Chapter 66: Invitation Rejected

"Guards! Take him out of my sight." It was so painful to hear and so difficult for him to believe that he was the one his father was treating this way today. Something he had never imagined in his entire life.
He trudged on his feet and staggered backwards at how dizzy he felt, he didn't know where he was going to but he just knew he had to leave this palace for good. Even though he knew she might still be in the palace just that he didn't know where, and her phone was still in her room, Na'im knew he'd die if he stayed there for more minutes.
One of the guards tried to touch him to help him out when he shrugged off and with a voice that was laced with pain and anger, he thundered, "None of you should dare lay his hand on me, or I'd make sure he's no longer breathing."
He kept staggering as he walked out of the chamber and when he saw his car parked outside, he thanked god that he didn't have to walk that distance to get to his chamber. He got into the car and even though his eyes were clouded with his tears and his heart ached and squeezed with too much agony, knowing so well it would be dangerous for him to drive at that situation, he still did. Because he was looking for an escape route. He would take a break from all things royalty.
He fished his phone out of his breast pocket and amidst his tears, he began to stare at the tons of pictures they had snapped together and Na'im broke into tears. It was so painful for him to bear. Her soft lips on his, her eyes that looked happily at him, the way her body always seemed so safe and easy around him. He had missed his wife, his very own fairy.
He didn't know he had been staring at the first picture he had ever taken her too long to know that there was another car coming and only when they crashed into one another did he notice what had happened and how badly it did when he felt the way blood oozed out of a part of his body and pain echoed all over the empty walls of his body before in an instant, everything became black and he wondered how Maryam would live if this was the last moment of his life.
?
Saima had been consoling Maryam for days now, they had fast become friends, but not in the way Saima wanted because all she did was cried and begged her to take her to him. "Maryam, I don't know..." The call that came into her phone stopped her from continuing with what she was about to say. "Look, it's his soldier friend that called. He had promised me that day that he will call someday and get you connected to him, maybe that's what's going to happen."
Maryam immediately began to wipe at her tears because she didn't want Na'im to know that she had been crying. But when she saw Saima already agitated and on her feet, she stood up as well. "Oh no, please, Ya Allah, it shouldn't be real." Saima said as tears rushed down to her cheeks and she turned to an already frozen Maryam.
"Yarima Na'im is dead, Maryam." No word, no movement, no feeling, not a single heartbeat and all Saima saw was Maryam's flying body as she lost consciousness. And she screamed at the pitch of her voice before the maids ran into the room and found Maryam laying on the floor, lifeless. Just like Na'im was, lifeless.
...
She woke up with a throttle of tears that rushed down to her cheeks. She felt like she didn't understand what had happened and how bad it seemed to happen. Maryam wanted to know, because all she could hear were the resounding words Saima had thrown at her and she'd rather die than believe any of them. Her tears showed them she was awake, before her eyes opened to show them that and she found just Saima by the bedside with her eyes that had already turned to blood shut due to the amount of tears she had shed.
She tried to sit up and she helped her did that and when Maryam saw the IV that was attached to her body, it was evident that she wasn't at home anymore. But just to make sure, she asked. "Where am I, Saima?" She wanted to ask her about Na'im, but she was afraid of doing so, lest what she thought she heard from the princess turned out to be true.
"You're in the hospital, Maryam. I got the wrong message and conveyed it to you. He had only got into an accident, even though it looks pretty bad, but at least, he's still alive. I've been so desperate for you to wake up so I can tell you that. He's not dead." For the days she had spent with Maryam, she had realized that one had to be as clear as he could for his words to be understood clearly by her and it seemed hers did, because the knot that had tightened invisibly in Maryam's eyes began to loose and she cried even more.
"Can I see him? Or I can't do that too, because of Alan Gubro?" She sounded as hopeless and desperate as she had never sounded in her entire life. She silently begged that his father, yet again, won't be the barrier between them. "Please, tell me I can see him, Saima."
She was relieved at the smile she saw on Saima's face, even though it was accompanied with tears seconds after. "He was the one that asked us to bring you to this hospital, knowing so well that Yarima Na'im is here too. We can go and see them when your IV is done-" she was cut off abruptly when Maryam pulled everything out of her body and she gasped, "You can't do that, Maryam! You have to wait until it's finished and the doctor will do that herself."
"I'm not sick, Saima. I have to see him, can you please take me to him?" Saima just stood there and stared at how Maryam desperately cried. She knew they weren't so close for them to have this conversation but it was clear that Maryam loved her brother too, as much as he loved her, and that alone soothed her heart.
"Can I hold your hand, then? In case you feel dizzy, you don't have to collapse on the floor." She saw how hard it was for Maryam to allow her to hold her hand but at long last, because she wanted to go and see him, she held Saima's outstretched hand.
They were walking in utter silence in the VIP wing of the hospital and Maryam was glad for the lack of people roaming around the corridors. She stared at the door Saima had stood while she stared at it when they heard the sound of the doctor talking to someone. "He has lost a lot of blood, we need an O+ blood to donate to him, but we don't have that here in the hospital. His immediately families have been checked, it's still the same. How fast can you go and get that blood type? His body might not be able to wait for long."
"What kind of hospital is this? How can this hospital be so big, expensive yet useless? How can you not have all sorts of blood types, Dr?" It sounded like his soldier friend, Maryam thought and she knew she was safe with Hafiz in the room before she turned the doorknob and entered.
They all turned to face her when she walked in with Saima tailing behind her silently. Hafiz looked at her, a bit surprised, but when he saw who she was together with, he seemed to be a bit relieved. "Can I give mine to him?" She asked the doctor directly, forcing herself not to look at him directly but it hurt to stop herself from doing that either. She didn't want to see him in pain, she had seen that twice and the thought of loosing him hadn't been a pleasant one.
"How old are you?" The doctor asked as she eyed him. Even though she knew she looked adult enough, but the look on her face said otherwise.
Maryam knew if they knew of her age they might say she wouldn't be allowed to donate her blood to him, so she directly turned to Hafiz. "He has told me that my blood group is O+, can you please make her believe me and give it to him?" Tears were already clouding her view and she figured that it hurt the most not looking at his side than looking at him might, but still, Maryam was convinced that it was better not to have sight of him at such gruesome state.
Hafiz sighed and turned to the doctor that was eying them with a stubborn look, "It's the hospital's rule, someone that's under 18 years old couldn't donate blood no matter how urgent..."
"And we will have to watch him die because you don't have the blood and it might take forever to get that blood type in Maiduguri? Look, Dr, you know who he is so I don't have to remind you about how important it is for your job to save his life, it has to be saved. And she's his wife, you can worry about whatever y'all have in the hospital later." It wasn't an easy fight, but Hafiz was bound to win and he did.
The doctor knew she couldn't be seen doing what she was doing as it was against the rule of the hospital, so, she asked Maryam to lay beside him on the bed. It was an Italian bed that looked so expensive to be in a hospital. The pillow was pulled to the other edge fo the bed and she laid there wordlessly, her tears intensifying as she now felt his presence more than ever, but she wasn't going to allow herself to look at him yet. When she knew she might be forced to be out of his sight before he even woke up. She strangely didn't want the last image she would have of him to be that of him looking as lifeless as he did, even though she wasn't sure in what state.
She watched as Hafiz excused them when the Doctor was done and they had to wait until it was done before she could start transfusing it into Na'im's body. She knew he had asked Saima to follow him so she would be chanced some privacy with him and he knew how much they had missed each other. But Maryam only cried when she was left alone with him.
Slightly, after she had spoken to herself for the umpteenth time not to look at him but there was a yearning part of her brain that urged her to do that, she did. He laid there, as lifeless as she had been imagining to see him and it struck an arrow of pain right into the aorta of her heart. He looked so much in pain for her to say a word even though it seemed like he didn't even know he was still alive yet. There wasn't much damage in his body but his head was wrapped with something white that she wanted to yank it off at an instant.
"Noory," she whispered through an avalanche of pain, and her tears came rushing when she knew that he wouldn't be able to hear her. And there were chances that he might not be, forever.
She had asked the doctor about his health and she told her that even though he didn't suffer a lot of physical injuries, he looked so bad that they had to wait and see if he would be able to wake up or not. That 'not' had done more damage to Maryam's heart than anything had done of recent. It shouldn't be that way, she should have told her that he would be able to do that and nothing would have stopped him.