The embers had cooled off, the crowd dissipated leaving remnant crew members of the fire emergency services clearing the perimeters of the house from debris posing danger to passers-by and onlookers. Two ambulances had left the compound, three body bags and a badly injured woman in their hull. Underneath the rambutan tree, two women stood watching what was left of the house.
"What… happened?"
"There was an explosion from inside the kitchen. I overheard the firemen mentioning gas leak."
"Ashraf? Pak Nan? Auntie Maziah?"
"She's okay. They've taken her to the hospital."
"My God…."
"I'm so sorry, Yani. I wish I could tell you otherwise…"
"…. Ashraf's gone? ..."
She could read in Yani the eruption of hysterics over the death of her son and countered by erasing the thought paths leading to her memories of Ashraf, halting depression from worsening. Ain saw a policeman standing slightly away from them and unblocked his mind from her mental mask, allowing him to see Yani. She saw in his face a surprised look which quickly disappeared as he walked over to them.
"My apologies. I didn't see you standing there. Are you from the house? Are you okay?"
Yani stared at the young officer for a while, glanced at Syafa, in her mind curious why the young man acted as though she was the only one there.
"Were there any survivors?" she asked.
"An elderly woman. We recovered three bodies from the wreckage, Puan…. Umm, we should send you to the hospital for treatment. I'll call another ambulance."
"… Thank you, but no… Not now…"
"You could be injured, Puan."
"… Please… Not the hospital..."
"Are you sure about this?"
Yani nodded, still looking at what was left of her uncle's home.
"What happened?"
"Too early to tell. Are you sure you won't need any help tonight?"
Yani said nothing, shook her head, he nodded his understanding. Shook his head in bewilderment as Ain masked them again from prying eyes. Saw the policeman jaw dropping before shaking his head at the disappearance.
"I can't believe this. First Saari, and now Ashraf. He has many years ahead of him…"
Ain had no words to the woman. They were both covered with soot and injuries, cuts from sharp debris and shattered glasses. The bleedings had stopped, but the wound in Ain's heart went deeper. She had used the time consoling the distraught Yani to search for John Doe, discovering him inside a room at a hotel somewhere, the vile blackness still radiating strongly from his mind.
It didn't stop her from peering into his thoughts, satisfied and reveling over his incapacitation from his latest attack on her. That he wasn't even aware of her presence inside his mind told her enough of how far she was becoming a master of her abilities.
I can switch him off and he can't stop me.
But she didn't do it. Much as she wanted to, Ain told herself Yani deserved a second chance and if the vile man could somehow be reverted to the old Saari they had both fallen in love with, so be it.
She wondered why there were no remnants memories of how he manipulated Suraiya into the committing the murderous act but assumed she was just too distraught to detect everything in his malevolent mind.
Was it his presence I felt at the hospital when everything was so serene?
Ain left, detecting the slightest of tremors in his nervous system, a sign of him regaining some functionality of his limbs. Pondered about demons within that drove him to the edge, where the life of others meant nothing to him but the fulfilment of a deep hatred towards another.
Returning to herself, Ain opened her mind to Yani's solemn observation of the destroyed house, in her mind the passage of her time spent there, Ashraf's relationship with her uncle who gave him more attention than his own father.
"Do you spend a lot of your time here, Yani?"
"Huh?... Oh, no, I didn't. They moved here after Pak Nan retired. He loved the town. Ashraf… He was the one who loved this place."
She fell silent, thoughts on her son ratchetting again as Ain circumvented the despair from worsening by breaking the memory paths of the young boy within Yani's mind.
The crowd were now almost clear, the tragedy casting dark clouds with thoughts on their own respective mortality, the clear sky providing scant lighting from countless stars.
"Syafa… What will I do now?"
"You should go on living in honor of their memories, Yani."
"How will I live without him? He was the only reason why I kept going. What is there to look forward to, Ain?"
"Your husband is still alive."
"Is he? Why hasn't he contacted us? Doesn't he miss me… miss Ashraf?"
"He's in a coma, Yani."
Ain saw Yani glancing at her, in her mind thinking that this young woman at her side was the last person she had expected to enter her life, and at such a juncture.
"Let's go to the hotel I'm booked in."
"… No. The village surau… I need time, Syafa. Please.
Sighing, Ain nodded her acquiescence. She'd protect them.
The two women stood up, dusted themselves and began a slow trot towards their destination, the warm glow of its fluorescent lights guiding their weary, shoeless steps.