The sound of aeroplanes above them echoed throughout the house, making Mustafa's ears bleed. His heart began to beat hard, feeling his rib cage scream under the pressure. He paced around the house slowly wondering what to do.
Mama was in the kitchen tossing canned foods into a small plastic bag, tears streaming down her face. Mustafa began to enter, he wanted to comfort his mother. He wanted to show her that he cared. He hesitated. He felt almost shy. Why? He didn't know. He walked along the hallway and made his way upstairs where he wanted to lock himself in his room and stay there. The walls seemed to be slowly closing in on him, the longer he lay on his bed the closer they got to him. The mix of emotions within him made a lump grow in his throat that threatened to make him cry. But he held it in. He was strong and couldn't show vulnerability.
There were times during the war where Mustafa and his family had sat together and talked about what they would do if this happened. If they heard a bombing plane. They had had meetings and sat with their neighbours and their friends in Syria rehearsing what they would do. But it had always seemed like a distant idea in Mustafa's head. It was the disbelief that you get when you hear something in the news about ordinary civilians getting bombed. It's not like it would happen to me He would think.
Mustafa walked further along the hallway and climbed up the stairs. Baba was throwing the things inside the family safe into his rucksack. His eyes narrowed on the three passports in his hand. He flicked through each of them before his face began to turn red. Even beyond the piercing sound of the airplane, he could hear Baba's heart pounding in his chest. His eyes errupted, firey.
He was missing a passport.
The sweat on his face had made his jet-black hair stick to his face. He glanced inside the safe, lifted it up from the ground and looked around before letting out a frustrated "huff". He kicked the safe out of frustration and cussed under his breath from the pain it had caused him. Mustafa had to fight to keep his jaw in place. He wasn't used to seeing Baba in this kind state. Baba was a kind and calm man, however today his dark eyes seemed to explode with anger. He could see the veins sticking out from his neck that threatened to rip out from his skin yet he could feel the fear with every breathe Baba took.
"What's wrong Baba?" said a small fragile voice from behind Mustafa. Mustafa turned to see Youssef standing behind him his big brown eye, shaking with fear. Youssef, his five year old brother, clutched his batman mini figure in his hand. Baba said nothing, instead he grabbed the rucksack and emptied all of its contents. He threw it on the ground and began rummaging through the items on the ground.
"Baba, what's wrong?" Youssef insisted. Baba didn't answer and he continued what he was doing.
"Baba-"
"NOTHING HABIBI, GO CALL YOUR MOTHER!" He shouted. "You know what never mind, I'll find her.Ugh, no, no come with me..."
The state of shock that Mustafa was in prevented him from moving and it felt as though his feet were moulded into the floor. The peircing noise of the planes above us only became louder and louder and soon Mustafa could feel the house vibrate.
"ITS A BOMBING PLANE!" Abu Qayss, their neighbour, screamed from outside, "ABU SALIM'S HOUSE HAS BEEN BOMBED... WE MUST LEAVE!"
Screams and shouts echoed in Mustafa's skull and his hands shook.
"What's wrong Mus-" Youssef began breaking into tears, he suddenly hugged Mustafa and Mustafa couldn't bring himself to shake him off. He wrapped his arms around Mustafa's waist and he could feel Youssef's hands shake.
"YOUSSEF, MUSTAFA... WE MUST LEAVE. HURRY!" Baba shouted from downstairs.
Youssef began to run downstairs, tripping every few steps and Mustafa began to follow but stopped for a moment and rushed back upstairs.
Something told him that they wouldn't be back for a while.
He ran back upstairs skipping a step for every leap. Reaching his room, Mustafa threw his covers off his bed in search for something. His eye darted to something across the room, a small brown notebook with a pen strapped to the side of it. He crawled onto the bed and grabbed it before sprinting back downstairs. As his foot finally touched the ground he an incredibly loud noise split his skull as he was blasted into mid air.
It was all a load of chaos, that started with chaos and ended in even more chaos.
