A Moment in the Courthouse of Time

CHAPTER 5: The Leaden Prophet

Blood ran down his wide cheeks as he scowled at his own shadow in helplessness. Slowly walking towards it, he burst out into a hysterical laughter, with his body swinging in the air like a dense cloud. His slick and dark hair, free-falling all over his scarred face, illuminated a sweaty and teary appearance. He pounded his face into a nearby wall with such maniac force that a nail in the wall of a marred shelter graced him with a mark on the upper right side of his nose, gouging his eye out. His slender body illustrated his worn-out bones romancing his skin so passionately that even his heart could be felt beating, even standing a mile apart. Murmuring, laughing, crying and scratching; it all screamed his existence into a dark abyss, where each screech scorched the hell. The beam of light, which was abetting his shadow to stay alive, suddenly divulged it with life and flung a weary wing on one side and an elegant wing on the other.

"Whomst shall cry my name?" asked the gritty voice in a calm yet lumpy manner. Ignoring everything around him, he kept thumping his head into the wall until a stream of crimson blood starting flowing down off his eyelids. Fresh drops of blood cascaded on his lips, setting his conscience ablaze and engulfed his soul. Ardently moving his tongue on his bloody lips, he squinted his eyes, looking at his hands. Wearing red like an ornament, his unkempt fingers danced in an uncluttered manner. Blood seeped through his nails, and all he could see was a red blurry vision of a moving picture. "You are late, she's already gone", his eyes cried blood with an altruistic smile. "That's what left of her", pointing at the inert body of Sultan's sister, whose cyanosed throat was voicelessly shrieking in a pond of blood, in the ending moments of a dismantled decade.

*** FEW MONTHS AGO, IN 2029 ***

Sadaf had been getting ready for the era of The Ravagers since the moment she left Zain and her son in the later on. She was now fully aware of the coming devastation and had found a place to safely survive the outbreak of The Red Flu and The Ravagers. The sky began abandoning amenity to dingy and sunless days as Sadaf walked into the yesterday. The mitigating atmosphere around her started to turn into deafening screams. Her tear-soaked eyes in the damp air searched for an end to her misery. She was traumatized to the idea of finding a survivor now. Every existing atom of hers agitatedly looked towards her dreads empathetically.

Sadaf was greatly stuffed with ration, but staying in complete seclusion for two months already started taking a toll on her mental stress. Her sanity was being challenged in the courthouse of time and these indefinite minutes clung to her like a disease which was not recuperating for a long time now.

Sadaf was finally lucky enough to find a clear, starry night. She took her food atop a nearby abandoned building and devoured in utmost serenity. Sadaf was happy to breathe the undried air before moving into the tainted past. She conversed with the quietness of that night with no tears in quite a while now. She spotted an old, fragile man with a white lion's mane facial hair, sleeping at the edge of the street in complete filth. He had a placard hanging around his neck, reading: "3 handkerchiefs for 100 only" on it. Sadaf realized in that moment that despite being away from her real home, she still was in a position to eat and function properly. It was an emotional warfare for her. Sadaf climbed down to the sleeping old guy, left a can of beans beside him and left without making a noise.

Sadaf was unaware that a Ravager was observing the entirety of this in silence and watched her walking back into her bunker. He rushed back to the establishment to apprise about the same to the sachem of faction - Sultan. Sultan was a neurotic with bland features, yet a dexterous leader. He had sewn this officialdom from a heap of scattered souls. He provided for his faction at all cost. Everything was orderly organized for all the people; children, women, elderly and men. Each one of them was assigned a task, and everyone assumed their role mindfully to structure their own world amid the atmosphere of upheaval. Sultan was a lunatic and little disturbed, but only if anyone tries to harm his sister - Adara. He had even gone to the extent of butchering others over it. Not killing, but butchering. Adara adopted this name after they both lost their family in the aftermath of The Red Flu, and also when her younger brother was killed few years ago in a conflict. Adara and Sultan proved their mettle during the epidemic with this sanctuary. Sultan has been organizing this sanctuary for almost 9 years already, and despite having a troubled past, the virtuosity with which Sultan handled everything was remarkable.