It was like a dream. A cold and dreadful dream. Amirah wanted to wake up but she knew that she wasn't sleeping. That pinch to her arm gave her all the answers. She sat on a wooden bench, as the words of Tom, her long time heartthrob resonated in her ears.
”I can't continue like this my love. I need to set us free…set myself free okay. Don't worry, you'll be fine on your own. Just keep being you”.
Those were the last words she heard from him on the phone before it hung up. A few hours later, she received a call that he had been rushed to hospital and his life was hanging by a thread.
She expected good news from the nurses as they ran in and out of the emergency ward but their bloodied hands told her the truth and like whispers before the flood, she got the shocking news so far. Tom is dead.
At first she couldn't breathe. She backed up the wall for support but the wall refused. A cool breeze swept across her face but there was no wind and then she bolted. She ran into the hot sunny day. The sun seemed to mock her. Its rays scorched at her skin yet she felt nothing. It was like fire no longer burns and she kept waking.
She walked for hours and finally sat on a wooden bench at the park. Her grief finally reached its climax, gushing out of her eyes like a torrent. ”What I'm I going to do without you Tom?”she asked in a whisper but no answer came. They had both been through a lot.
Suddenly smiling, like a spoonful of sugar was shoved in her mouth, Amirah allowed her brain to take the lead. Lovely memories of their time came flooding in. She recalled that she had met Tom at the airport the day she returned from her Haj. Her Uber was delayed and she was becoming frustrated from waiting which cost her a shoe too.
Tom came to her rescue, like a knight in shining armour. He was not riding a horse or brandishing a sword. He only had his truck but it saved the day. Instantly at that moment, Sparks flew and their love story bloomed.
Tom was darling. He didn't mind her religion nor did he try to bend her to his rules. He was different, like a rural living with an urban attitude. He had no distrust for her and her ways and that only endeared him more to her. His only flaw was his factory job which gave him a meagre sum for a pay.
He was more than happy to share a life with her but he needed something more. ”If only I had known that you'd throw in the towel so easily just to give us a better life, I would have stopped you”, she thought as her memories were brought back to the present.
A text message beep on her phone got her startled. It read ” He owes me, now I'm taking his body. He won't find rest, not even in death and you are next”. There was no name of the sender and fear gripped her. She ran back to the hospital but was told that a relative had come to claim his body. When she looked at the form, it revealed a shocker.
Tom's estranged uncle who despised their relationship had come for his body. From what she could recall of him, he wasn't a nice man. Now no one knows what he's going to do with Tom's corpse.
”This can't be real. This must all be a prank”......Amirah kept chanting. She was losing her mind, becoming delusional but she didn't care. She just kept chanting those words and kept walking. She walked like a ghost and didn't even steer when a car approached.
Too late!
The driver swerved, hitting a plinth , shattering its windshield.
Amirah kept walking in a daze not minding the chaos he had caused. She wanted death but it walked away from her.
”You need to be strong my darling. I believe in you”.
That voice carried by an East wind seemed to give her strength. She would live not for herself but for two….herself and Tom.
My life will make you proud my love, she whispered back and as if seeing Tom smiling at her, she smiled back and walked in with her senses intact and her head held high. A new chapter awaits.
Thank you for reading. This is my entry to #literaygames #10, an initiative by 
**My found words, phrases and sentences as used in this story are ;
Whispers before the flood from #literarygames 1.
But there's no wind from #literarygames 5.
Fire no longer burns from #literarygames 6.
Climax from #literarygames 8.
Like a spoonful of sugar from #literary games 9.
Haj from #literaygames 2.
Shoe from #literarygames 7.
Rural living with an urban attitude from #literarygames 3.
Distrust from literary games 4.
Plinth from #literaygames 9.
Images were imagined with Meta Ai.
