Chapter Thirty – Sacrifice

“ALAYA!!!” Raphael’s heart stopped when he heard that name after so many years. Memories flashed back right before his eyes as he thought about that name. How he’d run to catch up with her. How he had returned her paper. How he had saved her from embarrassment. How they’d gotten close after that. How they’d talked with all smiles each and every day for a whole year.

It wasn’t that those memories ever left him that he was remembering them one by one at the moment. Those memories stuck in his heart like a scar that refused to heal. But it all came back to him more vividly than ever before because someone else reminded him of her. But why? Why would he be reminded of her by someone else?

The moment Raphael thought of that question was the moment that Layaan began to talk.

“It was you who took her away from me! She would have liked me if you weren’t going after her left and right. I tried so many ways but she wouldn’t even look at me. Do you even realize the humiliation I had to face because I wasn’t getting the attention of a girl I loved?!” Layaan’s voice rose as he spoke. What he said took Raphael by complete surprise. He’d never thought Layaan ever liked Alaya. But now he could make sense of the extra rage he had to face from Layaan in his childhood.

“Of course you wouldn’t! Because you were so busy having nice chats with her on the bench. I wouldn’t be surprised if I heard you took her home to your bed….”

“STOP!!!” Raphael screamed at the top of his lungs. He can’t bear to hear anyone speaking ill of the relationship he’d had with Alaya. Though he knew from the advices from his mom that having a girl even as a girlfriend like he had Alaya wasn’t right to begin with. The way Layaan spoke at that moment was proof of it. He was at fault for giving Layaan the chance to say such a thing. If he’d taken his mom’s advice and stayed away from Alaya, a scoundrel like Layaan wouldn’t have been able to say it.

But Raphael had a lot to say to him even besides that now that he found out why he was hating on him.

“Speaking ill of someone isn’t going to change anything. Do you think Alaya would be happy to hear you speak like that about her?” Raphael said with his anger building up. Layaan took a step towards him with a reddened face but then again he spoke.

“Revenge isn’t going to help either. Alaya may not be a practicing muslim girl but I must say that she does have such a character. She doesn’t like people who humiliate others and taken revenge. Don’t you think that’s the reason why perhaps she did not like you from the start?” Raphael said and Layaan chuckled as he looked away in his rage.

“So I guess it’d be better if we left each other alone and let her decide who she likes, wouldn’t it?” Raphael said with a sense of pride, being close to sure that Alaya would choose him over Layaan any day.

Layaan just gave him a stare without saying anything and Raphael began to walk outside with a feeling of triumph. He thought he’d silenced Layaan but little had he known. The moment Raphael stepped out the door, he heard Layaan laughing. Raphael turned back towards him, wanting to know what was going on.

“Do you seriously think I’d give up that easily, cowboy?!” Layaan said the beginning of the sentence with a smile but rage took over his face all over again as he called out by Raphael’s nickname.

As Raphael looked, Layaan walked into the living room, took the TV remote from the table and switched on the 40 inch TV attached to the wall. Raphael could not see what was on the TV from where he was. But when he heard a girl’s voice from it, his eyes grew wide. He hadn’t heard that voice in years but he was sure that it was none other than Alaya’s light laughter. He rushed back into the house and took a look at the screen. And there she was. Near a campfire enjoying with her friends. Tears welled up in Raphael’s eyes as he saw that face after what felt like centuries. It felt like the sweetest of dreams he’d had in such a long time as he saw her smile. But it didn’t take long for it to turn into a nightmare as he heard Layaan talk.

“This is where Alaya is right at this moment tonight. Surprised? I knew you’d try to pull something like you did just now. So I sent some men to always watch what she does. If you try to play smart, something like this might happen.” Layaan said and Raphael crossed his eyebrows as it was not clear to him.

Layaan took out his phone and called someone as Raphael looked.

“Hello Micheal my friend!…you see Alaya there? Send someone to tell her to fetch something away from people. Meet her there and do whatever you want with her. Yes…whatever you feel like!” Raphael’s eyes grew wide as he heard Layaan say those words. Within a split second his eyes moved towards the screen again. He saw a girl go and whisper something in Alaya’s ears.

“No…” the word spilled from his mouth as a whisper as he saw Alaya getting up. His heart raced as he saw Alaya walking away from the group of people at the camp. He ended up saying the same word as he saw someone following her towards the darkness. His eyes became desperate as he lost sight of her and the man into the darkness.

“Michael! What are you doing?” Raphael heard Alaya saying and he had a hard time breathing.

“Leave! Let me go!!!” Alaya said and just then, Raphael heard the tear of a dress.

“NO! Stop….stop him right there!!!” Raphael shouted out at Layaan. Layaan sighed coolly and took his phone to make a call again. A ringtone was heard from the TV as he called.

“Michael that would be enough for tonight.” Layaan said and Raphael saw Michael walk out from the darkness. He yearned to see Alaya’s state but Layaan switched off the TV.

“I hope you have some idea of what I can do now.” Layaan said with a smile.

“And you said you loved her?! This is what you do to the person you love? You are just being a self-centered and self-obsessed freak who wants to have Alaya just to save his image that got ruined in childhood.”

“Say what you may. But this is what’s going to happen if you try to meet her. But you won’t be able to go out of town I’m afraid. Especially after you know what your father is diagnosed with…”

“What….what happened to him?” Raphael asked in a concerned voice as he remembered getting his father’s tests done due to him feeling weak for weeks.

“Hehe….guess even fate is on your enemy’s side, cowboy. Your father is in the second stage of blood cancer.” Raphael felt like his world came to a halt as he heard those words.

“Wh…where is he?” Raphael said with his voice fading into a whisper. Just then, Ahmed laughed.

“He mustn’t have seen the news on the way here, son. What was the title again? A man in a wheelchair got into a car accident due to a speeding car.” Ahmed said and Raphael’s breath caught in his throat as he remembered his father saying that he’d be going to a restaurant nearby with some of his friends. At once, Raphael found himself making a run to go to his father.

“He’s in the ER of the hospital I work at. Just so you know….” Layaan called out as Raphael was running. He did not even look back, got in his car and raced out of the parking lot.

When Raphael reached the hospital, he was told that his father was in surgery. He anxiously waited for the surgery to end and luckily, his father was stable when he was taken out despite the serious diagnosis he had. Those words of Layaan kept ringing in Raphael’s head as he sat near his father’s bed in a private room. He cried to himself looking at the injuries on his father’s face and blaming himself for it. As he sat, his phone began to ring. He took the call though he didn’t know who was calling.

“See what we can do?” he heard none other than Layaan’s voice. Raphael got up in rage and walked out of the room.

“Why in the world would you do this to my father? I will make you pay for this!” Raphael warned.

“Whoa! As a son of a lawyer, I’m not scared of that. Simply put, my father and I did that to make you our puppet. To make you do what we want.”

“I AM NOT doing anything you ask me to do, do you hear me?”

“Oh really? Have a look at the last video I sent you on whatsapp.”

Raphael sighed and opened Whatsapp on his phone. He had received a video message just a minute before Layaan called. He opened the message and then again saw Alaya. He played the video with shaky fingers and saw Alaya walking on the street, with the same man that Raphael saw on the TV following her. Raphael saw nervousness on Alaya’s face as she realized someone was following her. His eyes grew wide open as he saw the man taking out a big knife from the back of his jeans. The video ended just at that moment. Raphael gritted his teeth and put the phone back on his ears.

“You can’t do this to her. I’ll kill you if you try to harm her in anyway.” Raphael ended up saying without thought.

“Well….you can only do that AFTER something happens to Alaya now that my men are already there. If you want her to be safe, you will do what we say.”

***

Raphael sighed as he remembered that day as he sat in his car. If only…..if only she knew the sacrifices he made for her.