*Edit* All of the intro's and story parts were written back in 2016
Assalam o alaikum awesome readers :)
I hope you guys are enjoying the story...
Ready for the 'surprises'...? ;)
Then here you go....
She was awarded scholarship for her studies here in Liverpool, so she could easily afford a department of her own. Though her parents refused for the first time she discussed it with them but she managed to persuade them. It was not a very big apartment, but it was airy and clean.
She came towards the couch in the lounge and dropped herself onto it. She was quite tired after setting up her room. She breathed heavily for sometime then they gradually became regular. Her phone rang jingling the quiet air around. She rose her head from the back of the couch and looked at the screen. It was Ibad.
"Salam baba." She stared in the blank spaces of air.
"Walaikum asalam, dear, you reached there safely?" Ibad's voice was concerened.
"Yes." she meekly replied.
A long pause prevailed.
"Hareem? are you okay?" He became worried.
She stared at her surroundings with an empty glare. This was the real question. Was she okay...? Was she happy..? She searched for the answers but there was silence in response. Why? am i not happy? she thought to herself. I am supposed to be okay...
"Hareem!?!?" Ibad's voice suddenly brought her back from the 'nowhere'.
"Y...Yes baba I'm good." she stammered and tried to be cheerful.
"I...I was just thinking about the study table in front of me...I mean where should I put it..." she covered for herself. Wow....a lie with contentment...she thought bitterly.
Ibad slightly chuckled.
"Okay okay...you tensed me for a while."
She slightly sighed not being noticed.
After a talk of further few moments she hung up.
She again stared at the walls not knowing what she was looking at.
Suddenly she shrugged off her thoughts and went out of the lounge. After a while she returned with Quran pak in her hands. I need peace. She thought to herself sitting on the couch once again and took a deep breath before opening it. She gulped her strange feelings and very slowly opened it with thumping heart. Trying to hold back what was coming, she blinked her eyes several times and tried to concentrate over the words that were written. Sweat drops clustered over her forehead. She felt a great urge to close it but tried to get over it. The next moment holy book was closed with defeated expressions on her face. She took a deep breathe once again.
"Why can't I do this..!?" She thought to herself.
"I am a hafiza!" Her mind yelled.
"Why is this getting on my nerves??"
She closed her eyes. Some familiar scenes started rushing on the canvas of her mind. She suddenly opened her eyes sitting straight.
"No....I've forgotten everything!" Her mind said firmly.
"He is the reason of all this..." Her expressions became strangely harsh.
"He deserved it!" she thought determined.
"He deserved worst than that.." Her teeth gritted.
She immediately shrugged off her mind.
"This is not worth thinking."
She got up from the couch and made herself busy in cleaning the apartment.
*****
She became busy with her life in Liverpool. She studied whole day and later was offered a job, which she willingly accepted. Little time was there for her to look after herself. There was no one with her. Khadija started doing job in london, while Zainab went to California. She was all by herself.
She could not sleep at nights. Not because she was alone, this was not a problem for her, the reason remained concealed to herself too. She had to take pills for this.
"How are you my dear?" Aunt rubina was as cheerful as ever, when she called hareem.
"I'm fine." hareem replied.
"Are you taking your meals in time?" She sounded like a mother.
"Yes." Hareem hesitated.
"Good." aunt said. "Oh hareem I forgot to tell you one thing!" She immediately resumed.
Hareem waited quietly.
"We...I mean, me and your aunt nabiha are going to organize a big charity event here in London, Hammad will be here too...Oh he's such a decent guy!" She exclaimed with sheer affection.
"So I'll be glad if you join us here if you get any free time..." She waited a while for hareem to speak, then continued.
"It'd be great you'll meet Hammad too plus you know I miss you...don't you?"
Hareem opened her mouth to refuse, as soon as she heard of Hammad, but at the last sentence of her aunt, that she was missing her, she could not gather courage to refuse. She sighed.
"Okay...I'll be there."
*****
She was in London at her aunt's place. Aunt nabiha had called her few minutes back asking her to pick some papers from her.
She was not feeling good today. Her heart beat was going irregular and a sharp sensation of pain arose now and then and swept through the chest.
She stopped her aunt's car in front of her house. She did not at all want to go any where but she could not refuse her aunt.
She came out of the car and walked towards the main door. It was opened. She hesitated for a while and looked around to find someone but there was no one around. She sighed and entered the house. It was pretty big and beautiful too.
She walked through the porch and froze to her place. There he was. (What if I ended the chapter right here? ;) )
He was dressed in a decent formal dress...brown dress pant with white shirt. The coat was hanging around his wrist. He was Hammad. A decent looking person.
There gazes met for an instant as he passed by her. She instantly looked away. The pain in her head had been teasing her since morning.
"Assalam o alaikum..." He addressed Hareem.
"Walaikum asalam." She was getting annoyed, why? she didn't know.
He looked at her with an expression.
"Whom you want to meet?"
She decoded his expression quickly, in order to get rid of him, and said.
"Aunt nabiha called me..." She said in a stern actually harsh tone.
"Yeah...she's inside." he smiled like a professionalist with a nod as he passed by her and exited the main door.
Hareem gritted her teeth and went inside.
"Oh here you are pretty girl...I was waiting for you."
Aunt Nabiha kissed her cheek and greeted warmly. Hareem relaxed her nerves and tried to smile a little.
"If you had come just a few moments earlier you would have met Hammad..." She smiled at her.
Hareem looked at her with no expression. She did not tell her that she had already met him...
*****
She was looking at the kid playing with his ball. She was sitting in a room filled with orphan children getting ready for the event. Aunt nabiha and aunt rubina were outside greeting the guests. Hammad, as she was told, had gone back to Bristol, due to some urgent work that came up. She was annoyed by his name. Actually she got annoyed easily nowadays.
She looked at that child who was sticking his tongue out unknowingly, while playing.
Her phone rang all of a sudden. She saw the number and her features stiffened. It was from the office.
"Miss Naaz I have settled your meeting with that company next Tuesday." It was her colleague.
Hareem's face turned red. She gritted her teeth and burst upon her.
"Who told you to do that?" She shouted.
The child's ball crept accidentally near her. He looked at her, then approached.
"Who gave you the authority to decide things for me." Her tone was really harsh.
The child looked astonished at her.
"No! I won't be doing any meeting next week!"
Her voice was stern, her manner rigid. The boy was getting scared, she looked at him but said nothing. He took his ball and went back.
She hung up.
She held her head in her hands and after breathing deeply, to calm herself down looked up at the boy again.
"Hey come here." she called him politely, trying to overcome her aggression.
The boy's eyes became round and he stared at her for a moment, then hesitatingly stepped towards her.
"What's you're name?" She smiled a little.
The boy looked scared and did not answer.
Hareem noticed his expressions.
"Why are you scared?" She asked drawing him near.
The boy kept silent for an instant then spoke hesitatingly.
"I don't like you..." he said in a weak voice, his body trembled a little. Hareem smiled at his sentence.
"Why?" she asked.
"...because you treat people like dogs...Allah doesn't love such people..." he loosened his hand slowly from her grip that was itself loosened and ran back to his place leaving Hareem with a dead heart and face turning white...
*****
Four years had passed...
She was back in Liverpool after the event. She was lying in her bed with a pale face. It was already 4 a.m. but she could not sleep...
Her eyes were opened wide staring at the walls and roof of the room.
"What is happening to me..?" she thought.
"Why did he say that..?" she thought about the child.
"What have I done..?"
Her eyebrows furrowed in the middle.
"Nothing..!"
Her eyes seemed searching for something.
"No....." her mind whispered,
she assured herself.
"He deserved it..."
She was lying like a dead person.
"He did this to me..."
"He deserved it..."
With this thought she felt contented and pulled the side drawer and took out the sleeping pills. After gulping them she changed her course, trying once more to sleep...
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