UNDER 168 HOURS [BOOK 1, 168 HOURS SERIES]

Chapter 58: Humaira Gains Freedom

Clouds rose against the sky like a smoke from a volcano. There was thunder rumblings in a distance. The air was heavy and thick. Humaira clinged to her skin as she became nervous. Tears gathered in her eyes as she observed the place.

"Where on Earth am I?" She looked around.

All the sky was dark, lingered with a bit of red. So was the soil. She was alone in an old rusty field... But there was no rainfall. The wind tossed the dry plants about, rattling them all against the wind.

"Humaira..."

Someone called her name in the sweet, gentle voice of her dead mother.

She turned back. The ghost stood in the graveyard, wrapped up all in white veil from head to toe. Her skin looked so dark and rusty which made Binta's ghost looked even more scary as the edge of her clothes flowing in the rush of the wind.

"Mother..." Humaira cried slowly. A drop of tear from her eyes lingered down her chin.

"Humaira... You've disgraced me."

"I'm sorry mum..." She managed to say. Her mouth immediately felt dump and dry. "Forgive me."she started trembling as if she's would pee in her pants.

"It me, your mother." Binta smiled.

Humaira knew that smile, she wears it anytime she wronged her and it's a sign that she has forgiven her.

Humaira gently faced her mother but the place was windy so she covered her face a little.

Humaira smiled back too.

"I lived a good life Humaira but my bad deeds are weighing my good deeds down that's why I'm delayed. I'll be finally have peace when the both of you live a good life, Humaira."

"But why mother?..."

"Go! Save your sister and make me happy."

"But I'm imprisoned mother, how do I get out of here?"

She smiled again and slowly faded into the thin air.

"Mother! Mother!!" Humaira called but her mother was gone. She flung herself backward onto the ground where she had been standing, pressing her bones into the earth above where hers lay. Humaira dug her fingers into the dirt and held on tight, tighter. Voices rose up through the ground.

The voices of the dead, full of decay, of worms, choked with rot. Humaira felt their words in her bones.

"Go!" She heard again. "Go and save your sister!"

It was as if her mother's voice was echoing in the wind.

They spoke of a storm, and wind and rain washed over her thin body, soaking her all over. They spoke of betrayal, the death of love, and her mouth ran red with blood, thick and salty.

They whispered of vengeance, and her legs ached from the chase, and the howls of the hunted echoed in her ears.

They told Humaira of falling beneath the ground, and dreaming the graves that covered them. 'Save your sister!'