She went into a deep sleep. Sometimes she twitched in her sleep and woke up for a moment, but she had no strength to fully return to consciousness, so she would lay back down and sleep again. She slept through days and nights.
Mehru's family, her sister, her mother, and her father all came to check on her, but she didn't want anyone near her.
"Please… I'm so tired. I don't have any appetite. Let me sleep a little more."
And the days passed like that. Slowly, she began disappearing.
"Why are you like this, Meharjan? Look what you've done to yourself."
She heard a voice. A familiar voice.
It was him.
She looked around the bright, empty room where she stood in the middle, clueless.
"Muazzam?" she called softly. "Are you here? Please answer me."
She wandered around the place, running from one corner to another. She was wearing a white dress that fully covered her body. She looked beautiful in it. Her hair was left open, and the dark circles around her eyes, along with her pale face, somehow made her look even more fragile and charming.
"Is it worth exhausting yourself like this?"
The voice touched her ears again.
She turned back.
He was standing there. Dressed in white as well.
She tilted her face slightly to look at him, and tears slipped down her cheeks. Slowly, she walked toward him. Then faster. And in the end, she ran to him and hugged him tightly.
Then suddenly, she felt an extremely painful pressure on her chest, as if someone was choking her. She immediately woke up from her sleep. She had been dreaming, and it was the middle of the night.
She went to the washroom and made wudhu. She spread her prayer mat and sat on it for a while, staring continuously at the ground. Then she gathered all the strength she had left and stood up, starting her prayer.
This time, she did not cry. She prayed normally, quietly, with a calm that felt unfamiliar but real.
Afterwards, she sat down and looked up at the ceiling, frozen for a long moment. Then she slowly raised her hands and whispered:
"Ya Rabb… You can see what this has done to me. I am tired now. Please make it easy for me. Take this heaviness from my heart and mind and give me ease. Ameen."
She lay down on the mat, curling her legs slightly, and closed her eyes. This time, she slept deeply.
And then—
"Mehru… Mehru, come this way!"
"Ha ha ha, wait for me! Why are you running so fast, Muazzam?"
"I am not slow, you are! Slow duck!"
She was laughing, running after him, feeling light, like the world had never broken her at all.
You were my first love.There was no one before you, and none after.
I loved you so much that I even gave myself the love meant for you.
If only you had held me together in time… maybe I wouldn't have broken like this.
I hold no complaint.I take the blame, and I set myself free.
The story has ended.You are my last love.