The Memory Of Us

Chapter 33

"What did you do?" Sahil burst into the recreation center screaming at the top of his lungs, his feet pounding against the floor angrily and, after taking one glance at Mina's motionless body on ground, he had pinned Khalil against the counter behind him in a second.

His hands fisted the fabric of his t-shirt, tugging and pulling and stretching the fabric, but Khalil didn't have the strength to fight back. In fact, he hardly had the strength to do anything, calling Noah and Sahil had been his last act of free-will before something in his brain switched off rendering him incapable of feeling anything other than a debilitating pain he had never felt.

He had thought that, after the death of his parents, nothing could hurt him.

He was wrong.

"What did you do?" Sahil screamed, louder this time. Spittle flew from his mouth with each word he spoke, decorating Khalil's facial features but he didn't wipe it off. He didn't even turn his head away, even as Sahil raised a clenched fist and connected it with the side of his face.

His lips burst.

"What did you do to her?" Sahil made contact with Khalil's face once more, this time landing a swift punch to his eye. "This is all your fault!" He screamed.

But Khalil already knew that.

"You should have left when you had the chance!"

Khalil already knew that too.

"You should have left and never come back!" Sahil yelled, his voice already hoarse, as he punched Khalil again. This time his fist connected with Khalil's nose. "Mina's dead because of you!" Sahil's words ripped through Khalil's body and he forcibly swallowed the bile that was rising in the back of his throat as his body was flung from side to side as Sahil continued to land punches to his face, over and over again. "She's dead because of you!" He yelled. "Do you hear me, she's dead because of you! You killed her! You killed her! You killed her!" His voice was full of the tears that refused to fall despite shining so brightly in his eyes but Khalil was apologetic because he understood. After his parents died, rage was all he had been able to feel, but that rage had killed the girl he loved so he didn't want to feel that rage anymore.

He wanted to feel nothing.

"Stop!" Noah screamed, clawing at Sahil's back. "Stop!" She pleaded with him again, her face soaking wet with blatant tears. "Stop! Stop! Stop, Sahil! Stop!"

Eventually he did, but only when both Khalil's eyes were almost wholly swollen shut and his face was covered in black and blue bruises.

He slid to the ground noiselessly.

"Call 911!" Noah said from somewhere above him. "Call 911!" But Khalil wasn't concerned with the police but instead the girl who was lying a few inches away from him on the linoleum. Slowly, not once wincing from the pain in his face, he crawled over to her, his bloody hands leaving a trail of dark red behind him, and pulled the upper part of her body into his lap.

Hunched over her body, he let his tears wash over her.

This was all his fault.

This was all his fault.

This was all his fault.

Sure, he had pulled the trigger of the gun that had killed her, but it was deeper than that. He had pulled the trigger a long time ago. He had pulled the trigger when he had talked to her those first few days of school. He had pulled the trigger when he had gone with her to that stupid birthday party that left Chris paralyzed. He had pulled the trigger over and over again without thinking about the consequences of what being with her meant.

He had pulled the trigger when he had realized that his feelings for her were real.

Khalil wasn't sure when the police arrived, but suddenly the sniffles and cries in the room were replaced with the wailing sound of red and blue lights and the booming voices of a horde of police officers and first responders that burst into the recreation center.

"Where is she?" Khalil recognized the voice of Mina's grandmother among the throng. "Where is she? Where's my granddaughter? Where is my granddaughter?" He stroked the top of Mina's hair unbothered, tracing the face of her shape, or her eyes, of her nose, of her lips.

"You! I should have known you had something to do with this!" Khalil's face remained expressionless, his eyes never once leaving Mina's as, for the second time that night, angry fists pounded against him. Like Sahil, he didn't shy away from Mina's grandmother's fists. "I should have known you were involved!" She exclaimed. "I should have known! I should have known! I should have known!"

"Ma'm-" This voice, Khalil didn't recognize. "- can you please step away from the boy?"

She didn't listen.

"Please step away."

Her fists continued to pummel Khalil's figure, making contact with his head, his back, his eye, his shoulder, until she too was pulled away just like Sahil. Khalil was relieved by the reprieve but that relief quickly dissipated as three men in matching uniforms bent down and began to gently pull Mina's body away from him.

"No!" He screamed out, finally breaking his silent streak. "No!" He screamed again, swatting and kicking at the three men. He hugged Mina's, now cold, body closer to his chest and the mens' once gentle hands became violent.

Ungraciously, one of them restrained Khalil, pulling his hands behind his back painfully while the other two wrenched Mina free, moving her onto a large stretcher.

"No!" Khalil screamed, yet louder this time, as the man behind him loosened his grip before ultimately dropping it all together and joining his co-workers who were steadily wheeling the love of his life away from him.

Choking on his tears, Khalil screamed louder, lunging after them, but a police officer quickly stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

"You're going to need to calm down buddy." The mana said. "We need you to be calm so you can tell us exactly what happened here." But Khalil didn't understand how he was to be calm when his sole reason for living was inevitably gone. He didn't know what to do with himself now.

She had been his person. She had been all he had had left, and now the one thing left he had to lose was gone and it was all his fault.