Chapter 1
Santa Catarina ...2013
"Oh Lord not again..." Zoya groaned as her umbrella inverted yet again. The little left of the warmth radiating from the cold sun was now gone under shadows. Dense dark billows brought with them stories of zephyrs from the north. And with that the unbearably cold sprinkling water which Zoya guessed soon would turn into a ghastly hail storm. The first snowfall of the winter perhaps.
She finally decided to let go of her now useless umbrella and fastened her pace towards her little dwelling midst the crammed full and jam-packed streets of Santa Catarina.
***
"Asad its been two years now... let go already. We have searched each and every possible nook of this world... looking for someone who doesn't even exist. Its time you accept the facts..."
Akram made another futile attempt at convincing him. But it was like Asad Ahmad Khan had turned stone at his words.
"Paras...died on 22 January two years back..." He repeated in his brisk tone. The room rattled with his words. Asad wanted to put the guy on a scaffold but not wanting to trigger his rampant streak he laid his words pressed hard.
"Keep looking." The tone demanded no more argument. He strode out of his cabin leaving a unaided Akram behind. He was his manager and a friend; not until recently. Or one might correctly say for the past two years he was his servant only, for that matter everyone was. He gazed back at the slammed shut door; baffled yet again by the nonsense Asad was up to. He thought he knew this guy...he did not. Everything frustrated him and made him want to hit his head into a wall.
***
Asad's stare precipitated through the emerging steam from his mug. Something entangled him in the silvery silence of the night. It was cold, with temperature falling below zero. He observed the stiffening of his muscles as the gust of unruffled wind blew past him. He tossed a rolled sheet of newspaper behind him on the tiny table and himself strolled towards the farthest side of his penthouse.
The newspaper read...
A bleeding moment; the industry loses its Super Model and an Emerging Actress...Paras embraces suicide.
***
Zoya slid her wet rain coat behind the door and almost threw the umbrella in the bucket; which was its allocated home. The little apartment smelled of roasted peanuts.
"Beren?" She called out for her roommate.
"Aam in the kitchen...want coffee?" She sputtered in her Brazilian coated Turkish accent.
"Hmm.." She murmured taking out a bottle of water from the cabinet.
Beren had Turkish roots; a prostitute by birth; a free woman by choice. She was in Brazil for no reason. All Zoya could infer was that she was on a run. Running from her past but then so was she herself.
***
Next Morning...
Zoya opened her rooms always jammed window. A thick carpet of white flakes had rolled open. So it had indeed rained last night. She wrapped her arms around her trying to protect her feeble self from the gust that lasped in boisterously. Gleams of sunlight, bewildered like men, struggled, astounded through the mist and disappeared.
The blue bowl of the sky, all glorious with the blaze of a million worlds missed something today. She did not want to think on it but she missed the leaves which syllabled her name in cautious whispers. Winter had prevailed blanketing everything under its spell.
This standing in front of the window had become more of a ritual now; standing there aimlessly; seeing unseeingly. Time was all she was left with. Which wasn't much fortunate for her; it paved way for streams of rhythmic memories; memories she was running from.
"Zoe...aam leaving..lock the door behind will you?" Beren shouted before leaving for her activities.
A while later the door clicked again; Beren must have forgotten something, Zoya thought. But before she could link the chain to its other thought there was a distortion. A sober, sedate yet somewhat known odor hit her senses. She closed her eyes to let thousand evanescent memories engrave her mind. Yet she thought these were more comings of her hallucinations only.
***
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A few things:-
There goes the first chapter. the sequence of the events is a little twisted.
Please leave me your feed back behind. I don't much visit this forum so kinda don't know much readers around. So do tell your friends if you find it worth reading. Would love to have more readers.
Don't ress if you don't plan to unress for an eternity...leaves me waiting.
The updates wont be much long.
Love,
Suri.
😃
Edited by AshesToDust - 11 years ago
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