House of Ashes [Complete]

14. Fear | ڈر

•Flashbacks are in bold•

The teenaged girl dancing in the middle stumbled upon her feet due to her sepeedy twirl and fell down on her face while everyone around her laughed at her.

"Where the fuck is your concentration, you filthy piece of shit?" The owner of the brothel strode towards the poor girl, cussing whatever came to his dirty mind.

Grabbing a chunk of her hair from behind, he pulled her up as tears streamed down her forsaken face.

"I'm... sorry!" She mumbled but he didn't listen. He never did.

"You bring me nothing but shame." He spat at her as he slapped her and she collided with the hard wall.

******

Her gaze absorbed in the stark deep trenches socketed in those pitch blackened eyes, submerged in the swirls of brown mud. And in that moment, she felt as if she had seen them before. The same abyss. The same emptiness. It was familiar somehow. Like a déjà vu.

"What?" A scowl deepened on his reddening forehead under her analyzing gaze, his tone laced with irritation and anticipation.

Stealing her eyes away, she looked sideways. "Look, this is not right. We should not intervene. It's their-" But her words died on her dried lips.

"Don't you dare say 'pesonal matter!'..." Reinvigorated with fury, he warned the life out of her as he thrust his forefinger in front of her. "I mean I know you don't give a damn about anyone but yourself, but to be this much nonchalant and inconsiderate?"

"If you think I'm gonna let you and your two cents opinions define my values then you're wrong, Mr. Azlan Shehryar." Her countenance hardened, her cheeks shadowed under the silhouettes of her thick dark lashes.

"I don't have enough time to form opinions about you. Well, I do. Just not for you..."

The irony!

"...so now, either come with me or get the hell out of my way," he said as he sprinted towards the door with long strides.

******

"What the fuck, man?" Calm the hell down!" She squealed as she checked if her seatbelt was still fastened as Azlan drove rashly through the trenched road. "I don't wanna die such a mundane death. Car accidents are way too common. Mine should be unique."

"I may be crazy, don't mind me!" He replied as he turned around a semi circular path while the sun was all set to bid its final goodbye.

Is he seriously quoting Ed Shereen, right now? Fuck you, man! Ugh, no that didn't sound right.

"There's a gorge on my side. Drive slowly, for God's sake!" She screeched in an almost plea like tone as soft wind squished through the rolled-down window and brandished her ashen face drowned in fear.

"Like, I said before; God doesn't call people like you so early," he stated as he tore his shades away and put them on the dashboard, the amber ball not so amber anymore. "But it will be good for your own cause if you fall down."

"Yeah, and how's that?" Her visage entranced with rage and fright as she spun her head towards him, the tendrils of her silky hair flowing in rhythm to the cooing breeze outside.

"The hit on your head might fix that melon inside it."

"HA! HA! HA! Congratulations, you just caused the temperature to fall below zero degree!"

"What do you mean?" He scrunched his brows together.

"Don't worry! Donkeys realize things late." She smiled plastic before asking him to concentrate on the road.

******

"Look woman, just because you teach my son doesn't mean you have become his mother or anything. I know how to look after my son very well. We don't need you!" Ayyan's father warned Safa with his bloodshed eyes stenched with loathe as they stood in the doorway.

"We just want to talk to him. See if he's fine. That's it." Azlan interjected from where he was standing beside Safa.

"Stop behaving as if you're his father when I'm very much alive," the man yelped as he shifted his abhorrent gaze towards Azlan.

"Well, sometimes one's own father can be the biggest villain in their life," he shot back and a shadow crossed Safa's hollow eyes infused with agony and betrayel; an amalgam of tainted past blended in the cluttered pieces of trust and love.

"What do you mean? I am my own son's enemy?" Shouting on top of his lungs, his over grown stubbled face ran scarlet while adrenaline rushed through Safa's body.

"Exactly!" He replied back.

"You're crossing your limits now, Mister. Get the hell out of my house, both of you!" He yelled as he shoved Azlan out by his shoulders and he stumbled.

******

"Told you, there's no point. The man's vile." Safa's voice broke the heavy silence as they walked towards the car.

"Which is why it is more dangerous to keep that child with him," he reasoned as he kicked the stone and it ricocheted on his car's tyre.

She had just opened her mouth to say something when a girl's voice from behind halted both of them in their tracks and they turned around to look.

It was a 14-15 year old girl, running towards them, asking them to stop, as Azlan threw Safa a questioning look and she shrugged her shoulders in return, convulsing her head.

"I... I'm Mansha, Ayyan's sister." Her breaths ran out due to her long-run as she bent on her stomach, putting her hands on her knees.

Rubbing Mansha's back, Safa inquired her the reason for coming after them and if Ayyan was okay.

"Yes... No, he's fine. I mean he's not." She tugged at her messy braid as she wiped her sweat strained face with her shawl.

"What do you mean?" Azlan asked as he shifted his weight from one foot to another.

"I don't know. There's something wrong with him. He runs out of breaths quite so often. I always make sure to feed him well but his health still never gets better. He's effete. I've taken him to the doctor's many times but the medicines never work."

Safas's heart bloated with each symptom she described as her brain strolled down the darkened memory lane of her horrific life, a silent prayer leaving her suddenly parched throat, praying that it wasn't what she thought it was.

"What about your mother? Has she never tried to take him to the hospitals in the city?" Azlan questioned as Safa sniffed in the thick air.

"Well, she would if she were alive."

******

A/N

Phew! Done with exams but now my laptop's acting up otherwise I had initially planned to give y'all a long ass chapter to compensate for my MIA but yayy life!

Had to write this one on my phone and mahnn, was it difficult!!!

Let's just pray I'm able to fix it tomorrow or else I'm doomed! Doomed like Nagini!