Between the Grapevines

25. Khamsa Wa'Ishrun

"What is the matter?" He asked, swiping a tear just as it fell from her lashes.

She looked between his eyes and allowed her body to find comfort in the feeling of his touch, so soft. The wind rustled around them, surrounding her with his scent and lifting the edge of his keffiyeh off his shoulder as a reminder of his identity. A resistance fighter who wielded his weapon mercilessly against the vile soldiers of arrogance and injustice. The very hand that could slash an Occupational soldier's throat... to her, carried the gentleness of a lover's sigh. To her, he could do no harm.

"Habeitek," she told him. I've loved you.

The word drew a smile across his lips that fell away before she had the chance to appreciate its softness. His eyes hardened. "Then run, Fayza." She gasped when his hands suddenly gripped both of her arms, holding her in front of him. "Wake up and get out," he demanded and pushed her back. The world fell away from beneath her and Fayza fell through the vines around her, reaching up toward the man who might catch her. But Riyad's arms remained out of her grasp and his eyes became filled with regret as the ground parted, swallowing her within.

She cried when her back abruptly made violent contact with the hard floor Fayza found herself fallen onto. Her eyes widened, taking in the room around her and distant sound of crackling gunshots. But nothing else could have replaced the loud echo of his words in her mind. Words that told her to run. To do whatever she needed to do to get out.

Her body ached as Fayza pushed herself off the ground, her muscles unprepared for the sudden strength they needed after so many days of resting in the comfortable bed. She pulled on the mattress until she stood, stumbling over her feet on her way out of the unfamiliar room. One foot after another, catching herself every time she nearly fell forward, she continued on with a thundering heart and tightened lungs.

The world felt like it was ready to fall and crush her beneath its unforgiving weight if she remained in her place for a moment longer. Riyad's words continued to pound against her skull. Run. Get out.

"Run," she breathed, throwing open the front door and hurrying down the long stairs. The world shook around her with gunshots and detonating bombs, but the girl only had one goal. "Get out."

Her fingers gripped the railings tightly, afraid that any flutter of weakness would send her down and bring the entire apartment on top of her. She could not breath. Fayza's entire body was tensed as it struggled to move as quickly as her healing injuries would allow her, counting down the seconds until her attempts would become useless. She could not walk, she needed to run. She did not know where she was, she did not know how she had come to this place, but she knew that she could not remain in it for a moment longer. "Get out," her legs shook as she unlocked the main door of the building and stepped out into the street.

The sun blinded her, flooding the dimness she'd spent days within with a white brightness that forced the girl to shield herself. Her hands lifted to her face as she continued out, hearing the gunshots in the distance and feeling the ground shake beneath her feet. Her heart could not bear it.

Had she died?

Was she being awakened to Judgement Day?

"Stop!" A hand suddenly seized her wrist, tugging Fayza back as she continued into the street, her wide eyes unable to absorb enough of the nightmare she was surrounded by. Gunshots. Explosions. Screaming. Shouting. Quivering rocks beneath her. Between them all, a man turned her around to steady her.

Fayza's breath left her when she met his gaze. If she doubted her state before, his presence confirmed to her that she could be nothing except dead because he'd been dead for more years than she had.