Beneath Guarded Hearts - 74

Previously…

3alya

I strode off with purposeful steps, enraged as I rushed to my car. I had to get to Sul6an. I had to see him and make sure he was okay. I don’t know why my eyes started to water, but I blinked my tears away and hit the gas. No time for tears or regrets; Sul6an needed me.

_________________

Sul6an

            I heard vague noises, a melodic chattering ringing into my consciousness. It was still dark, but my mind was awakening. Who was behind that sweet voice? I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn’t find the strength to do it. If I could stare at myself right now, I’d spit in my own face. How could I be so weak? Flashes of red haunted me, and her poisonous lips kept fading in and out of the darkness, playing hide and seek, teasing my anger. I wanted to burn that image out of my head, but there was no one there to help me light the match. My eyes suddenly opened.

I was awake. There was a white light. It blinded me at first, and I stared into nothingness. But slowly I started to form the shapes around me. Now, the melodious chatter turned into an agonizing riot. Why couldn’t they just stop talking? My eyes lost focus again, and my eyelids started to coat my sight, when a voice made me pause.

“Sul6an?”

            Who was the person behind this beguiling voice?

“Sul6an, wake up…”

            Her words drifted away, but I hadn’t had enough of this mysterious person. I was still hungry for her soothing harmony as darkness raided my pounding cranium, having shown me a piece of heaven I could never have. And then there was nothing.

3alya

Me: “Sul6an?”

            His eyes hung low, his long lashes shadowing his focus. I was loosing him again.

Me: “Sul6an, wake up…”

            He was gone again. I sighed deeply. This was his third day in the hospital, and he only woke up twice, including today. Did he know that I was here with him? Did he hear my voice when I talked to him at night, when I whispered goodnight and kissed his forehead? Yet in a way, I didn’t want him to know. I didn’t want him to know that he had won my heart over, because then I would loose. And 3alya never lost.

            My eyes watered as I looked at him, his chest bare with all kinds of wires attached to him.

Me: “What on earth happened to you?”

            I whispered into the air. I felt a shift of movements behind me, but I ignored it.

“You did.”

            I spun my head with abrupt swiftness, startled by the condemning tone, and looked into the scrutiny of Rashid’s eyes. I glowered at him in confusion. He merely shook his head and held up his phone, the picture of my kissing pose popping out of the screen. I stared. So it had reached to him.

Me: “I was getting revenge. He insulted me.”

            His eyebrows pressed together as he looked at me, his expression blank with eyes of gleaming fire.

Rashid: “I see you went for the kill.”

Me: “What are you talking about?”

Rashid: “He was looking at this picture right before the truck hit him.”

            I stared at him in shock. Was I going to be the center of their lies again?

Me: “I can’t believe you’d make up such a thing.”

Rashid: “I didn’t make it up.”

Me: “And how would you know what he was looking at?”

            His expression changed, and although he maintained a stiff composure, he clenched his fists silently and stared at me. He glanced at Sul6an and then looked back at me. His fingers relaxed and fell lazily, and his eyes watered a slight before he blinked them dry.

Rashid: “Because I’m the one who sent it to him.”

Asma

            I stood in the midst of a hill of white crystals, my body half drowned in the snow as I laughed at my accidental turn out of the main slope.

3bdulla: “What in the world are you doing?”

            I rambled out my reply between each laugh, and I fell sideways and found my whole body buried under a coat of powdered slush. I was still laughing when his arms reached down and pulled me up gently, lowering my facemask and planting a kiss on my lips.

3bdulla: “You’re crazy.”

Me: “Ah, but don’t look at me. I warned you it wouldn’t be easy being married to me.”

3bdulla: “And I married you anyway.”

            He smiled and brushed off the snow that rested on my clothes and helmet.

Damion: “You two okay?”

3bdulla: “Yeah, we’re cool Domino, my wife just seems to love her falls.”

Damion: “Haha! I’ve noticed that, now let’s get going! I think a blizzard is about to hit soon.”

3bdulla: “We’re right behind you.”

            As he left, I whispered to 3bady.

Me: “His name is Damion, not Domino!”

            He shrugged.

3bdulla: “Domino sounds better, so I’ll call him Domino.”

            I rolled my eyes at him and shoved him aside gently as I pushed my skis forward.

Me: “3bady, stop slacking off and get moving!”

            I shouted from behind me, feeling his challenging smile on my back as I heard deep slashes of ski on snow coming after me.

Damion: “Be careful you two! Looks like there’s a little wind, we’ll just have to be a little more careful!”

3bdulla: “What?”

Me: “I didn’t hear him either, let’s try to get within hearing distance.”

            My words were silenced by the biting wind that followed, slapping needles of snow onto my face. I quickly covered my mouth and nose with my facemask and turned to look for 3bdulla, but all I saw was an endless riot of pure white. I screamed out his name, but my words were soundless whispers hushed by the wind. I couldn’t see anything, and my skis suddenly picked up speed, unaware of the slope’s steep transition. I pushed deep into the snow with a hard, parallel break. I searched frantically for any sign of 3bdulla or Damion, but saw none.

The ruthless winds blew harder. I could almost feel its piercing ends slashing right through my clothes, and to my horror, my skis started to move, the whirlwind too strong and my weight too light to keep me in place. I was being shoved towards the end of the cliff. I threw my whole body onto the fine, fresh snow that fell nonstop on the steep slope, and I tucked my head between my arms and started praying. I was lost in the middle of a snowstorm, and I had no idea where I was or what to do about it.

To be continued…