Short Stories - Tales of Night

Difficult to Handle (III)

Maybe he was just drunk and didn't know what he was doing?

"Wahaj...?" She whispered, loud enough that he turned his head and squinted his eyes in her direction. She felt the wave of familiarity surge over her at his gaze and helplessly ran towards him.

She crashed with his back and wrapped her delicate hands around his torso as the sobs took control. "Wahaj...what happened....y–you hit me...I had to....we are....Wahaj...!"

She cried on his back and he the memories of him losing the important deal resurfaced in his mind. His jaw clenched at her wails and with his already throbbing head, it didn't help.

He detached himself from her as she watched everything in perplexity, her mind refusing to comprehend the surroundings. She only saw his darkened eyes but she had no one to console her. She stepped in front again to fall in his embrace and hoping for him to console her saying that it was a bad mistake.

He pushed her and she fell on the bed, her fortress of hopes crushing down at his maddened glare.

"Wahaj! What're you doing?! We're going to be parents!" She screamed at him, seeing that he began unbuckling his belt with his glare focused on her. He stopped and furrowed his brows at the detail she spilled. But a moment later, rage clouded his conscience again.

"What did you say?" He growled out and Yasmin kept a protective hand over her belly, at his furious onyx eyes.

"I said that you are going to be a father, Wahaj. What is wrong with you? What is this all? You are scaring me. You even slapped me yesterday. I don't understand....I don't....please stop...please hold me in your arms. I'm scared." Yasmin cried in her hands, not able to deal with the fear anymore. Her head, her cheek, her face, her chest and her stomach, everything hurt and she only wanted him to envelope her in his embrace.

He caught her throat in his strong grip, strangling her because her cries increased his headache and she stared at him with wide, shocked eyes.

That day she discovered that certainly her marriage was not a bed of roses.

She tightened the shawl around her shoulders when a cold gust of wind blew over her. The memories would haunt her but the Almighty had gotten her out of it, at least. Indeed, this world was a test and she hoped that she would gain a position in front of her Lord on the Day they all stand in front of Him.

Her eyes suddenly caught a figure in the lawn. She squinted her eyes from the balcony to get a clear view and the man stared back at her. She recognized him as the bodyguard of Kinza and her heart thudded inside her chest at the way he held her gaze. Fearless and loyal.

She immediately retracted from the railing and hurried inside, leaving the man to crave for just one more glimpse of her broken face.

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Zakariyya and Isa strolled down the alley, noisily licking their ice creams. Zakariyya had to roll his blue eyes when Isa begged him to go to the beach and he couldn't help but steer the car in that direction. The young boy clasped his hand around the elder one, dragging him to the waters.

"C'mon! Today, I'll show you how to make a sand castle. Last time, you made an octopus house." Isa bragged, puffing his chest out and kneeled on the grass with the golden hour making the young boy look a sight to behold.

"Octopus?! Do octopuses even have a house? I made a mermaid's place of living!" Zakariyya scoffed at his brother's claims and Isa perfectly masked the 'Really?' expression.