Sidratul Muntaha

Chapter 60☄️

Bismillahi Rrahmaani Rraheem •

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu •

Miss me? Here you go.

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Rushi climbed up the balustrade of the balcony and settled herself on the window ledge near it. She wanted to think. Never before had she felt so alone in her life, except for that one moment when everything she knew in her life had slipped away. That was the day when she had felt like she was going to die. Part of her had felt elated to realize that she would soon meet her family and part of her had been terrified as she was being dragged towards the raging fire that had already ended the lives of her family. A little far away, her sister Mizra was crying uncontrollably and feebly trying to protest. Rushi closed her eyes as memories began to flock her and drown her.

"No no! Don't kill her please!" Rushi had heard Mizra shout as she pushed away the hands that held her captive. Mizra had finally grasped the gravity of the situation and her actions. She had then realized what she had just done. Sure, she had arranged the pyre herself, but now as she watched the bodies of her parents char and sizzle in the fire, she understood how foolishly she had caused her family's downfall. Yet, it was too late. She had thought the villagers would forgive her parents for deviating from fire and her family would be frightened into submission. What she hadn't known was that Rushi was learning weaponry, a crime that coupled with the deviation from the fire became much serious and abhorrent according to their culture. She had then shown that she supported the villagers by arranging the pyre but secretly had believed that it won't exceed to this extent, but it had. The moment Shaiz and Ziyar were killed, she had known, that she had killed her family.

Rushi had lost all the fight from within her and was allowing them to drag her towards the fire. Her heart was in tatters, as it burnt in the fire of grief. What was the use of her life when everything she had wanted to live for was becoming ashes right before her eyes? Her throat was constricting, causing her difficulties in breathing. The tears in her eyes had dried up because the grief within her was too great to be measured by tears. Her heart was turning to stone.

'Don't worry! Allah is with us...' She heard her father's whisper once again. She looked around in shock and hope but there wasn't anyone except unfriendly faces.

"Alllllllaaaaahhhhh!" She shouted in fury and pain. Her grief shook the whole gathering as everything stilled for seconds. She sobbed as the memories of her family danced before her eyes. "Allahh." She whispered. "Allah." It was the only word that she could speak right then. So she said it again and again. And if she wouldn't have then her heart would have burst out of her chest due to her pain.

"Don't Father!" The chief's daughter shouted. She was ten. "Don't kill her."

"From where did you come here?" The chief shouted. "I had asked you to stay indoors."

"Father please I beg you my good father, don't do this. This will just make us killers. Please don't be so heartless father." The girl begged. She was dark and beautiful. Her eyes shone with kindness and her sharp nose was petite as she sniffled.

"I don't want you here. You dared to disobey me and rush to this place despite my warnings?" The chief raged. The girl trembled but watched Rushi with sympathy. Rushi closed her eyes as her heart refused to calm down.

The chief walked towards the young girl and tried to steer her away towards their home, but the girl was resisting mildly. The chief finally had had enough and pushed the girl in the direction of their home, not realising that a fire was burning on, in the way. The girl lost her balance and fell face first in the fire. She screamed in agony and began to run here and there in her efforts to put out the fire from her clothes and to cool down her face. The villagers were trying their best too to help her and get her some water soon, but the girl had soon lost her life, breathing her last, as the pain became unbearable. The chief stood in a haze as he watched the body of his daughter burning some distance away from Rushi's burnt family. He shouted in rage as he watched Rushi murderously.