Sidratul Muntaha

Chapter 69🌠

Bismillahi Rrahmaani Rraheem •

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu•

Dear readers, Jazakallahu khair for all the kind words you all have been uttering. You all are beautiful and amazing. Jazakallahu khair for the beautiful support. And here you go...

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Sidratul Muntaha winced as she moved the wrong way and felt her stitch tighten near her chest.

"I hate sorcerers." She whispered to herself and tried to ease herself on the bed.

"Need help?" She heard Daarim. He was watching her while waggling his eyebrows. She frowned at him.

"You know Vareesha is close to me right? The next time I see you waggle the pair I will complain to her." She told him seriously.

"Why?" Daarim threw his hands up in frustration. "Why do Jibreel and you, both of you threaten me with Vareesha? Do I look like she scares me?" He enquired mockingly. "I mean look at me! I am a warrior! Do you think a teeny tiny woman like Vareesha could scare me?"

"Vareesha! How nice of you to join us!" Sidra exclaimed suddenly. Daarim turned around hastily.

"I was just joki-" He stopped when he saw there was no one. Sidra was laughing in amusement. He turned back towards her. "Not funny!"

"Ohh! But does that teeny tiny woman scare you big warrior?" Sidra joked.

"Okay okay I deserved that." Daarim pacified her. "Now... do you need help?"

"I am fine. I moved the wrong way." Sidra replied.

"Why didn't you call someone?" Daarim asked. Sidra watched the door carefully before she gestured Daarim to come over. He walked nearer curiously.

"I am scared." She whispered. Daarim watched her in shock.

"What! You are scared? You faced the sorcerers so bravely and you say you are scared here?" He almost shouted.

"Ssh!" Sidra hastily whispered. He quieted down and watched her. "I am not scared of this place! I am scared of Raabel!"

"What! Why?" Daarim was genuinely curious now. "She is one of the gentlest elder I have ever met. Why are you scared of her?"

"Daarim you promise me you won't laugh." Sidra whispered as she looked away. Daarim promised her. "She made me feel so emotional Daarim!" Sidra told him quietly. "I felt like... like my mother had suddenly begun to love me." She whispered. Daarim stilled. "Since I can remember, I don't remember my mother ever loving me. My father too kept me at a distance. They loved Amiza, but when it was me, they always distanced me." She chuckled bitterly. "It was only later I knew why. Because they didn't want any emotional attachment with me. I thought all of this was normal, I have never seen what familial love looks like. My family in the true sense has always been Amiza. But she was quite young and understood very later regarding my distance from the family. By then, I had never experienced that physical gentleness from a mother or a father. I had never been hugged by my mother, never been lifted up in the air by my father. My brothers never pulled my hair or kissed my forehead. And for me this untouchability became normal. It became the way I lived." Sidra stopped and looked at Daarim, who had gone pale. He looked heartbroken for her. She smiled slightly at him to indicate that she was fine. Some how she had developed this immunity. And even though her heart had ached long ago to experience that love from her family, now she had let it go. Her Allah had held her heart firm for her. She remembered how when she had fallen down when she was young, she had rushed to her mother and her mother had just taken care of the wound and never said a word to her except not to fool around. But when Avik, Arvan or Amiza had fallen, Ratfa had hugged them and kissed their wounds. Then, she hadn't understood and it had hurt her a lot, but gradually, she had learned to accept it as life. "And then I met Muntaha." Sidra whispered. Daarim had stilled again but this time because of the whole world that he could see in Sidra's eyes. She was long lost in his memories now. "Muntaha was the first person to hold onto me when my world was burning. He comforted me and taught me what the safety of being with someone meant. When I am with him, I feel like Allah had enabled my whole protection through him. And then I went away. We met in the valley and that was the time I learned about a different kind of comfort. In all this, the feeling of familial love has preluded me thoroughly. Some days ago when Raabel hugged me and kissed my forehead. She made me feel something which I have never felt in my life before. Amiza was loving and caring but she is my sister and I am the elder one. I have been motherly to her and she had always taken comfort. For the first time in my life Daarim, I felt touched by a mother. I felt like those arms that have hugged me and those lips that had kissed my forehead belonged to my mother. Daarim I felt scared of that feeling. Is it normal?" She asked him and for the very first time since he departed from Muntaha he wished Muntaha was the one who had come here instead. Because wallahi, this pain which had exploded in his chest for this sister, was too unbearable for him. This pain which Sidra's innocent question had brought with it wasn't something he could handle. Muntaha would have handled everything thoroughly but Muntaha wasn't here. "I am scared that if I call out, Raabel would be the first one to respond and make me feel those feelings again and I am scared of setting her off. I am not used to such love. I am not used to these familial touches." And Daarim couldn't speak a word in response because he didn't understand what would be an appropriate answer to such a question. As he watched her, he realised that she was genuinely curious and not at all emotional, and that broke him some more. Didn't she know what she has been deprived from? He stayed silent and wished that Allah saved him from answering.