Star Dazed

Chapter Twenty: A Chance

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"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." The Fault In Our Stars, John Green

Chapter Twenty

A Chance

(Maahirah Furqaan)

When you imagine a reconciliation with a family, it always sounds refreshing, fun and emotional. However, you never think that you might be witnessing a supposedly dead person standing in front of you. All breathing. Living. Moving.

My first reaction on seeing her is to scream, shout or just yell, but, this thought is suppressed when my voice dies in my throat, and I simply watch the scene, unfolding with my mouth hanging open.

"Mr.Aayan Aslam, will you please inform Mr.Hamdan about my arrival. Please make sure that he, in turn arranges an urgent meeting. I'll be there soon, InShaaAllah!"

Before nodding, he looks at me. Our eyes connect for nanosecond and in those minuscule seconds, I clamp my mouth shut. He closes his eyes and swallows hard because his Adam's apple bobs up and down.

Is he trying to tell me something?

And then he walks out with a simple nod and not a second glance in my direction.

Slowly and quite awkwardly everyone scrambles out of the infirmary. Fadiya doesn't acknowledges my presence. She just walks out.

The woman finally turns to face me.

I nearly stumble upon seeing the shocking similarities between us two. She smiles at me ever so kindly. Her beautiful turquoise eyes lost all the glow and amusement that once I remember seeing in a photo.

"How are you?" She doesn't moves forward, just stays glued to her spot.

Me too. I don't reply, instead I say,"You're....dead!"

"In your old world to some people I'm dead, but, Allah (SWT) hasn't called upon me yet!"

In my head, I picture, yelling at her. Screaming at her for leaving me alone. And, may be pummelling her too. But, what I do is that I tumble on the floor and break down into tears.

I've no idea what I'm crying for, however, I just do it. She stands and simply watches me unraveling myself.

"I'm so sorry, Maahirah!" She sits on her knees across for me, and keeps on repeating the same sentence over and over. I see her raising her hand almost as if to pat me, although that isn't what she does. She balls her fist and drops it on her thigh.

"Where am I?" After few minutes of crying, I ask. My voice chipped and hoarse.

"Elton!"

"What is it?" I look at her, agitated.

"It's a place in North America, located on a well-hidden island. This is 'The Elton Institution and Headquarters'."

"What am I here for?"

"That's a long story!" She sighs.

I angrily wipe the lingering tears, and say, sarcastically."And, I'm pretty sure I've enough time to listen!"

"Okay. Three months ago, Wiltonians attacked us. The people of Wilton are our greatest enemies. They destroyed the whole small city. We fought, yes, we did. But, we lost the battle. More than two hundred were killed and over a thousand injured. Those who were alive or injured we brought them here in this partially-underground building because our city, Elton is ruled by the dictator, Tianas."