Love, Mubaraka

twenty six

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Dedicated to startling_sabrina ♥️

For those of you who need a recap of who Murtaza Imran is, you can go back and skim through Mubaraka's and Vajeeha's conversation in the previous chapter :) also also, please do give Chapter 5 a read as well! It might help you piece the pieces together :P

I'm so excited to hear what you guys have to say about this chapter! Please comment your thoughts as you go, I appreciate it a lot ♥️

Chapter 26 | Sad Birds Still Sing

What do you do when one moment you're held up in the first celebration in honor of your one and only daughter, jovially looking forward to the time when your house will be swarmed with guests all filling your daughter's lap with gifts, and the next you're grabbed by the arm and pulled out from the light into another cavern of darkness? When you're helpless as you blink your eyes, hoping your vision will clear and you can finally see through?

But how can you see through in the first place? Has anything been visible in the dark?

Of course, all you can do with shaking hands and a heart that is being hit with tremors is stash away the source of your concern somewhere far away, somewhere deep down, in the hopes that it was all a figment of your imagination and never was a part of the reality. But you know, deep down in your heart too, that it was all too real. You hope to wake up from the nightmare to a bright sunny day to look forward to, your heart as free as a bird.

But what about when that nightmare is reality itself?

Wahdan paced his room in restless steps, an itching slowly growing all over him. This can't be real. This can't be real. Even when he felt like his legs were going to give way, he chose to keep walking. He chose to do something, anything at all to distract himself from these horrors that would keep knocking on their doors for Allah knew how long.

He was aware that the moment he sat down, the moment the chaos in his mind quietened down a little, it would all come back to him, as if a rollercoaster that suddenly halted had been pushed back into action.

His eyes darted around his room. Tasbeel was still asleep on the bed, her little hands on either side of her, her mild snoring filling up the room. The room was blanketed in quiet, yes, but the screaming in his mind?

A knock on the door broke him out of his reverie. His eyes darted to the bedside table where he'd stashed the diary. Taking a few deep breaths, Wahdan called out.

"Come in."

Mubaraka stepped through into the room, her cheeks flushed and a little bounce in her step. "Hey."