And You became my Dawn

Chapter# 6

Sandal's POV:

It has been a whole week since we started Hareem's treatment and Mashallah (God has willed it), she was much better now, mentally and physically.  She was shot in the shoulder, but thanks to Allah it wasn't serious. However, the shock was too much to handle for an eleven-year-old girl. She remained unconscious for a whole week and after waking up, she cried for days for not being able to say the final goodbye to Papa, Shoaib, and Palwasha and so did I. I also wasn't able to say goodbye to them too, but that didn't make me cry like her. I didn't cry once after the incident.

I wonder why...

 I turned to look at her peaceful sleeping face beside me. She told us that she fainted after being shot.

She was shot! Shot, by a gun.

I cupped her face in my palm and got up to go to work after kissing her forehead.

~*~

Mondays were one of my favourite days once when I was eager to go to university, meet my friends, laughing at silly things and cursing boring lectures, but it all seems like a dream now, a beautiful dream that disappeared when I opened my eyes.

I reached work with zero per-cent motivation, looking at my watch, I sighed in relief. It was eight fifty a.m., which means Mr Ahmed would already be in his office. I started to look for Sohail Bhai, he was a security guard here and was kind enough to cover up for me whenever I have to change my sneakers to sandals. He put my sandals somewhere in the building, where no one usually goes and only he and Ali knows that I still came to work wearing my sneakers and change it later.

I found Sohail Bhai standing near the elevator, but before I could walk to him, my eyes landed on the man standing beside him.

Ya Allah! Mr. Ahmed...!

Hurriedly, I took a step back and hid behind a pillar. A moment pass and I peeked to see Mr. Ahmed, but he was nowhere to be found.  Then, my eyes landed on Sohail Bhai who was making strange faces and pointing to the other side of the pillar. My eyes widened when I realize what he meant. I rushed to the elevator and press the first button came into my sight.

I don't know when the elevator came to a halt as I was busy praying for him to not yell at me later. I got startled a bit when I hear a man calling my name. I looked up to find amused Ali standing at the elevator door.

"Assalam o Alaikum, are you coming out or are you planning to make it your new residence?" He asked, raising a brow. I nodded and rushed out to be called by him once again.

"Where are your sandals?"

"I didn't get the chance to change into them, Sir Ahmed was there." As I said, he put his foot between the elevator's door, stopping it from closing.

"Did he see you?" He asked and I nodded in response.

"So that's why you look so worried?" And I nodded again.

"Relax, it's not like he is going to eat you." He said, smiling.

"I don't know, he does look like cannibali (cannibalism)..." I stopped my sentence in mid and Ali laughs out loud.

"Care to complete the sentence, Ms Sandal?" He said, smiling and I shook my head, biting my inner lip.

"Go to your office, I'll send you your sandals."

"How?"

"Sssssh! I'll manage." He stopped me from talking more and went into the elevator. Without wasting a single moment, I walk into my office and took off my sneaker, hiding it under a file shelve.