Chapter One"I thought of angels
Choking on their halos"
Meher was sitting in the passenger seat gazing upon Abeer while he drove. The wind ruffled his luscious hair.
Smiling, she ran her hand through his locks and felt the softness. She giggled as he leaned his head in towards her touch.
"Abeer, pay attention to the road." She reprimanded as he tore his eyes from the street.
"How can I when I have such a beautiful sight before me?" He said cheekily.
Meher grinned and pushed his face away.
However, her smile disappeared as she saw who was following her through the side view mirror.
"Abeer," She patted him frantically on the arm.
"What happened?" He asked, worried about her drastic change in behavior.
"Dad..." She trailed off, looking behind her and seeing her father following them in a black car.
Abeer looked at his side view mirror but only noticed a black tinted car behind them.
"How do you know it's him?" He asked, thinking her paranoia might be influencing her judgment.
"The licence plate Abeer. It's his." She answered, now becoming agitated.
"Okay, first of all just relax okay." He said, straightening himself in his seat.
Taking the opportunity, he switched lanes and attempted to lose the car. After a few minutes, he thought his initial doubt was right. That Meher's judgment had been impaired because of her fear of getting caught by her dad. But when a car almost smashed into them, he corrected himself.
"Abeer..." Meher spoke, looking at her side view mirror and noticing a grey car speeding up beside them. "Why are they coming so close, Abeer?"
"Hang on." Abeer shifted the gear and sped up, changing lanes in between.
Meher's heart beat started racing as she felt the car's speed breaking numerous laws. Her eyes kept shifting from the side view mirror to the rear view mirror to Abeer. She couldn't believe this was happening.
"This is all my fault." She said in between her cries.
"Meher, it's not. Now, stop crying." Abeer reprimanded taking his eyes off the road for merely a second. "I don't need to worry about your emotional drama right now, so can you please put a pause to it?"
Meher looked at Abeer with watery eyes.
Her breath hitched as he sped up even more.
"Abeer!" She yelled out as they almost hit a car in front of them.
In the nick of time, Abeer swerved the car and took it down an unknown dirt road. Looking behind them, Meher noticed the same three cars following them again.
"Abeer, I think you should stop the car." Meher said, patting him on the arm.
"Meher, are you crazy?" He asked, now getting irritated.
"Abeer, they could be dangerous!" She retorted.
"And that's why you want me to stop the car? So that they can beat us to a pulp?"
"Abeer, we don't even know where we're going!" She shouted, pointing at the open space in front of them.
"I'm not stopping the car okay Meher. Now just shut up and sit there." He yelled.
He swerved the car again to make a U-turn as an attempt to make an escape from the opposite direction.
To his dismay, the car came to a violent stop as one of the tires gave way. Meher screamed, as the window to her door got smashed. She raised her hands and looked away as a way to defend herself from the little pieces of glass that broke in and fell on her.
Her passenger door opened and she was dragged out of the car by two men.
"Let me go!" She yelled, struggling to get out of their grip.
In response, one of the men slapped her making her fall to the ground.
"Meher!" Abeer called out, rushing to her.
Before he could come anywhere near her, he got punched by a man in the gut. As he clutched his stomach, he got kicked by another man, toppling him over. Abeer raised his arms in front of his face and crouched into a fetal position as he became bombarded by several kicks.
"Abeer! Leave him alone!" Meher screamed, trying to pull the numerous men off of him.
Her protests were of no use as she got pulled back by another man. He lifted her over his shoulder and proceeded to take her to one of the cars. Meher screamed and kicked and tried punching him, but they were all futile on him.
"What are you looking at? Throw him off the cliff." One of the men commanded in a loud voice.
Hearing that Meher froze. They were about to kill Abeer, was the only thought that was ringing in her head.
Not entirely knowing how, she managed to get away from her captor's grip and had ran towards where she had last seen Abeer. As she ran, she saw the other men, drag his crippled body towards the edge.
"Abeer!" She screamed out as she got pinned down by one of the men. "No, let me go! Abeer!"
She cried and screamed and yelled and shouted until her throat became raw.
"NO!" She yelled as she saw the men throw Abeer like he was a ragged doll.
She didn't know why the man had let her go but she sprinted towards the edge of the cliff where she had last seen Abeer.
Falling down, she searched for him. Luckily, she noticed, the height of this cliff wasn't too high. She was sure that Abeer would be able to survive the fall. But she questioned herself considering the state that he was thrown in.
"Abeer!" She frantically called out as she spotted him hanging from a nearby tree.
Rushing towards him, she held out her hand for him to grab. Abeer reached out but was unable to come close enough.
"Abeer, come on!" She urged, tears stinging her eyes.
She saw the blood gush out of his mouth and cried even harder.
"Abeer!"
A loud ringing echoed in the still air. Birds flew away, screaming in danger.
With her hand still reaching out for Abeer, Meher turned around slowly to fully process what just happened.
Her dad was standing behind her.
With a gun.
Laughing.
She turned back around and saw how still Abeer went. She inched herself further off the cliff and stretched her hand out even more.
He could have grabbed it at this point.
But he didn't.
Instead, he fell.
Meher's fingers brushed with the ghost of his.
Her surroundings got blurred out as her entire focus narrowed in on Abeer falling.
She didn't even notice when she herself got pulled up and was seated in the car.
She didn't even notice when her mother came running to her, with tears streaming down her cheeks, asking her where she was and if she's okay.
She didn't even notice when her aunt had slapped her as she tried to remove the razor from Meher's hand.
Abeer was falling.
Into a dark abyss.
All she knew was that she wanted to follow.
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
Mangal Lakshmi
