Freeing or Fleeing

Chapter Fifteen - Consumed by Darkness

Chapter Fifteen

"Isn't Aaliyah just great?" Khadra screeched as she lightly smacked my thighs, pulling me out of the trance that I was in.

"Hmm?"

Aaliyah, Khadra and I were sat on the bed in the guest room, facing each other in a triangle cross legged. The past few days went by with Khadra and her family, along with a few other guests, meeting Aaliyah during their usual visits to ours. The two instantly clicked, due to Khadra's outgoing character. To say that I was jealous was a little bit of an understatement as Khadra managed to get Aaliyah to open up way more than I could. Not only that, even Eijaz asked what sorts of things Aaliyah liked and he would bring her things after work to make her feel comfortable under the instructions of Mum. It seemed that everyone got along with her whereas, she and I still had some awkward moments.

There wasn't much of a difference in Eijaz's behaviour after we had our talk the other day where he had apologised for his behaviour on being distant; he continued to finish work late, listen to his mother's words and his conversation was always very direct to me as if there was no love behind them.

The situation with Mum had also only gotten worse, which I didn't think it could. Since Aaliyah helped me around the house a lot, even though I insisted she didn't have to, it meant that the housework was done a lot faster, leaving Mum little room to 'show' that she was doing them because by the time Eijaz was home everything seemed to be done. This meant that she had to find a new way to torture me and she apparently had by making up stories about me to Eijaz when he got home, attacking my character as usual. She would make it out as if I had caused her great pain with something I had apparently said. The latest of her tactics involved her telling Eijaz that I wanted to kick her out, although it won't be a bad idea, I didn't exactly voice it to her.

The situation I was in meant that I found myself zoning out a lot and while Aaliyah and Khadra were laughing away, enjoying themselves, that's exactly what I found myself doing at that time.

"What's wrong?" Khadra asked, concern laced in her voice.

"What? Nothing...?" I answered, uncertainly, raising an eyebrow.

"Come on! Don't give me that, you've been in your own world since I got here," she commented and then turned to Aaliyah, "Right, Aaliyah?"

Khadra moved to a more comfortable position, choosing to lay down across the bed where there was free space, causing her abaya to ride up a little, revealing the skinny jeans she wore and her hijab came loose slightly. It was just the three of us in the room and Eijaz was at work so it didn't matter how she looked because no male would walk in anytime soon.

Aaliyah cautiously nodded, not sure whether she should answer that. Aaliyah chose the same moment as Khadra to shift positions, only she had lifted her pillow up to rest against the headboard and then leaned back against it, still in a sitting position. She was wearing a t-shirt and jogging bottoms, her hair up in a bun.

"I'm just tired, you know," I sighed.

"Sleepy tired or just tired of your life?" Khadra probed.

I gave Khadra a warning look; Aaliyah didn't need to know anything about that.

"Oh come on, Hafeezah! You can speak openly here, I've already told Aaliyah about your mother-in-law and how much I don't like her. Oh by the way, I haven't forgotten about what I said to you about doing something about her for what she did to you. I will execute a plan so epic that she will regret ever stepping foot here," she babbled on and then almost as if remembering to bring herself back to topic she said, "besides, Aaliyah's already seen some of your mother-in-law's weird behaviour."