It was around 10:00 A.m in the morning, the sun was shining too brightly for the mid fall season, the falling leaves from the trees creating an ethereal scenery, but none of it really mattered, the house which was buzzing with life last night was now shivering with the wails of cries of the people, the bride who was adorned in a pastel lehnga a few hours ago was now simply lying lifeless as Women wrapped her body tight in the shroud, her face pale as the scars on her face were being cleaned for the last time before she could be buried under the soil for centuries to come.
Fannah was standing outside the tent as he saw others serving the tea to people who has come to say their condolences, he wanted to help but his right hand was plastered, the accident last night was so big that several people were injured, and they lost three lives in it, which of course included the Bride, Groom and the Groom's cousin, everything had happened so suddenly that he could not see anything before their car hit the lamppost and he fell unconscious and when he came to, the next morning everything had already shattered into small pieces.
The house was still full of decorations, guests still wearing their fancy clothes but everything had changed in a second and now the house echoed with cries, gut wrenching please as his aunty tried to wake up her young daughter who had her eyes shut tight forever.
"Fannah, don't stand here, you are still injured, go and rest" Raid said worriedly breaking Fannah out of his thoughts of last night.
"It's okay, I can't.... can't believe it, everything turned upside down in a second", Fannah replied, massaging his head as the ache seemed to grow more and more.
"Life is like that, you never know when you will die, but this one is just so.... unbelievable". Raid answered, patting Fannah's back as if to console him while his eyes were red with tears.
"We should have listened to sufiyan, he said it, only if we had listened, this would not have__"
"Fannah, Sufiyan is mentally unstable since childhood, he has these manic episodes every three days".
"But he did__"
"Are you really telling me you believe that Sufiyan knew what was going to happen that guy is on mental medication, what happened was written in fate, we should not dewel on it". Raid said bitterly and then turned to help others.
"You should go take a rest". He offered before walking away, and leaving Fannah alone to think his thoughts are through.
The time passed by quickly but the more Fannah thought the more hard it was to come to a conclusion that made sense, as he was thinking he saw Sufiyan sitting in the corner of the tent looking at everyone with dull eyes.
Fannah got up from his place and was about to walk to him when Raid held his hand and dragged him out of there.
"Fannah, stay away from Sufiyan", Raid said taking in a deep breath to control his emotions.
"But I was just going to talk to him", Fannah replied curtly, his voice on the brink of breaking.
"He is disturbed right now, and his state is not very stable so I beg you to stay away from him". Raid said, now with a face full of frustration.
"I am not going to say anything to him, I know he is ina bad condition".
"listen to me" Raid snapped "leave him the fuck alone, you are not from here you don't know anyone here and you don't know how things work, I have always been with him and I assure you he does not need a stranger interrogating him, when he is barely holding on".
"Okay, i would not see him", Fannah finally gave in, but deep down he still knew that there was something that sufiyan knew and he needed to know it, even though that meant meeting him secretly.
.....
Late in the afternoon Fannah was standing by the road, his eyes wandering through the large paddy field when he saw Sufiyan's mother frantically walking back to her home as she held her son's hand tightly,murmuring something to him silently while Sufiyan looked down staying completely unresponsive to his mother's warnings.
"Perfect timing", Fannah said as he quietly followed the two and his behind a wall while the mother son duo made their way inside the house completely unaware of Fannah's presence or so he likes to think in that moment.
Fannah waited their for may be an hour or two before Fatimah came out of the house to go back to Sumaira's house , Fannah came out of his hiding after approximately fifteen minutes of Fatimah's departure and walked into the front yard of the house, he walked to the show rack and found that the key was still there like yesterday when they had come with Raid.
He took the key and walked towards the door, his heartbeat pulsed abnormally as he put the key into the lock, he knew this was wrong but there was nothing else he could do, if he wanted to know what happened last night he had to do this, his hands shivered but after a few seconds he unlocked the door successfully.
He slowly undid his shoe laces with one hand and took off his shoes before opening the door and stepping in, his eyes scanned around as he crossed the threshold and went in.
"Sufiyan", he called out softly trying his best to not scare the boy, but there was no response to his call.
"He must be upstairs in his library" Fannah thought and closed the door behind him to go upstairs and look for sufiyan but there was no one in the room.
He carefully went to the next door and opened it but it turned out to be the storage room so he walked to the one beside it and knocked softly.
"Sufiyan", Fannah called but there was no response just the soft rustling of shifting footsteps and soft whispers, Fannah curious opened the door only to find deep darkness in front of him, his eyes moved around but he could not make out anything so he turned the lights on.
There sufiyan sat on his bed, back towards the door and facing the wall, he kept murmuring something intensly as he wiped his tears.
"Get out".Sufiyan said as he turned towards Fannah, his hands shaking uncontrollably.
"Sufiyan, I want to talk to you", Fannah offered, slowly nearing the bed.
"What is there to talk to a crazy person". Sufiyan asked, anger glinting in his eyes.
"Sufiyan, I know you are not crazy, talk to me, how did you know what was going to happen last night", Fannah asked cautiously.
"You would not believe me even if I told you, it's useless" Sufiyan replied in a helpless tone.
"I believe you, I will believe no matter what you say, so talk to me".
"You would not__" Sufiyan was about to say something when Fannah grabbed his hand and in an instant everything went blank again, the cold darkness from last enveloped his body and he felt like he was in an ice cave.
Fannah tried to look around but the room seemed to have shrunk in size and it was unbearbly suffocating, Fannah turned his head in Sufiyan's direction again and a scream escaped his lips.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Fannah screamed at the top of his lungs, there ....there was a black something looming on Sufiyan's head, saying something vehemently while coiling itself around his body, Fannah tried to get up but found that he was unable to do so, suddenly the small space lit up and ..... And they were.
Sufiyan..Sufiyan was...they were sitting besides Sumaira..or to be precise they were sitting by her dead body,in her grave while she lay there unharmingly, staring wide at the two.
Another scream escaped Fannah's lips and he let go of Sufiyan's hand, he could not see anything, he just ran, ran and finally he stumbled down the stairs, his broken arm making an ominous screeching sound as he got up again and ran out of the house barefoot, his screams filling the air as his face continued to be wet with his tears.
He wanted to run, run and run, until he was far away from this haunted place but suddenly his foot hit something and he fell down on the road.