CHAPTER 6

It would not be...ever.

That was the first thought that Maliya had when she was shaken out of her reverie.

She had temporarily been in a world where she had only the best of her memories surrounding her, and just like every other dream of hers, a nightmare followed.

The only difference on that particular day was that her nightmare was personified.

It didn't materialise into a flaming skull with a sadistic laugh like the one on the ghost rider's neck.

Oh no...that situation would have been akin to her swinging a basket of fruits in the meadow when compared to this.

The source of the chill that ran down her spine was none other than her chemistry teacher.

And while other tyrants would come armed with chains, whips, canons and AK 47s, this particular one came with an ammunition tank full of toothy smiles.

The pearly whites had a set of canines longer than a Siberian tigers', she could only be lost in the horrific thoughts of said teeth sinking into the middle of her head, cracking her cranium as they sucked her brain's fluids till she resembled the stock fish they ate for dinner last night.

She could visualize her soulless eyes staring at the vampiric creature as it licked it mouth clean, satisfied by its refreshing meal of neurons and brain matter.

She hit her head with the back of her palm when she realised two things.

The first being that she had just relived the scene of the horrific vampire movie she had being trying to forget for the past month.

The second being that there was a very amused, although confused man watching her intently with millions of specks dancing in his dark orbs.

Clearing her throat, Maliya wiped her face hoping to God that there wasn't any spittle running down the sides of her cracked lips.

A very amused Zayn watched the girl in front of him, holding in his laugh.

I must set a good example, I must set a good example.., I m-must s-sse-tt a gooood examp..

But the voice in his head didn't get to perfect its newly formed mantra when he burst out laughing.

Maliya ducked her head, feeling really embarassed, but unlike the other times her classmates weren't focusing on her.

It seemed the sixty-something pairs of eyes had found a new source of entertainment in Mr Zayn.

His rich deep laughter ricocheted throughout the four yellow coloured walls of the silent class.

It turns out the animated character on Nickelodeon hadn't been ludicrous when he said laughter was infectious.

Because a second later, a wheezing laughter surfaced from somewhere in the first row of the class, and then somewhere in the same line another followed, and row by row the virus had spread round the whole class, and boisterous laughters filled the air.

Maliya joined a few minutes later not because she had been infected by the laughter, but because of the sight of a young man, dressed in a black leather jacket draped over a white shir, with a light-sun-tanned complexion.

Because of a man whose looks could rival the picture of the model on the magazine that sat atop her table.

A man who drove the latest Mercedes car brand.

But most of all a man who was understanding.

And someone might think an understanding person is so easy to find, but they're really not.

An understanding person had a lot of power, they could prevent a lot of suicide cases, eloping, abortions, rapes, kidnappings and deaths.

For the second time in a long time, Maliya Jamil had a reason to laugh.

It was liberating, like a breath of fresh air after holding your breath in a room full of a poisonous gas.

You had wanted to laugh, but you just couldn't and you tried to hold your breath for so long and when you felt like you had got to your limit, a door opened.

An outside that door there was light, there was freedom....there was fresh air.

And then you're running and stopping at intervals, looking behind your back to make sure you're not being tricked, that it's not a ruse.

And then with a slow hesitant step, you take a step outside, and you're surrounded by so much light that you feel like retreating back into the darkness.

And you're still holding your breath, unsure.

Then finally, there's that little voice you missed, and it's back in your head and it's whispering promises of something better, it's telling you that you have nothing to loose.

And the more you look, the more you see, the more you...feel, its getting louder and louder.

And it screams its name so loud in your head.

HOPE.

And you're taking that breath, and you're feeling its genuity, and your filling your lungs with that fresh breath and you're smiling like a loon,  happy that even if you're alone you've got that voice with you.

You've got HOPE with you.

An emotion akin to this is what engulfed Maliya, and she was laughing, and she was crying, and she was choking on her breath, and getting drowned in her tears.

But she had hope.

And what she thought to be her personified nightmare, turned out to be her personified hope.

And her heart beat skipped as she got lost in those midnight black eyes.

This was not her nightmare.

It couldn't be.

Then again, maybe it was.

Oblivious to her thoughts, Zayd watched mesmerized as he witnessed her laugh for the second time.

The difference this time was that he could see the way her eyes shone with an ethereal beauty unlike any he had ever seen.

He tried to stop himself from having such a response to a girl who he was almost a decade older than.

But he couldn't help but feel each strong beat of his heart as it thudded against his chest.

He begged his eyes to shift to something else...perhaps the student who he could hear whistling somewhere at his back.

The stubborn organ however refused to oblige to its master.

It was only after he noticed the deafening silence that had enveloped the class as they watched their teacher stand in his spot unmovingly.

Thankfully, at that moment the bell rang. Glancing for the last time at the girl who had begun making him question his sanity, he absorbed every feature, feeling his heart expand and contract.

He felt a fierce need to protect her from the pain that flashed in her eyes.

He wanted to wrap an arm around her and watch her melt into him.

He wanted to take her home, to cherish her.

But all these dillusions were over his head.

He was an egoistical man who was well aware of his charm, and even though he had worked said charm on a few of the countless women who flung themselves at him, he never ventured past that.

He hadn't seen a reason for it.

And even as he looked at the girl, he was partly sure it wasn't love he felt for her.

Love for him was something immeasurable, it was knowing that you would readily give up anything to make her happy, it was that feeling that would make your heart constrict painfully anytime you stole a glance at her, it was your insecurities..your fear of being inadequate for her, it was the maddening jealousy when she looked at another with a smile, it was wanting to be the reason for every positive event in her life.

He didn't know if it was love he felt for her, but he knew that she was the only one who had evoked a deep yearning in him.

It was a feeling where he wanted to be with her at every second of every day.

It was a feeling where his brain replayed every motion of hers.

It was a feeling that made his heart burn with a fire that had sunk it's root deep in his being.

It was a feeling where he would sit down in front of his Lord, begging him to let him have her, to let her understand how much he needed her close to him.

He was deeply and irrevocably infatuated with her being.

He knew what love was...

But he wasn't sure if he would call the maddening feeling in him love.

He didn't think he was capable of love.

Afterall, he had a devil buried deep inside him.

And it took a step closer to engulfing his being everyday.