House of Ashes [Complete]

47. Deadends | بند گلی

Kindly, Vote and Comment:)

◢✥◣

First, Arham.

Then, Sameena.

And now, Shehryar.

Why was everyone misinterpreting his intentions for her? He didn't love her. No, not at all. He felt physically nauseated at the word. Everyone was acting insane. If only he could make them understand!

"I don't love her. I can never in a million years." He muttered to himself with his eyes fixed on nothing in particular.

"I'm only doing this for myself so that I can have my peace back once she knows everything. That's the only motive. After getting to know everything, she can go wherever she wants for all I care." He mumbled which felt more like convincing himself.

A commotion downstairs pulled him out of his reverie, and with a slight shake of his still-aching head, he waved the nonsensical thoughts off and rambled towards the source of voices.

The air in the living room welcomed him with solemn aura clouding his features with despair. But the thing that terrified him the most was that no one was sitting. There were all standing in horror.

On his arrival, their faces turned toward him, scrunched with tense and worry. His muscles tightened as he gulped heavily.

"What's going on?" He wiggled his eyes from one person to the other.

Sameena and Shehryar were constantly exchanging looks while Raina passed Arham an incoherent glance. She convulsed her head at him as if stopping him from something.

"Why is everyone acting so weird? What the hell is going on?" He howled in annoyance and fright. The beads of sweat had suddenly materialized on his cold forehead as his insides burned.

Something was terribly wrong.

What? He didn't want to know.

But he had to.

Throwing a glance of reassurance at Raina, Arham strolled towards his best friend whose already alabaster face stunk at his heart.

It took him sometime to finally construct a sentence and when he did it left Azlan's whole world collapse in front of him. Too indelible to be fixed back.

"We've a found a dead body." He said it in one go just to get done with the excruciating pain that lied within the words as they wrapped themselves around Azlan's neck like a tight noose.

He forgot to breathe, the words crashing in his throat like coal, slitting it. Slowly. Gradually. Having a fill of it. He felt blood billing up his throat which got stuck somewhere in between, all the strength leaving his body.

"We are not sure whose it is. The girl's face has completely been distorted in the car crash. But she's of Safa's age so..."

"So you assumed it's her." Azlan stepped back with a humorless chuckle. No one dared to pique in. They couldn't at the heat of the moment.

Arham plopped his mouth open to say something but Azlan didn't let him.

"It's not her." He glared at him with a challenging look. There was an eerie coldness to his tone.