"Mamma! Assalam-o-Alaikum, i'm home!", she shouted entering the house and putting the keys in a bowl placed on a table beside the door. She was hell tired because she'd had a night shift. And she had to perform an immediate surgery on one of the patients who had been in an accident. The hospital authorities barely had time to inform his relatives before Layeba had opened his head off. Literally.

"WaAlaikumAssalam beta. How was your night?" Her mother said, coming down the stairs. She immediately engulfed her mother in a bear hug. After a really busy night, all she needed was her bed and a good sleep. Working for twenty-three hours straight really took a toll on her.

"Mamma, i'm really tired. I just want to sleep", she said closing her eyes on her mother's shoulder. One more minute and she'd be asleep. Though it was not the longest shift she'd had, she felt as if she was run over by a bulldozer.

"Did you eat anything?", her mother's concerned voice reached her ears. Knowing a lecture awaited her, she just stayed quiet. "Layeba?" Warning marked Shiza's voice.

"I didn't have time. It was a really busy day today", she separated from her mother. When Shiza fixed her with a glare, she knew there was no saving her today.

"Go sit on the dining table! I'm bringing food for you", Shiza pushed her towards the dining table and made her sit on the chair. She herself went towards the kitchen.

"Ammi banaya kya hai?!" She shouted even though her voice could've reached her normally.

(What have you cooked?)

"Jo bhi banaya hai, khana pare ga!" Shiza knew her daughter won't eat the masala bhindi that she had made.

(You'd have to eat whatever's been made.)

She groaned and put her head on the table, her left cheek touching the table. Within seconds, she was transferred to another world. This is how her mother found her after two minutes. Bangs falling over her eyes, her mouth slightly open and her hands pressed between her thighs.

Shiza shook her head. Her daughter worked too much for her own good. She should get her married soon. Placing the tray containing a roti, a bowl of masala bhindi and a glass of water on the table, she shook her daughter lightly which made Layeba to wake up with a start.

"I-uh-patient 206's vitals are all normal. And-and-"she looked her and there and upon seeing her mother, she realized that she was at home. She exhaled heavily, pouting and ran her hands through her hair. "Amma, why are you standing?"

Shiza sat on a chair beside her and started feeding her by herself. "Next time you're not taking double shifts", Shiza warned her even though she knew it was futile and the look Layeba gave her told her that she knew that Shiza knew that this was not going to happen.

"Where is Arsal?", she inquired of her brother. It had been three days since she had seen her baby brother. Whenever she was home, he wasn't. And when he was, she wasn't.

"He stayed at his friend's yesterday", Shiza said, preparing another morsel for her. She raised her eyebrow. This was too much. She knew that he didn't "study" as he claimed to be doing at his friend's.

"Ammi, hadd nai ho gai? It's his forth stay in two weeks. Us ko kahein wahin reh le phir wo. Ajeeb tamasha hai", she snapped, taking the bite from Shiza's hand.

(Mom, hasn't this crossed the limits? _ Tell him make his stay there permanent. Its a strange drama.)

"He goes there to study Layeba. Let the boy breathe", Shiza tried to calm her down.

"Mamma, common! You and i both know that son of yours doesn't do any parhai (study) there."

"Acha na! You rest now. We'll talk to him in the afternoon", Shiza handed her the glass of water. She drank it then wiped her mouth with her sleeve.

"I have to go to the hospital at ten, so its not possible then. Wake me up at nine. And call that brat of yours to come home before that. Nai to aj us ki khair nahi hai."

(Else it won't be good for him.)

She gave her mother a peck on the cheek and started to go upstairs towards her room. "You compromise too much on your sleep, love. Just three hours? Are you kidding me?", Shiza called behind her.

She was already halfway up the stairs when she hollered, "No, Ammi! I'm very much serious. Good night!" and she turned and went into her room, closing the door shut behind her while Shiza stood there shaking her head with her hands on her waist.

**~**

The sound of bones breaking echoed in the empty warehouse followed by the muffled screams. The beast inside him itched to roar to the surface and just tear the bastard apart but he controlled it. Barely.

His right hand, Ozhan, looked at him with narrowed eyes, a cigarette in his mouth. Ozhan knew he was barely hanging by the thread. After all, his sister was missing. And that too, for more than ten days. And he hadn't had a clue on where she could be. He knew it was solely out of rivalry but never had he felt this helpless. His imagination was running wild. All the scenarios of what those ruthless bastards could be doing to her made him go crazy than he already was.

His men continued to torture the man behind him. The smell of blood and piss was heavy in the air and it made his stomach churn. He wanted nothing more than to end this man's worthless life, but he reigned this temptation in. This man was not that worthless. Yet. He was responsible for many main drug dealings of the rival gang. He had to know something. He was found lurking near his house the night his sister was kidnapped.

Another crunch. Another bone broken. Another muffled scream. He turned and walked towards the useless excuse of a man. The wooden chair that he was once tied to was now in splinters. The man's arms and one leg was tied to the wooden pieces whereas the other legs was broken at several points, blood pooling on the floor where he laid in an uncomfortable position with broken chair beneath him. Tears were running down his dirty face, his eyes shut tight due to the pain.

Yazaan bent so he could be at level with the man and removed the cloth from his mouth. The man's eyes opened and he reveled in the fear evident in his eyes.

"Are you ready to speak like the puppet you are?", his voice was calm yet the people who knew him recognized that when he was this calm, the beast was lurking on the surface and he was barely locking him in.

"I-i-i d-don't kn-now! I don't know! T-they j-j-just sent me t-to make s-sure that everyt-thing went sm-smoothly. I don't know where she is!"

The fear in the man's eyes screamed truth to him. He wanted to wrap his hands around the man's throat and just end his miserable life but a bright eyed chubby, eight month old child came before his eyes. That child didn't deserve a life without a father in it. But did he deserve this bastard of a father? He couldn't decide.

When did Yazaan Ibraheem Khan grow a heart? When did he began to care about a child with whom he had no relation to? When did sympathy enter his heart? Oh yes! The promise he once made to his beautiful innocent sister.

Lala, promise me you will never hurt anyone on my expense. You have chosen this path for yourself and i can do nothing more other than pray to Allah but please bhai, never ever hurt anyone just because they hurt me. Please.

Goddammit! He hated being this bound. He hated not being able to break a promise. He hated that his sister had made him promise this. And he hated him that he gave her his word. He hated himself because his sister was kidnapped due to his rivalry.

He stood straight suddenly, went a few paces back and turned. He took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it and took a long drag of it.

"Take this man out of my sight and throw him in front of his house. And get someone to clean this mess."

His men were shocked to the core. Was this the Yazaan Ibraheem Khan who had killed countless people without an ounce of remorse? Was this the man who would put a bullet through someone without blinking an eye just because they stole little money from him? Here his sister was kidnapped and he was letting the only lead they had go?

But orders were orders. And they did not want to be on the loose end of their boss's wrath. Two of them took the man from the ground who had fallen unconscious due to the loss of blood and went out the warehouse.

Ozhan still kept looking at him without speaking a word. But he wasn't bothered by it. He knew what Ozhan wanted. Answers. But he couldn't tell him something which he himself knew nothing about. So he just kept quiet. He took a long puff of the cigarette and exhaled, the smoke covering his face.

**~**

She picked up her mobile from her vanity and headed out of her room. She needed a coffee right away. Three hours and sixteen minutes. That's all the sleep she could get. She hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen. Her mother was making breakfast for her.

She was about to go towards the coffee machine but a mug already filled of coffee emerged in front of her. She gladly took it from the hand of her brother who was standing behind her with his hand stretched in front and took a sip. It tasted heavenly. The good thing Arsalan could do was make coffee.

"You know this doesn't mean you're off the hook, right?", she said, looking at the sheepish face that he was making.

She'd had enough of his tantrums. She had received calls numerous times this month informing her of his absence from college and his poor academic result. She was not at all the strict sister who wanted straight A's in her brother's report, but she hated lying. And her brother was doing just that.

Knowing that she was about to blow up on Arsalan, Shiza called them both for breakfast. But all three of them knew that this wasn't stopping her.

"Let's go and have breakfast", she gestured at him with her chin, telling him to move towards the table.

Sitting on the head chair of the long dining table which had chairs more than enough for them, she placed her now empty coffee mug on the table and dug in the omelette. Her mother sat on her right, while Arsalan sat on her left. It was an unspoken agreement in their house.

She was neither dominant on her mother nor was she the head of the house. Shiza still took decisions of their lives and her word was final. But most of the time, it was Layeba who was doing the talking. Shiza knew that she needed to step back a bit to give her some space.

Halfway through her breakfast, she decided that Arsalan had had enough of the freedom which he was misusing.

"Arsal, where is your report card?", she said it casually, without looking up, her concentration still on the food in front of her. While Arsalan's fork stopped clinking with the plate. He swallowed what was in his mouth and said,

"Which report card, Api?"

Her eyes sharply moved towards him. Arsal knew better than to lie to her but he still dared to. Layeba left her fork to have a sip of orange juice. She again resumed eating.

"Acha? Phir lagta kisi ko phone jaisa khilona abhi mila hai, jo wo baar baar mjhe phone karta hai. Or pata hai us ka favorite subject kya hai? Arsalan Ali Hussein ki academic progress", she said casually. Way too casually. Shiza shook her head and continued eating.

(Really? Then i think someone got a new phone toy just now, that he calls me again and again. And do you know what his favorite subject of discussion is? The academic progress of Arsalan Ali Hussein.)

There was no sound other than the clink of utensils. Layeba continued eating while Arsalan looked at her, slightly horrified. He forgot that he had to say something.

"Arsalan! Go get your report card", she again said with an authority that told him to not disobey her. But how could he bring something which was already in ashes. He had burnt the report card the day it was given, which was a week back.

When Arsalan didn't make an effort to move, she took the last bite of her breakfast, finished the juice from the glass and stood up.

"Do you have it or not?", with the calm yet authoritative voice and her hands gripping the table, she looked nothing less than a detective or a police officer in investigation.

"Woh...api...report card..."

"Do you have it or not?!" Her voice rose. Now Shiza was worried as well, who was busy clearing the table.

"No", his voice was small and his shoulders hunched as if he wanted to disappear.

"Where is it, Arsal?" Shiza said, taking part in conversation for the first time.

"Ammi, um-i-uh....i burnt it", he whispered.

Sharp pain arose in his ear and he was pulled, forced to stand. He was easily half a foot taller than her but anyone could tell that his height gained none of the benefit in front of her sister or mother. Layeba was still pulling his ear. Tears of pain pooled in his eyes and his face had gone all red.

She left his ear abruptly and folded her arms. Arsalan rubbed his ear to relieve some of the pain, his head bent low.

"Arsal. Why did you do it, beta?" Shiza knew that Layeba was furious so she decided to take over the "investigation".

"Ammi, i thought that you guys would ground me if you found out the report card. So, i burnt it", his voice was still a whisper. He knew his sister could be deadly when furious.

"Tell me, Arsalan Ali Hussein. What did mom or i used to tell you, huh? Never to lie and hide things from us or never to get low grades?", Layeba asked. When he didn't open his mouth she raised her voice. "Answer me dammit! I know that your courage didn't waver when you were busy hiding things from us, so don't you dare get all quiet on me now!"

"Never to lie", he replied meekly.

"Exactly! But what do you do? Do exactly that! I would've never punished you if u had gotten bad grades after trying. But no! You don't even try! You never try. And before you go on about how you guys 'group study', take a good look at me and tell me if i look like a fool to you."

"Layeba, calm down. Give him a chance to explain", but deep down, Shiza knew too that Arsalan was not getting out of this lightly.

"What can he explain, Mama? There is no explanation for burning your report card", Layeba said glaring at Arsalan the whole time for whom the floor was the most interesting thing in the world, his cheeks flaming.

"Now let me tell you the actual meaning of punishment. Give me your phone", she said, extending her hand towards him. "Give me your phone, Arsalan", she said more sternly this time when he simply looked at her.

He handed her his iPhone from his pocket.

"What's your Instagram password?"

"W-why do you need it?"

When she simply glared at him, he said:

"Its Alohomora."

She did something on his phone for a few moments before saying, "Your Instagram account has been successfully deleted."

"You didn't, api", he gasped and made an attempt to grab his phone but the look she gave her kept him still in his place.

"I did. And you know what? Your punishment is not finished yet. You are grounded for the next whole month until you bring me your next monthly report with straight 90% on it. 0.1% less and the time span increases for another month, got it? That means you are to come straight home after college. No outings. No Netflix. No video games. No nothing."

"Api, you're being too harsh. I didn't do that big of a thing", it was a futile attempt on his part.

"Am i? And didn't you? Anyways, even if i am, this is your punishment. Now go to your room. And, yes. Your phone will stay with me. "

With a look of defiance in his eyes, he went upstairs with loud feet and Layeba hoped he would take it constructively and not do anything stupid.

"You are being too harsh, Layeba."

Layeba gave her mother a look which said don't you know me, mother?

"Parents give their children worst punishments, mama. And i didn't delete his Instagram account. "

"I know, dear", Shiza sighed.

"Ammi, i wanted to tell you something."

"Hhmm? What happened?"

"You remember last month i told you that there was a discussion going on in hospital about a medical camp in Hunza?"

"Did it finalize?"

"Yes! It did. And its next week!" Anyone could hear the excitement in her voice, even though she was trying to control it.

"That's wonderful, darling. So when are you leaving? And who will accompany you?"

"I will go alone.The staff members will leave today to make the arrangements and all but since i have a surgery the day after tomorrow, i will leave the next day which is Tuesday."

She put her phone in her handbag, adjusted her glasses and tightened her ponytail.

"So what you're saying is that you are going all alone, driving by yourself, all the way to Hunza. "

"No, Ammi. Of-course not. A colleague of mine will be with me, don't worry. "

She placed Arsalan's mobile in Shiza's hand and said, "Don't give him this, okay? He needs to learn that there are consequences for his actions."

With that, she hugged her mother and walked out the door.