Chaos in the Canvas √

02 | paths

With chest that was bursting with pain and forehead she sure was bleeding, Hemayal tried to open her eyes and succeeded as the light tore apart through the darkness and covered her, its heaviness almost soothing. With teeth still clenched, she lifted her head and saw through the windshield at the white car that had collided with hers.

Overcame with rage, pain and the fact that this was not her car, Hemayal ignored her dizzy head as she exited the car, her gait that of a lady who had just been wrongly accused. With her body emitting anger, she made her way towards the next car, her strides long and hurried. But just as she neared the front door, a man opened the door himself and hurried out of the car.

The man, probably in his mid-twenties, had a perfectly trimmed beard that complemented his face, his eyes which were hidden behind the sunglasses he wore were glaring at her, she could almost feel it. The jet black strands of the man's thick hair were falling intricately on his forehead and Hemayal was tempted for a moment to ask which conditioner the stranger used.

But it was not his sharp features or intimidating personality that made her heart skip a beat, it was the blood that covered the side of the stranger's forehead and a frown masked with pain that laced his face, and for a second she almost forgot that she was filled with pain and anger herself.

"What the hell! Are you blind or what?" The man's stern voice pulled her out of a reverie she had fallen in when her eyes landed on his forehead.

"Excuse me, Mister? I am blind? What do you think you're doing stopping your car in the middle of the road like that?" Hemayal asked fiercely, blinking her eyes rapidly as the cold gushes of strong wind hit her face and she now understood why the man was wearing sunglasses in this weather.

"Oh, you couldn't see that I've stopped and overtake my car? You hit my car a few seconds after I had stopped." The man almost snapped and Hemayal creased her brows in anger at his audacity, her head now exploding with pain.

"So it is my fault that you suddenly applied brakes in the middle of the road? It is my fault that you were stupid enough to not park the car on the side at least?" Hemayal's anger was speaking for her as she stared at the man who was taller than her by almost five inches.

"Mind your language, ma'am," The man suddenly sounded angry, the one thing he had been controlling from the very start of their conversation and Hemayal lost the ability to speak for a second.

The man who stood before him was dressed in black denim jeans paired with olive green t-shirt and black leather jacket, his attire casual but neat on a Sunday morning, an alibi of his well groomed personality. But there was a lot more to him than mere clothes, she knew it when she had first laid eyes on him.

"And you are at fault here much more than I am. You could've easily overtaken my car from the side. You were behind me by at least ten yards when I stopped the car and don't even get me started on the speed you were going at." The man almost yelled against the loud sound of the blowing wind, his forehead vein throbbing as he tested his patience with Hemayal.

The blood was now dripping down the man's temples but he seemed oblivious towards it, his eyes fixed on Hemayal who studied him with steady but squinted glare. Anger, foreign and fierce, gripped her suddenly as she heard the man entirely blaming her for the accident.

Another stroke of wind hit the woman who blinked rapidly, her lashes fluttering as her ajrak kurta moved with the strong gushes of wind, accompanied by the dance of her silky hair that fell on her face and she attempted hard to keep them behind her ears. Despite the uneasiness she felt at the moment, Hemayal managed to keep a straight face as she shouted back, the noise of the wind too loud.