He had come straight to his office after dropping Safa off to the annex. The cocoon of these four walls had always served as his sanctuary where he could think in peace and contentment. But this time around, peace was nowhere to be found as a thick cloud of uncertainty and insanity loomed over his head, devouring him wholly.

Plopped in his chair, his hands were wrapped around his aching head. The migraine was intensifying with each memory. Everything had become a blur now. His mind had become a fog. Right and wrong were two words he didn't seem to be familiar with, now. They felt alienated.

The canopy of stars peppered over the moon glared down at him in sorrow; at the darkness he had been kept that even the glimmers of light couldn't help him.

"My rapist."

These two words kept reverberating in his ears since the moment she had said them.

"My rapist."

He didn't want to believe her but he did believer her. The way she had gone so unbridled. But why? What was it that pushed her over the edge? He raked his mind and the image of that rose emerged in his brain.

That rose.

That damned red rose.

"My rapist."

He believed her. Yes he did. There was nothing to not believe anyway. He had seen it all with his eyes. The truth in her streaming orbs stained with fear. The quavering body of her, pleading to be relaxed and drift into deep slumber. The umpteen unsaid emotions dying to lash out. He had seen it all and he had seen it well. He had felt it like his own. An excruciating malady he couldn't evade now.

"My rapists."

And not only just her, it had invoked ample bottled up emotions inside him as well. This word alone had been his biggest and greatest enemy and he had been working on to get these monsters to their deserved destination ever since he had gotten on his feet. And he had faith that one day he'd succeed.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. As the heavy eyelids clamped shut, something inside him unfurled. The orange blossom scent of hers weaved with rich beans of coffee bloomed inside of him. A holy combination of purity and conflict, perfectly complimenting her from every crevice. He could still fell the imprints of her left somewhere within him while her pain whoosed like a venom inside him.

Just a short distance away, a lone figure snugged up in her own embrace replayed the same memory, leaning by the window; the focus of her eyes the moon, and the being, him. The lingering scent of musk and ocean had never left her side since the day she had gotten his jacket. She could sense it anywhere now as if it had stuck with her, promising to never leave no matter what.

With slightly queavering hands, she took a swig from her coffee. As the first sip made contact with her throat, the twisting knots in her bones uncoiled. With each sip splashing down her throat, that moment swirled away taking in the remnants of it along as well. The tension released itself being hit by the sanctity of the desolved beans as she felt somewhat better and closed her eyes.

With his head buried deep in his hands, his brain was still cruising in the bitterest memory, when the loud knock on his office door, pulled him out of his stupor.

"May I?" Arham's head peeked from the door, his hand still wrapped around the knob.

Without saying anything, he gestured him towards the chair with a slight nod.

"I've booked your ticket. The flight's day after tomorrow." He divulged as he plonked down on the chair. "Why are you going anyway?"

As if he hadn't heard him, his eyes bored into the chaos of nothingess. Too loud with no words.

Snapping his fingers in front of him, Arham leaned forward. "Where are you lost, man?" He inquired with a soft chuckle and as his bloodshed eyes trailed towards him, his chest constricted at the devastation that laid in those screaming orbs. "Hey, is everything alright? What happened?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking about S..." Words lost their way as his mind went amok. Her name felt heavy on his tongue. An excruciating job he didn't have the strength to do.

"About Safa?" With both eyes stretched up to his forehead, he asked. But no response came as the silence veiled itself again.

"Isn't it pathetic?" After what felt like an eternity, Arham's voice pierced through the thick sleet of silence again.

"What?" Arching a perfect eyebrow, Azlan questioned.

"How we love irrevocably and get hurt in the process!" He drawled mimicking his inner self more than him. As if the statement itself hurt him more than he had anticipated. As if he himself was breaking from inside.

The shock ricocheted in Azlan's eyes, as they pierced through Arham's. This wasn't something he was expecting him to utter. This could never be something he'd expect anyone to utter. It was anything but true. His mind had never even waded on those lines.

"Stop spilling garbage. I don't love her." His Adam's apple jutted out.

"Oh, yes, you do!" Too sure. Too determined.

Shooting up in his feet, he pushed the chair behind as his voice rose above octaves. "Get out of my office!"

"Oh yeah, that ensures you don't." He said sarcastically as he stood up.

"I. Do. Not. Love. Her." He enunciated each word as his jaws stiffened and teeth clenched.

"Who are you trying to convince? Me or yourself?"

"Do not make me say things I might regret later so just get the hell out of my office otherwise I'll do it for you." His smoldering gaze mirrored his condolent ones.

"Run all you want from it. But a day will come when you'll come face to face with the truth and I hope it will not have gotten too late by then."

He was about to say something when his phone chimed to life and he picked it up. One color after another crossed his face as his eyes raked with dread on hearing the person on the other side of the phone. Arham's eyes twitched and before he could ask him what was wrong, Azlan barged out of the office rashly.

******

"Come'n, Arham, you're scaring me, now." Pressing her hands together, Safa chriped impulsively. "Please, tell me what's wrong."

"I swear I don't know." He shrugged as he turned the car around the corner. "He just asked me to bring you to the hospital and then cut the call."

"Lemme try his number again." She whipped the phone out.

"Doesn't matter. He just won't pick up." He shook his head.

"Well, then, he better brace himself because I'm ready to commit another murder."

"Another?" Turning his head around towards her, he flipped up an eyebrow with slight mirth. "Who did you kill before?"

She wiggled in her seat as she tried forming a coherent sentence. "Him. But only in my head."

"Well, I just hope everything's fine." He huffed.

"Me too." She leaned back as she muttered as much Surahs and Duas she could muster under her breaths.

******

Dashing through the hospital corridors, the stagnant smell of medicines wafted through her nostrils. Her heart was going haywire while her spine kept constricting. Her brain had gone berserk with all the ominous thoughts conjuring up inside it. Something was wrong. So wrong. She could feel it in her nerves.

"Slow down, Safa, or else you'll trip down." Arham called after her but she couldn't care less. Her bleak mind was ablaze with fear and anxiety as her body shivered.

As she finally reached her destination, the sight that engulfed her made a bile rose through her throat. Mansha was clinging on to her father as their bodies shook incoherently and faces marred with over abundance of salty tears.

Her nails dig the hearts of her hands as a "No" left her mouth, catching Azlan's attention. His head whipped towards her in a jiffy and as his eyes trailed towards her, the faucet let itself break.

"No!" A tiny whisper. Too low to be heard. Too loud to pierce a heart.

He tilted his head to the side as his lips wobbled.

"NO!" This time it was too loud to shatter everything in its wake.

He shot up on his feet while Arham put a hand of comfort on her shoulder.

"Safa, please..."

"Do. Not. Touch. Me." She jerked his hand off her shoulder with full force as she dashed towards the room.

Cleaned white sheets covered the bed while the side tables were set in perfect order. Everything was new with no traces of him as if he had never been here.

"Where's he?" She spun her head around as she clenched her teeth.

"Ms. Hayat..." He took a step forward.

"I asked where he is."

"You already know."

"No, I don't." Crossing her forearms on her chest, she glared at him.

"Yes, you do."

"NO, I DON'T!"

"Alright." He took a deep breath. "He is... no more."

The words mourned inside her ears as her eyes dilated at the reality she had been trying not to come face to face with and it didn't take her more than a second to slap him tight in the face while everyone's head jutted towards them in shock.

"How the fuck can you say that?" She lashed out while he turned his head towards him, his brain still not registering what had just happened. Clenching the collars of his shirt, she asked him over and over again. But everyone kept quiet. No one said a word while they let her mourn in her own way.

As the minutes dragged by with screaming silence, the reality check lamented a checkmate on her brain. Gradually, her eyes shut closed as her heartbeat rose above octaves and all she knew after that was darkness. Pitch and black. Her only true home. Her enemy.

******

*Runs and hides in the closet.*