The Sabr Untold.

PROLOGUE.

Sabr: 

The art of patience, trusting Allah that everything will fine. Sabr is like walking on thorns while anticipating the bloom of roses. It's about anger and resentment control, hoping that the end would be beautiful. 

The Sabr Untold: 

The untold story of two people who have an equally deserted mind, who held onto Sabr while the world around them crashed and burned. 

***

Prologue:

"They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for."

-Tom Bodett-

*

Beep. Beep. Beep. Bee- the vital monitor sounded in the otherwise silent room, echoing through it. White walls bared less to nothing on it with a large window on one side. White curtains were drawn to let sunlight inside.

The air purifier did its work quietly in the background. A large white bed stood in the middle of the room and on it lay a man in his mid twenties perhaps. Different lines were hooked onto him connected to the computers, monitoring. The light blue hospital gown stood contrast against his tanned skin and dark beard. His windswept hair was pushed past his face and his eyes were closed.

If anyone saw him, they would call him a sleeping prince for he looked handsome even asleep.

There were bruises and cuts on his face, a sign of battle. His hands were the same, some healing while others already healed.

The door of the room opened and a young man entered the room. He looked exactly like the man lying on the bed and if someone saw this scene, they would mistake the man entering as this mans soul.

He slowly shut the door and walked over to the bed, leaning down and taking a seat beside it. He held the mans hands and tears fell. He placed his head on their entwined hands and sobbed, the sob echoing the room.

"Please- please come back." A silent whispered prayer. This was Sahl Laiq Zaeef, the twin brother of Safwah Laith Zaeef who was laying on the hospital bed right now, battling life.

He has been in and out of conscious for a month now. He wasn't in coma because his reflexes were responding, according to the doctors. Perhaps this was his way of recovering. And forgetting. 

Sahl sobered up a while later, wiping away his tears. He felt his chest tighten and he knew panic attack was looming over him. Not now. Please not now. I need some time with him.

An hour or so later, Sahl was joined by their mother who looked better than she did a month ago. When the news of her son being unconscious in the hospital was broken out to Qaidah Zaeef, she had lost her senses and fainted. The woman was not weak, but hearing that her twenty something son may be dead frightened her to the verge of losing conscious. After that, she grew sicker until Safwah woke up briefly. He had managed to open his eyes but nothing more, he slipped back into slumber sooner than later.

That gave the entire Zaeef family hope that he might wake up someday.

Little did they know, Allah is the all hearer. Their prayers didn't go to vain, they went straight to Allah (S.W.T) and He is the Almighty.

When Qaidah took a seat where Sahl was previously at, she smiled soothingly at her son. She soothed his hair and placed her hand on his face. Tears glistened her eyes as she spoke.

"How are you, my love?" it was a whisper but Sahl heard it. The tone of his mother's voice broke his heart. Because he knew she had to see him each day and be reminded that his twin is lying unconscious in the hospital.

Qaidah stayed with Safwah for a while until the doctors entered to run some tests, again. Qaidah and Sahl vacated the room. Sahl guided his mother downstairs to where the driver was waiting to take her to his house before he walked back upstairs.

The walk let him think things through. What had happened with Safwah that led to such drastic consequences? Exactly what did he find out?

"Qutub Minar?" he turned to face his boss, Vardah Siddique. Vardah smiled at him. "I have news."

"Which is?"

"Safwah wasn't in Sri Lanka." The sentence alone sent shivers down Sahl's spine. They were told he was in Sri Lanka for work. He raised an eyebrow at her.

"We were-"

"I know what you were told. I am awaiting details. Once I have them, we'll talk."

"How long until then?"

"4 hours max." Sahl sighed, running his hands through his hair. Vardah watched him in pity. She knew he loved his brother more than anything.

"Hey-" she said, grabbing his hand and stopping the movement. He stilled and she let go. "We will find out. We are ACE." she reassured him and he nodded. We will find out, they thought in sync.

"Alright then-"

It was barely an hour later when he got a call from Safwah's doctor to immediately head upstairs to his room. Sahl raced through the halls, his heart rate on a marathon too. Did something happen to him? Oh Allah, please let Safwah be safe.

He rushed through the door of Safwah's VIP ward only to see familiar gray eyes staring back at him. He halted right in front of the bed, panting. Despite the beat up face, Safwah still held the sassy look of what are you doing?

Sahl took a deep breath, tears threatening to fall. He let out a laugh and launched himself on his brother who let out a pained moan.

When Sahl realized he was hurting his brother, he let go. He wiped away the stray tears and turned to the two doctors, Dr. Singh and Dr. Lee who were smiling at him. Behind them, two nurses giggled silently.

"I am sorry for the entrance. I thought something-" he glanced at Safwah who was rolling his eyes. The man wakes up minutes ago and is back to being himself, Sahl thought with a smile. The doctors only chuckled.

"I am glad Safwah is okay. He had awoken about 30 minutes ago but we were running tests to ensure everything is fine. His scans show everything is good. We will not discharge him though. His ribs still need healing and so does his hands and legs. We advise him to stay here until all his scans and tests run clear. We still need to confirm if there's any more internal bleeding." Dr. Lee explained and Sahl nodded.

"It's fine. Do what needs to be done. I just need him back. Thank you so much doctors." Sahl meant it. He prayed silently in his heart, thanking Allah and asking Him to bless everyone who played a part in Safwah's safety.

The doctors and nurses left a while later, asking Safwah to take rest. Sahl stood beside him until the door shut close. He closed his eyes and sighed.

"I don't know what I'd do without you." Safwah only smiled. It hurt to talk so he didn't. Sahl took out his phone and did a video group call for his family. Everyone picked up the call one after the other. He set beside Safwah and the two stared at the phone silently until a cry of happiness burst from Amyrah, followed by everyone else.

Safwah Laith Zaeef is awake.

***

Hospital food was the absolute worst, Safwah would agree. But having his mother, sister or bhabhi's feed him felt pleasant.

When his mother saw him, she had cried. Sobbed into his arms making him cry too until Kayan pried her off and calmed her down. Amyrah pulled his ear and asked him to never repeat this again while Aanabia only smiled with happiness. His siblings were another case. They had a group hug, Karmaan had hugged him first and refused to let go while Kulthum was ready to murder him, herself.

"I'd take the charges if it means you'd never repeat this!" it didn't make sense because he was near death a few moments ago.

As days passed by, he was poked and probed for samples to test and examine. Every time they took blood, Safwah told them that he would avenge his blood. He was the nurses favorite because of his nature.

His family would often drop by during the day and by the night, it would only be Sahl. His nephews weren't allowed upstairs to the wards so they only talked to him via video calls. And adding onto his excitement was the fact that Aanabia was pregnant! 

Days turned to weeks and then a month went by. The doctors scheduled a final test for him before he was discharged.

Qaidah Zaeef made it very clear that he would be returning to Gold Coast with them. She didn't trust him to stay here alone. This didn't just affect Safwah, it also had a major impact on Vardah's investigation (that was put on hold, as directed by the Zaeef Empire.) and Sahl. But Qaidah wanted to hear none of it.

She instructed Kayan to transfer all of Safwah's clinics to Gold Coast and told Vardah to that she'd see her at home.

The Zaeef family had unofficially adopted Vardah Siddique as their own. And a new era had began just like that. 

****