Sabar

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[Two years ago]

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His body lay lifeless in front of me. Though he was breathing, it didn't make any difference, for neither could I hear his voice nor could he hear mine. He had been sleeping like that for years, and I couldn't help but keep blaming myself. I knew he would be fine without me, but leaving him behind was breaking my heart into pieces. I was not ready to say goodbye. Not yet. But I had to.

I kissed his forehead softly as I caressed his hair.

"I love you, Liam. I hope one day you will wake up and say it back to me..." My throat was clogged with emotions as I stared at his sleeping form. It was like every other day, where I would just sit beside his bed and keep talking until I had poured my heart out. However, there was a major difference between today and the other days. Before, I always left him with the hope that I would be back again, that I could see him again. This time, I was not. I did not know if I would ever be able to do that—if fate would ever let me see him.

"I wish you could just wake......" I could not finish as I sobbed, holding his hand, then planted a kiss on it. I wished I could hear him say how much he loved me, but that hope was fading away. Now, with no choice and with death knocking at my door, I knew the right thing was to part ways until the storm quieted down. The scariest thing was, I did not know if the storm would ever cool down, if I would ever get a chance to see him again.

"Sabar...." All of a sudden, I heard my mother calling and her consistent thumping on the door.

"Sabar..." She called out again.

There was an urgency in her voice. Though I expected that because she was scared too, her voice sounded more panicked than it should have been. It could be either of two reasons: first, her calm self was cracking now; second, something else had happened—bigger and more dangerous than everything we had been dealing with. I did not want the latter to happen. I latched onto the hope that our plan was not failing and she was simply panicking because she had to part ways with me now.

"Open the door!" she screamed.

My mother never screams. I knew something terrible had happened.

Hastily, I took hold of my bridal gown and stood up. Taking hurried steps, I opened the door only for my mother to enter inside and shut the door behind her. She was looking pale, more scared than I had ever seen her. Her eyes were filled with tears, and she was struggling for breath like she had just run a marathon. It all signified that my hope was of no use, that something scarier had happened, something we were not prepared for.

"He knows."

Breath caught in my throat as I heard her. My deep-seated fear crawled like venom inside my veins, running straight into my heart.

No. No. This is not happening. It was all my fault. I ruined everything.

Mom took hold of my hand and put the borrowed car keys into it before she fisted my fingers around them.

"Here, take this with you. Don't stop, don't take a break—not until you are out of the country."

I knew where she was getting at with that. My heart thudded loudly in my chest as I shook my head in disbelief. Tears streamed down as I hiccuped.

"Mom..."

"What are you waiting for? GO," she yelled, and then headed towards the windows, peeking out to see if anyone was there yet. She opened the door beside the bed, which led straight into the woods and then to a stranded alley. I rushed to her as I reached out for her arm.

"Mom, please...." I pleaded, not wanting to leave her and Liam. We were supposed to leave together in the alley, and our paths and destination were supposed to change from there. But them staying and me leaving were not on the cards.

"Don't do this. We all are supposed to leave together..." I wiped my tears with the back of my hands as I tried reasoning with her, "We can... we can still make it..."

"Sabar, don't be stubborn. This is not the time..." She cast a glance outside, her features losing all the hope she had always carried throughout her entire life.

"... There is no time left. You have to leave now. I will distract him, don't worry." She gave me her broken smile and then gave me a quick hug.

"Arthur can distract him for now before he joins us. You have to go with Liam."

"Arthur is dead..." It felt as though someone knifed my heart with a dagger when she said Arthur was no more.

"And so is he..." She took a look at the sleeping form of Liam, and I could not help but feel destroyed by her words. 

How could she say that? 

He was not dead. He will live. He was still breathing, hanging onto the thread of life.

"No, he is not," I resolutely said. There was no one who could convince me Liam was not alive, not even my mother.

"He is, Sabar. He died years ago when he pushed himself in front of that truck, saving you." Guilt pooled inside my heart like molten lava. My mother never let me take the blame for that accident, and whenever I would bring the topic up, cursing myself, she would always keep up my spirits, saying I was not at fault. But now, when she was in deep pain, I could see right through her, that deep down she did hold me responsible for that accident, for Liam's state.

She held my shoulders from either side, masking a brave façade on her face as she said,
"You need to get your shit together. There is no time left. You have to run."

"Run for me, for Arthur, for Liam, who might not have seen you growing up but loves you a lot. But most importantly, run for yourself. Run like a warrior."

"GO. NOW." She pushed me out of the door and shut it. Suddenly, I could hear a man shouting and then more men yelling. They were here. I took one long breath, turned my back to the shut door, and ran.

I did not hear anything, did not listen to anything anymore. Holding the car keys tightly, I ran as fast as I could towards the alley where the vehicle, which was the only way to escape, was parked.

Run like a warrior.

Run like a warrior.

My mother's words kept ringing in my ears. Even though tears streamed down, I did not stop and did not turn back. I did not stop when I heard gunshots, did not stop when I heard screaming sounds, and not once looked back, even when I heard someone ordering to burn the house down, and not even when the heat of the burning house reached my skin, burning my soul.

I finally reached the parked vehicle, hurriedly rushed inside, and ignited the engine. I kept driving through the most stranded, dark, narrow lane I had ever driven into. I had to reach the tunnel, which was a few kilometers from there, where Arthur had hidden the needed stuff—a fake passport, some cash, clothes, and surely some weapons, too.

Reminders of Arthur blinded my eyes with tears as I recalled the first day I met him. Arthur was a gentleman, my bodyguard, whom my mom had hired recently for my safety. I could not help but feel guilty for being responsible for whatever happened to him. I took three lives—Arthur's, Liam's, and my mother's. Yet I was fine, running towards a safety net, not because I was a coward, but only because I had to make some people pay for their sins.

It started with my fault. My mistake was to hope for a happy family. It was the hope that flickered inside my heart the day I got to know my father was alive. 

All my life, I believed I was abandoned by my father, but that was not the truth. My father was none other than Dmitri Petrov, one of the most feared men in the Russian mafia—the Bratva. For a long time, I believed the lie that my father impregnated my mother and left her, at least that's what she told me, until I overheard her one night, talking to herself while she was drunk, that he never left her, but she did. My father never abandoned me, instead, he did not know about my existence.

When I got to know he was a famous man named Dmitri Petrov, I took my backpack and left to find him in this huge country, Russia. By the time my mother could find me or I could find my dad, I was already caught by someone else, someone more deadly, one who had no conscience, no morals. He was another member of the Bratva. I, like a stupid girl, unaware of his true self, told him my real identity and my purpose for visiting this country.

Now here I was, running away in a wedding dress because he wanted nothing but to marry me: or should I say, make me his trophy wife, a possession, in his words, his whore. Even though I ran away from his clutches and went back to my mother, we could not hide for long. My mom hired Arthur to protect me, but it was no use because he found us. He kidnapped us all—my mother, me, and Liam—and forced me to marry him. I was supposed to marry him in a few hours, but my mother and Arthur had a plan for our escape, only for it to get ruined. I lost my only friend Arthur, and now my mom and Liam, too.

It was all my fault. But I was not going to sit and berate myself for that. I was going to take my revenge, even if it meant killing myself in the process.

Driving on the straight path, I blinked away my tears, and then the sign to that tunnel came into my view. I was close and could reach there in no time I thought, until I felt a strong hit on the car and it skidded. I tried controlling it, steering it to the right path, but it was of no use, and it hit the huge tree, causing the airbag to deploy. The car's alarm system went off, and so did the hazard lights.

"Shit! Shit!" I hurriedly got out of the car, realizing I had no choice but to walk to the tunnel. But I could not walk, not when three vehicles were in close proximity, rushing to the car I was in. The car had skidded because it had been hit by a bullet. I realized it the moment I noticed someone holding out a gun from the backseat of a car approaching me.

Another gunshot was fired, causing me to scream.

"Catch her," someone yelled. I did not wait longer. Holding onto the dying hope, I did not go to the tunnel; rather, I rushed into the woods, which was the nearest escape. I knew my death was near, but my mother had always taught me to fight until the last breath, and that I was going to do. I kept running into the deep, dark woods, being chased by monsters dressed in human clothes. I did not have the leverage to stop, to hide, so I kept going with no aim. I did not see where I was going, but I kept running as far as I could, as fast as I could, until my feet hurt, until my insides began giving out, until I could not hear anyone chasing me, until I could see the dark sky of night clearing to make way for the light.

I was panting, feeling dizzy, and suddenly a car honked in front of me, blinding me with the bright lights. I did not know I was back on the road, had not noticed when I came out of the woods. My body was giving out now. I was losing myself; all the energy began leaving my body, pulling my soul out with it. I was falling, ready to feel the hardest fall of my life. I was going to feel the strongest impact before taking my last breath. Tears began pooling again, not because I was dying but because I failed my mother. I waited to feel the painful hit, but my body never touched the harsh ground. I felt no impact of pain, rather a firm, powerful grip.

My eyes fluttered to shut; the sunlight was too blinding. But then I saw the darkness that did not let me drown, yet. It was the darkest of black I had ever seen, darker than onyx, scary and deep—but it caught hold of my soul, did not let it sink deep in the dark abyss. His muscular arms held me steady, staring into me without blinking. He seemed so powerful that I did something I had never done before. I asked for his help, not knowing that would be my life's biggest mistake.

"Save me." I sure knew my eyes were pleading along with my hoarse whisper.

"Dyshat, Zolushka."

[Breathe, Cinderella]

Two words were all he uttered. Even though I did not know the meaning of it, I knew they were powerful, just like him and his aura. I had a feeling they were words of assurance, more like a command of assurance. I took a deep breath, which forcefully put my soul back in its place, and I gave in, letting the exhaustion take over as I let my heavy eyelids shut.

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Shrishtee