The door flew open few minutes after he had rung the bell and a dramatic Raina revealed her presence, her hand snug around a half empty jar of Neutella, a spoon in her mouth as she licked on to it.

Her eyes bulged out of her sockets as her hipster glasses slid down her slender nose a bit. "MOOOOOOM!!!" She yelled on top of her lungs and Safa staggered back. Azlan shook his head. His baby sister was no less than a drama queen.

"Why are you screaming, Raina. What happened?" Mrs. Shehryar splintered inside the lounge with long strides, her face puce in fright.

"Remember I told you bhai's secretly married and you didn't believe me? Well, here's a proof." She pointed towards them standing at the threshold. Mrs. Shehryar eyes fell on Safa while she convulsed her head in haste. I was right. This family is a bunch of maniac!

Azlan rolled his eyes at her sister and her theatrics. She smirked back at him.

"Raina!" Mrs. Shehryar howled at her and she hawed.

"What? It's your son who ran a girl away from her house, not me." She shrugged as she threw her hand up in air and stepped back. Mrs. Shehryar shook at her.

"I'm sorry. She's a walking drama of our house." She told Safa with apologetic look. Safa gave her a faltering smile, findling with the tussles of her cahsmere. "Come inside, my love." She beckoned her inside with a motherly embrace and tears scratched against Safa's throat. This woman reminded her of her own mother. Ever since she left her alone, she'd never been addressed with such care and love by an elderly woman.

"You must be freezing. Here, take this." She wrapped a shawl around Safa's shivering body once she had settled on the sofa and Azlan had narrated them everything. It was as if she had a knack for being a mother to everyone. This woman had something so serene about her. She felt like huging her.

"Ow!" Raiana's shriek caught their attention as Azlan smacked her on the back of her head. She tightened up her pony tail. "Keep your 50 KGs hands off of me."

"Then try not to speak bullshit next time." She scrunched her nose.

"You must be hungry. We were just going to have breakfast. Come on." Mrs. Shehryar gestured her towards the dining area. Raina had reached already and was already eating. If only she could eat the entire kitchen!

"I'm gonna go freshen up." Azlan said before heading up the stairs. Her gaze followed him until he was out of sight.

"I hope you didn't mind me. I just have a running mouth. No one takes me seriously, anyway." Raina chirped as she sipped her chocolate shake.

"It's alright." She smiled meekly, her hands cloaked around the cup of coffee, inhaling the warmth inside her.

"Anyways, I hope my brother doesn't irritate you much. I know he can be the real pain in the gut." She nudged Safa playfully and a cup fell lose from her grip, splashing the coffee all on her shirt. She instantly stood up.

"Oh, my God! I'm so sorry." Raina clamped her mouth.

"Raina, how many times do I have to tell you to not do that?" Mrs. Shehryar fumed at her.

"No, it's okay. I wasn't holding the cup tightly." She said as she tried exorcising the rivulets of coffee out of her shirt. Almost the half of it had been ruined. Raina stood their with her puppy eyes as if all the innocence in the world ended on her.

"No, it's not okay. Raina, go and give her something else to wear."

"Yes, mom." She nodded like an obedient daughter she wasn't. "Come." She led Safa towards the staircase.

The staircase wall was galore with their pictures, from childhood to adulthood. Only, Azlan's childhood pictures weren't there. They started from what looked like when he was a teenager and then up until now.

It was a happy family. Their smiling faces brought sorrow in her eyes. So this is how normalcy looks like! She envied them. Their lives were perfect, contradicting hers. While they spent their each and every moment in sheer happiness, she suffered and struggled to stay alive. The sparkle in their eyes twisted a machete in her heart. But she was still thankful to them for giving her a roof at this hard time. Hamans are weird.

******

Raina's room was unexpectedly clean and organized and expectedly childish with its shades of rogue pink.

"Here. Try this!" She pulled yet another shirt out of her crystal white cupboard.

"It doesn't have full sleeves either." All he shirts were either sleeve less, half sleeves, or with sleeves that stopped a few inches above her wrist.

"I don't think revealing quarter of your arm will make you a sinner." She wasn't mocking her. She just didn't have fully extended sleeved shirts.

Safa struggled for words. How could she tell her it was not about sinning when she was in fact the biggest sinner to exist in this earth? It was her scars. Her bruises which she didn't want anyone to see. They were personal and they were hers. She couldn't handle questions regarding them. She felt bad for annyoing Raina so much with her continuous disapproval to each of her clothes.

"Alright, you wait here. I'll go grab something from mom's wardrobe." She said before leaving the room.

Within a few minutes, she was back. The sleeves of the dress extended up to the wrists. The only problem was that they weren't tight to stay intact to her skin. They were wide enough to showcase her brutal past.

Not wanting to pester them more than she already had, she thanked Raina.

"You're welcome." She said as she retrieved a bar of KitKat out of the mini fridge situated beside her bed and flopped down on her bean bag with her legs extended forward widely.

"My room's temperature's not that much. Besides, the heater is on. You can take the shawl off." She said before stuffing her mouth with the last square of chocolate as Safa came out of the bathroom, dressed in the shirt she gave her.

"I'm just a bit cold." She tucked the shawl closer as she struggled to completely cover her arms. She had never wanted bangles more.

"Your call." Raina shrugged as she asked her if she needed anything.

She refused.

"Now do you wanna stay with me or in the living room?" She asked, hoping she'd say with her. She might be eighteen but the child and talkative habit of hers always wanted someone to listen to her blabbers and rants.

But Safa couldn't. She needed to be alone. She couldn't risk her seeing her scars and then questioning about it. So she chose the later. Raina's face fell. She felt bad but her hands were tied. It was her private life and she didn't like sharing it with anyone.

******

"Thank you so much!" She said yet again as she crashed on the clean white sheets clad bed in the guest room. She was truly in debt to each one of them, even Mr. Shehryar who was still snoring in his room till the moment she arrived, but it was his house and she thanked him in her heart, too.

"Ugh, stop that or my ears will start bleeding. I haven't heard the words "thank you" in my whole eighteen years of life than I just did in these few hours with you." She said as she retrieved clean towels for her from the cupboard.

"Here. Use these when you take a shower. She put them on a stand in the corner. "Holy mother of freaking cow. What the flub is that?" Her eyes were almost out of her socket.

Following her gaze, Safa's eyes landed on her bare forearm. She hadn't realized when the shawl had discarded from her torso and pooled around her while she unintentionally suppressed the yawn with her hand. Frack, her secret was out in the open. The cat was out of the box.

******

Sweat drenched his muscular body as he ran hastily in the treadmill in the small gymnasium he had built in one of the spare rooms for himself.

Why did he put a roof on her head? Isn't the exact opposite of it is what he wanted? To take refuge away from her and leave her to rot alone? Then why couldn't he stand firm on his promise? What was wrong with him?

No matter how much he convinced himself she deserved all the wrath of this world, he couldn't be inhumane enough to hurt her more than she already was. He was perfect in everything but guess he wasn't in taking revenge. The humanity inside him was much more than his hate for her.

He hated how humans were so weak that they couldn't even accomplish one thing they'd really want. He abhorred how he couldn't be heartless enough to rip her heart out. He punched hard on the screen. Please, give me strength to deal with it. To stay firm on what I want, on what I need to do.

Maybe it was her eyes when she'd look at him that held nothing but purity. They haunted him, filled with brutal memories of past. Eyes are a door to one's soul and hers reflected her clobbered and wounded life, the havoc her life was. No, it's all in my head. I can't let them affect me. She's not innocent. She can't be. She's just good with mind games.

******