A Blossom in the desert

Saviour on board

With every sound of footsteps closing upon ,Emaan panicked more , her mind flashed ideas to escape but her body seemed to be freezed with fear. But determined not to give up she frantically looked around causing more boxes of tins to fall down and steps to hasten more. She whimpered in frustration and despondency. As the steps reached the passageway ,Emaan looked at the sky helplessly and then biting her lips to stop herself from snivelling while her eyes incessantly rained down tears ,Emaan quickly collected stones from the rubble surrounding her and prepared herself to hurl them against Qasim. As steps closed upon ,Emaan had flashes of Sidra ,Yamama ,Aljida ,Hassan ,Mr & Mrs Rahman ,Adila and Abida and to her amazement even of Khalid reeled before her eyes. But she didn't had time to reflect on her amazement as the sound of footsteps reached near the boxes ,she focussed herself on looking at the ground as knowing the glimpse of shoes will be the perfect indicator of the arrival of Qasim and her chance to overpower him with her attack of stones and her only chance to escape  .Thus as soon as she saw the glimpse of shoes ,Emaan hurled the stone with full force and grabbed another but she came to a abrupt stop when her eyes landed on the person standing before her.She was shocked beyond any comprehension yet undeniably relieved to see the person infront of her . In that moment the person seemed to her like a lightining that had illuminated her world and sweeped away the darkness with just his mere presence. Her eyes that had been raining tears uptil now bloomed with happiness seeing Khaled just like the verdurous world blooms up after heavy rain.

Trusting his gut feelings ,Khaled had followed the noise that had echoed in the alleyway yet knowing completely that it was not the best time to run towards mysterious noises but eventually his reasonability and practicality had been succumbed by the gnawing thoughts and scenarios that had lashed in his mind like waves after waves after he had read the message from Halima. As Khaled ran towards the passageway,the noise echoed again making him sprint faster , knowing well the probability of finding Emaan there was highly tentative  yet he still wanted to take the chance .As he reached near the boxes ,Khaled stilled for a bit ,blowing out breath & invocating Allah's protection, he stepped stealthily but his foot slipped a bit by the rubble causing him to bend a little and eventually getting saved from the stone launched at him. Khaled was shocked by the sudden attack but his shock evaporated as soon as his eyes landed on the attacker.

Grateful,relieved ,pleased: every synonym of emotion of ease echoed in Khaled's heart as he saw Emaan before him. .Seeing her infront of him alive ,his heartbeat seemed to beat Alhamdulillah not just for himself but also for someone's else beating heart. And he couldn't help but notice emotions of happiness sparkling in her eyes for the first time seeing him and this sparkle was enough to make Khaled's heart to flip and  sprout with strange desire of wanting to be looked at by her like this always .But quickly shoving off  the unnecessary thoughts from his mind and his eyes from Emaan's face ,Khaled's eyes fell on Emaan's hand that were still in air with stone aimed at him ,

" Dr Emaan relax it's me ..Khaled ...you can put down the stone ".

Listening to him ,Emaan fervently nodded her head like a child and put down the stone . Her cheeks had been tainted red in embarassment but her bashfulness had erupted more cause of the tattered condition she was in . She tried to cover her bare arm with her ripped off clothes. Khaled who quickly ran his eyes over Emaan to gauge for any injury stilled as his eyes fell on her ripped clothes and bit of her skin revealed through them. Khaled instantly looked away clenching his jaw . He quickly took out his jacket and passed it to Emaan .Emaan seeing the hanging jacket infront of her ,looked up at Khaled who was looking away ,she gingerly took the jacket and whispered ,

" Jazak Allahu khairan" .

But Khaled who was seething in anger didn't seem to notice her whisper. Seeing his mood ,Emaan gulped hard and quickly wore his jacket which was quite big for her size but just perfect for infusing a sense of security and warmth through her shivering self. Wearing the jacket & rubbing off her tears ,Emaan after much speculation courage up to ask Khaled ,