'Tᴀʟᴇs ᴏғ Dᴇʟɪɢʜᴛ'

• her doubt •

᯽᯽᯽

᯽᯽᯽

The shoot came towards an end with the entire team packing up, ready to leave. Gule was wearing a maroon turtleneck sweater with black flare pants, her feet placed on the sofa with an ice pack on top. Her head was falling sideways from the sofa's head, hair falling over her face like a curtain.

She had been sleeping like that since she drank the entire cup of coffee. Completely knocked out among all the noise of the set. A substitute model had covered up for her remaining shoot.

One of the staff members came to shake Gule awake since everyone had almost left, but Sameer stopped her, saying he'd take care of her. Gule's mind felt hazy as she gained consciousness. She felt someone throw a cloth over her, covering her face.

She sleepily tried to throw it away. Her head was spinning and throbbing. She tried to get up from the sofa but couldn't move. It was all dark and she was too exhausted.

She felt strong hands grab her from the arms harshly making her stumble down the sofa. They dragged her somewhere and she had nothing left in her to fight back. Her body felt paralyzed. She was toppled inside, what she felt was a car seat.

She wanted to cry out loud but all she could manage were tears. She still could not move. She used up all her energy, but could not even move a finger. No sound escaped her lips, however hard she tried. She felt drowsy and once again let the darkness consume her.

Shaheer had lost every ounce of patience he had gathered over the past fourteen years of his life. He was definitely going to kill the useless piece of tin sticking next to him with his own hands.

Hunain threw the can of coke in the bin, letting out a burp. He passed Shaheer an unapologetic grin, pointing towards the mechanic shop. "He's almost done, don't worry." The khattara car which should've been fixed a day before, was still rotting at the shop they'd dropped it on that day.

They couldn't risk going on Shaheer's bike since Hunain needed to carry his laptop to hack into the security files through the router that Shaheer had to attach to the internal system. The job had to be carried out swiftly at the spot. He'd easily do it in the car.

"You've been saying that for the past 2 hours. I'm running out of time and patience." Shaheer gritted out, looking at the watch for the umpteenth time impatiently. Her shoot would end in a few hours, but that was none of his concern anymore. He wouldn't go to pick her up.

He was going to distance himself from her, remove her from his memory box and never look, think, meet or talk to her ever again. That's what he'd decided in the morning when he saw her, for the last time.