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When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. -Khalil Gibran

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Chapter Twenty Nine

The Test

(Maahirah Furqaan)

I stay up all night, not even a wink flies by. I toss and turn around, my mind pulling all the horrendous, creepy thoughts it can muster. At times like this, I wish I could trade my brain out of my head and sleep brainless during tensed night.

Sigh. The story of my life.

Anyways, when my alarm rings, surprisingly, I'm out of the bed, fresh and more.....tensed. Yipee!!

 Within next minutes, I get ready in a zombie like way and so, here, I sit on the blue metal chairs along with Haaziq, Haazim, Iris, Jules and Cameron. There are six of us in total waiting for our turns.

"Good morning, Bloomers," A voice booms through the intercom. Somehow I think that I know this voice. "We will officially start now. Good luck all six of you. There is going to be only single Test Room operating today too," She clears throat."Cameron Davits, please come in through the last door on your right. Thank you. And, others please patiently wait for your turns."

We all look at the door parallel to our sitting positions. Cameron gets up, taking deep breathes. He smiles at us as we all flash him thumbs up sign.

I learn this that test is taken six months before your eighteenth birthday. Therefore, every Bloomers (the one who hasn't passed their Test and are 17!) are six months away from their eighteenth birthdays. The thing is that as this the end of year month, this group is the last group of seventeens. Anyone whose birthday is a month or two or three or four or six or months away from now has to take the Test today.

I let out a big sigh. I’ve been sighing a lot today. When two more Bloomers; Ian and Haaziq, have gone for the Test, there are only three of us left.

Jules has her head pressed against the window, her eyes closed as she tries to relax. Haazim is staring ahead. His brows narrowed together. I'm stuck in being tensed or being calm. And, when you are in between these two, you are probably the worst. 

I mean, one moment you are relax and the other your mind goes viral and you're fired up with worries again.

"Jules Carlson." The intercom calls out.

She jumps up and lets out a yelp. "Yep, that is me. Yodi. Wo-hoo. Guys," Her voice drops."Pray for me."

I don't have the ability to reply so I just nod. Haazim says, “You will do great, Jules."

Haazim is the non-serious twin. The one who jokes about everything. Seeing him this quiet makes me realize that this must be a very important Test. So, I ask.

"What happens if we fail this test?" 

He stays mute for a while, and then he says."You either get send back or maybe you are shot by the Examiners. Thank God, nothing worst like being thrown an aquarium full of sharks."

I gape. "Really?"

"Yep." He nods. "I once heard that there was this girl and she flunked the Test, she was given a choice whether to drown herself in the quicksand, that runs across the Elton on the other side or to get drowned in an aquarium full of sharks."

"What did she choose?"

"Of course, the quicksand."

My eyes bulge out and my pulse increases. 

"Maahirah," He looks at me. Fear written all over his face. "Oh God, stop turning so ghostly whitish. God, I was kidding."

"What?" I gasp out.

"You are asked to take the retest, again and it is difficult than the previous one." 

"Oh." I intake deep breathes. No quicksand. No drowning. No sharks. No shooting. Who was I kidding when I said he lost his sense of humor!!

"Alhamdolillah. Your colour is returning. Otherwise, Aayan would have had murdered me in my beautiful sleep for killing you without using any weapons and not even my hands."

I laugh. "You gave me a very bad scare."

"That is my passion, milady!" He winks at me.

"Haazim Aslam."

Haazim stands up, calmly. He reads a short prayer and once again, winks at me. "Break a leg, Maahi."

"Same to you." I chuckle. Maahi?

And, then there is me alone. Sitting. My legs bobbing up and down. My fingernails in my mouth. Hundreads of thoughts running in my head. And, some time later, I hear the intercom.

"Maahirah Aslam."

Maahirah Aslam? I frown.,

 Me as Aslam? Wow...I have Aayan's surname. Shaking my head, I realize that it is my turn to get in. She' s calling my name. I've to go for the Test. I stand up.  

Ya Allah, help me through this. I read a silent prayer in my head as I proceed towards the door. Standing in front of the double doors, I exclaim, "Bismillah!" when the doors slides open.

Adrenaline is rushing all over my veins. I clench my fist into balls, and I set myself in. Three examiners sit on my right side. Each of them wearing headphones, several wires running from the headphones are hooked up on a screen in front of them.

One Examiner is Hope.

The second one is Mr.Brackson. He acknowledges me with a smile.

And, the third one is Kathy. Her grey eyes prey venomously, looking at me up and down.  

"Welcome Maahirah." She spits out my name. She has been speaking through the intercom. "Step in" She nudges at the three doors across from me.

"Which one?" I ask.

"Just step in,"

I already have started hating her so I open my mouth to throw a nasty comeback at her, but another voice beats me to it,

"Choose one of the doors, Maahirah." 

I whirl around to find him entering the room. A grin lights up on my face replacing the scowl.

"Don't be smart, Aslam."

"Kathy, she is new. She hasn't read the books on Elton."

"Whatever," She rolls her eyes, focusing her attention on me, she says, "C'mon get started. We don't have full day to waste on you."

I take deep breathe, ignoring the hatred dripping from her words. I concentrate on the doors. I have no idea what lays behind any of those doors or what I'm about to face. I close my eyes, and say."Number three."

As soon as the words escape my tongue, I glance at Aayan. He nods at me. 

"Good luck," Mr.Brackson calls out. 

The door opens and I step in. The light from the room seeps in and it still doesn't help in seeing in anything. The door with a bam shut behind me. I jump with a squeal. It's pitch dark here. Nothing visible at all.

I spin around and run my hand across the wall, hoping to find a switch that would bring life to this place.

And, suddenly, blue light shines in the room. The whole room is blue. I wince at sudden bluish-ness. A dummy drops on the middle of the room.

"Step in front of the dummy. And, position yourself." Kathy speaks through the intercom.

She is watching me.

With slow steps, I stand at a distance from the dummy. The dummy moves. What the heck?

It's a virtual dummy.  While I'm trying to believe in the fact that I'm about to impress the Examiners by defeating a virtual dummy, it throws a kick on my abdomen. And, I fall on the ground, yelping in pain.

 Wow, this dummy is smart!

I stand up, rubbing my stomach. It is about to punch me again, and I quickly duck. 

Aim for the parts which are most likely to do the most damage. These parts are the eyes, nose, ear, neck, knee and leg. Mum's lecture flashes  in my head.

Mustering all the power I can, I pummel my fist into his face, right in the middle. When it's recovering from the blow, I fire my boots into its knee making him tumble down.

For a second, I thought that it would stir up and kill me for overpowering  him, but the dummy disappears and the scene changes.

 I'm in a tunnel at least that is what it seems like. Something glints at a far distance, and I'm running towards it. This is all advanced virtual effect. But, here, I'm the player and the examiners are operating me.

I pant as I near my destination and pick up the gun. The gun didn't glint; it was made to sparkle a little to grab my attention. As I move further on, I realize I'm not in a tunnel but in Elton's headquarters.

"Hello?" I call out. Nobody appears except that my voice reverberates back.

I continue walking but this time with cautious steps. Something that tells me that I'm not alone now and the feeling of being watched by the Examiners creep in.

It's then I hear voices. Is stop and strain my ears to make out the voices. I stroll a little closer and peek around the corner to find two males talking in a whispering hushed tone. 

"We can kill them," The red-headed says.

"We can't commit a murder! Are you crazy?" The brunette shoots back.

"Hold on," He stops talking and turns his head to my peeking head. My eyes widen and I, briskly, advance back, and in doing this, my leg comes under my other leg, making me lose balance and planting my butt on the floor. A moan of pain escapes.

The two dummified males are in front of me, each of them has their rifle aimed at me. I don't  what it is or maybe it is my flight-or-fight response working, I've loaded my gun and with quick repulsive movements I've shot both of them down.

However, what I don't expect is blood actually oozing out of their wounds. My breath hitches in; the pace of my heart increases and the nauseated feelings kicks in. I'm pushing myself back with the aid of my hips away from the gruesome sight. 

The bile rushes up to my throat as the crimson colour seeps on the floor, and it gradually percolates automatically. I pivot my head to the side, and spew out the contents of my stomach. 

I cough, hoarsely. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I stand up. Once again, as I twirl around, I see a figure and his gun pointed at me. 

I actively direct my gun at me him, too. As I observe the figure more closely, a huge burden drops on my shoulders.

"Dad?" I lower my gun down. 

I know that this all virtualized, a way to play with my mind. But seeing my father after weeks, stirs something in my heart, and for a minute, I've forgotten that I'm in a computer world. 

"Dad, I missed you so much," My voice teary. I start walking towards him. 

He doesn't say anything as he clicks the bullet in its place. This does stop me.

I give him a flat look. "You...you...won't shoot me, right? I'm you daughter, Dad."

He is not listening to my words or my words make no sense to him. His face is emotionless, expressionless as he presses the trigger and I hear the gunshot echo and  feel the bullet piercing my skin and sinking in deeper and deeper.

My Dad's hand quiver as I tumble down on the floor. My hand pressed to the left side of my chest and I don't pull it back to check whether the blood imprints my hand or not.

"Maahirah. Maahirah. Maahirah." I hear someone calling my name and shaking me at the same time.

I open my eyes to find a pair of chocolate brown eyes looking at me. He helps me sit.

"I failed the Test, didn't I?" I whisper. I’m back in the blue room but it is white now.

"No, Maahirah, you did great." He whispers back. Million of emotions are flickering on his face. Aayan pulls me into his chest.

I grab onto the material of his shirt and inhale his woody cologne scent. It's somewhat alleviates the pain. He is rubbing my back in circle.

Someone clears their throat. And, we break our hug. Aayan helps me up in a standing position,

"You did well, Maahirah." Mr.Brackson says. The Examiners are in the room and have left their chairs.

"I think it was a very brave choice, too." Hope smiles. "Not an easy one but brave."

I nod, losing the ability to speak.

"It wasn't brave nor did she do that great. When you're an Eltonian, anyone who has their gun pointed at you, you are ought to kill them whether they are your relative or your blood." Kathy spits back.

I feel fingers intertwine with mine and I look down to find my hand in Aayan's. He gives it a squeeze, a reassuring squeeze. A squeeze to keep my mouth and let her speak.

"But, what is done is done. The results will be announced tonight. You're free to go,"

I start walking but Aayan's hand pulls me back. I glance at him. He nudges at me with his eyes. I frown.

"Look Kathy, I really think, you should think before plunging into a decision. Your ability to rush into inconclusive considerations will drown you into your own pit!"

I stare at him, open-mouthed. He pulls me out of the room, out of the Test room.

"What?" He finally replies to my open-mouth, which is close now.

"You….used a broad term of words on her." I say.

He chuckles and thwacks me with his finger on my forehead. I rub the abused side, and poke my tongue out at him.

Shaking his head, he says. "Anyways, Maahirah. You are not gonna worry about the test at all. InShaaAllah we will know the results by tonight."

Even though I wanted to cry at my epic fail. I wanted to stay alone but something about Aayan being around is much better than bawling your eyes out. So, for whatever time we are by evening, I’m going to push away the Test at the corner of my head, where mostly junky thoughts preside. I take deep breaths and nod my head.

We are standing in one of the dimly lit secret hallways.

"And, now for our mission." He rubs his hands together.

"A mission?"

"Yes."

I give him a look that says start-explaining.

"So...listen...the other day I went to Aseer's office to talk about something. I saw her examining the ring, that looked very much like the one I gave you. But, upon seeing me, she hid it which clearly meant that I wasn't supposed to talk about the ring at all and pretend that I didn't see it,"

"Yeah, she did take from me." 

"I noticed."

"The mission part still isn't explained." I say.

"We've to sneak in and get as much info we can,"

"Oh,"

"This plan was formed yesterday at night. At first, I was going to do it alone but then I saw how down you look now so I decided to include you into it,"

"Oh,"

"Will you say something else beside ‘oh’?" He throws his hands in the air, frustrated.

"Oh," I shrug my shoulder. "Sorry. I mean. Okay. Anyways, before we do anything reckless, tell me what time is it?"

"It's summertime. Anticipation." He sings.

I raise an eyebrow."You ruined the song. It doesn't even go that way."

"I'm an artist. I can sing the song in whatever way I want and I can modify it however I want it."

"Right." I roll my eyes."Time Aayan?'

"I'm not time, Maahirah." He clears his throat when he says the exasperated look on my face."Oh, that time. It is 14:30!"

Zuhr prayer. "Hey, I will meet you in an about half an hour. Okay?"

He nods. "Okay, um, meet me outside Aseer's office."

I show him thumb up.

He walks away with a wave, adding. "Be ready,"

**********

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The next chapter let's just say it involves air ducts!;)

-MidnightWhisperer ♡