GO TO HELL, CAPTAIN (Preview)

19: BONE-RATTLING

She hopes to God Layla isn't caught by the people she is running away from. She didn't tell her the story but she's heard her talking to herself one day in the bathroom asking when the person is going to find out where she is and what he'd do to her. Maybe the person is a serial killer, you just never knows with people nowadays. Why would someone keep chasing her from country to country? It doesn't make sense at all but apparently, not everything is made to make sense to everyone.

But now, they need Zayd more than ever. He can fight all the men around her if there are any. "Please go and find Layla for me. Or I will go out there and endanger myself, fault on you."

Zayd sighed, he was going to go anyway. She is his responsibility now even though he can shun it all that she didn't ask for permission before leaving. That is what is expected of every Muslim married woman, to ask her husband before she steps out of the house or Angels will keep cursing her until she comes back. He can easily back behind that as excuse but he wasn't brought up like that. He's been groomed to respect women, care for them and protect them with his last breath if need be.

Both by his parents and the military.

He left the bed immediately and lurched to his closet to wrestle through a random army green polo shirt and left the house in his khaki shorts. Straddling his Dodge Tomahawk V10 motorbike, he accelerated down the driveway while placing his AirPods to his ears. If he doesn't find her in the next hour, he will ask his friends for his help and if by morning she isn't found, his father will have to know about this and then his mother will be worried for no reason. She likes Layla a bit too much that it doesn't sit well with him at all.

The weather is getting a bit messier now, thunder roaring in warning that no one should be outside. It's eleven in the evening, only a few cars present and himself. Maybe he should also go back home to avoid catching cold that'll definitely come along with fever. He's always loathed flu, it makes him want to go crazy and that is where his weakness has always been. 

There was nothing in the world that Zayd would love more than the sight of Layla rain-soaked and bedraggled.

He had to restrain himself from rubbing his hands together in villainous glee. He would love to watch her curing her own flu with red runny nose, tissue papers all around her and medicines that'll definitely knock her out. Oh, what a sight. There is no way he wouldn't take another picture at the image he's already portrayed in his head. She should be lucky he is not ready to be disowned by his parents, he would've gone back home and rest.

Albeit messy, there is no doubt the weather will be amazing for a long night sleep. It's chilly, the kind of weather that never seize to make him late for training or parade.

Meandering around the whole street where their estate is located, there is no glimpse of Layla. He turned on the lights of his motorbike to the max, lean down to drive into town when something caught his attention by the end of the sidewalk along his right. Furrowed brows and narrowed eyes pierced through the darkness, searching for what got the hairs at his nape to stand at attention. There is nothing he is afraid of, not even a hyena at this moment so the reason why his hairs stood isn't fear but instinct.

There was no sound or any movement to indicate that someone is there but he is sure he felt something and human being is right there. Turning off his bike, he placed his helmet atop the bike and traipsed to the little bush there. A whimper that sounds awfully familiar got discharged deep inside where a garage door stood. He remembered the place damn well because he's played there with his friends after coming back from school. It's now an empty lot, no one visits the place since the roads got reinvented by his grandfather.