٭
منزل ملے گی بھٹک کر ہی سہی
Destiny will be found, after getting lost
٭
کدی تے ہنس بول وے
نا جند ساڈی رول وے
Laugh with us sometimes
Don't ruin our existence
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Chapter 20 : Eik nayi subah

Pale sunlight the shade of sea foam and sugar skimmed the bedroom floor. Peaking through the curtain pulled apart, it slid across the floor and over the worn out carpet until it grazed the bedding. It's organza frill that hovered over the floor hid the slippers pushed inside of it and a thick line of burnt wax had barely missed it's edge. Instead dripping on to the shishim side table and bronze drawer handle.

The light in it's dullness was irrevocably intense. A syphoned cloud's colour, it was the decreed shade of innocence. A virginal glow to the sun's basking rays, splashing the bright blue sky with it's calmer of rages. To match the pleasant weather of the tiny nook, left untouched, a zephyr blew through the tall trees. Whistling in through every crack ans crevice, creeping up behind un-expectant figures. Rising in circles inside the bedroom through the window too.

One half of the owners stood awake, seated on the crooked rocking chair. Tipping it back and forth with his foot, running his finger across the hollow rosary bead he had seen her use. Words — verses he had learnt, yet never truly, escaped his lips in muffled short breaths. With eyes half shut, his mouth softly turned to match the compass needle pointing South. Darab's free hand tapped the arm rest, his elbow digging into the broken leather wrapping.

The chair had begun to sunk in faster as he continued to sleep in it. The ache inside his upper back too had returned with full force, and despite the eye opening night that it had been, Golnar had been adamant on maintaining distance. Her voice in it's soft cocoon had been ever so kind as she told him, even with the stern way her jaw had ticked with each word.

A second chance does not mean immediate forgiveness.

Now as she dozed off, his mocha eyes — gravely with emotion and intense with leagues of depth of disappointment he felt at himself — took her figure in. The soft pink swelling around her eyes would be hard to miss by anyone when she stepped out of the room in a while. Though he knew, his people would rejoice at that. His mind ticked at the softness he showed his enemies daughter. His heart battled it out under the guise of Golnar being his wife.

Her hands placed underneath the skin of her supple cheek were pink and the duvet had slipped off of her shoulders some time after she had fell asleep. Even from the distance, his sharp eyes could gauge the gentleness of her breath. Her back rising and sinking. The skin of her body was so free of vices that had he not noticed her breathing Darab would have imagined she had some time after Fajar slipped into the realms of the life after. A thought that made him shudder.

Tightening his fist around the ebony thread of the beads, he ignored the way it dug into the flesh of his palm, almost tearing the muscle there. Darab's knuckles — shaded a white, ached with the hold and the self inflicted pain heightened only. Slow and gentle he released his grip before resting his head against the neck rest.

The dead body of his mother — battered and bruised — roamed his face, the red eyes of his father haunted him as he imagined the rage of the deceased man. He would have loathed his sight by now, the curse words that would have slipped his mouth like second nature boomed through his ear. Clenching his jaw Darab rubbed the underside of it with his finger, running slow circles into it. His mother's ghost — it's melancholic eyes as she watched him open a door to let her killer's daughter find love in him.

Duty and desire battled inside of his chest. The answer to his questions—lost.

"Soni ae."
[Is pretty.]

A cold eccentric voice rose him. Bringing him out from the broken daze of his nap. Even with his blurry vision, he could feel the cold as ice palm against his warm skin. Goosebumps danced along the top of his dermis, and he sat upright. The tutting and the clearing of a parched throat. The familiar shrill sound and her sarree — the very one she had worn on the day she was killed. It's skirts flew around her frame as she sat on the ends of the bed, touching the blanket over Golnar's frame with her bony finger.

"Tad tu enu maa de utar enhu tarjeeh de rai hai." She whistled.
[That is why you're preferring her over your own mother.]

"Aedi vi gal nai ae maa, teray tou vad kuj nai menu."
[That is not the case mother, there is nothing more important to me than you.]

Darab's voice had lost it's usual firmness and the unnatural tears had instead slid into his voice. The agony of having to make a choice had rendered him useless of making a decision. At his own incapability ; he felt wrong. Breathing harshly through his nostrils he slid out of the chair and sunk at the feet of his woman. Placing his warm hand over her cold ones. She was not as soft and warm as he had known her to be. The gentleness of her perfume had been replaced by the crookedness of death. Stained pleats of her attire — with the own maroon-ness of her blood taunted him.

"Tu ae viyah badlay vaste kita si," she chuckled, her voice broken, "fir kal rati tu uday paun phar lae?"
[You married her for revenge, and yet last night you gripped her feet?]

"Menu pata ae ke udhay piyo ne tenu marwaya si par maa uss kuri da ki kasoor ae? Arbaz mar jaye ga te udhi daulat teray putar di ho jaye gi. Ais tou vadh ki badla ho sakda aw?"
[I know that her father had you killed but what is her fault in this? Once Arbaz dies his wealth will belong to your son. What can be a better revenge than this?]

With a speed that would have cracked the neck of a living being, his mother's head turned to face Golnar. She hummed underneath her breath, an eerie silence fell around them as her deep set eyes rocked back and forth over the frame of his wife. Her lips rocking between a smug grin and a snarky smile. The emptiness of her eyes had become stronger and swirls of grey rolled inside of her orbs.

Despite the comfortable warmth of the world outside, the bedroom was suddenly dancing in a drowsy chill. Swivels of white danced inside the space and a few touched her cheek. Leaving behind a bright red from the icy frost. Whimpers escaped Golnar's lips as the assault continued. As the rosiness of her skin exchanged places with a pale blue.

"Darab?"

"Tussi ki kar raye o?"
[What are you doing?]

The husband and wife spoke in unison.

Golnar stared at his hunched over figure with eyes opened wide, wrapping the duvet around her shoulders tighter. Her legs brushed her chest as she pulled her body into a seated ball, a tear fell down her chin from the ache that spread across her left cheek and jaw, raising a hand to massage the skin, Golnar marvelled at the blue shade of her fingers. Whimpering at the sight of it.

The nightmare she had pulled herself out of had felt so real. Her body had been tied to the bed as she fought with all her might to escape the holds of the ghoul. It's leery laughter still ran inside of her ears. Golnar pressed her palms against her head to keep it out, swallowing her words and cries to become nonexistent. Against her upper arm, the hold of it still felt real, even the light way her fingers massaged the muscle did little to help.

"Ae ki si?" Darab hissed.
[What was this?]

Golnar frowned at Darab as he spoke with his chin titled towards the roof. His hand hovering over thin air. Still full of fear she rose her voice, fighting the splinters inside her throat, "a-ap kis sai baat kar rahay hai Darab?"
[W-who are you talking to Darab?]

His head turned towards her and she bit the scream that threatened to escape her lips. The ice around his eyes did not resemble the warmness of his usual eyes and the ring that he wore always had slipped out from under his shirt. The ruby inside of it, blazing. Though his lips moved, Golnar failed to make out his words.

"Kia?" She spoke—louder this time.
[What?]

In a second a splash of bright light flashed before her. Golnar felt her head turn light from the sudden rush of adrenaline. Wrapping her arms around the blanket she watched the ghoul that had just haunted her seated on the same bed as her. Though the agonising scream reached no ears as the woman motioned her finger towards her. Pressing the cold of her flesh against her lips.

"Amma chad unho! Unhe tear ki wigaraya ae?" Darab pleaded, slipping his hand off of hers.
[Mother let her go. What damage has she done to you?]

"Aida piyo, ya ae, meray vastay eik e ae." She chuckled with no emotion.
[Her father, or her, to me it is the same.]

"Par ae eik nai ae," Darab breathed, squeezing his eyes in pain before speaking the particular set of words to her for the first time, "tussi jao amma, udhey te zulm na karo, jad udha gunnah hi nai ae."
[Yet it is not one, you should go mother, do not hurt her, when she has no fault.]

Golnar peeled her eyes open gently. Hissing as the bright sunlight slipped in through the open window, piercing straight through her orbs. Rubbing her eye with her knuckles, she coughed. Dry heaving against her blanket she threw it off of her body, the thick fabric slumped against the floor as she pulled the blankets off next. Scratching the skin of her lips and cheeks. Feeling the cold presence linger around everything that it had touched.

"Golnar tu theek ae?" Darab enquired, pulling the door shut behind him.
[Golnar are you alright?]

"Woh kia tha? Kon aurat thi woh?" Rushing straight to the point, she enquired.
[What was that? Who was that woman?]

"Meri maa di rooh si, tenu weikh kar thora jaya ghussa agaya si." He explained.
[It was my mother's soul, after seeing you she got a bit angry.]

Taking a step towards, Darab ran his eyes over her frame. Assessing the extent of pain his mother had caused to her frame. Physically—for the most part— Golnar looked normal, though inside her tender eyes the shades of fear could not have been hidden from him. The skin of her hands was an inflamed red, imprints of his mother's hold though softer now, still remained against her lip and chin. Marking her in the most poisonous of ways.

"Ap jo mein kahun gi, woh karein gae?" Golnar spoke, calculating each of the words she spoke, raking in his reaction.
[Will you do, whatever I say?]

He nodded, remembering the promise he had made to her last night. A promise he was serious on keeping.

Till the end of his life.
Till the end of time.

"Apna yeh locket mujhe de dein," Golnar spoke, raising her hand as the protest shot through his lips, "vaa'ada karti hun isko kuch nahi ho ga. Bas yeh de dein aur yeh khidki band kar dein."
[Give me this locket of yours, I promise nothing will happen to it. Just give this to me and close that window.]

"Par—" he cried in protest.
[But—]

"Bas eitebaar karein Darab jaisay ap par mein nai kia hai."
[Just trust me Darab like I have trusted you.]

At those words, he could only nod helplessly and obey whatever she asked of him.

⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️
Darab a changed man?
I wanted to add more phantoms bur I didn't. Ap sab dar jatay ya know ;).