*Mild trigger warning*: harrassment and assault
Don't forget to vote! Comment as you read, or may I say read as you comment x'D.
Claire hummed a tune as she collected her books for the next day. She was deleting a few reminders on her phone when it beeped with a text. She smiled, expecting a text from her brother to update her on his progress with Salma. However, her smile turned into a frown realizing the text was from Lena. Claire quickly read the invitation to another party and declined the offer.
Before turning back to her work, she composed a quick text to her brother and hit send.
*Claire: Hey, how's it going so far? :P
*Claire: Hope she hasn't killed you already x'D
Chuckling to herself, she reread their conversation from earlier.
*Claire: The power will be down a minute after she's out of the lab. Mission 'Woo the Bee' is a go😏.
*Zayn: Stop calling it that!
Then five minutes of silence later.
*Claire: How's it going bro👀?
*Claire: Zayn?
*Claire: Zaynnnnnn?
*Zayn: Will you stop it!
*Claire: Dude, chill out. With a temper like yours, you'll end up killing her if she says 'no'🙄.
*Zayn: Replace the '-ll' with '-ss' and that's what I plan on doing to her lol
*Claire: Damn right bro. She'll be the one killing you after you try kissing her🤭.
*Zayn: She's out of the lab. Cut the power.
*Claire: Ahhh, is it too early to say R.I.P?
*Zayn: 🤬
*Claire: Sorry, sorry. Power's going down. Good Luck. Avoid the 'Ls'!🤣😘
Claire laughed as she walked into the kitchen with her books in hand. Placing the them on the counter, she reached up into the cabinet where she had hidden the last box of Mrs. Jackson's - their neighbour's - freshly baked cookies from Niall .
She stretched her hand towards the back of the small space but the box was missing. Claire frowned, standing on her toes to get a better look. She sank back to her heels and turned her face towards the door.
"Niall! Have you seen Mrs. -"
Claire cut short abruptly when her phone started to ring. Her brow furrowed with confusion to see the number. She picked it up.
"Hello?"
Claire paled and her mouth dropped open.
"No! Oh dear God, no!" Claire muttered frantically.
Cutting the call, she made a run out of the kitchen and straight upstairs.
"Niall!" Claire yelled, her voice frantic while she knocked on his door non-stop, "Niall! Open up!"
The door flung open revealing a startled looking Niall.
"What happened?!" He asked in alarm, "Are you okay?! Did something -"
"I-I'm fine! Nothing happened to me, It's Zayn!"
"Zayn? - What happ-"
She grabbed him by the arm and dragged him out as she explained.
"Come on! We gotto go!"
***
Salma sniffed slightly as she rested her aching head against the raised plate-form. Her eyes were puffy and her was mind all over the place. She was still in the process of recovering from the shock and trauma Of Zayn's mock suicide attempt. Through her half closed lids, she kept a wary eye on the dark haired monster, not wanting to be caught off guard should he try anything again.
Zayn had been sitting wordlessly next to the door for the past fifteen minutes. He looked drained, exhausted even. With his head hung low and eyes downcast, he maintained his silence letting her be, but he neither left the roof himself, nor gave her the reassurance that he would let her leave if she decided to. Salma dreaded his opposition to her attempts to escape and decided it was best to not provoke him until as long as was necessary.
She drew in a shaky breath, closing her eyes for just a moment. As the silence between them stretched, she got the small window she desperately needed to clear her head. There was only one thing that she knew she had to do; get away from this seclusion with Zayn before Asim arrives.
As if on cue, her phone rang in her pocket making Salma jump in alarm.
Her heart sank when she saw Asim's name flash across the screen. On reflex, she silenced the call and turned to Zayn. Zayn did not shift from his position. He either did not hear the call, or he ignored it all together.
Salma turned to her phone when it started ringing again. Once more, she tapped the screen to silence it. Her heart started racing in her chest as she tried to ascertain her next move. Salma was scared to talk to her brother when she knew he would be able to detect the panic in her voice. She decided to text him instead but Asim beat her to it.
*Asim: Don't tell me your phone is on silent again >:(
*Asim: I just got gas and am on my way. I'll be picking you at the front of your department in ten mins.
Salma's heart sank reading his text. She threw another worried glance to the dark haired boy. He had not move even once. Swallowing, Salma typed a reply to her brother. She realized her fingers were trembling, and she started taking in deep breaths to calm down. If Asim was on his way, she had less than ten minutes to not only get out of the this dodgy place, but also calm down enough not to arouse his suspicion.
*Salma: Ok
She sent the message when she realized her text was too bland and short. This is not how she composed a text when she was normal self. Even with a simple 'okay' she would add an emoji.
*Salma: Take a chill pill. I'm the one who got late because of you *rolleyes*
Making sure Zayn was still seated where he was earlier, Salma stuffed her phone back in her pocket, drew in a deep breath and stood up.
Her head swam, making her grab the side of the raised platform to steady herself. Her heart skipped a beat when Zayn's eyes snapped in her direction, the moment she rose to her feet. She forced herself to stay calm and avoided meeting his gaze.
He kept quiet, closely following her movements with his eyes. It was only when she headed towards the door that he broke his silence.
"What're you doing?"
A perfect retort sprang in Salma's mind but she chose to not answer.
"I asked you something?" he demanded and she lost it at his bossy, controlling tone.
"Would have said hell," Salma snapped sharply, taking him by surprise, "But obviously that's a place reserved for the likes of you!"
Zayn stared at her silently before turning back to gazing at the floor.
"Good luck with going to the heavens then," He muttered.
Ignoring the heaviness in her heart, Salma rolled her eyes. At least he did not look like he was going to stop her from leaving.
"Keep your luck. You look like you're in need of it," She muttered, grabbing the handle of the door.
Salma pulled on the piece of metal but the door did not budge. Frowning, Salma pulled again. And again. Her heart sank. As her breathing became uneven again, she tried with both hands. The door jerked a tad but it refused to open. Salma's mouth went dry as dread coursed through her blood stream again. Was the door -
"It's locked," Zayn answered her thoughts.
Salma turned to Zayn where he sat leaning against the door, staring at the floor aimlessly. Her panic started to build up again when his words settled in. She vaguely recalled having heard a lock clicking in place.
"What?" she voiced her disbelief.
"The door is locked. From inside," Zayn clarified, before turning to her with a mocking look. "Looks like you're stuck in hell with me, after all."
Salma swallowed, her eyes going to and fro between Zayn and the door. She grabbed the handle and pulled at it with all her might once more. The solid metal stayed firmly shut.
No.
Salma desperately tried to keep her composure as she kept struggling with the door but with little success. A familiar dread gripped at her insides, seeping into her very veins.
Her brother would arrive any minute. She needed to get out.
"It's no use." Zayn said.
"If you can't help then shut up!" Salma snapped in her panic. Her fear of getting caught in such a scandalous situation overriding her rational thoughts process again.
"Fine, go ahead -"
"I said SHUT UP!" Salma shouted as she landed a kick at the door.
The bang echoed across the empty building, making Zayn more attentive to her desperation too.
"Keep it quiet, will you?!" He snapped, "You'll get us -"
"Make me!" Salma yelled, banging the door with both her fists before shouting, "HELP!"
Salma gritted her teeth, blinded by the slicing pain in her little finger. In her rage, she had slammed the injured finger onto the door.
"Enough already, you'll get us killed!"
Salma felt Zayn grab her shoulders, making her whip around. She was too busy trying to get someone's attention to realize that Zayn had gotten up.
"Get away from me!" She snapped harshly, shoving him away, "Don't you dare touch me again!"
"Stop shouting!" Zayn snapped back, "We're not supposed to be here! We can get in trouble!"
"No, you can get in trouble!" Salma returned, "And I will be the one doing the honors!"
Zayn glared at her, but before he could get another word in, Salma was already banging the hell out of the door and screaming at the top of her lungs. If she was to be found stuck with Zayn, she might as well be found trying to get away.
"HELP!"
"Calm down!" Zayn tried again, as he felt his temper rising, "I can get it to open up but -"
"No, you can't and even if you could, you won't!" Salma shrugged him off, "Get off of me!"
"Trust me, I -"
"Trust you? Trust you?!" Salma exclaimed, sarcasm and incredulity dripping from her voice, "Trust the person who mocked suicide? The person who made fun of mentally ill people to get me to humiliate myself? Go, feed yourself some dung, Harris! My trust doesn't come so cheap!"
Glaring at him, Salma kicked the door again, resulting in the resounding crash to echo in the empty hallways. Zayn's blood boiled over, making him see read in the periphery.
"Bee," Zayn said in a restrained voice. "Stop."
"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME? OPEN THE DOOR!"
Another loud bang, as Salma kicked the door again. Before she could comprehend what happened, Salma felt her body turn around as a dizzying speed.
"I said stop it already!" Zayn shouted in her face.
Salma raised her hands to push him off, but Zayn grabbed both of her wrists, keeping them down firmly.
"Let go!" Salma shouted.
"No, first --"
Salma struggled to free herself. The longer she felt his bare skin making contact with her, the higher her stress level climbed, clouding her judgment.
"HELP ME!" she screamed frantically, ignoring Zayn, "OPEN THE DO--!"
Salma eyes widened when her loud cries were cut short. In one quick move, Zayn had turned her around again. Her back hit his hard chest as Zayn held her captive in his arms, a firm hand pressed against her mouth, cutting short her loud cries for help.
"I hate to do this," he said, as he started pulling her away from the door, "but you just gave me no choice."
Salma tried to protest and cry for help, but Zayn's hand prevented her voice from reaching anyone. Even if he had not covered her mouth, Salma knew her voice would have been nothing more than a feeble, terrified cry. Nonetheless, she tried. Her panic increased exponentially as the distance between her and the door increased, but he was too strong for her.
"I'm really sorry." Zayn tightened his hold against her weak attempts at breaking free. "I don't want to hurt you, Bee. Please, please calm down!"
Zayn felt the moisture of her tears on his hand just as his back hit the ledge.
"I'm sorry," he repeated. He closed his eyes, resting his forehead atop her head, but he couldn't trust her to not throw a fit once he let go. She was far too stubborn to just give up. "I'm really sorry I can't let you go."
Zayn swallowed to ease the tightening of his throat, realizing the double meaning behind his words. She continued to struggle.
"Funny I'd say that." He laughed dryly. "Because literally and figuratively, I can't."
He raised his head and rested his chin atop her head, looking into the dark with pained eyes, wishing things between them weren't the way they were. He gulped the painful lump in his throat, absentmindedly, bringing her even closer into his arms. He was barely holding her to restrain her anymore. He was just embracing the girl who did not love him back.
"I've tried," he whispered. "You won't believe me but I swear it. I've tried to let you go. I tried to stay away, to not bother you anymore. I failed . . . I know you hate to hear it, but . . . but I really can't help it that I love you with my whole heart . . ."
Her spine stiffened at his words.
"I just wish you didn't hate me so much . . ." Zayn sighed miserably, resting his forehead back against her head and closing his eyes. "No matter how much the both of us want it, I just can't let you go."
As Salma's vision blurred and her lungs froze over, refusing to let her breath, Zayn became all too aware of the girl in his arms. Of her small frame pressed against his body, of her shallow breaths forcing out broken puffs of air, of her heart drumming next to his arm that held her, of her warm lips against his palm that he could feel through her veil, and the soft skin of her cheek just beneath his thumb . . . Zayn was aware. All too aware of the blood heating up in his veins just under the skin, fully acknowledging the fact that she was closer to him then he would ever hold her again.
The beep of an incoming text alerted them both. Zayn knew it was not his phone the moment she started to get restless.
"If you can just promise me to not raise hell, I'll let you go," Zayn tried to bargain. She showed no signs of compliance, except for the hot tears that kept streaming down his hand and her feeble attempts to break free. "Please?"
Salma seemed to consider it, then, she nodded. Zayn removed the hand that covered her mouth
"It's m-my brother," she sniffed, crying. "I h-have to get back to him."
Zayn tried to think of what to do.
"Promise me you'll stay calm and you can text --"
Her phone started ringing, cutting him off.
"Zayn, he's here to get me!" Salma tried to shrug free, scared to death of getting seen in his arms. "Please! I have to go!"
"No --"
"You have to l-let me go!" she sobbed.
"You can't leave!"
"Please!" she sobbed.
"Bee, calm down and listen --"
There was a knock on the door, freezing the both of them.
"Is anyone there?" a masculine voice called.
Salma gasped, pushing against him.
"Zayn -Zayn, Let go!" Salma whispered urgently.
"It's not your brother --!"
Salma picked up the sound of jingling keys. Panicking, she shuffled just enough to give herself the wriggle room. Then she stretched her right hand and brought her elbow plummeting back against his gut. She wasn't sure if she had hit the solar plexis to wind him but she heard a pained grunt escape his lips and his grip around her loosened. Not wasting an instant, Salma slipped under his arms and shot for the door.
"Open up!" She banged the metal expanse urgently with her good hand. "Please quickly! Open --"
Salma felt rather than saw Zayn overcoming his shock from the sudden attack. Snapping her neck towards him, she glimpsed him hurrying to restrain her again. Salma's feet acted on their own. She was on autopilot.
"Bee, stop!"
A scared whimper left her lips as dodged him narrowly, taking flight towards the opposite end of the roof. She came to a sudden halt when she reached the ledge. On impulse, she climbed it.
"No!" Zayn shouted, making her face him.
He was pale as if he had seen a ghost. Eyes wide, lips parted, hair disheveled and hands raised towards her. Salma took a step towards the edge.
"No, no, Bee, get down!"
"Don't come near me," she warned.
It was a broad, three-foot ledge but how far could she cross it to escape him? The parking lot was a long way down - a dark abyss. Salma felt movement behind her. She stepped away from the edge and turned her attention on Zayn again, but she was already too slow. He had grabbed a handful of her abaya. Salma tugged at it to set it free.
"Get down!" Zayn demanded, his voice frantic.
"Let me go!"
"Just get down!"
"No, you --"
"JUST GET THE FU--"
"-- back off first!"
"--DOWN FROM THE LEDGE!"
Salma's left heel dipped. She had not realized she had been backing away as she argued with him. Startled by the sudden vacuum, her upper body reacted by jerking forward. Her arms flailed as she lost her balance. Her heart jumped to mouth. She was going to fall to her death.
"BEE!"
As the gravity yanked at her for a fatal fall, a painful jerk in the opposite direction almost snapped her head right off her neck. Her body sped one way, jolted and then raced the other way. Several forces pulled at her in all directions. The world around her did a dangerously rapid spin. Salma had no idea what was happening.
There was a whistling in her ears. Her eyes went in and out of focus. Each part of her body was swaying on different current. Or was she no longer moving? Perhaps it was her vertigo still at play? Her chest was heaving and sighing too laboriously.
She was alive?
A piercing pain registered in her bicep. Then a rough shove shook and rattled her to her senses.
" --CKING LOST YOUR MIND?!!" Zayn was yelling in her face. "ARE YOU CRAZY?!
ARE YOU NUTS! YOU COULD HAVE DIED! YOU COULD HAVE FU --"
Salma winced when he gripped her arms even tighter, shaking her again.
"-- KING DIED! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?! WHAT'S THE WORSE I COULD HAVE DONE?! TELL ME!"
Salma tried to wriggle her arm free. She was dizzy, the wound on her arm was searing under his iron-grip and he was yelling at her when she was tongue tied with shock.
"TELL ME?!" He shook her again. "WHY WOULD YOU PUNISH ME LIKE THAT? BECAUSE I'D TOUCH YOU? HOLD YOU HAND? HUG YOU? TELL ME!"
Stop, Salma tried to say but she could not utter the word. She could feel bile rising to her throat. She was going to puke. She clenched her hands over heart, gripping at her scarf for some sort of support. Zayn seemed to have lost patience with her.
"GIVE ME A FREAKING ANSWER? BEE, TELL ME! OR IS THIS THE WORSE YOU FEARED -- "
Before Salma could comprehend, Zayn made a grab for her head and forced her to look up at him. Stuck in her clenched hands, the sudden movement dragged the cloth of her veil down her face. Salma's eyes widened in horror as the veil slipped, leaving her face bare. She barely had time to react. Zayn abruptly leaned in to claim her lips with his. Frightened beyond her wits and struck senseless, Salma barely managed to turn her head to dodge his kiss.
Zayn's lips made contact with her jaw. A bloodcurdling scream left her throat. An explosive bang tore the air as the door was almost thrown off its hinges.
Everything was a confused mess after that. She was suddenly free. Salma crumpled to the floor, shielding herself with her arms as Zayn moved away. She had no idea if Zayn let her go or if someone pushed him off of her. One minute he was there and the next he was not. She heard a lot of loud noises, whether it was her own screams or someone else's struggling, she did not know. She felt someone's arms circle around her reassuringly, but she could not be sure. Salma could not differentiate one thing from another.
She was aware of nothing but the fact that she was crying into someone's chest because a part of her purity was gone forever, snatched away by a boy who did not earn it, who had no right over it and did not deserve it.
A part of her seemed forever, lost . . .
Author's Note:
The End.
___
Kidding x'D
The story continues. I might actually start posting more often. Like other than the scheduled updates. Fingers crossed!
I absolutely love your theories gals, keep'em coming ;)
Please consider supporting me at https://www.patreon.com/BrekhnaJohar I want to finish the story quickly so give me an an added boost to post more often 😁
Vote, Comment and Share.
Lots of Love ^^
J.