UNFURLING FATE.

Ami.

"Have you seen him?" I asked no one in particular, it was maama who spoke up,

"Yes, briefly. I think he's tired." I nodded my head and excused myself to tell someone to bring them refreshments but they stopped me,

"We were only waiting for you, we'll leave now." Daddy said, Abbie agreed with him and so they bid me goodbye and started leaving one by one.

I waited to close the door and then went straight up to Generals room, I pushed the door open slowly, he laid on the bed unmoving and seemed to be asleep.

So I sat on the bed and watched him, normally, he would have moved just by my movements or my opening the door, but he remained still.

I couldn't wrap my head around what is going on, so I just sat there and watched him deep in thought for over ten minutes,

Suddenly he started to move, he looked disturbed as he shook fervently, "General?" I moved closer to him,

His eyes remained shut, "General?" I called out his name again. Still he did not wake up but he continued to shake,

Beads of sweat formed around his forehead and neck, "SubhanAllah," I touched his forehead, he was burning up,

"Ami no! No! No!" His voice was low, almost inaudible, but I was leaned in close enough that I heard him, who is Ami?

"Forgive me please, yasmen, Ami!" Now he shook more violently,

Fear consumed me, I ran as fast as I could and dampened a towel, then ran back to the bed and sat beside him, placing his head on my thigh and pressing the damp towel to his forehead,

I recited all the duas I knew on him to get him to calm down, but he continued to trash and call out names, then suddenly, his eyes flew open, he looked at me and then quickly pushed off me, getting up from the bed and sitting on the floor beside it,

I had no time to recover from my shock because my first instinct was to get up and go after him, "General? What's going on?"

His face was placed between his hands as he shook gently, oh Allah, was he crying? I walked beside him and gently knelt next to him.

Leaning in, I hugged him to me as much as I could and rubbed soothing circles on his back, I had no idea what to do to calm him down, it was like he was possessed.

I did the only thing I knew how, I read Quran to him lowly, I read the surah that helps with distress, surahtul duha over and over again as I hugged him to me,

Soon we'd changed positions, he was now laying quietly on my chest, his heart rate matching mine as I continued to recite without stopping since it seemed to be working, i was crushed under his weight but I didn't care,

"Maryaam?" I used to think he said my name like he was unsure, today it came out like it was what he was most familiar with,

I paused my recitation and looked down at him, he was staring into space, "yes?" I answered him,

"What if I killed him too?" Oh God, him who? Jalaal? Too? Who had he killed before,

"He will be fine," i assured the second person today of something i myself wasn't even sure of.

He said nothing after that, until my first tear fell on his neck, id tried so hard to hold it in me, what was the point of both of us crying? Who would help who?

I did not see it coming, I only felt his hand reach out to wipe my tear, "I don't like to see you cry,"

It sounded like the most honest thing he'd ever said. I hugged him tighter, never have I felt so connected to him. It sucked so badly that it was now of all times that I felt this way,