Daneen

How is it possible? I saw it with my own damn eyes. There was definitely something...

"Next!"

Zehra's loud call for next patient dragged my mind back to the contemporary scenario. I had a prescription paper in my hand, held out to a middle-aged lady who's swarthy staring eyes were appearing more protuberant on her pale face to the extent that it's disturbing me. What's her diagnosis? I thought to myself. I snatched that piece of paper back which I was holding for what might be ten seconds or so, to review her condition. She had anemia, possibly because of iron deficiency which is highly common in females of Pakistan due to insufficient dietary intake and monthly loss of iron during menses. Her prescription paper said 'iron tabs'. She was giving me strange looks on my strange attitude. So, I apologised for the delay and instructed her to get her medicine from table number 3.

"You okay Dani?" Concerned, Zehra asked me. Though, I knew she was worried because of what happened last night or probably on how weird I am acting since then, but her repetitive attempt to reassure herself about me being okay was getting on my nerves. "I'm okay Zehra! I've already told you this a thousand time." I snapped back, instantly regretting my coarse response. She lowered her eyes with a dejected look in it. I turned around to face her, took her hand in mine and apologized,

"I'm sorry girl. I think I didn't get enough sleep last night. I'm just tired, it's too hot outside and not to mention, this headache... Please forgive me."

The truth is, I wanted to meet Shan to drain out all the ambiguities and queries from my flustered mind, but contrary to my expectations, he didn't show up. The way he was avoiding the encounter strengthening my certainty that he shared the experience of that flaming creature with me last night.

He can fabricate the story he told everyone, but that dreadful look in his eyes... he can't fake it. He just can't!

"Why don't you take an early off? I'll cover it up for you." Zehra intruded my racing thoughts.

"Yeah but what about Dr. Murtaza?" Unsure, I asked.

"Oh I'm sure he won't mind you early in camp after witnessing your heroics." Zehra suggested with a smirk. And... she's back! I gave her a friendly fist on shoulder with a wholehearted smile, "Thanks girl! I'll see you in a couple of hours back at the camp." With that, I placed a gentle kiss on her head-crown and left.

As I was passing by the only water-well in that village, I saw Shan on the other side, placing a palm-sized metal lock in the sliding door-latch of his front gate. As soon as his eyes met mine when he turned around to leave, he stopped in his feet. His suspicious gesture on seeing me was enough for declaring him guilty in my mind. I marched towards him. Maybe I've had scared him a little because he took a half step back, but was pretending hard to hold his ground.

Just when the distance reduced to few steps gap between his house's porch and my stomping feet, I bumped into a guy who appeared out of nowhere. We both lost balance and hit the ground. As he extended his arm to prevent an injurious fall, I couldn't help but notice that his one hand was wrap with the torn pieces of newspaper. In the spontaneity of moment, I got a glimpse of his face. What on earth! He was the same guy who drove us to campus few days back, the uber guy with ogling problems. However, at that very moment, I was the one gawking at him. "Watch out lady!" Although, he seemed furious which is natural considering the circumstances, but he appeared oblivious about the fact that we've met not so long ago. He casually stood up, brushed-off the nonexistent dirt from his clothes and hurriedly passed by.

What a coincidence!?

"Does he live here?" I asked Shan pointing towards the direction he set off. "I'm not sure but I've heard that he's new to this village." He explained.

"What does he do?" To reaffirm my suspicion, I asked. "Again, not sure. He came here from some big city." Shan explained. As I was busy pondering over the possibility of that encounter to be a coincidental one, he asked, "Do you know him?"

"I thought so but no, I don't know him. However, I really want to know what you know. So Mister Shan, you better start talking." He seemed to be taken by the surprise. A crease appeared in between his eyes as he looked down at me with confusion smeared all over his face. One thing I have to admit is his tall stature was a bit compelling.

"What just happened last night? I know you saw it too." Reluctantly, I raised a finger at him. He stared at my pointing digit with converging eyes, then shifted his gaze on me. The crease between his eyes was growing intense with each passing moment.

"Calm down! It was just an accident. I'm sure that security guy is fine now." He tried his best to maintain the usual civilized composure in his voice.

"You're damn well aware that I'm not talking about security guard!" To highlight my point about him being a liar, I almost yelled out the last sentence. With that, his face immediately transformed into a full blown frowning furnace.

What if that THING was actually nothing but the fragment of my imagination. I have to admit that I was scared to death after hearing the gun fire. But... No! It was real. It was very REAL!

I kicked any existing self-doubts out of my head and looked towards Shan who probably was waiting for an explanation with angry confused eyes. So I let out a puff of air in frustration and said, "Fine! Don't talk! I'll figure it out myself." With that, I turned around to leave but faced him one last time before heading back to the camp. "One last thing, please mind that I'm not a fool. I understand that three consecutive fires from a shotgun can't happen accidentally because one needs to reload the gun before firing one shot after the other. Whoever or whatever he was intentionally aiming for, I'm going to dig it out no matter what it takes!"

By that time, I was certain that he knew something. The hint of remorse in his eyes was speaking the truth, and for some obscure reason, he was afraid to let it slip out. When I was on the move, a strong grip on my arm held me back. I looked at Shan who was inspecting the surrounding with my wrist clutched firmly in his grip.

"Come with me. We can't talk here." He said,

"What's wrong with here?" I argued,

"Do you wanna know the truth or not huh? What happened to your Whatever it takes?" He said between his gritting teeth. He seemed pissed but his eyes kept searching.

"What are you looking for?" Annoyed with his nerviness, I inquired.

"His surveillance scouts."

"Who's?"

"Maulana Asghar's" He said in a whisper, still looking everywhere but me.

I raised an eyebrow in disbelief. He fixed his eyes on me upon hearing the loud chuckle that unintentionally escaped my throat.

"You mean his spy? You must be joking!" I said in between my suppressed laughter. He was dead serious. Not a single muscle twitched in his perfect face which led me to feel a little embarrassed on my recent attitude. To cover it up, I agreed to listen his theory on current events.

"Fine! Where do you wanna talk?" I asked,

"Anywhere outside the premises of this village." He said,

I crossed my arm and stared at him to read his intentions. Trusting a total stranger to meet in solitude is downright stupid, but I knew one thing for sure that he's the only one in village with a trivial idea of what I'm looking for. I quickly resolved the battle in my mind and announced,

"Okay! Lead the way. But make sure that we'll be back before curfew time. I don't want any trouble with my superiors."

"Let's go!" He said in such a firm tone that it almost sounded as if he was being rude for the very first time. As we were about to depart for an unknown meeting point for the secret discussion, we heard someone stopping us from behind.

"Shan! You need to come with me!" It was Shan's friend.

"What happened Mujji?" Concerned, Shan asked him. He peeked at me from the corner of his eyes and signaled his friend to step aside as if he wanted to talk in private. Thanks to my cranky mood, I butted in demanding to spill the beans there and then. Shan nodded towards him to reassure that he can discuss the matter.

"Umm... The security guard, whom she saved last night, He's... umm... He just died."

That news..., it felt like I was struck by a thunderbolt.

"That's just not it" he continued, "You need to get away from here for sometime, at least a couple of hours, as people are furious because they believe..." He trailed off again, finding hard to put it all in appropriate way.

"What!? They believe what?" I asked,

"Well... They believe that he died because of what you gave him last night." He explained in an apologetic manner. I was speechless. Till then, I was afraid to be judged as psychotic after what I saw last night, but now, they've labelled me a murderer. I didn't knew which category was worse, a murderer who tried to save a life or a psychotic hallucinating girl who's too eager to find out about the paranormal creature she saw last night. In that moment, I didn't realized that my eyes had gone glossy.

"How did he died?" I asked,

Shan's friend shrugged his shoulders. It was much apparent that he really had no clue about what happened. I turned around and looked at Shan.

"Let's go!"

"Are you sure? We can..." He asked with a genuine concern but I interpolated his 'meet-alone plan' cancellation script.

"Yes I'm sure. Let's go!"

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Author's Note

Thank you for reading :) Please leave a comment or vote for this chapter. Thanks :)