could be dead next day by this time who knows.

After breakfast Aiza went to her parents' room while I sat in hers just thinking and thinking. I had vague plans about what to do next, how to disguise but I only wished Uncle was around for he would have better ideas.

Aiza's soft mattress had been my solace since the last night. For minutes at end I would stare at some object in her girly room. She was such a happy and cheerful person; her room was an evidence of that. I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself for unleashing hell in their comfortable lives.

I didn't hear Aiza coming in the room. Only when she sat on the edge of the bed and removed her scarf and threw it on me to wake me up from my world did I notice her.

"What are you thinking?" Aiza asked playing with something in her hands, which I couldn't make out since I was lying.

"What could I be thinking about?" I replied, knowing she understood. I sat up straight and noticed the blue tulips in her hands. Aiza nodded and got up to put the flowers in the vase placed on the nightstand by her bed.

"They were her favorite," I said looking at the flowers. She was back on the bed, sitting near me now but I kept staring at the flowera.

"Whose?" She asked. I didn't know what her expression was for I was still caught up in the trance, memories threatening to surface.

"Venessa's. Every vase in our house had them, these blue tulips, she would permit nothing else. The whole garden too had almost only these tulips grown on them. She was just like you." I turned my head to look in Aiza's eyes who was smiling.

I had locked up every feeling in me since forever; I think it really was time for me to open up. Even I didn't tell Axan about my feelings regarding all this, I wanted to keep them to myself for I found them very personal to share, but now I wanted to tell everything to someone. Who better to entrust than someone who was practically laying her life down for me.

"She was always cheerful, happy, and bright and was a potterhead like you too," I laughed lightly and she took my hand and stroked it, her smile becoming warmer. "But she didn't get to read the last part you know. She was so excited for it but then Mom was stolen from us, and then she didn't care anymore. Even if she did, her own murder happened before the release date."

"Oh Denae," she said warmly and enveloped me in a huge hug. I laid my head on her chest. I had nothing more to say. The memories I had pressed deep down started to creep up.

From among my family, hers were the memories I had denied to look back at. Truth be told, I was slowly trying to convince myself that I had no sister, and, well, I did succeed in that for years at end. It helped the pain but no more, I need every memory to live through the life that was waiting for me just out of this threshold.

Aiza started to speak while stroking my waist length highlighted brown hair, "When yesterday you told me about your Mum's murder, I thought it was bad enough, and your Dad's was too. But when you recounted how your sister had died, I don't know if you noticed or not but I was weeping there sitting on the sofa. How hard it must have been to you to see your sister get killed in front of your own eyes."