Masked

《14》

                       •{the mask}•                                                                      
  "W-What?"

A mere whisper was all that could leave her lips, after hearing what she had never expected to be the reason behind his behaviour that night.

Then had she expected anything at all? 

"Yes. That man, who hurt you, it was one of my two personalities, Salih. He comes when I'm triggered by something."

He spoke, all the while looking down at the floor, as she stared at him. She could sense the discomfort in his tone clearly, it was clear that he did not want to talk about it, but had still chose to, because of her.

Only because of her.

Her tears had dried now. She felt numb to anything else that he said, how he was now, again, looking into her eyes and apologizing for that unfortunate night. 

"I'll make sure this never happens again, so please, do not tell this to anyone."

Her heart shook a little inside her chest, when she heard the last sentence.

He doesn't trust me, I'm just like anyone else in his eyes. 

She laughed insincerely at herself, for always making up stuff that would never become the actual truth. She had always been the reason behind her broken expectations, and even now, she blamed not the man in front of her but herself. 

"Thank you for telling the truth, Mr. Saalim. And rest assured, I won't tell this to anyone."

She said, with a crooked smile, then bent to pick up the paper pad that had fallen and stood with her hands clenching it.

"Then, do you forgive me?"

He brushed his hands together, anticipated to hear the answer. All he caught, after she had turned again towards the door, was a slight nod of the head sideways, that answered his question.

She opened the door and walked out. 

A brush of air was felt through the hair lying unkemptly over his forehead, and soon he left a huge sigh, as if letting out rain of a huge cloud that had been stuck in his chest.

A cloud of guilt, or was it of remorse? He had close to no idea, neither did he think much of it. It was a certain heaviness, that had been an inconvenience since a few days, and now it had settled down, or even vanished, at least that was what he liked to believe then.

He pulled back the unkempt hair, eyeing the half-filled shelves that surrounded him, at their dusty surface. Then looked down at his rough hands, that too carried the same specks of dust, rubbing them against each other, he put one of them in the pocket of his pants, while the other reached for the door as he proceeded to walk out.

Walking back into the cabins, he could already see her settled down near her best friend, Huda. They exchanged a look, before he sat down, not before giving her a smile, to which she gave an empty nod. He could still picture the thousand emotions that had run across her face as she quietly listened to what he had told her, minutes ago when they were in the storeroom. It wasn't anything strange that he couldn't name even one of them, though he really wished to.