Hushed Confessions | ✔

{21} Bulletproof

"I wasn't."

I inhaled a sharp breath. "I know, and I'm glad that Allah kept you alive."

That was all that needed to be said and the air around us became lighter. My father took a couple steps towards us, placing a hand on my shoulder. Hamza smiled as he sat on Ridwan's bed, gazing up at his older brother. 

We were a mess of a family, we were going through the unbearable, but we had each other. That was all we needed.

* * * *

"Malik!" exclaimed Ridwan as Malik casually strolled into the hospital room. "You look a lot older than the last time I saw you, with your purple eyebags and wrinkles."

Hamza stifled his laughter while my father rolled his eyes.

"Nice to know that you're back to your old self, my friend."

"We're friends, now? Wow, I fall asleep for a couple of weeks and I miss everything," joked Ridwan, a smirk playing on his lips.

Malik turned to my father. "Do all your kids have the same sense of humor?" he playfully questioned.

"Sadly," he sighed, exaggeratedly.

My mother softly laughed at her husband's response. My father turned to her with a warming smile from hearing her laugh and I inwardly sighed. It was awhile since my mother allowed herself  to enjoy the pleasure that life had to offer. 

Malik grinned, walking closer to Ridwan. He tucked his hands in his pockets, blowing his brown hair out of his face. My eyes caught the movement of his mouth as he chuckled at something Ridwan said. His hazel eyes sparkled and I never realized how much I loved gazing at them.

I mentally slapped myself. Really? Since when did I become such a sappy girl, I thought dryly. 

"So you guys catch the killer yet?" asked Ridwan.

Malik shook his head. "I wish we did."

"Stop wishing and start finding."

"It's not that easy," he nervously chuckled. "But Cole is examining the license plate and security footage. 

"Wait," I cut in, "there's security footage?"

Malik nodded.

Crossing my arms over my chest, I said, "And you forgot to tell me about it?"

"It slipped my mind," he shrugged. 

"That's so professional," I replied, sarcastically as I tried to ignore the intensity of his gaze. 

He smirked. "I try."

Malik was one of the only guys who could keep a conversation with me without missing the point. I could tease him all I wanted and he would still shoot back at me with a response. He could match my mind in a way that no other man could.

"I did come here to ask a favor."

All heads turned to Malik with questioning looks.

"What?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

What is he up to?

Malik's eyes landed on my form, his gaze softening at me. In the previous days, he had shown a different side to me. He wasn't the hateful man I met before, he was changing, and it was visible to everyone around him. He had sat beside me as I prayed with tears streaming down his cheeks. I had never seen Malik so vulnerable.

His face was stripped of all the emotions he tried to hide the day Mr. and Mrs. Hollen were pronounced dead. He laid his heart out to me, silently listening to the duaa (small prayer) I made for the both of us. 

Malik sinned, but he regretted them. His guilt was a constant knife that stabbed the back of his body. It was a burn mark on his skin and he knew it. 

"I want to teach Sajdaa how to use a gun," Malik announced in a clear voice. 

"Absolutely not," responded Dad. 

"Sir-"

"I don't want my daughter learning how to use a weapon as dangerous as that."

"I understand that, but it would serve in her best interest," Malik tried to reason. 

My father's eyes blazed with anger at the words he was hearing. The veins on his neck were prominent as blood pulsed through them in a sporadic way. Small lines etched onto his forehead, making him age ten years more. 

"Dad, wait," ordered Ridwan. "Hear him out. Officer Malik knows what he's doing."

"He wants to teach her how to use a gun!" exclaimed Dad. 

Mom stood up, grabbing her husband's arm. She was a stout woman, reaching only up to his shoulders, but she had an enormous influence over him. My mother had the ability of a hawk, sensing every bad decision before it was implemented. 

"She needs to learn," she spoke in her soothing voice that lured my father in one too many times. "Our daughter's life is at risk. Will you be able to deal with her death when the time comes?"

Dad turned his head away from her. "No."

"Then we have to trust this young man to teach her." She turned to Hamza and I. "Hamza will be there with her."

"Is that legal?" asked Hamza.

Malik pondered it. "Well, I can't teach Hamza to use a gun because he's a minor."

"Sajdaa is a minor too," argued Dad. 

"You're right, but due to the amount of deaths in the area and Sajdaa being the prime target, we have to take precautions. If the police is nowhere near her like at the Hollen's house then she's going to need a defense. I got her cleared by the department," he said.

"How in the world did you accomplish that?" questioned Hamza with wide eyes. 

"It took a couple hours and a six hour presentation."

"Forget I asked," Hamza muttered under his breath.

The room went silent for a moment. My mother looked at me with gentle eyes, urging me to put my input in the argument. She rubbed soothing circles on my father's back in order to calm him down. Hamza and Ridwan curiously glanced at me. 

Holding a weapon, with the intent to one day use it, scared me to no ends. A bullet would be fired at my control, my trigger. I could cause the end of someone's life because of it. Bullets pierced through the unbreakable, through the weak, and through the innocents. I would not be one to harm someone due to satisfaction and adrenaline.

But I wasn't going to let another person find that same pleasure and ruin lives. Perhaps, I was bulletproof in the eyes of many, but the serial killer's victims were not. They were vulnerable souls that had a lifetime to live for, they had loved ones to care for. Too much blood was spilled on these lands, too many lives were taken by a sharp hatred, and I was sick of wondering who would fall next. 

"Let's do this."

Assalamualaikum guys! 

This book used to be #79 in Humor ;-;

We gotta get our rank back.

Malik is growing up so fast *wipes tears* AND YES RIDWAN IS ALIVE. Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow!