The house was quiet.

It was too quiet.

It was the calm after the storm. All the chaos had faded away leaving behind a gaping chasm filled with a black nothing.

Her sister was dead.

She had died leaving Hoori alone.

She sat on her bed, staring at the wall before her. She was waiting for something, anything to disrupt the silence yet it never came. It was just quiet with only the echoes in her mind to keep her company. It was only the image of Jannat, cold and unmoving, that lay before her. Regardless of her eyes being opened or closed, that was all she could see. There was nothing but the memory of her dead sister to keep her alive in the quiet, empty house.

She woke up with the sun bright upon her face.

She had barely any recollection of falling asleep the previous night as her thoughts and dreams all melded into one. She fell asleep thinking of her sister and dreamed herself awake at the thoughts of her.

It had been only 4 days since their house had descended into the mournful silence that not even a whisper seemed to permeate. Her parents had occupied their room while she occupied hers on the opposite end of their large house. She dreaded opening her door each morning knowing that she would pass the closed door of her sister's room and knowing that it would never be Jannat that would ever open it again. She would never walk into it, drop her purse on the drawer next to the door and collapse heavily onto her bed as she waited for Hoori to barge in. She would never again wear the expensive dresses lining her cupboard nor would she use the creams and perfumes that seemed to invade her draws. Her room remained empty and silent as if even her possessions had given up waiting for her return.

Her scrunchies, her clips, her straight pins, her bobby pins, her powders and earrings all waited with baited breath to be used once again and all would be left disappointed. Jannat wasn't coming back. She had died at 8 in the morning on a cold Winter's day. It was grey and gloomy and the wind howled outside the window as if it had known that her soul was about to be released. She had died in St Catherine's hospital and she had taken her last breath in room 509 with Hoori right besides her holding her hand.

She had an infection that had ravaged her already weak body. She had no hair on the top of her head and her body had become almost skeletal towards the end. She had chapped lips and short fingernails that were covered by the navy blue gloves that her mother had bought for her from one of her various trips to Switzerland. She was wearing pink pyjamas and blue knitted socks with a grey beanie above her bald head but she had died smiling at her sister.

And that smile was the only thing Hoori would ever remember from that day.

...

He would never be able to explain the need to see more of her after he had helped her remove her shirt.

Mikaeel explained her shirt as a means to apologise without having to say a word. She was so muddled up by her parent's arrival, that she hadn't realised she kept opening and closing the same button over and over again. So he helped her remove her shirt.

That's what it was supposed to be.

He opened the first button, then the second, then the third.

But by the fourth, he couldn't give a damn about helping her.

He opened the fifth button to expose the skin on her stomach and by the seventh button... The sight of those beauty spots speckled all over her pale skin had him wishing he hadn't done what he had the other day. If he hadn't, she wouldn't be opposed to him kissing each and every one of them one of them very, very slowly.

By the time he removed the belt from around her waist he was pretty much a goner.

It creeped up on him. He didn't know what to do with it. He didn't know how it came to be that he looked at her and all he thought about was kissing her. Kissing her a lot. Kissing her till she couldn't breathe and till her legs started to shake so badly that she couldn't even think.

And when she stood before him in just her underwear, he almost wished she had been just a little more stubborn so that he could admire the way her stomach curved gently over her hips.

"You're really making me do this?" She smiled up at him- he could see she was embarrassed. There was just something so.... It fucking bothered him.

It's not like he hadn't undressed her before. But it was always hurried and frazzled and he was sure he never bothered to take the time to just look at her. But this was slow and careful and when he undressed her, he actually looked at her. He saw every freckle and every spot and every curve of her body. He felt every curve of her body.

"Sleep in your underwear or sleep in a nightie. Choose."

Underwear.

Underwear.

Underwear.

She shook her head but lifted her arms all the same, allowing him to slide the silky material reluctantly down her arms and over her head and when the material settled over her hips, he couldn't help but smooth his hands over her waist as if to iron out any wrinkles.

"Done." He stepped away from her, praying she hadn't noticed the way his hands lingered on her hips for just a little too long.

"Wait." She caught hold of his hand.

"What?"

"Will you do me a favour?" She asked, looking down at their enjoined hands.

"What now?"

"Just..."

Why wouldn't she just ask him? She was fucking killing him with her lipstick. Why the fuck did she have to wear pink?

"What?"

"Just for five minutes, let's pretend that I love you and that you love me." She squeezed his hand just a little tighter, "Please."

"Mum." She walked hurriedly past Jannat's room, trying hard not to glance at the light wooden door. "Mum, are you here?"

The house was... dead.

"Dad?" She called, feeling frantic as she walked past all the doors of the empty rooms around her.

It was only 4 days. They couldn't have left her and gone away. They just couldn't have.

"Mum?" She shouted once again, praying she was wrong as she ran down the stairs. " Mum? Mummy!"

But no one answered. No one answered because no one was there.

Or maybe they were just sleeping. Maybe they were tired and they were resting. Maybe their door was closed and they couldn't hear her.

"Mum?" She was running through the house now. Knowing they were there. They couldn't be those parents. They couldn't be those parents that left her. "Mum, please answer me." She felt the bottoms of her skirt swish along her legs as she ran faster towards their room. "Mum!"

They were there. They were there.

"Mum?"

Her voice came out as barely a whisper in front of their opened door.

Their bed was empty in the bright sunlight that streamed through the wide windows. She could even make out the tiny little dust specks that floated around the large, cream room. Their bed was pristine with it covers straightened neatly across the large king sized bed. The quilt was arranged towards the end and the detailed pillows were fluffed up against the light brown stuffed headboard.

Then she remembered...

They were those parents.

They would leave her four days after her sister had died.

Because that's who they were.

"Mrs Johnston." She called, hoping their housekeeper was nearby. "Mrs Johnston!"

"Yes Hooriya?" Her loud voice sounded from behind her.

"Do we have any spare boxes?" She tied up her hair in a severe bun as she walked away from the empty room.

"We should have some." The older, portly lady regarded Hoori dubiously. "Why"

Hoori closed her eyes.

She couldn't walk past her sister's closed door any more. It had to be opened.

"Jann..." She swallowed thickly. She couldn't say it. She just couldn't. "My sister had a lot of beautiful things. I'm sure someone else can use it."

"Of course." Mrs Johnston smiled up sadly at the young girl. "I'll bring them up right now."

"Thank you." Hoori smiled at her before walking slowly up the stairs.

"Forget it." Hoori turned away, rubbing her hands over her face. "Ignore what I just said." She shook her head, annoyed with herself for falling as low as she had.

"Wait." He stopped her, clutching gently onto her forearm. "Just wait." Mikaeel turned her to face him before he guided her to sit on the edge of the bed.

"What?" She looked at him, expecting to see him staring at her as he had the day she offered him one of her candy necklaces. But when she looked at him, all she saw was pure curiosity. As if, he was trying to figure out life's greatest mystery as he looked at her.

"Why?"

She looked down at her lap, pulling at the loose threads from the lace bottom of her nightie till his hand closed over hers as he knelt down before her. "You asked me why I stayed married to you." She said, still looking down at his hand over hers.

"Uhm hmm."

"I can't go back to them." She shook her head, convincing herself further. "I can't go back to that house."

He said nothing as he waited for her to find the words milling about her head.

"They don't..." She was cut off as his lips brushed softly against hers.

"Your mum lied." He said as he leaned back to look at her.

"When?" She sucked her bottom lip into her mouth, unsure if she had just imagined that kiss.

"When she told you that short hair doesn't suit you."

She smiled, scratching lightly at the hair behind her ear before she leaned forward, cupping his jaw lightly in the palm of her hand. "Good." She rubbed at the stubble that prickled against her fingers before she kissed the corner of his mouth.

She should have moved back. She should have but the soft glow of the lamp beside them seemed to have captured them in a spell that neither wished to break. She lifted her gaze, looking at the way his eyes seemed to drop to her lips almost as if he couldn't look away. He was in a trance as her hand began the slow descent towards his chest, knowing that her heart was beating just as fast as his.

Her lips were as close to his as the tip of a butterfly's wing yet it was still too far away. "Just five minutes?" His voice had dropped down to a hushed whisper, each word brushing over her as a kiss before he pulled her towards him feeling each rise and fall of her chest against his own.

"Just five minutes." He could almost taste the lipstick that coated her lips as she brushed the softest of kisses onto his lips before she leaned back just a little...

It was the quiet lull of a boat before it capsized. It was the breath taken before a wave. It was the dark shadowing of the clouds before a storm. It was too much and it was too little as they stood on the brink between something and nothing.

As they waited, in the soft glow of the lamp beside them... they waited for the other. They waited for the feeling of obscurity. That one moment where neither existed as they were. That moment where they could both just lose themselves.

His eyes never left hers as his fingers trailed cautiously up her sides, never shying away even when he felt her breath shudder against his lips. He leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes as the scent of her perfume seemed to paralyse him.

For five minutes, he could pretend.

But just for five minutes.

His lips touched hers lightly, softly as if for the first time. .

Just five minutes...

He stood up slowly, gripping her hands in his as he pulled her to stand with him. Her heart pounded against his chest as his fingertips seemed to skim over the smooth skin of her arms, leaving the tiny hairs to stand in their wake. His mouth curled into a smile against the skin of her neck as she shivered against him. He had left her lips, kissing her in a place he had never kissed before. He had found a beauty spot just beneath her left ear, kissing it over and over again before he bit gently against her skin. She could feel his cold breath as he blew lightly over the same spot, causing goosebumps to erupt all over her skin.

God, what was he doing to her?

His light touches and soft kisses were something she had never felt before. They made her mind spin more than any other kiss he had ever given her. They were little, barely there kisses that he brushed all over the exposed skin of her neck and shoulders as his hands traced invisible patterns up and down her spine.

Five minutes...

He kissed the underside of her jaw, noting the way her pulse beat almost erratically against her skin as his lips moved closer to hers. He wound his arm around her waist, pulling her to stand right against him, till there was barely even a millimetre between them. There was nothing about her that he couldn't feel- from the lace hem of her nightie that brushed lightly against her leg to the curve of her stomach against his. The short hairs at his nape began to stand as she ran her hand through his hair, moving just a little closer to him before she pressed her lips to his once again. It was a light, fleeting kiss that felt almost as if she were teasing him.

Then she did it again.

And again.

And again...

Till he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth, finally tasting the lipstick that coated her lips.

Five minutes was still a long way from being over.

She walked into the room, sure that she could still smell the scent of Jannat's perfume in the air around her.

She closed her eyes, trying to picture all the moments she had with her sister in that very room. She smiled at the memory of Jannat's loud, obnoxious laugh that stemmed from the pit of her stomach and the way she always kicked her shoes off, high enough to touch the ceiling. She thought about all the boys' names that had passed their lips in the confines of those walls. And there were so many of them too, though she was sure Jannat's made up the bulk of it all. Her laughter seemed embedded in those very walls as Hoori looked around her. How could it not when her every breath had permeated each crack and nook within that room? There were more of her memories in this room than in any part across the whole world and she couldn't help but feel as if she was betraying her sister somehow.

How could she so easily pack up Jannat's belonging and give them away?

But how could she constantly walk out of her room and look at the most glaring reminder of her sister?

She had to do it. There were too many memories and the house was too quiet to live with all of them. She already had so many of those memories within her own soul. Jannat had a magical, shining, wondrous life that had been imprinted deep into Hoori's heart to live as a memory. To live as the smile she brought to her sister's lips and to live in the tears that flowed in the darkest part of the night.

And she would be the most beautiful part of her sister's life.

But that's all that she was. She was there for a minute and then she was gone.

And Hoori couldn't do it. She couldn't look at this room again.

She opened Jannat's drawer carefully, closing her eyes as she pulled out a light pink tub of cream.

This was it. She was saying goodbye to her sister. This was it...

She opened her eyes slowly, blinking once as sunlight streamed through the tiny gap between the curtains and into her eyes. But she was sure it was still early. The sunlight was still white and the ducks flying above them only ever made their journey as soon as the sun rose. Mikaeel was still fast asleep besides her. His chest rose and fell slowly with his deep, even breaths that seemed to almost soothe her back to sleep. And as she closed her eyes, she remembered the way they fell asleep the night before...

He said nothing as she covered his hand with her own, turning to face him, trying hard to fall asleep.

She could only feel the way the tip of his thumb grazed her palm as he drew little circles along the smooth skin of her hand before he turned to lie on his back and stared at the ceiling above him. And he never moved his hand away...

Not even once.

He was awake.

His thumb was knocking incessantly against the palm of her hand as he scrolled through his phone. She was sure something was wrong. His breath sounded too shallow and she was sure she could feel his hand shaking beneath hers.

"Hello." His nervousness seemed to echo throughout their small lounge as he answered the phone quietly.

"What... Just... Is it true? You're not fucking with me right?" His thumb knocked harder against her hand as he listened to the voice on the other end of the line. "Okay. I'm coming."

He pulled his hand away from beneath hers before he gathered up his clothes from the night before and hurried out the room.

A/N I'm dedicating this one to my sister who helped restore my confidence in this story. I love you sister :)