Arina

Chapter Twenty-Two

She wiped the tears from her face before slowly ascending and staring out of the window. Her entire hopes for her old life had been ripped away from her with the death of Baba. There would be no way she could go back to her old life, after all, what was left of her old life? She was alone in the world. Alone and vulnerable.

With tears still falling from her eyes, she continued staring at the sky in all its vicissitudes, admiring its natural beauty. It looked so peaceful and Arina wished that she could feel that way. Instead, her heart was heavy and slow with pain.

           “We should go,” she heard behind her. It was Kos, who was unusually dressed in black, for that was the tradition of funerals. “We don’t want to be late,” she added, softly.

Kos had done her best trying to persuade Mustafa to let Arina attend the funeral. She had told him that after the event, Arina would go back to her old ways of working efficiently and forget about Baba. Though, everyone knew this was not actually the case.

Arina nodded weakly. D had organised the entire funeral for Arina because she was too upset to do so. She was glad he had done that, but still didn’t want this funeral to come. It would be the time she’d be forced to say goodbye finally and Arina didn’t want that. She just couldn’t accept the fact that he was gone.

She turned around to leave but saw another figure standing there, in black. It was Natalie.

           “What are you doing?” Kos asked her.

           “I’m goin’  to the funeral too,” she answered assertively. Both Kos and Arina looked at Natalie weirdly. Why would she was to attend the funeral with Arina and Kos? It’s not like she even knew Isaak.

When Natalie saw the perplexed faces of Kos and Arina, she said, “I want to show my support, all right?” That was also weird because Natalie didn’t seem like the kind of person to want to show her support, but Arina thought there couldn’t be any other reason for her wanting to accompany them, so she accepted that reason. Maybe Natalie was turning a new leaf and being nice for once?

The trio- Arina, Kos and Natalie- walked downstairs to get to the car, but sitting there, with a cigarette in his mouth was Mustafa. He jumped up at the sight of the three people.

           “What is this?! I didn’t agree to her going as well!” He argued, pointing to Natalie.

           “I am going to the funeral whether you like it or not,” was her quick response.

She turned to leave but Mustafa walked over to her and grabbed her by the elbow.

           “If you leave now, I promise you will regret it when you get back,” he threatened.

Natalie froze for a moment. She looked from Arina to Kos and then back to Mustafa. His stench was horrible and his hands were holding onto her elbow incredibly violently.

           “Well, I’ll see you then,” she said bravely, before pulling her elbow free from Mustafa’s grasp and walking out.

Kos and Arina shared a shocked look, whilst Mustafa just stood there defeated and embarrassed. He grumbled angrily, but before he could say anything more, Natalie, Arina and Kos were out of the building.

Arina was glad that Kos and Natalie were going with her. Kos was the only adult figure she now had in her life so her support would be immense, and Natalie understood how it felt to lose someone just recently so her support would also prove to be valuable.

They made their way to the car, which D was driving, and all sat down. D looked at Arina- who was absolutely broken- and immediately wanted to make her feel better, but he knew there was nothing he could do.