~Hooriyah

Just when my eyes were about to drown into a deep, peaceful slumber, a loud knock on my door interrupted, making my eyes pop out with horror.

"Who must be there at 11 pm?" I asked myself nervously.

I quickly rubbed my eyes which were still wet with salty tears and washed my face to look fresh and recharged. I slowly opened the door to see a very happy and delighted Alizeh standing outside, prepared to go somewhere.

"Alizeh? What are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to sleep right now?" I looked at the clock again.

"NO! Because we both are going outside right now!" She chirped happily.

"WHAT?? Are you mad? Right now?" I gasped her with horror.

"Yes right now! I am madly craving for ice cream right now and I have heard about a famous ice-cream parlor in Lahore and luckily, its just a few steps away from our house." She clapped her hands with joy.

"Alizeh, my dear it is 11 p.m right now, not 11 a.m!!" I stared her angrily.

"I know stupid, now quickly wear your dupatta or chadar or whatever you want, I am leaving, come on quickly!" She insisted again.

"Alizeh???" I shook her arms wildly.

"WHATTT?" She laughed.

"Are you sleep walking or something? Are you in your senses? " I asked.

" Oh Hooriyah please for God's sake come naaaaaaaaaaaa!" She begged again.

"Girls don't go outside this late, it's not a good thing to do. As for now, go and sleep, we will go tomorrow!" I excused while yawning.

"Please please please! I went to Badshahi Mosque with you, now you have to come with me!" She was so stubborn.

"No Alizeh! I can't! It can be dangerous, don't do this!" I responded in an annoyed manner.

"Tumhey Shahveer Bhayi ki kasam!!PLEEEEEAASEEEE!" (Shahveer's swear to you!)

Oh my God. Was she an idiot?

There was not a single excuse or a chance left to refuse!

So, I had to surrender!!!

We silently dragged our feet along the corridors and crept out of the house like a thief.

"Just tell me one thing! Why the hell is it necessary to do this right now Alizeh?" I gritted my teeth as we came towards the main gate.

"Shhhhh!!! Don't make noise..!" She scolded.

"Why at this time?????" I asked again.

"Because ice cream tastes more delicious when eaten at the midnight of winters!" She giggled.

"It's the most stupidest logic in the world Alizeh!" I gasped her with shock.

"I know right, now stay silent and follow me towards the lane!" She replied calmly.

"What? Aren't we going in the car?" I asked nervously.

"Idiot! Do you think we will go by car and won't be seen by the guards? Besides, walking down the lane is something I love so much, and I wanted you to be the part of this beautiful memory." She smiled.

"You are stupid!" I giggled as we quietly walked along the clear, silent, glossy and slippery roads which lead towards the ice cream parlor.

The earthy aroma of the wet soil made me feel pleasant once again as I looked above, at the starry sky.
The beautiful moonlight coming from the full moon ,which sparkled flawlessly, had already scattered the pure bliss of ecstasy across the dark blue sky.

The fact that this was exactly the same moon which had witnessed the existence of my beloved Holy Prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him 1400 years ago, was enough for me to forget all of my sorrows and tears which I had been overflowing through my innocent eyes.

"Are you feeling better Hooriyah?" Asked Alizeh.

"What happened to me?" I feigned innocence.

"Your eyes are swollen like a balloon idiot, it tells that you had been crying since hours!" She announced confidently.

Who is she? My best friend or my mother?

How the hell she knows everything?

"No I wasn't!" I lied.

"You were! And I knew you would do it! That's why I insisted you to come along with me! Just to make you feel good!" She smiled to which I stared her with amazement.

We stopped in the middle of the street.

"I know you cried! What's the point in hiding? Why don't you simply confess that you feel possessive for him?" Alizeh stared me.

"Uh....." I was speechless.

"Why don't you confess your feelings to Bhayi, Hooriyah?"She complained.

I remained silent until I mustered up some courage to speak.

" I don't have that courage to confess, Alizeh!" I stammered.

"Don't delay it Hooriyah! You have to confess it or else he will never know your worth dear!" She replied.

Trying to ignore what she said, I chose to remain silent as we walked along the street.

After approximately seven to eight minutes of peaceful walk, we finally reached at our destination. There was complete silence outside the shop as it was about to be closed. The tables and chairs outside were empty.

"Two scoops of strawberry, and two scoops of mango!" Alizeh ordered.

After taking our ice creams, we came outside and started relishing it's extremely delicious taste.
She was right, indeed! It was the best ice cream in this town.

Perhaps in the whole Pakistan!

Busy in admiring the finger licking good taste of our respective flavors, we failed to notice a motorcycle which stopped exactly in front of the shop.

"O Soniye.... Would you like to share some with us?" A fat, ugly, dark colored middle aged man came out from his bike along with another man who was satanically grinning and scratching his crooked nose.

The ice cream cup immediately fell from my hand as I gasped them with horror.
The shopkeeper had already closed the shop and left few seconds ago.

"A....Aliz....Alizeh!!!" I grabbed her hand as I started panicking.

"Go away, what's your problem? What do you want?" Alizeh stammered.

"Don't get angry pretty lady, just come with us, that's all we want!" The fat man smiled cunningly.

"Stay in your limits...... Don't you dare talk like that...! Go away or else we will scream!" I shouted.

"Scream?? Hahahah!!Sure sure scream as loud as you can. As if the whole town is going to sacrifice their sleep to come and save you ...Ehhh???" The second one laughed.

He came forward and stared me with his disgusting eyes.

"Go away! For God's sake leave us!! Have some mercy!" Alizeh pleaded.

"Nah!! How can we leave these beautiful girls alone yaaar? Come with us we will definitely entertain you!" The fatter one came near Alizeh and tried to touch her.

Astaghfirullah. Ya Allah, please help!

"Don't touch her you drunk, sick piece of shit!" I pushed him with both of my hands as wildly as I could due to which he stumbled.

"Ayeeee larki!!!!" The second one shouted and stared me ferociously and grabbed my arm with his filthy, sinful hands.

I gasped him with horror and recited as much prayers as I could.

"You pushed my Ustad jee ?Do you know what can he do to you? Now face the consequences!" He tightened his grip around my arms as I sighed with pain.

What happened next was something I had never ever dreamt of in my life before! It was worst than the worst of the worst nightmares and extremely shameful and cunning act which shattered my heart as I shook with immense fear and tried to avoid being traumatized by this disgusting man.

Within a blink of an eye, this cheap, drunk and filthy man came near me and immediately snatched my dupatta, which unfortunately revealed my long brown hair which were once covered modestly.

"Such a beautyyy!!!" The man stared me with a pathetically disgusting manner which made me feel nauseous.
As he took few more steps towards me, my eyes gasped him with horror and a stream of tears flowed down my red swollen eyes, completely wetting my trembling face which had gone pale.

Ya Allah! Send your help! Send your Mercy! Don't let them disrespect the purity of the girl who loves you so much Oh Lord!

Please Guard our chastity. Send someone to help us, Almighty.

I cried mercilessly, waiting for a miracle to happen!

My only hope was Allah! No one else! I closed my eyes to murmur some prayers as Alizeh screamed with pain and terror,

"Help, someone please help!!"

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~Shahveer

The roads were all clear, glossy and silent as I drove along the dark streets of Lahore. Not a single entity was visible! Well of course it was pretty obvious that no one roams foolishly like me on the roads and that too, around the midnight!

I wildly raced my car across the main road in search of the nearest bar or night clubs. But it was such a difficult task to do in a Muslim country.
Although a friend of mine had told me about some nightclubs here, but still it seemed as if I had to drive for hours and hours to find one of them.

My gaze impatiently ran through the large boards and banners above different types of shops as I was on the verge of giving up while returning back to home.

"Faizan Nihari house, Teelu ladies tailor, Bablu's ice cream parlor, yummy go-la gan-da and pan shop, katrina kaif ladies beauty salon....... The hell maynn???
Billu and kallu barber...Pehlwan & Son's Bakery..!!!!
What the Fu*k...!!!! Where the hell will I find those freaking bars?"

I shouted furiously as I eyed the passing by shops, at my right, and punched the steering wheel with immense anger while trying to pronounce those awful names..!

It was so easy to find a night bar back in Manchester!

I sighed, while trying to calm myself down.

Lost in my thoughts, as I hummed along with the loud beats of the music, a bright light from what seemed like a motorcycle immediately grabbed my attention as it pierced painfully through my eyes, constricting both of my pupils.

"Who the hell has left their headlight on? Idiot!" I barked angrily.

Moving a bit closer towards the vehicle, I tried to search some signs of existence of human beings so that I could ask them that where the hell could I quench my alcoholic thirst right now!

I finally stopped my car near an old and what seemed like a haunted willow tree and finally came out to search the rightful owner of this stupid motorcycle.

What happened next, was enough to drive me pathetically insane. A loud heart shaking scream made my heart sink right into my stomach as my eyes popped out with unbearable terror.

"HELP!!! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!!"
A familiar feminine voice came from the nearby ice cream shop.

My heart almost stopped beating!

Wait !! Was it Alizeh?

I quickly ran towards the shop while hoping it was someone else.

A horrible scenario immediately appeared before me.

"One more word, and I will slit your throat... B*tch!!!"

A fat, ugly man barked angrily while walking slowly towards the two horrified women as his back faced towards me, making me unable to recognize who were they. The second one laughed hysterically as he took out a sharp knife from his jeans pocket while a long yellow colored dupatta was wrapped around his other hand.
I silently peeked the scenario from behind the tree.

"Please leave us! For God's sake leave us!" The second one of them begged the men in a way which felt extremely pitiful to me.

"Arey soniye...! Not so soon! First let us enjoy at least, then we will drop you both at your house ourselves, safe and sound ,don't you worry at all!" The fatter one laughed cunningly.

My hands unintentionally clenched into a fist.

Mistakenly but fortunately, my feet slipped on the slippery floor of the foot path producing a loud and crumbling sound of the leaves which echoed in the air and suddenly those barbaric gazes fell upon me as they finally turned their backs to face their silent stalker.

"Hey you!!! What the hell are you doing here han?? " The men started to take few steps towards me and that's when I finally got the chance to have a glance of those two ladies.

Shit!!!!

The floor almost swept beneath my feet as I eyed them with utter disbelief and shock.

"Bhayi!" There she stood, trembling, horrified and pale.

My Alizeh!!!

Her eyes were badly swollen with uncountable tears of hopelessness.

Behind her, stood Hooriyah, trembling even more while she tightly grabbed Alizeh's arm as her red terrified eyes stared me with nervousness.

"Ohhhhh!!! Looks like bhayi jaan has come to save his behnaaa(sister) and _______??? "

"Girlfriend.... The other one would be his girlfriend Ustad Jee!" The second man grinned satanically while tightening the grip around Hooriyah's yellow dupatta and gave her extremely disturbing looks as he rubbed his chin with his fingers!

My eyes widened with shock and slowly turned red like lava, while both of my hands clenched into a fist as my blood boiled ferociously.

" Extremely pretty sister and extra booooootifooolll girl frrraaaaannddd! Lucky boy! Very Lucky boy I must say!" He teased again while smelling the dupatta through his crooked nose and sighed with relief while eyeing me cunningly.

And when I was at the verge of loosing my control, the fat man shamelessly came near Alizeh and caressed her cheeks with his filthy ugly hands as she screamed hopelessly.

That was enough! It was the time to reveal my inside devil now!
These bas*ards surely deserved a special treatment.

I ferociously walked towards them as they continued to laugh inhumanely and without wasting any other second, I grabbed his hand and removed it from my sister's face and gave a tight deadly punch on his enormous face due to which he stumbled and fell upon the floor.

The other guy quickly took out his knife and ran towards me with an intention to stab me with it, but fortunately, I quickly grabbed a chair from the dining area and banged it wildly on his head.

The fearsome and terrible fight continued for the next ten minutes and finally getting blessed with few painful punches and slaps, I managed to knock both of them out with the help of those tables and chairs, just before one of them was about to stab me in my back, but thankfully the sound of siren interrupted them due to which they backed off, allowing me to take over.

Two policemen immediately came out of the car and picked those men up, who were still half conscious and swearing at me as much as they could.

The policemen asked me about the incident and I narrated everything, also stating that
I wasn't a permanent resident over here,and was currently living in UK, just to be on the safe side.

I told them my father's name too at which they hurriedly arrested the culprits and thanked me while stopping the further inquiries and finally leaving us in peace.

As soon as they left, without wasting a second, I started pouring the lava out on these stupid girls.

"Who the fuc*ing hell roams on these streets at the midnight??? " I barked as loudly as I could, while my red wild eyes stared them with extreme anger.

There was a complete layer of silence.

"I'm sorry Bhayi! It was all my fault! She stopped me to go out this late, but I insisted her to come with me!" Alizeh cried innocently while wiping her tears with her trembling hands.

Something which I hated the most!

"Come here little one!" My anger immediately cooled down and my heart painfully melted upon seeing her tears, as it was something I could not tolerate at all.
I walked towards her and quickly enveloped her in my warm embrace.

I hugged her tightly as she sobbed continuously and hiccupped in between.

"I'm sorry bhayi!" She kept on repeating as I rubbed her back with my hands trying to calm her down. She cried mercilessly while her body shook with immense terror, not ready to leave my embrace any soon.

"Its okay idiot! You should have told me, I would have bought the whole damn ice cream parlor for you silly! Come on now stop crying. Where's my lioness? That smile of a tigress! Where is it??" She laughed like a child.

"Where's that Alizeh who's always roaring around? Your one kick would have been brutally enough to kill those monsters. What happened to your karate skills stupid?" I chuckled while tightening my arms around her.

"Shut up bhayi!!" She laughed again while wiping her tears.

I painfully pressed the spot on my forehead where those idiots had punched me in an extremely brutal manner. It was bleeding a bit.

"Does it hurt bhayi?" Alizeh asked innocently.

"It did! But not anymore!" I smiled as her eyes twinkled with worry.

"I'm sorry for that! You are the best brother in the world!" Alizeh smiled weakly while tightening her grip on my leather jacket as I kissed her forehead with immense affection.

"And you are the most beautiful and strongest sister in the world! Besides, I am joking!" Alizeh punched me right in my stomach as I laughed hysterically.

And then I hugged my sister again who was still shaking. Together, we laughed on silly jokes and I kept on making her feel better until I heard someone giggling innocently while admiring our beautiful and unbreakable bond.

And that's when I realized that someone else also deserved to feel better !

There she stood. Still half hidden behind Alizeh. Her lips were curved in a beautiful innocent smile as she watched us joking with one another.

But her eyes!!

They were red and swollen. Her hazel brown eyes were twinkling with a pool of tears which released like a waterfall whenever she blinked.

She was crying silently. Her hands were terribly shivering as she tried to hold Alizeh's arm with hesitancy.

"Are you okay, Hooriyah?" I asked, sounding concerned.

She remained silent as she was still badly traumatized, while I stared at her with sympathy.

The moment she realized that I had been staring at her terrorized, trembling form since few minutes, she lowered her wet horrified eyes which she usually did whenever she caught me staring at her, and silently hid herself behind Alizeh.

And that was enough for me to sense her discomfort and hesitancy.

The reason why she was partially hidden behind Alizeh was evident now.

Her chastity didn't allow her to reveal herself infront if me without her dupatta.

My gaze immediately started searching the yellow colored cloak and luckily succeeded in finding it as it was now resting peacefully on the bench nearby.

I silently picked it up and walked towards her as she stared at me with innocence.

"Here....!"

I politely forwarded her the dupatta which she quietly took from my hands, while my gaze unintentionally lowered in order to avoid watching her without it.

Although I admit that I had always done wrong in my life and shamelessly considered every wrong thing as right. But God knows why watching her without her dupatta was the first wrong thing which didn't feel right.

She wore it weakly and covered her long silky brown hair with it which were fully opened now and were flowing with melodious rhythms along with the cool chilly breeze.

"T.....Thank You!" She murmured as her voice cracked to which I nodded.

There was something strange in those gloomy eyes which was hard to interpret.

It felt like they held the whole universe out of which, she only chose to show a small galaxy.

The more I tried to avoid getting hypnotized by her magical innocence, the more my eyes failed to avert from those heavenly and delicate, trembling features of this innocent soul who had still lowered her gaze in order to avoid meeting mine.

Don't know what forced her to do this every time I tried to talk to her. How can someone be so pure and pious in this world full of filth and indecency?

There was something in her.

Something extremely different from the rest of the world.

She was pure.

Innocent.

And a beautiful, peaceful dream.

After realising that I had been staring at her since more than two minutes, I decided to flush all sorts of strange and freshly developed feelings away from my heart, immediately.

After all, she was not my cup of tea!

Which was perhaps the most logical excuse I could give to this silly heart of mine.

"Come on, let's go now!"

I ordered and both of them followed me obediently.

"By the way..... Would you like to have few more scoops of ice cream?"

I stopped in my tracks and smirked cunningly.

"NO!!"

The girls shouted in unison.

I laughed hysterically as I ushered them towards the car which was waiting for us to go back home.

"Never, I repeat never in your life will you leave your house at this time, without me! Do you understand?"

I frowned while wiping the blood from my forehead with a tissue paper.

"Yes Bhayi! It won't happen again." Alizeh nodded.

I smiled while shifting my gaze towards the one who was still shivering badly.

"And you Miss Hooriyah Jahangir Khan?"

I raised one of my eyebrows while tilting my head.

"It ....It won't happen again, Shahveer!"

Hooriyah repeated my sister's words and nodded politely while nervously staring at my bleeding scar to which I giggled mischievously, and finally sped of towards the house.