Chapter 23

RAZIA’S POV

She didn’t move.

“Aisha!” I shook her violently. She still didn’t move.

“Leave her alone,” The raqi said. “She’ll wake up much later.”

“Are you sure?”

“Leave her.”

I got up and walked back to Nabeelah who was crying. I pulled her into my arms and soothed her back.

     “Everything will be fine.” I said softly.

     “In shaa Allah.”

     “Where will we sleep tonight?” I asked Dr Naseer.

     “I didn’t think about that.” he answered.

     “The girls can sleep in the spare bedroom while you take the couch here.” The raqi said.

     “Thank you.”

     Nabeelah and I took turns using the bathroom in the spare room. Good thing we packed a few clothes from the hostel since we didn’t know how long we’d be staying.

“How about Aisha?” Nabeelah asked me.

“She’ll shower when she wakes up.” I said and stretched my legs across the bed. It was big enough for the three us to sleep in.

“I’m hungry. Do you think the raqi has food?”

I chuckled and hit Nabeelah playfully. “Of course! How would he survive without food?”

A knock on the door interrupted us. We looked at each other and I shrugged. I put a veil over my head and answered the door. It was Abbas, one of the raqi’s guys. In his hands was a tray of food.

“The cook just made this. The raqi said you should eat and not worry about Aisha. She’ll eat when she wakes up.”

“Thank you.” I smiled and collected the food tray from him, then shut the door.

“Alhamdulillah! Finally we get to eat some food.” Nabeelah sighed dramatically. I rolled my eyes and placed the tray on the bedside stool.

“I am so sleepy.” I yawned.

“Same. But we should eat first.” I nodded and dug into the food. It was surprisingly very tasty. I wondered where they got food from because there were no houses or stores around. I didn’t care though. All I wanted to do was sleep for at least eight hours and wake up to a breakfast buffet.

***

I stirred in my sleep when I heard the room door open. Aisha walked in, yawning tiredly.

     “You’re awake.” I said softly so as not to disturb Nabeelah.

     “What happened to me?” Aisha asked.

     “You should probably go to sleep. We’ll talk in the morning.”

“But-” she started. I cut her off with a wave of my hand.

“Go to sleep Aisha.”

She mumbled something incoherent and climbed into the bed. I was going to ask her to shower first but she looked too exhausted so I let her sleep.

The sound of the adhan woke us up in the morning. I swiped the notification away and sat up in the bed, yawning tiredly.

“Good morning,” Nabeelah said, rubbing her eyes.

“Morning habibti. Did you sleep well?” I asked her.

“Of course not. I was scared something was going to come out of nowhere.” she frowned and I chuckled.

“We’re safe. The jinn is gone and never coming back.”

“Alhamdulillah.”

***

Aisha’s POV

“Are you ready to go?” Dr Naseer called from the living room.

“Yes!” I yelled from the bedroom, hurriedly fixing my hijab. Nabeelah and Razia were all dressed up, waiting for me to finish.

I stuffed my phone into the bag and went out with my friends. It was amazing how it felt like we’d known each other forever. I was thankful for having them in my life. Without them, I would’ve probably been in my dorm room crying for Aashiq to leave me alone. I smiled to myself, Aashiq was finally gone.

“Girls! If you don’t come out now we’ll be late.” Dr Naseer said. I could hear the frustration in his voice.

We took one final look at ourselves before heading out to the living room.

“Salam raqi.” I greeted the raqi.

“Wa alaikum mu salam. How do you feel?” he asked, a kind smile on his face.

“I feel good, Alhamdulillah. Thanks a lot for everything. Razia told me what happened.”

“It was not by my power but the will of Allah. So say thank you to Allah and not me.”

I smiled at him and said Alhamdulillah. I picked up my bag and said bye to him before joining Dr Naseer outside. Razia and Nabeelah joined us almost immediately and got into the car.

“I’m glad this is all over.” Razia said as she strapped herself to the front seat.

“Me too.” Nabeelah agreed.

Dr Naseer’s eyes met mine in the mirror and he smiled at me.

“I can’t thank you enough Dr Naseer.” I said, returning his smile.

“Whatever you do in this life, do for the sake of Allah.” And with that, he turned on the car and reversed until he was facing the road that led to the city.

The drive went smoothly and we talked about our families, countries and lives before traveling over here to study.

“I stay in Buraydah with my mum. My dad is almost never around. He travels around the world for different business meetings and I barely ever see him. My mum is always there so automatically, I’m closer to her.”

“That’s—” Dr Naseer didn’t get to complete his sentence as the car collided with a truck in front of us. The last thing I remembered before everything went black were our screams and the shattering of glass.

***

I woke up in my bedroom at home in Buraydah with a nasty headache.

     “Aisha are you okay? I heard you screaming.” my mum said.

     “Umma I had a very long and terrible nightmare. Everything felt so real. First I went to throw out the trash and then a jinn followed me home. I saw my reflection smile at me, woke up in the dream with scratches all over my body, even travelled all the way to Cairo for University and had a jinn boyfriend. It was horrible Umma. But I had two friends, Razia and Nabeelah. They took me to a raqi and got the jinn removed. On our way back to campus, we had an accident. That was the last thing I saw before waking up.” I narrated my nightmare to my mum.

     “Subhanallah! Are you fine now?” she placed a palm on my forehead and sighed in relief.

     “I’m fine Umma.”

     “Okay. Take your bath and get ready. Your father is already in the living room. Remember my friend’s son I told you about? He’s coming to see you today so look beautiful.”

     Before I could say anything, she left my room. I groaned and walked begrudgingly into the bathroom to get ready. I didn’t want to get married just yet. I wanted to go to college to become a doctor before thinking about getting married but I had no choice.

     After bathing, I put on a beautiful black abaya and a veil over head, then applied a little oil perfume before going to the living room.

     “You look beautiful Aisha. I’m sure he’ll fall in love with you immediately he sets his eyes on you.”

     I smiled at my mum and took a seat beside her. Shortly after, the doorbell rang.

     “Go and open it Aisha.” I nodded and walked to the door.

     When I opened the door, standing before me and smiling was Aashiq.

     “Hey, habibti.”

THE END

I’m so sorry for going months without updating. A lot has been going on and I didn’t feel like writing. I had no idea how to end this book and I didn’t want to drag it any longer, so I did this.🙈🙈🙈 I’m sorry if you didn’t expect it to end like this. Thanks for supporting me.