Patsy (the victim)

35

The news of the odd changes in Bilals personality has spread around Alhaji Amin house, Alhaji Amin personally come over to see his once estranged son but Bilal barely speak to him and the old man left with disappointment dripping on his face,
Zahra'u couldn't be more happier, sure there are days where Bilal could spiral out of control and go back to his odd psycho self but he's becoming less aggressive, he still doesn't sleep at night and sometimes spend the entire day in his bedroom without eating, there are days where zahra'u find it rather uncomfortable because Bilal would stare at her from every angle of the house, she wish she know what's on his mind,
as usual it is a Monday morning mika'il took little mama to school which Bilal now make it his duty to go with her every morning, zahra'u adore the way Bilal treats her daughter, he remind her of bashir the only difference is that mamah seems to have this excessive closeness with Bilal that zahra'u rather find annoying sometimes.

"Bilal do you want to eat?"zahra'u ask,
He's been back from taking mama to school for over 2hours and has been sitting in the parlour as usual staring blankly at nothing.

For Bilal knowing zahra'u is the girl from 2years ago have make him start to develop an estranged feeling towards her, he knows for sure zahra'u will never forgive him if she gets to know the truth, above all she will leave with his daughter which he is now used to.
He doesn't know how long this will last but he want to be Ok, he want to be the bilal from few years ago before he decide to choose the wrong path that lead him astray but how can he even do that when every time he closes his eyes he sees it, the pain he causes everyone and the faces of the people he hurt keeps popping and there screaming echoing in his ear.

"Bilal."zahra'u call again and he look up at her.

She was beautiful, pure, innocent and naive, how can he even compare his tainted soul with hers.

"Can i ask you?"Bilal say staring at her and she smile at him with a head nod.

"How did he find you?"Bilal ask the question has been on his mind, he's curious to how his dad find someone like zahra'u, someone he love to hate at thesame time, for Bilal,
zahra'u is the wife material he will want to spend the rest of his life with.

"In the hospital I worked."she answer and he nod not wanting to dig deep,
He know for sure zahra'u isn't from the town, could it be that her family send her out after what happened that night, there are so many questions he want to ask but he knows that will mean him Lossing zahra'u.

"Eat."zahra'u say dropping the plate of food in his front but he shake his head.

He doesn't have any appetite, there are alot of things going on in his head but the one that keeps bugging him is zahra'u, he like her but at thesame time scared that even do he chooses to hide the truth from her she will eventually find out, secrets have a way of coming out so unexpected and he fear the day she will get to know the truth.

"Do you want me to feed you?"zahra'u ask staring worriedly at Bilal.

There are days where she want to ask him about his past, mika'il told her he has a pretty rough past that push him to a brick and somehow he fall victim of bad company, he didn't say much and that just makes zahra'u curious the more, Bilal is like an enigma to her and somehow he's finding his way to her heart without even trying, there are nights where she wake up and he will cross her mind, when he spend the day in the second bedroom opposite hers she can't help but wonder what is he doing in there?
What is he hiding?
She's curious to know what is his story?

"I will eat, if that will make you happy ."he say which caught zahra'u off guard another thing she notice is Bilal sure have this few symptoms of an autistic person, he have a few estranged behavior which he think it's normal and if you don't know him so well one will think he's rude, he's plainly blunt, she have ask Sadiq the previous day if he know anything about Bilal previous mental health and all Sadiq told her was he did know Bilal dad told him he has autism spectrum when he was young.