BANE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

He had always felt like he wouldn’t be able to spend two minutes in the same place with Mubarak so it was hard to believe that he had spent two weeks with him under the same roof and nothing had gone awry.

He had done it out of obligation and not choice. As funny as it may seem, he missed the smell of the hospital, who would blame him after living there for six years?

He sometimes felt like a nurse would come in at any moment to inform him that it was time for lunch or a session with Hafsy. He didn’t love it, but he missed it.

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He’d had a huge fight with his wife the previous night. She claimed he was losing interest in his family and getting too obsessed with his work. In his opinion, she was being selfish. If it was her daughter who had disappeared, she would have said the opposite.

“Women!” He said out loud.
She refused to say anything to him that morning, he had ignored her too. He had better things to worry about; he didn’t have time for silly women troubles. He’d been asking question for the last few hours.

Nobody in the girl’s neighbourhood saw anything. Maybe he should try connecting the dots, two disappearances at almost the same period. People just don’t disappear in Magneria.

He needed to have a talk with the therapist; he suspected that she knew something, he also had full faith that the matron was clueless; patients just don’t disappear from hospitals.

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Mr Othman stared out the window and watched the passers-by. Some were hurrying to work and others were jogging.

Sabiha had always told him to exercise to stay fit, but he had always waved off the idea. He wished she was here to tell him that now. When Sabiha comes back, there would be a lot of changes. He would be a better father. He thought.

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Men know where they were born, not where they shall die, remembering that saying gave her a chilly feeling. What if she would die here? Nobody knew where she was. She didn’t know why she was thinking of such things, but being locked up would make one think of many things.

She’d had a nightmare about that man, her captor, the previous night. She found it hard to go back to sleep after the dream. She was perspiring all over. Every shadow in the room began to look like a symbol of evil waiting for the right time to attack. She was glad when the first sign of light shone through her window.

“Are you all right?” Naomi asked when she came in.

All right indeed, Sabiha thought sarcastically. “Fine!” She answered.

“Okay!” Naomi replied with a sceptical look on her face but she didn’t ask anymore.

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Their father passed away on a day like this. He had been diagnosed with a heart disease, their mother; Mrs Arwan had spent half her life looking after him.

When he passed away, she handled it with good faith. She loved him like no other. She focused on her children and tried to give them the best life she could manage.

They knew it was a tough day for her as it was for them. They decided to stay with her at home and support her, even though she acted like she didn’t need it.