Bint of Gilgit ~ Pakistani Love Story ~ ONGOING ~

Centerpiece

Something hot and dark overcame Asadullah - a feeling that was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. He didn't have time to ponder on it for his legs were spurring him into action towards the grinning abomination of his family.

"Yaar (friend), have you ever seen such a pretty girl before?" His dad-blamed brother asked, his hand reaching for her golden curls with a lustful look. The girl shrunk away from him, tears brimming in her painful gaze at his touch. Asadullah narrowed his eyes at her inflamed cheek that peeked from behind her prairie colored hair.

He had always known Khalid to be extreme but never had he expected him to raise his hand on the weaker sex. Somehow, the knowledge of this and the anguish in her grassy eyes sunk Asadullah's heart. And set it on fire at the same time.

"You couldn't find a more able person to use for your display of strength?" Asadullah scorned, his lips turned in a grave frown. At his words, the girl's eyes enlarged - as if she had not expected him to be there or to say such a thing.

Khalid, however, flushed with immense embarrassment. "She struggled, bhai (brother)!" He moaned as if it was a justifiable answer. Asadullah almost marched over and throttled him, but something held him rooted to the spot. Perhaps it was the pronounced fear that the girl was practically emanating. She seemed more frightened now that he had appeared in the picture.

So she remembered him from their previous encounter. Just as he had too. He didn't know how to feel about it.

Fahad, uncharacteristically quiet spoke with no hints of amusement in his normally chirpy tone. "Perhaps, you wanna try us, Khalid bhai (brother)? Or do you prefer fighting those who are not even half your strength? Does that make you feel powerful? Does it make you forget how pathetic and weak you are?"

His response was the click of a gun being pointed at his head. "Bakwaas band kar apni! (Shut your mouth!)"

Imad did not wait for approval from Asadullah to take a stand for his brother. With an eagle-like aim, he lifted his sniper rifle and shot Khalid in the tendons of his hand. The man dropped the gun - a fountain of blood spurting from his hand. He stepped back - his grip loosened on the girl allowing her to crawl away - her eyes fixed upon the distant figures of her tribe.

Asadullah knew it was cruel and perhaps unnecessary, but he could not allow her to leave. "Do not move." He commanded, bending to her level and fixing her with a promising glare for retribution if she dared to rebel against him. He only had a few moments to gaze in her green eyes, but they would certainly come to plague him for the rest of his life.

Khalid, now in an unfavorable situation scrambled away madly - his demeanor that of a fallen sinner who was about to face a reckoning. Asadullah was certainly in no mood for clemency, but never had he thought that foolish Khalid would suffer his wrath today.

"I warned you, Khalid." He began, picking up his fallen handgun on his slow walk over. "I warned you and I warned Baba too." Those words were the same he had spoken yesterday after he had precisely shot half his bicep off. Today, however, there was something grim in Asadullah's black eyes. As if Khalid would never be allowed to err ever again.

"But you chose not to listen." He said, suddenly clamping his hand around his neck. Khalid spluttered in shock - leaving his bloody appendage to tug his neck away from the cruel grip. But Asadullah merely brought him to his feet before he began to tug his tie off.

"You fucked up, Khalid." He was clutching his hands - watching as blood seeped into his black shirt before roughly bringing them behind his back. Khalid roared in pain not liking the stress the action brought to his bullet contained hand. "You fuck up everything, Khalid. Everything that should have been mine from the start is now up for a fucking competition. And should I not be offended that the one I am competing with is a brainless buffoon?"