FACETS # 1 | First draft
•We are like parallel lines; Always close-never together.•
Days of planning.
A moment of distraction.
A woman violated.
A man framed.
Sometimes it takes a catastrophic turn of events in one's life to head in the direction it...
"And it was after months of silence that I realized we make better strangers than we ever did anything else. "
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It was later that night when Bilal returned to an empty house with her.
She didn't see Zafar or Aunt Javeria calling for her or helping her inside, everyone had left her all alone at his mercy, the man she knew once and who had destroyed her.
"May I help you with the bag?" Bilal asked even when he knew her answer.
"Don't. Just leave my sight," She grated out, blinking back the tears welling in her eyes. She wouldn't look at him.
Bilal obliged, he left her outside the main door to her explosive thoughts. He never intended to trouble her any more than it was necessary when he brought her with him so he chose to walk away from her, ignoring her presence in his house and his heart, all the same as shame ate away at him.
Munizeh's gaze followed him until he disappeared at the end of the long corridor. Into his room? She knew not so she stayed in her place for some time, watching and waiting. Praying. When he didn't come back, she entered with her heart lodged in her throat, her bag trailed behind her. Munizeh shut the door, the creak echoed loudly in the silence of the room and she hurried into the first room she saw on her left, she locked it.
Munizeh left her bag beside the wall to look around the room, she dragged a chair and propped it under the knob, testing it so it won't give away if he- She dared not take any risks with him in the same house as her.
Munizeh picked a bottle of perfume from the vanity and uncapped it. Then and only then, she collapsed on the bed, her head cover still intact.
Tears streamed down her cheeks, she didn't even know when she had begun to cry. Her eyes didn't waiver once they settled on the door until sleep engulfed her in its arms. She had been far too exhausted to resist the urge to close her eyes, she had tried her hardest but she failed, nonetheless.
Bilal had wanted to check up on her, he had simply resisted the desire to do so at night, allowing her to settle in as best as he could in the awful circumstances. He only left his room in the morning, after offering his Tahajjud prayers.
He hadn't even known the room she had chosen but the light winking at him from under the door was enough to tell him so when he had walked into the dimly lit room.
Bilal almost sat at the vacant seat in the living room to gaze at the closed door of her room but dismissed the ridiculous idea as soon as it came. He didn't want to cause her any more distress and she would most likely grill him alive if she saw him in the vicinity of her room.
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Bilal was suited in dark attire, ready to leave for the hotel even before the clock struck six in the morning, he needed to be earlier than his brother or Ashar.
