A Cry For Help

Chapter 1 - Crash

Crash!

Rabia woke with a start. What in the world?

Bang!

Her heart started pounding in her chest. She heard a noise outside her bedroom door. She got out of the bed and tiptoed to her bestfriend's room through the interconnected door.
"Ahmed." she whispered, shaking her him awake.
"Mhmhmm, yeah?" he asked groggily.
"There's someone in the house, Ahmed." she told him urgently.
"It's probably ammi, Rabia. Go back to sleep." he said, sleepily.
"Ahmed! I'm telling you there's someone in the house. Please listen to me!" she said, shaking him even more roughly. Ahmed sat up, grumbling.
"Fine, I'll go and check." he said, getting out of bed. Rabia sat rigidly, on the edge of the bed, waiting for Ahmed to get back.
He came back, dragging Rabia's cat by his tail and holding a bowl in his hands. He glared at Rabia.
"It was just Ginger, Rabs. He knocked the bowl down." Ahmed said, getting back into bed.
"Hmph. Okay." Rabia said, but she knew it wasn't the cat.
Rabia had difficulty getting back to bed that night. Eventually, she fell into a restless sleep, only to be woken up again a few hours later by her phone alarm for school. She got up, still thinking about the sounds she heard last night. She knew something wasn't right. She just knew. But maybe it was my imagination. Maybe I was dreaming. You can't just hear random sounds in the middle of the night...can you?

*

The next day was probably one of Rabia's worst days ever. She was exhausted from not sleeping too well and she was being bombarded with work. She was glad when the bell rang for the end of school. Rabia and Ahmed walked out of the school building and started to walk to Ahmed's house. He lived just a few blocks away.
"So when are your parents coming back?" Ahmed asked, nervously as he watched Rabia open up a Jungle Bar. He knew she got emotional every time her parents were mentioned.
"I don't know, and honestly, don't care!" Rabia replied, aggressively biting into her Jungle Bar. Tears burning in her eyes.
"Come on, Rabs. Don't be like that."
"Ahmed, you know how it is! Come some stupid important meeting and in the car my parents go, zooming away without even telling me! No, 'Rabia, I have an important meeting to go to, would you like to come with or would you rather stay with Ahmed or go to Jo'burg to your sisters?’ Have they ever asked me that? Huh? Have they? I don't think so! But they take Farah everywhere with them! Am I also not their child? Huh? They don't give a damn about me, Ahmed!" The tears were threatening to fall. She hated being so emotional but her parents were a touchy subject. She'd talk about anything but them.
"Rabia, you know they care about you. And they're not even gone that often. And Farah is only five, they have to take her. Anyway, you can't miss school."
"So being fifteen is the age to not be taken with? And heck, I can miss school. I can always catch up. Why are you even trying to defend them? You're supposed to be my best friend, Ahmed!"
"Rabs, I'm trying to be reasonable here. You know it."
"Whatever." She huffed, and didn't talk to him for the rest of the walk home.
One day, when they're gone, something will happen to me. That will teach them. Rabia thought.
Rabia was still giving him the cold shoulder when they got to his house. Her parents were away on a business trip, Ahmed, her cousin and best-friend, and his mother, Mariam had to stay with her. Mariam was Rabia's mother's sister.

"As Salaamu Alaykum. How was school?" Mariam greeted them, as they entered the kitchen. Rabia walked straight to her room without answering. Mariam looked at her with raised eyebrows.
"Salaam, Ammi. School was fine. Boring as usual," Ahmed told his mother, "We were talking about Amena Khala and Firoze Khaloo on the way back. You know how she gets." Mariam nodded in understanding. Ahmed then followed Rabia to her room.

"You were very rude back there, Rabs." he told her, seeing her doing her homework on her bed.
"I'll go and apologise later." she replied gruffly.

Ahmed left the room again; he didn't want to make her feel worse. In fact, nothing could make her feel worse.