Chapter 46

" Thank you, " I told Aliyah as I handed her the phone. She smiled sadly, then she walked towards me and took it. Sitting next to me on the bed with a million thoughts coursing through her mind. 

I could tell. 

" You can't stay here...this place will end you, " she finally said. 

I looked aside and let the silence creep in. 

" I have a plan to get you out, I'm certain it'll work but you must be willing to go. "

That caught me off guard. I had known Aliyah cared,she proved just how much with each day that passed, but offering to get me out of there was a new level of affection that even I would never have expected. And I know she expected me to pounce on the chance, to take the rare opportunity and flee. 

But where would I go to? I certainly couldn't go back to Seville since that's where our father would look first. And other than that I doubt I had another location that could serve as my saving grace. 

And even if there was one such place, it wouldn't have Calen Silverstein in it, which would make it just as bad as that room. 

" I can't, "

" Jerald! " she sounded frustrated, balling her fists and shifting to stand Infront of me. Her long red gown a work of art. She shook her head and frowned.

" Stop hurting yourself, please.."

Inching towards me she swiftly went down on her knees and sat back on her heels. Then she reached out for my hands and held them in hers. 

" Your aunt Faiza in the states, you could go there...I'm sure she wouldn't mind or maybe I can ask one of my friends...like Siran maybe. Or I can book you a flight to-" She sounded frantic and was talking so fast I almost couldn't keep up with her, so I called her name and asked her to stop. 

She looked at me with eyes hooded with determination.

" You've done enough, "

" I've done nothing!"

" Just let it be okay?"

" Why are you sacrificing yourself and your happiness for a man that doesn't care about your feelings? You think one day he'll understand? " she chuckled, but there was no humor to it. 

" That will never happen Jerald! You'd do best to realize that!" 

We heard footsteps approaching and she quickly stood and picked up her books,but before she left she said.

" Your my brother...and I'll make sure you don't shrivel in this godforsaken place!"

After that she walked out and then I heard my father lock the door from the outside. 

🌼💮🌼💮🌼💮

CALEN'S POV

Distance is a thief disguised as miles, a mercenary in the form of meters. 

There's this thing that distance does where it slowly creeps in. Unnoticed. Then it starts to substract warmth and replaces it with loneliness. You don't even realize it, it's a gradual process that leaves you with no recollection of the time that passed. 

Another effect of distance is that it sometimes renders you helpless. And perhaps a little insane. 

I felt insane because the type of thoughts coursing through my mind were impossible to achieve. The countless things I considered doing to her him back were either absurd or impossible.

For instance, I thought of leaving school that weekend and driving straight to the airport, from where I'd catch a flight to Rabdah, then....

There was no ' then ' because I hadn't thought past that point. But of course there was no way I could do that. I wanted to and I ached and burnt for him but that would have been acting irrationality.

This was not a movie. 

I was currently in his room...I was always in his room. It was a way for me to pretend he was still around. I though that if perhaps I stared at his things and breathed in his scent then I'd convince myself that it was all a bad dream. That he was in class or in polo practice and soon enough he would walk through that door and smile at me. 

His things had been half packed, and I had unpacked them all and placed them back to their original place.

I don't know why. It had been some hours after I watched him leave, I couldn't stand to look at the suitcases on his bed.

I remember that most were just full of books and little trinkets involving him and I. 

I had thought that even if he were to leave everything behind then he'd be sure to take his violin with him, but that too was still in his room. 

He wasn't fine, I could just feel it. I heard it in his voice when we talked over Aliyah's phone, he tried to conceal it but I had known him long enough to tell when he wasn't okay.

It infuriated me to know that I was helpless in the entire situation. That all I could do was sit around and wait for something to happen.

But that couldn't be the end.

I refused to let it be.

💮🌼💮🌼💮🌼

JERALD'S POV

It was early morning and I was freezing. Perhaps it wasn't even truly that cold, but I hadn't eaten anything for quite sometime and I had been woken up by Dafiq.

Standing next to the tub I watched him as he poured some clear liquid into the cold water he'd ran. Then he took out some sort of white powder and sprinkled it in as well before he began reciting something in our foreign tongue. 

" This body we shall clean..." he said, " ..his mind we shall heal and then his soul shall confess. "

It felt like an exorcism.

After he was done he asked me to strip and step into the tub. 

I flatly refused. There was no way he could be allowed to do that,it just felt wrong.

" You must do this Jerald, "

" Says who?"

He shook his head and asked me to strip once more,I still refused. There were limits I wouldn't let them cross and that was one of them. 

" The easiest one he had said, " And I wondered if this was the easy part then what would the hard one be like? How much worse was this going to get over the course of the next two weeks?

With keen eyes I watched as Dafiq dried his hands with a towel and walked out. Then he returned moments later with my father.

" What's this I'm hearing about you refusing to cooperate?!" he harshly asked before he even got into my bathroom, and when he did he walked straight towards me and sneered down at me. 

" I'm not comfortable with this, " I told him but he acted as if he hadn't even heard me. 

" How much more shame do you want to impose onto me?"he asked, then he turned to Dafiq and asked him what exactly I was required to do. 

" He has to bath in the water I've just purified, but he refuses to undress and do so. "

Purify. 

The word stuck with me, he had purified the water. Because that was how great he was, he could sprinkle powder on things and they'd suddenly be pure. 

So he meant that by me stepping into the tab I would he physically pure as well. The entire thing was sinical.

My father used his hand to gesture at my clothes, then he impatiently uttered the words, " Off. Now!" 

Still...I refused. 

He couldn't believe that I'd disrespect his authority in such a way, much less Infront of company.

We call them fathers, our very first male role models. The ones that are supposed to make you feel safe, protected. 

In the minutes that followed my father turned into a violent tyrant. He struck me twice, then with his hand wrapped around my neck he pushed me back against the wall. 

I couldn't breathe,and all my senses went numb. I heard Dafiq gasp in shock and step away,but he made no move to do anything else.

" I've tried to show you mercy! Had it been anyone else who had done what you did they would have been burnt at the stake...but because it's YOU! MY VERY OWN SON,I decided to show some kindness. Where's your gratitude boy?"

He squeezed tighter,and I sought refuge in Calen's smile,his voice and his touch. Closing my eyes I summoned those thoughts and clung onto them.

My father was shouting incredibly loud and he must have asked me something or told me something that required me to act but I didn't hear him...and so he hit me again. 

" Take your clothes off and get into the bloody tab!" he growled and took a step back. I struggled to control my breathing and when I tried to move even an inch I stumbled and almost fell. Everything was spinning harshly and I think I felt blood trickle from my nose. 

The tears were there but I never once let them fall...not while my father was still in the room.