Chapter 53: Chapter 53

One month later

Weeks?

Months?

Years?

Decades?

How long has it been?

She had now lost the track of the time of how long she had been in here. The dead body that had been hung to the ceiling had  started to deteriorate. The insects, microorganisms had started decomposing it that the sight of her feet with insects crawling on it had became a usual for her.

And the smell of it had become  more and more unbearable for her. She had never raised her eyes to look up at her face because once when she did, she fought a panic attack all alone in the dark cell. The feet alone reminded her that she was once a living human and now because of her, Khaleda reached to this state. Her dead body always reminded her of her mistakes, the guilt, the regret. That she was the killer.

And when one day Sheharyaar paid her a visit, she cried out and begged him to take Khaleda's dead body away from her sight and give her a proper burial at least. He had agreed but since that day, her guilt had been increasing. Her will to live had diminished drastically. The fire that was shot to kill Hannan would often bang in her ears. She would often see blood on her hands and even though Khaleda was taken away, she would see her dead body hanging to the ceiling that she was unable to differentiate whether she was hallucinating or was it real.

Shehryaar visited her very less. Rather she wasn't aware of his visits. The day Khaleda's dead body was taken away a black blindfold had covered her eyes stealing her vision that she wouldn't know who came and who went. The door of her cell would open very less. Once in a day just to serve her food. And that would be the time when the blindfold would be taken off and the chains would be loosened so she would be able to eat. She would eat slowly on purpose so atleast she could see as much as she could and feel her hands moving as much as she could.

And when she would finish eating, the blindfold would be back on. Then after some times some men would come in and began to tell her a single thing, everyday for hours.

'You belong to Shehryaar Haider Syed and belonging to him means....'  As they would recite the rules of what being his woman meant.

They would keep on repeating it and in the end of the session so it could get imprinted in her brain. She was going insane that even in dreams she would just listen these words. Often she would find herself repeating these words, mindlessly. Often she would repeat all those etiquettes and rules of what a woman belonging to him mean. As if they were training her. Training her to be his perfect woman. Designing her in the way he wanted her to be.

If she would try resisting which she did in the starting days, they punished her, by changing the temperatures of the room, by evacuating her lungs with oxygen and filling it with water by dipping her head in a drum of water until she would pass out, sometimes by not serving her meals. Not just that, they mentally tortured her by reminding the incidents of Hannan's death, implying she killed him and Khaleda. Atlast she would have to submit. And when she would submit to them they would reward her occasionally by letting her walk around the cell.

Yes, walking alone became a blessing for her now. Being inhibited to that chair, she began to think whether she had feet or not. She would get to move her hands for a few minutes in a day. The chains would grip them for the rest of the time that now she began to feel the metal tearing through her skin.

She totally had lost the track of time because of the blindfold on her eyes.

The blindfold always played an effective role in settling their words in her mind. As all her senses were inhibited but her hearing and using that passage they would take over control over her mind.

She wasn't aware of the day, the month going on. The time has become so slow for her. She felt as if she never had any relation in this world. She began to think that Amna never existed, Hanann never existed, it was all her hallucination and she has been locked in this cell since her birth. Her brain would have nothing to entertain but those words that would play in her mind daily by those men whose face she had never seen yet their voices were so fresh in her mind.

She was psychologically sabotaged.

She fought.

She fought this torture as much as her mental strength allowed but slowly she too was loosing control over her brain, slowly, she had started believing in all those words. Slowly and instinctively, she had started growing more and more submissive around Shehryaar that her breath would hitch with his slight expression of disdain.

Slowly she had started loosing control over herself.

.....

She was currently going through one of her sessions as a bunch of men had surrounded her.

"I would.... never deny him..." she was uttering.

"Very good. And?" One of them asked.

"I can't... make him... make him angry..." She was repeating those words and her mind was believing all those words.

She kept on reciting the rules and her heart would escalate whenever she would forget one.

"I'm.... owned by him," she was saying when the door to the cell opened and everyone became quiet. She frowned. She couldn't see anything but hear their footsteps retreating as they were leaving the cell.

Then she heard someone fondling with the blindfold and suddenly it was taken off of her eyes. She couldn't move her eyes. It took her a minute to realize that the blindfold was gone. She first moved her pupils and slowly her eyelids that were glued to her eyes, moved. She opened them, a pain radiating off her eyes.

Tears welled up in her eyes as they were floating lready down. The liquid reduced the glueness between her eyelids and she successfully opened her eyes.

The grey orbs coming in contact with the world after a long time.

But to her dismay, it was just the darkened cell. Yet she appreciated the vision. She moved her eyes around, a smile playing on her lips and suddenly they widened upon realizing who stood infront her.

A sharp shiver erupted and travelled through her spine. She felt goosebumps arising all over as her hands began to shiver.

She bowed her head down when he came and stood infront her.

He was paying her a visit after a long time.

She felt his finger unlocking the chains around her limbs but she remained still on her spot, not moving an inch until she was asked to.

She felt his finger going underneath her chin as he bobbed her head up and she looked up at him. Her lips that was shivering was nibbled by her teeth when his eyes flickered to it. He made her stand and as she put pressure on her legs, she stumbled and was about to fall when his arm held her. And the other one snaked around her waist and pulled her towards him.

Without further ado, he tilted her head, held her chin and kissed her then and there. Slowly and sensually at first, followed by brutality and eagerness later. She didn't stop him. Neither resisted him a bit as he pasted his lips, claimed her mouth and his hands roamed around her.

But she felt the panic taking over her senses when his hands stroked her down there. She could see a carnal desire in his eyes which he came to vent up at her.

She was suppose to be available to him as she had been taught so she suppressed the panic within her and let him do whatever he was doing, though her instincts were to crawl away.

He carried her to the table that was placed there and sat her there before standing between her legs. Slowly, latching his lips on her again.

Tears began to flow out of her eyes, though she tried to control them.

Why was she crying.... she shouldn't, it was her duty.

But that touch, that wasn't of her mahram, it was ruining her more as she gulped. He pulled back, staring in her eyes.

His eyes traced nothin but pleades.

Pleads not to ruin her more than she already has been.

There was a clear 'no' in her eyes.

As he kept on gazing within her eyes.

The stare lingered, raising panic within her and after a few moment he shook his head to himself.

"I will take her once things become official," he uttered more to himself, stepped back and left.

....

Some time passed, and she wasn't aware how much. He had ordered her to shift to the raised slab supported by the wall from the chair. The slab had a mattress over it. The chains still bound her but she had a little access to the cell to some extent. The blindfold half time on her eyes and the other half not. She was clueless to the outer world. She would often think of the day when she would be released from this cell. How she would cherish every small blessing around her. She already had that day planned in her mind. She would look at the sky as long as she could and then walk, run, take a long shower, try smiling and what not.

After that day, her encounter with him became minimal. He would come to the cell while he would sit and she would stand infront him, with her hands crossed and head bowed. His fingers stroking his stubble as he would ask her certain questions which she would truthfully answer. And then she would truly apologize for the error she committed by going with Hannan. Her whole being would always shiver when she would stand infront him. Only one thought would run in her mind and that was not to upset him.

He didn't try approaching her sexually afterwards. She was glad and at the same time fearful.

As one day she was sitting on the matteress with her hands wrapped around her legs and head on her knees when the door to the cell opened and she thought it might be the man who brought her, her food. Her stomach was already growling and she was already so hungry that her mouth watered as she waited impatiently for the blindfold to go off.

The heavy metal door closed and someone dragging a chair was heard and she thought it might be that man who was here to repeat those words to her.

Her body began to shiver as her mind braced herself for the torture that was about to commence.

"I....I belong to Shehryaar," she said, before he could say anything.

Her mouth parted open and her breath hitched when she felt someone brushing their fingers against her cheek.

"Y-you c-can't t-touch m-me...I belong to Shehryaar," she said and tried brushing his hand away, thinking it was that instructor touching her.

The next second the blindfold was off and she witnessed Shehryaar sitting infront her. The ground slipped beneath her feet as she began to shiver immensely.

Her first carved instinct was to look down. A tear already dropping out of her eye as she quickly stood up.

She thought of apologizing but decided otherwise. It was better not to say anything.

By the look of how tightened her throat was, one could easily decipher her breath was hitched and she wasn't breathing.

She felt him holding her arm and forced her to sit down but she still didn't gazed up.

"Little lady, look up," he muttered with a hint of softness in his tone and she quickly looked up, not daring to go against his order.

He smiled before as he caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers. She was looking at him with nothing but with intense panic and fear. Both the emotions very much evident in her eyes.

Her fingers were wringing against each other as her heart beat was quickening with every passing second. With his eyes bored in hers, she felt life escaping her legs as her vision began to get teary.

It was just the immense fear that was making her cry and she didn't realize when a sob left her mouth.

"Shh... stop crying,"

And she tried her best to do that. She felt as if her body was on high alert.

He cleaned her tears with the tips of his fingers and then fixed his forefinger underneath her chin, "are you ready to sign that contract, Sheharzaad?"

And she was utterly helpless.

He was atlast going to make things official between them.

Soon... she would be his personal escort.