House of Ashes [Complete]

42. Destruction | تباہی

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­­Mornings are a sign of new beginning but those early hues don't always have to be filled with hope. Sometimes those are just a melancholic start of an even lugubrious end. But that does not mean the end of the end will be the mirror image of the beginning. The journey might be galore with thorns but destiny could be beautiful. As peaceful as the first croon of bird in the morning. As pure as the tear shed during midnight prayer.

Propped up on the barstool at the counter, she was halfway through the second cup of coffee when a soft knock emerged on the door.

"I'll go check." Asmara piqued in as she put a hand on Safa's slouched shoulder who wasn't bothered in the least, anyway.

"I just wanted to hug her one last time." Mansha's gloomy voice traversed the premises of the living room like the last sunset. Excruciating and an indication of nothing but darkness ahead.

Wait... what do you mean?" Completely unconcerned by her surroundings, the words took Safa by arrant shock as she spun around, abruptly.

With doleful eyes, Mansha strode towards her with calculated steps. "We're leaving!" Her voice was torn apart as it carried the burden of thousand years and a pain of eternity.

"Leaving?" Her face contorted into bafflement as she gawked at her.

With a slight nod, Mansha took Safa's hands in hers and dropped a lingering kiss on them. "Thank you so much for everything you did for us. You were no less than a mother to both of us. I wish I could live with you forever, but we have decided to leave this place. It's too painful to live here. I lost both mama and Ayy..." her voice cracked as a ball of tear scratched her throat, mimicking her eyes. "...it's just too difficult. I can't do this anymore. We are leaving for Karachi this evening. Baba has promised he'll admit me in the best school. He has completely changed. He's not the same anymore. He even makes breakfast for the both of us and we do all other chores together as well." A saddening smile had occupied her lips. "But you just don't worry. I'll call you every day. Promise."

It took her a minute to process all this information but she understood and she was happy for her.

"I'll miss you so much, my bacha!" Pulling her in a tight hug, she stroke her braided hair. "And I pray to Allah that wherever you go in life, it serves you with the best of everything."

"Ameen!" Asmara sniffed from where she was drinking at the heart wrenching sight."

All three of them, then, had breakfast together which included less conversation and more Mansha and Asmara throwing concerned glances at each other at the change in Safa's behavior.

******

The night glow of the moon flapped its wings over a saturnine Azlan as he devoured the serenity of the ripples forming on the surface of the sea from where he was sprawled in the bench. His initial goal was to just get the information from the person he was here to get it from, but after everything he had heard, his brain went numb. He had fallen too weak to go back to Pakistan. He needed some time to register everything in his head. It was too agonizing. He needed space.

Lost in his own chain of thoughts, his trance was broken by a loud cry of the kid who had just tripped over the football he was playing with.