I'm supposed to feel happy...
Kanwal thought as she headed towards her seat after receiving her certificate.
But I am not...
She sat silently with her friends, who were also sitting silently with blank expressions. Glancing at her friends' dull faces, Kanwal takes out her phone which was buzzing. It was an incoming call from an unknown number. She dismissed the call and sat straight.
After a minute or so, her mobile buzzed again. It was a text, from the same unknown number.
'Congratulations, Kanwal. I have been waiting for this day.
Ahad'
For a moment, Kanwal forgot to breathe after reading the message. When she got a hold of herself, she raised her gaze and scanned the area around her. But she didn't find any other men aside from the college staff.
Maybe in the last...
She thought and tried to look back from her seat, where all the parents were seated. But as expected, she couldn't see anything clear from this far.
"Oye! What happened?" Raffat, who is sitting on Kanwal's left asked her slowly.
"Huh? N-nothing... Just trying to see my parents." Kanwal lied and sat straight. But her eyes kept glancing at her phone every now and then.
The rest of the ceremony went blur and when Kanwal woke up from her daze, she found Mahnoor crouching before her, with a worried expression.
"Mano?" Kanwal was startled and looked towards her both sides, "Wha- where are the others?"
"Kanwal, are you alright? You're sweating." Mahnoor asked, squeezing Kanwal's hands, which were rested on her lap.
"No... I mean, yes. I am fine. Just a little scared." Kanwal bit her lower lip and once again, she scanned the area.
Kanwal's eyes widened in horror when she saw the same faces from the last year, the faces of the Black Eagles Gang who escorted her four senior girls last year. But today, there were only two.
Watching Kanwal's horrified face, Mahnoor quickly turned her face towards her by cupping her cheeks with both hands.
"Everything will be okay." Mahnoor said in a firm tone. Kanwal licks her dry lips and nodded.
"Attention, all final year students!" Kanwal's body stiffened as the announcement echoed in the auditorium.
The whole auditorium went dead silent until the voice on the speakers echoed again.
"Please form a straight row on the right side of the stage. As for the rest of the students, please leave the auditorium."
"Mano!" Kanwal said, gripping Mahnoor's hands.
Suddenly, Mahnoor felt a strange uneasiness but she ignored it. She has more things to worry about now. She slowly frees her hands from Kanwal's and holds them with a firm grip, thinking it might give her some strength, as she couldn't come up with good words to say.
Kanwal felt how Mahnoor is trying to help her, but she couldn't calm herself. The words of Ahad's email from last year is dancing before her eyes and her subconscious is screaming "danger!".
"I don't want to stay . . . I don't want to go . . . Please take me with you. Please, please, please." Kanwal said frantically when Mahnoor loosens her grip on her hands.
"Kanwal, relax. Everything will be okay... Have faith in Allah." Mahnoor said, patting her cheeks. But her eyes were saying something else.
"I-I have, Mano... But-" Before Kanwal could complete her sentence, a professor from the stage interrupted them.
"Hurry up, Kanwal. They are almost here and you, Mahnoor, go outside now."
They...
"Mano!" Kanwal cried when Mahnoor turned away to leave and she watched her as she went away. The restlessness Kanwal is feeling is growing stronger with each passing second and suddenly, everything froze when a familiar masculine voice echoed in the auditorium.
"Everyone can leave except for Nida Abdullah and Kanwal ... Mehmood." Kanwal felt a daze coming over on hearing her name and if it weren't for Mehak who was standing beside Kanwal, she would've hit the ground.
In a state of panic, Mehak helped Kanwal to steady herself and slowly made her sit on the floor, while Kanwal stared at the stage where a man was coming towards her with a triumphant look on his face.
~*~
"Leave and forget her." Mehak flinched at Ahad's strict voice and so did Samra, Maira, and Raffat. They were all standing within a distance from them but couldn't clearly hear them as the auditorium is already empty.
Squeezing Kanwal's shoulder slightly, Mehak got up and left the place with her friends. But all of them kept glancing back at their friend with pitiful eyes.
On the other hand, Kanwal sat frozen on the floor, staring at the ground. She heard every word Ahad said but the only thing Kanwal was able to think was her family.
What will they do?
How will she explain to them?
Questions kept popping up in her mind and she was so engrossed with them that she didn't realize when Ahad crouched down before her.
"I don't mind spending my whole life with you sitting in this position, but I have other things to deal with too." Kanwal's head snapped up to him and Ahad's smirk widened.
"I have to do the preparation for our wedding." Ahad smiled with a strange look in his eyes, awakening countless fears in Kanwal's heart.
