The sleek vehicle ran through the serene road as the streaming hues of moon coveted the two nomads perched inside in utter silence. It was heavy. Thick. Could be cut with a knife.

Their banters on random encounters had become a norm, now,

but when it came to actually being surrounded by each other, that too alone, words would sever their ties with them. They wouldn't have anything to talk to each other.

Their breaths intermingled into the silence of the night. A deafening silence. It was suffocating. She wanted to break it.

She cleared her throat but being as crude as he was, he kept staring at the road ahead. What a mannerless oaf! She cleared her throat yet again. Still no response. A scowl crept up her forehead but she spoke nonetheless.

"I met Ayyan today."

"Wow, that's new!" He jibed.

Rolling her eyes, she looked ahead. "He was being really weird."

Confused, he turned his head towards her as he scrunched his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I don't know." She heaved a sigh. "He was being... umm... I don't know how to put it in words. Like, he cried and told me he was going to miss me even when he knew I was going just for one day."

"Oh, I can understand him. Your absence really affects people." He chuckled as he let out before thinking. As if the realization had just dawned upon him, he suddenly bit his tongue as he hissed.

She just stayed quiet. Baffled. Startled. Words didn't seem to form. She didn't know what he was getting at.

Clearing his throat, he proceeded. "Er... I just mean, it's probably your ominous thoughts and nothing else. Don't stress out, okay?"

She nodded without saying anything when suddenly the car came to an abrupt halt.

"What happened?" She craned her head in his direction with knitted brows.

"I don't know." He frowned. "Lemme check." He opened the glove box to retrieve the torch when a wilted rose materialized from inside.

A loud gasp escaped her mouth as if she had seen a ghost. Her breaths hitched. The fleck of a universe started closing in on her as the sight of red rose consumed her.

"What? Everything alright?" He asked as his eyes settled on her alabaster face, dread engulfing her from every nook. "Ms. Hayat!" He extended his hand to her shoulder and she swatted it away with full force.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" Her loud scream echoed in the stillness of the night as the trees shuddered and wind hissed.

The red swirls pirouetted in her brownish orbs. And in that moment he felt his doom was near. She was dangerous. Lethal. Not scared of going to any extent to protect her dignity.

There was fire in her eyes. A smoldering fire that wouldn't back down until it had burned the wrong from within. The agony wasn't hidden as well. The clobbered pieces of her soul, her trust, everything was welled up in her eyes in the form of thick precipitation.

Her heartbeat shot beyond octaves, her throat constricting. She didn't fear anyone but right now she was the most scared person alive. He had come back. He was here. He'd do it all over again. Her head was flooding up with the countless memories when he had brandished the sinister flower against her bare skin and scratched it with the thorns.

Tears lodged in her throat. God! She couldn't breath. It had suddenly become a tiresome task. She needed air. Freh air. Thrashing the door open, she ran out.

The wind whooshed past her frail form as she stopped by the lake and bent on her stomach. Wrapping her arms around herself, she leaned against the nearest tree.

"It's alright!" She curled her hands around the cashmere and cinched it some more. "You are safe! He's not here. He can't be. You of all people know that better." Her voice was shredding in fragments. Tiny. Broken. Just like her. Ashes.

Azlan came out of the car but knew better than going to her. She was having a PTSD. He knew it because he'd had them, too.

But seeing her like this was ripping his heart out. He couldn't see her like this. Man, it was killing him! It was agonizing. Her pain was aching him from within. Burning him. He wanted to take it all away and burn himself with it. It was far better than seeing her burning in it.

Years of hurt and betrayal suffocated her whole being. Just like her body was scarred, her soul was tarnished too. She was one strong woman but from inside she was as tattered as broken pieces of mirror.

But the facade she had pulled up told the completely opposite story. How can someone be so full of life when night after night, the specks of light would be sucked out of them? It wasn't possible but she managed to make the world believe she was the happiest human alive because she simply didn't trust anyone enough to understand her pain. Share it. Or just simply listen to it with empathy. How could she when her own father broke her trust? When her own family betrayed her? And when her own husband became her rapist?

Not being able to watch her in that conditon anymore, gadually, Azlan took a step forward while the broken twig crunching under his shoe alerted her. Her eyes flew open as she shot her head his way.

"Stay there. Don't come near me!" She held her forefinger up as she took a step back, still facing him.

"You're gonna fall in the lake. Stay put." He stopped in his tracks.

"Then, don't come near me!" She sniffed as she shot a glance backwards.

"Alright, I won't." He threw his hands up in air like a culprit.

Few minutes dragged by as they both kept standing there like that when, finally, she broke the ensuing silence.

"He's gonna hurt me again." Her words reeked of anguish, fear, yearning for a safe place.

"Who?" He asked with patience. He didn't want to trigger her.

"Him. My husband." He didn't seem shocked at the prospect of her being married.

"My rapist." Now, this was the part that shook him from his very core. He staggered in his position as his heart dropped to his stomach. He couldn't believe what he had just heard.

Sliding her hands beneath the dupatta placed on her head, she held her hair brutally, wanting to rip them off as if that could wash the agony away.

"Hey, no!" With hurried steps, he strode towards her and held her wrists. "Stop. Don't do that." His hold was firm yet tender unlike his.

"I don't want to live." She convulsed her head and tears cascaded her face in full abundance.

"Don't say that." He traced the streak of tears on her cheek and rubbed it away with his thumb. Her sobs had now started coming in hiccups.

"Shhh!" Slowly, he snaked his arms around her trembling body and enveloped her in his warm embrace.

Her breaths tickled against his hard chest in staccatos as her tears drenched his shirt. "It's gonna be alright. Just breath." He rubbed her back. The same place where the three excruciating letters were embedded. It placated her. His touch was soothing. Healing her. She closed her eyes and leaned in to him as she clenched his shirt in her tight grip. His musk and minty scent calmed her nerves down as she took deep breaths.

"I'm here. With you." He rested his chin on top of her head as his whimsical voice reached her ears and assured her that he was indeed there. "We'll get through this."

Her body had now come to a still, curled up in his protective embrace. She had finally found her safe place. Her haven.

******

A/N

I had no intention of writing this chapter tonight since I was exhausted beyond lengths but then I got my bands on the pic I have inserted above and BAM! Inspo shot in so here it is!

PS: I CRIED WHILE WRITING THIS CHAPTER!!!