3RD PERSON'S POV
Amir looked at Aaliya and was wondering what she is going to say or ask of.
"Okay I will tell you my past but first promise me that whatever I say here stays between us no matter what happens in my and our lives coz there are some things I haven't told anyone else," Aaliya said as everybody looked at each other with worried looks before nodding their heads.
"We promise that whatever you say stays here in between us only and that we won't tell anyone no matter what happens in our lives," Mason spoke for everyone as Aaliya looked at him before laughing.
"You're really eager to know about my past aren't you Mason?" Aaliya asked as he looked down before shaking his head.
"Hey, Mason it's alright if you are curious I have known you since I was 10 years old and there is nothing wrong with me telling any of you guys anything coz I trust you all alright," Aaliya explained to Mason as he smiled at her and nodded his head.
So Aaliya took a deep breath and began to narrate her story as everybody started to listen without making any noise or sound.
"It all started when I had just turned 16 years old and we were going to have a family gathering and we needed to do some shopping for groceries, so I volunteered to go to the shops even though it was getting dark and I kissed my mom on the cheek and hugged my dad as he was going to work for some sort of emergency that we later found out was faked. So I left the house and was walking to the grocery store that was just down the round and around the corner. As I was walking to the store I felt as if someone was following me but I thought I was being pathetic and paranoid, so I ignored it, which was a bad idea. Me being stupid at that time had left my phone at home in my bedroom on my bed so I had no one to call if something did go wrong.
I had bought the groceries and was walking back home when out of nowhere a hand was placed over my eyes and a piece of cloth was placed over my mouth as I screamed for help but nobody was around to hear me. The next thing I knew was that I was being thrown into a van and driven somewhere. When I woke up I was in an abandoned warehouse and was tied to a bed with ropes around my wrists and chains around my ankles," she said as she broke into tears, as everyone felt her pain as it was still kind of hard for her to tell her story as it was still haunting her now.
"I was continuously being tortured, by this mysterious man that always had his face covered with a mask, by being hit with metal chains until I bled. I was always being left to starve and die without food and water for many days, there was this one time where that guy came in drunk and almost forced himself on me but Alhumdulillah I had Allah on my side as my weapon and the guy passed out before he could do anything. He was always saying weird phrases to me like "You are mine and mine only", and "I hate you", "you did this to me".
A couple of weeks later a girl came and was told she had to look after me and after days of persuading her she told me that they were a Mafia gang and did this to many innocent looking girls where they would sell them to gain money. The only reason she told me this was because of the way I treated her as apparently I was the only girl who treated her with kindness so I tried and tried to escape and every time I did I would get caught and put to sleep in a room where the would torture me until my whole body would be covered in blood.
There was this one time where the guy found out that she had been trying to help me and I tried to help her escape but she kinda got caught and the guy in the black mask, only had his eyes showing and this whole time I always thought they looked familiar, came into my room and beat her up in front of me and that day I felt tortured more than anything else because he wasn't physically torturing me but he was emotionally and mentally torturing me.
The woman was old enough to be his mom and one of the guys told me that she was here because her husband betrayed the 'boss'. He kept beating her in front of me until she almost died and he didn't care but I did and I had enough so I took the beatings for her. The next day she begged them to let her see me so she can know I am alright and by then I had found a way out for her to use.
She came into my room and started begging me for forgiveness and at the time I never knew what was going on I forgave her and told her that I respect her and loved her for helping me out that's why I took the beatings," Aaliya said as she burst into tears again thinking of what the poor woman had been through.
"That night was my last night with her and I was so stupid to realize this as the next minute the doors of that large room where broken down and many masked men walked in with guns and started to shoot her one by one right in front of my eyes. There was nothing I could do except from scream and beg them and make dua, I was completely tied up and couldn't get out I was so weak.
It was all my fault that they killed her I could have just not asked her anything and be rude to her like all the other girls, why did I have to be nice to her?" Aaliya asked herself as she wiped her tears and Safina came up to her and hugged her as tears streamed down her face as all of Aaliya's siblings came up and hugged her one by one as well as her friends.
"Hey, it wasn't your fault okay, it was Allah's choice at least she didn't have to be in that filthy place for a long time," Amir said as he tried to make her feel a bit better.
Shazeb felt terrible about asking her this question but he knew that Aaliya needed to share this with her friends and needed to lessen the burden somehow.
"Two years went by and I had almost lost hope and wished I could die already but I guess Allah had different plans for me, another year had passed and Allah had listened to my dua's as I heard police sirens right near the warehouse and the people inside the warehouse had run away leaving me behind as I was so weak I couldn't even walk and they thought I would slow them down so I again thanked Allah.
The police came and found me and untied me and started interviewing me I was so scared I thought he would burst through the door and kill me but it never happened and I spent six months in hospital getting treatments as I had fractured my rib cage and broke my arm and my leg with a fractured skull I was only 19 years old at the time.
I got better and I thought that was it until I got a marriage proposal from someone called Ibrahim Yousuf which was a fake name. My dad knew who his dad was and was his dad's friend so he agreed to it only to later find out that his parents didn't know what type of person he was.
So I got married to him within a month and moved into his house and after a month or maybe two of our marriage he would start snapping at me for every little thing I would do and would start coming home drunk and with another woman and it hurt me I was so stupid to imagine having an amazing husband who would take care of me at the time.
Days went by and turned into months and he would start hitting me and would start cutting me with knives whenever I would do something wrong. He would grab a knife and find any area of skin and drag the knife down marking me, is what he used to say. He used to come home drunk and there was this one night where I had locked the bedroom door and hid in the wardrobe but he found me and as his punishment he forced himself on me and I know this sound weird but he raped me, he raped me all night and never stopped," Aaliya said as she forgot about all the guys sitting in the room and when she realized what she said it was too late as anger run through each and every guy's veins as they wondered how can he be so vile and disgusting.
"How can some guys be horrible beings, monsters to do that as it is disgusting if I ever come across that motherf*cker bast*rd I will personally f*cking kill him," Amar said as all the guys nodded their head and started to make some plan on murdering him but soon went quiet as they stared at Aaliya waiting for her to continue.
"I woke up the next day in so much pain I had decided to make a plan, the next day when he went to work I decided to call my parents and because every call is recorded I decided to use codes that I had made with my parents when we used to joke about saying if my husband ever hits me or tortures me I would phone you and say in a really high pitch voice and then change to a low pitch voice stressing in a certain word ' Hello, how are you I want to see you I absolutely love it here but he treats me bluebear' because 'bluebear' meant torture it was a word I used to use a lot when I was younger with my siblings," Aaliya said as Amar and Ameena interrupted her.
"Hey, that's true we used to always make words up and give them secret meanings and she had a small, blue teddy bear and once she found me hitting her teddy bear so she used to call me bluebear torturer and ever since the word has stuck," Amar said as he smiled at his sister and placed a kiss on her forehead as she cuddled into him for about two minutes before continuing.
" My parents recorded the phone call and got the police involved as he is a businessman and I had been missing before and they suspected it was Ibrahim from the start because of his eyes but whenever he was around me he always had in contact lenses so I could never tell his real eye colour. They came over when Ibrahim wasn't home and I quickly told them to come in from the back and I showed them all the evidence I had of what he did to me and the fact that he owns a Mafia gang because of all the knives I had accidentally stumbled upon when I was looking for an escape out of that horrible place and by the time I left with the police Ibrahim had left the country.
A couple of weeks later I had began to through up and faint as the slightest smell of food and I had found out I was pregnant with Amira and decided to not have him involved in mine and my child's life so I got hold of some divorce papers and signed them and shipped them off to where ever he was and he signed them and sent them back, He never found out about Amira until after I had gotten married and he kidnapped her and Amir helped me get her back," Aaliya said as she finished telling her past as everyone stared at her shocked that something like this happened to Aaliya.
Shazeb sat there shocked as he started at Aaliya who always seemed like some sort of happy girl who was always taking everybody out and laughing and pranking everyone.
Mason sat there trying to wrap his head around everything as he looked at Amir and Aali no believing what he has heard and if this is true or what. He had always seen Aaliya as a bubbly, crazy girl who would do anything to make her family and friends happy she was selfless.
"Hey Aali I am so sorry I asked you to tell your story, I feel so bad I am so sorry for asking you I just thought that telling us your friends and family would help you and take some of the burdens of your shoulders," Shazeb said as he kneeled down in front of Aali and placed her hands in his.
"Hey Shaz it's alright you didn't know and it's fine I feel happy and relieved that I have told my most trusted people I didn't wanna tell my parents because they have done so much for me and I don't wanna be a burden for them anymore and make them worry," Aaliya said as she ruffled Shazeb hair as he smiled at her.
But one thing she didn't realize was that her and Amir's parents were standing not too far from them and they heard everything and had recorded it all and Khadijah felt her heart break as she wasn't there for her daughter as Sadia and Mustafa looked at Zackariyah and Khadijah wondering what pain they must have gone through not knowing where their own daughter had been for three years and being tortured for five years.
Everybody sat there in a comfortable silence not knowing what to do right now because of what they had just heard. Aaliya slowly stood up as everybody watched her. Trying to make sure that she is okay.
"Who wants ice cream?" she asked as everybody quickly got up and got into groups and got into their cars and headed off to McDonald's and couldn't wait for their next all-nighter.