Third Person's POV
Aliyu decides to stay and help his father with the company stuff before duty calls, the other reason is to find the masked girl in the real world. He didn't know when she slipped away after their passing without saying goodbye and he already knew she planned that to be the last time they see each other again, what she doesn't know is that he cannot let her go.
He didn't know how attached he had become to spending his time with her for nine months in a row without skipping a day, until these three months without her. Not a day had gone without her running on his mind and he found himself looking for her in every masked woman he came across. He thought what he felt for her before was strong but he questioned that right now. The feeling is a million times stronger than it was before. He wants to be with her, feel her pain, heal with her, and be by her side forever. She's a gem that he cannot lose. He wants her for him. He pictured her as his Hafsat even before he knew her name and who she was and after he did, it added to the love and respect he had for her.
It was shocking when he saw her again, he thought he was dreaming. Her eyes widened in surprise when he called her name, he didn't know how much he missed reading those expressions until then. He was pretty excited to talk to her again. He always tells himself to keep his feelings in place when he is with her but he never does so.
Seeing her with the therapist guy took all the excitement in him away, he don't like how he is with her and not him. His legs took him towards them on their own, the conversation they were on seemed intense and she escaped it immediately after Yusuf joined them. He didn't need her to introduce him because he had recognized him from the other night when he followed her.
"So you are the man that brought food" He started after Yusuf and her went to another bench. "And I guess you are the one that drugs people"
Two can play the belittling game.
He managed to find out when her flight was departing the next day before he retired to bed. He cannot let her slip away from him again.
She finds herself in Suhail's room for the first time since he was gone, the room was earlier locked up by her mother because they could not handle the pressure and it has not been open for almost three years. She believed she was ready to take whatever emotion the room had to offer.
The room reeked of dust because of being locked up but the scent of his cologne still lingers, she find herself smiling at the smell. It had been a while. She stands in front of the bed giving the room a good look over like it's her first time in it. She still remembers how he always kept it clean and tidy, everything had its place to be kept. She rummaged through his now empty closet and found a few items that were his favorite that Mommy couldn't give away, she took his favorite blue hoodie and a red sweatshirt. It was like she was walking through a memory lane while she was in the room, she could feel his presence.
She saw his phone on the bedside table, it was one of his things that Ummah and Mommy did not give out. She brought it out and it charging cord from the pack and plugged it in charge to go through it for the last time. She decided to stay for the night in there once she started looking at the pictures, she went back to her room and got her laptop before telling her parents that she would be sleeping in there.
She sent all his pictures and videos into her system as she played and watched it like a movie, She laughed and found joy at some while she wept and gloomed down at the others. That was how she spent most of the night until she checked through his messages with her. She had lost her phone when she was kidnapped and she didn't sign back in with her profile when she got another one, to avoid bringing back the memories. That was why she had not seen the messages he sent to her while she was away or reread their old chats.
She started from the very first time they started talking on the phone and the feeling was great. She did the same thing she did while looking at the pictures, she sobbed at some and smiled at some. Memories are what make death both unforgettable and painful, sometimes they make you smile and other times leave a scar on your heart.
It was late by the time she came to the end of their chat which was the time they were on video call when Fatima came in. He had sent several texts thirty minutes after the call had ended, he was asking about the so-called gift.
"Tell me what it was" ✔️ 00:54 am
"Where are you???" ✔️ 00:59 am
"Hafsaaaaaaaaaaaa"
"Babe come on"
"Answer me"
"You cannot fall asleep"
✔️ 01:02 am
He called her four times afterward.
"I'm pretty sure you're ignoring me on purpose" ✔️01:07am
"Is it Fatima? The gift? Or do you just feel like making me suffer?" ✔️ 01:10 am
He called again, twice.
"Anything but a silent treatment" ✔️01:12am
"Will you talk to me if I tell you what rayuwa am' means in English?"✔️ 01:13 am
"Answer the phone love"✔️ 01:15 am
He called again.
"It is my life"✔️ 01:18 am
"You are my life Hafsat.
I do not see a life without you,
I cannot tell you how much you mean to me"✔️ 01:20 am
If only she could go back in time, she would have not followed Fatima outside, she would have not join the school in the first place. She did not go to Korea for the fear of being away from him for years again but she ended up being away from him for life. Their happily ever after was cut short, just when it started.
"I will let it slide this one time, you cannot fall asleep again without bidding me good night"✔️ 01:25 am
"I hope you have said your duaa"✔️ 01:25 am
"See you tomorrow.
I love you more than life itself"
✔️ 01:26 am
She stopped there as she tried to suppress her emotions from ripping through her like a flood.
Meeting again at Adamawa, coming back home, starting university, her birthday, and a few months after it. It was roughly a year and three months, they had only spent fifteen months together after they had been away for ten years. Adding the five months they spent together as kids to the months they spent after they had grown up makes twenty months. They had only spent twenty months together out of their life and he was gone already. Twenty months of unforgettable memories, twenty months of beautiful days, twenty months that will last her forever, enough to cherish for all the years to come.
She read the remaining messages that were sent the following day, he was yet again trying to reach her and asking where she dropped her phone. That was the last time he had sent a text to her, the last time he would ever text or call her.
Had she read this while she was in her worst moments, she would have not known how to react. But now that she had accepted her Qadr and moved on, she got off the bed and performed ablution then said a two raka'ah prayer and then prayed for him, something she always did when she remembered him. Allah knows why he has taken him away from her life. She prayed for his soul to rest in peace, for Allah's mercy upon him, for his mistakes to be forgiven, and for jannatul fiddausi to become his final abode.
The pain that was lying dormant might spring up and make itself felt in every cell of her body. The grief would present itself fresh as wet paint. She would have to gather every piece of her strength, every refresh will feel like another punch and she have to start all over again. That showed how she had learned to accept and live with it.
She spent the night surrounded by his memories, under his duvet his scent engulfing her whole. She is thankful for everything. She might always wish it doesn't work out this way but she doesn't know what Allah has in store for her. She awaits for his blessings.
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.
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In the stars by Benson Boone should start playing🤧