A hand flew over my slackened mouth. I could feel my heart beginning to race. Sandra moved slowly in a way those FBI officers in movies move with measure steps and watchful eyes when looking for a criminal or raiding a place. She saw me and raised a finger to her lips to shut me up then gestured me towards her with her hands. I could feel my heart in my throat so I obeyed silently. She might have seen the fear in my eyes because she pushed me into the hallway where the gym was as gentle as she could.

“Don’t say anything” she whispered. “I think there are armed men in the house”

“Ar…..ar…armed…me….men?” I stuttered.
She smiled before saying “You have nothing to worry about. I am not here to hurt you”

“Who are you?”

She looked back at the living room reaching for something in her pocket. Something smashed in the kitchen, the sound echoing through the quiet house. My skin grew damp. Sandra leaned against the wall pushing me beside her as she typed away on her phone. I could feel my legs shaking and hear my heart pulsating. I saw the pulse in Sandra’s neck beat against her skin. Is she also scared?

Footsteps that do not belong to me nor Sandra echoed through the living room. Even though the person had tried walking slowly, the clanking sound of the shoe he or she had on vibrated. I was trembling against the wall, every part of my body turning jelly. Sweat had saturated my clothes. Each step the person took closer accelerated my fear and heartbeat. I tried hard not to whimper so that the person would not hear us but the more I held in my cry, the more I sweat.

Sandra stepped out of the place we were and gunshot cracked through air. There was a groaned before silence. That had triggered something maybe alert because people cladded in black from head to toe stepped out of different part of the living room, from the kitchen, behind the sofa, from the toilet and the dining room. They had mask on but their body structures showed they were men. They had guns held to them ready to shoot at us. How did they get into my house?

Sandra as if she was a wind shot at one of them who fell on my glass coffee table. I don’t know how to explain it because everything happened too fast. I knew guns were shot, brass and bullets falling to the ground. Sandra shot back at them hitting some of them. She dodged their bullets. The television sparked when a bullet went through it. My living room was just like a shooting range. Bullets ruined lots of things. It just happened fast for me to apprehend and I was stuck to where I was standing.

I was too shocked to even scream or do anything. Glasses shattered on the floor, my chairs, master pieces, flower vases were ruined with bullets.

“Watch out!” Sandra screamed to my direction but I think whatever she had warned me of was faster.

Pain jolted through my body and I shrieked. Sandra pushed me to the floor as she shot at something behind me. The muscle in my back felt as if it will rip off in different places. I hit the floor hard and painful not sure of what was happening to me. I felt frozen to the ground and could not breathe well or move.

As seconds passed, the pain became intense. Guns were still shot around me and Sandra kept screaming, glancing at me and shooting. I tried to speak but nothing came out of my shaking lips. Soon, her voice and the sounds around me become thinner. My ears felt like bursted speakers. What I felt was just pain through my back and arm. I felt as if my gut will be ripped apart and out of my body. Sandra slapped my face trying to keep me awake.

“Stay awake” she screamed grabbing my face. My eyes were dropping and growing heavy. “Ma’am” her voice went into the back ground. “Stay awake please” her worried face became blurry but anytime she slaps my face, my vision clears for a second or two. “Stay” her voice was just a whisper.

As I drifted into darkness, I heard sounds like sirens and Sandra speaking to someone.

“Help!” her voice shut out and I heard and saw nothing.

***

Have you ever feel as if you have some heavy weight holding you down? Every part of your body feels so numb that you can’t feel a single fibre and what you can see is pure darkness. No matter how you tried to open your eyes, it just will not move. That’s how I felt when I was trying to wake up from unconsciousness.

I tried moving my eyes but it felt as if it had been held down by something weighty. My eyeballs moved but my eyelids refused to lift up. I could not feel my heartbeat. Every part of my body was inactive. I tried hard to push through the darkness that engulfed me. Eventually, my eyelids went up but I could not see anything. There was something like a thick cloud over my eyes preventing me from seeing. I blinked but nothing changed. My sight began to waver. The thick cloudy thing moved away little by little. When I could see, my eyesight burned and I shut it as fast as I could. I opened my eyes again, I saw white patterns above me like lines in a diagonal form. Nothing has ever hurt my sight like that not even the bright sun in the sky. I felt my heartbeat, my chest rose and fell in a gradual process and my breathing was shallow.

What’s happening to me? I could finally think. I tried to voice out something but my nothing came out. Whatever I had said was stuck in my throat and only I knew it. Attempting to move a part of my body, a finger twitched then went up a bit. I could feel and move. There was something in my nostrils and something in one of my hands. I turned my head slowly to the side to see an empty white cushion. I looked at the other side to see a window then I search further for something familiar and saw machines by my bed. They were familiar. I have seen them so many times. One of them that were like a monitor had a green spiral line with number written by it side. Where am I? I diverted my eyes to where I was lying on. The bed was not the one I had at home. It was smaller. The end of it was very well-known and it snapped open. I was in a hospital. Why?

Images played like a movie in my head. Guns, men in black, Sandra, noises. There was an open fire in my living room. Some men were shooting at Sandra and I was frozen. Something happened. Sandra warned me but she was too late. Amir? My husband? I shifted my body but a sharp ache shot through my back and shoulder.

“Amir” I called to the empty room. My voice was scratchy like I had a sore throat.

The room door opened and the familiar figure walked in. His head hanged low as he shut the door.

“Amir” I called but my voice was too low for him to hear. He turned around and when his eyes fell on me, our eyes locked. “Amir” I called louder my hand reaching out for him.

“Hayati” he called as if he was unable to believe what he was seeing. Like a wind, he was by the side of my bed gripping my hand. “Alhamdulillah” he muttered, a tear rolling down his face. I clasped his hand harder relieved there was something I knew. My breathing grew deeper.

“Water” I requested.

He took bottled water from the cupboard beside my bed and uncapped it. After a little gulp, I sighed.

“Ya Allah” he cried.

“Sandra?” tears stung my eyes.

“She is fine” he cleaved to my hands.

“Guns. Those men?”

“They are dead. You are fine now” he assured me. “You are fine habibti” he kissed my hand.

The doctor an elderly man arrived later. He did some check up on me and told Amir I was fine and needed rest. My ventilator was detached. My back hurts so much and I was yet to know what happened to me. I don’t know what they gave me but when Amir came back to the room, I slept off immediately.

The following morning, I woke up to be surrounded by Nani, Khala, Aunt Sabr, Aunt Naimah and Ayat Mami.

“Nani” I took Nani’s hand. Nani who was sitting by my bed jumped up with a happy cry and hugged me. The pain in my lower back was sharp and spread through the rest of my back and shoulders.

“Noor” Aunt Sabr who had been staring through the opened window swirled around. Ayat mami and Aunt Naimah stood up from the cushion that sat on.

“Ya Allah!” Khala cried out. “My Noorie”

They encircled me, happy and grateful. The next few minutes, they asked about my health, how I was and if they should call the doctor. After I objected, they called the doctor. The rest of the family arrived later in the day. Amir was around but the he could not talk to me because of the happy family hovering over me. They took over. Tubassum had cried which I would blame on hormonal changes due to her pregnancy. Zoya Bhabi and Sahibah bhabi were happy.

“I was scared when I saw you lying here pale” Mahira cried holding my hand. “I thought we had lost you”

“I am okay now Alhamdulillah” I assured her.
She sat next to my bed, our hands interlocked.

“Did you eat?”

“Yes”

I ate not after having someone like Khala or Aunt Sabr forcing food down my throat. The hospital food was terrible. It was awful and not like any homemade food. The hospital smell was worse causing nausea. I was trapped in the hospital for few days not knowing why. I had not been able to ask because I did not have the chance. Before everyone left for home, Mi Jin and Liza arrived.

“Look at my baby girl” Mi Jin cried out, her Korean accent thicker.

“This is not believable not after seeing you lying there for four days looking pale like anything I know”

“Four days?” I shrieked.

“Yes four days. I thought I had lost my amazing friend” Mi Jin squeezed my hand.

“She was pale. Why will some crazy men want you dead?” Liza grimaced.

“You are too nice for some crazy people to want you out of this world” Mi Jin added.

“Who told you?” I asked them.

“Amir of course. When he called to tell me, I felt as if I could not breathe. My head spun and I could not believe until I came here and the doctor was vomiting nonsense like she is unconscious” Liza narrated.

“I hope you ate? We brought you fruits” Mi Jin searched through the bag she had with her and brought out an apple.

“You will have to eat it” Liza snatched the apple from Mi Jin.

“I have eaten girls and I am alright”

“You won’t tell me that. Fruit will help you restore your health and those nutrients you have lost for days will be back” she put the fruit in my mouth.

They insisted I should eat a fruit even though it was just an apple. I did which left them happy. An hour after they arrived, they left.

At night, I was left alone with my husband who was seating by my bed side feeding me food. I was not okay. I knew something was wrong with my back. I was in bed all day except when I wanted to take my bath with the help of Khala and Aunt Sabr. Walking to the bathroom was hard. Each step I took made my back painful.

“What happened to me?” I questioned Amir after swallowing the custard.

“You don’t know?”

“Not at all” I shook my head.

“You were shot at thrice” he replied.

“That was what Sandra warned me against. Who is Sandra?” I remembered Sandra had a gun with her and she was shooting at the bad men.

“An Interpol”

“She is an Interpol agent?” I exclaimed and he nodded his head. “You knew?”

“Yes”

“Why will you hide that from me?” I lifted a hand to slap his shoulder but he caught it with that smile that has always made him desirable.

“Will you have been free with her if you knew? She had to stay with you because I wanted your safety”

“Why does she have to be with me?”

“Santino. It is because of Santino” my heart flipped.

He exhaled putting away the bowl of custard, pulled his seat and took both my hands.

“When Sandra called to tell me you were down with gunshots” his gaze held mine and there were emotions his face mirrored. One of them was relief. “I don’t know how to explain how I felt but I knew my system had shut down and it was too much for me to handle. I know how it feels to be shot but not thrice at you back. I had been shot once and was out for a week. I was worried and scared that I will lose you” My heart swelled at his words even his eyes did not lie.

“How severe are my injuries?”

“Nothing much. The bullets missed the vital points and you were out for four days. Don’t ever do that to me again Noor. Don’t go away like that”

“I won’t”

“Promise me. Promise me such thing will not happen to you”

“I promise Amir” I promised with a smile.

Satisfied, he kissed the back of my hand gazing at me with eyes that smile from the heart and softness on his face.

“You did not sleep well” I said running my hand under his eye bags.

“You expect me to sleep when you are here”

“Did you really think I was going to leave you?”

“That situation you were proved nothing of such”

“And now?”

“I am happy you are with me even though you are not well”

“Come here dear husband” I opened my arms. I cried out.

“What’s wrong?”

“My arm hurts but just hug me” he laughed wrapping his hands around me.

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