Your Grace - Burak Çelik

CHAPTER 35

(This is the last filler chapter, and I think it can explain why what happens happens in one of the chapters after this :3)

Ayedah ran and ran until she found herself in the middle of Istanbul, and only stopped when she nearly collapsed, out of breath. She winced at the aches that settled and came to her consciousness, and quickly brought herself down an alley to catch some air. She slammed her back up against a wall, breathing heavily and panting as if she had been starved of oxygen. She clutched her side at a sharp pain that appeared every time she would breathe in; she closed her eyes so she could calm down without her eyes being exposed to the light. Cold sweat slid down her forehead, her legs wobbly as she tried to keep herself standing up.

"Selam Aleykum, Hanim'im," a voice suddenly spoke up, and Ayedah jumped as a young boy around fifteen or sixteen timidly watching her. "Iyi misin?" asked the boy. "Yardıma ihtiyacın var mı?" Ayedah frowned, for her tired brain was not quick enough to process and understand the second part of the sentence. The boy noticed, and cleared his throat embarrassedly. "Er- do you need help?" he asked in English, his voice accented as he spoke the language that was not his native one.

Ayedah shook her head. "I'm fine," she said, trying to smile at him. "I just needed to get away." The boy looked worried; "Are you in t-trouble?" he asked, struggling to find the last word of that sentence. "Do you want...uh...police?" Ayedah shook her head frantically; she closed her eyes for a while, slowing her breathing, before opening her eyes again and finally giving the boy a smile. "Merak etme, ben iyiyim," she replied in Turkish, making him smile in relief. "Don't worry- please, I do not need the police. No need to bother them." The boy nodded, before he said goodbye to Ayedah and walked off.

Ayedah let herself rest against the wall for a while, before she took off down the alley opposite the way the boy took when he departed. She walked with a limp, but picked up the pace as her tired and sore leg muscles got used to the movement again.

She walked until she arrived at the other side of the alleyway and to her surprise, saw that she recognized the area- she found that she was where the building that had previously been an old kervansaray was standing in the form of a bazaar. She sighed in relief, and walked through the streets to the courtyard of Buyuk Valide Han, before walking up the remote staircase that led to the rooftop. She saw that the old man was not there, and frowned; however, the door was unlocked, and she assumed that he had gone for lunch if not for some other reason. She went through the door and walked through the dark, unlit passageway before making her way up the stairs to get to the rooftop.

Before long, she found herself completely alone on the rooftop, the bustling sounds of the people below in the bazaar reaching her ears. She let her gaze rest on the beautiful city that was Istanbul, raking her eyes over the Bosphorus Strait and the many gorgeous mosques that decorated the city. Ayedah blinked for what seemed to be the first time in ages, finally taking in everything that had happened in the past few hours- or however long she spent running away from her house.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath as she plopped herself down on top of a small dome built into the rooftop of the kervansaray, knowing that it was probably not the wisest thing to do, to run away like that. She sighed, knowing that she was too drained of energy to go back or to talk to anyone- so instead, she took out the MP3 Player she always carried in an inside pocket of her jacket, and put her earphones in, watching the sun move slowly toward the horizon.

She could not feel her phone vibrate with new calls or texts, and she wondered if anyone was looking for her- or maybe her aunt assumed that she had gone off to the store, or a cafe or something of the sort. But in the adrenaline of her panic, she did not think of what worry would be caused for running away- yet at that moment she took no notice of it, for she was truly lost in her thoughts; thoughts of her brother, and how he could possibly do what he did to her. How despite everything she had done- allowing him into the house belonging to her aunt, trying to accept Reema, letting even Burak meet him- he did not care enough about her safety that he would actually dare try to force her to return to a place he ought to know would ruin her.