The night was supposed to be a celebration, a chance for all of the classmates to gather one last time before they all went their separate ways. But for Navilla, the night had quickly lost its luster. She sat on the balcony, staring out at the stars, feeling more depressed than she had in a long time.
Rafi was sitting beside her, silent, still reeling from what had happened earlier. He hadn't spoken much since Hanifa's message, and Navilla could tell that he was hurting. She had screwed up, and she knew it. She had only meant to help, but she hadn't realized how complicated things really were.
As she sat there, lost in her own thoughts, she couldn't help but think about all the things that were bothering her. There were too many reasons for her not to be happy tonight.
First, her idiot twin brother wasn't there. Zarif was deeply introverted, and despite the fact that it was his sister's birthday, he had chosen to hide somewhere rather than face the crowd. She just wanted to slap him for being so selfish.
Second, her best friend—Rafi—had just been brutally rejected by his long-time crush, and it was all because of her impulsive decision to meddle in his love life.
And third, her boyfriend, Isac, wasn't at the party either. He had injured his leg and was stuck in the hospital. Navilla had been looking forward to celebrating with him, but now she was here alone, feeling like the loneliest person in the world.
It was supposed to be her birthday, but she didn't feel like celebrating. Everyone else was having a great time, dancing, laughing, cutting the cake, but Navilla felt like she was just going through the motions. Even when they called her to cut the cake, she did it without much enthusiasm, her heart heavy with all the things that were weighing her down.
Zarif's name was written on the cake as well, but he wasn't there to see it. Idiot. Navilla couldn't help but feel angry at her twin. They were supposed to share this birthday together, but he had disappeared, leaving her to deal with everything on her own.
"I don't intend to live a life where I can't enjoy a single bit of it," she muttered under her breath as she stared down at the uneaten cake.
Rafi, who had been silent until now, finally spoke up. "You don't really believe that, do you?"
Navilla shrugged, not bothering to respond. She didn't know what she believed anymore.
The two of them sat there, talking about random things, trying to distract themselves from the weight of the night. Rafi, still heartbroken over Hanifa, tried to laugh at some of Navilla's jokes, but his mind kept wandering back to the painful message he had received.
Inside the party, some of their classmates were starting to whisper, creating rumors about Navilla and Rafi. But Navilla had long since mastered the art of ignoring people's gossip. She didn't care what anyone thought of her anymore. She had learned to tune out the noise, focusing instead on the people who mattered to her.
But then, something strange happened
Suddenly, the entire party went dead silent. The music that had been playing moments before was abruptly cut off, and the sound of laughter and chatter ceased as if someone had pressed a pause button on life itself. Navilla and Rafi, who had been talking quietly on the balcony, both looked at each other, confused. They hadn't been paying much attention to what was happening inside, but the sudden shift in the atmosphere caught their attention immediately. Something wasn't right.
Rafi furrowed his brows, his curiosity piqued. "What's going on?" he muttered."I don't know," Navilla replied, her voice low, almost hesitant. "Let's go check it out."Together, they made their way back inside, the chill from the night air still clinging to them as they walked. The room was eerily quiet, and as they stepped inside, they could feel the tension thickening around them. It was as if the air had become heavy, suffocating, with an unspoken horror hanging over everyone's heads.
The crowd of classmates stood frozen in place, their faces pale and drawn, eyes wide with shock and disbelief. No one moved. No one said a word. Rafi glanced around, his heart beginning to beat faster, his stomach tightening with unease.
He cleared his throat, trying to break the silence. "What happened? Why is everyone so quiet?"But no one answered. They remained like statues, staring at one another with expressions of shock and fear. Rafi exchanged a quick glance with Navilla, who looked just as unsettled as he did. Something terrible had happened, and the dread was starting to build up inside him. His pulse quickened, and his throat felt tight. **What could have happened to make everyone act like this?**
He asked again, louder this time. "What's going on? Can someone please tell us what happened?"
But again, there was no response. The silence was suffocating, growing heavier with every second that passed. It pressed down on Rafi like a weight on his chest, making it harder to breathe. His heart raced, his mind spinning with terrible possibilities. **Had there been an
accident? Some kind of emergency?**
Frustrated and feeling the panic rise within him, Rafi's voice cracked as he demanded, "For God's
sake, someone tell me what's going on!"
The sound of his shout seemed to jolt the group out of their frozen state. One of the girls, standing at the edge of the crowd, finally stepped forward. Her face was pale, her eyes red as though she had been crying. She looked at Rafi with a mixture of pity and fear, her lips trembling as she opened her mouth to speak.
Her words came out like a whisper at first, but they cut through the silence like a blade. "Hanifa is dead."
For a moment, Rafi stood still, his mind unable to process the words that had just been spoken. He blinked, the world around him seeming to blur and fade as the weight of those four words hit him. **Hanifa is dead.** It didn't make sense. **How could Hanifa be dead?** He had just received a message from her earlier that evening, she had been alive, she had been... angry. How could she be dead now?
His mouth went dry, and he tried to speak, but no words came out. His mind was struggling to understand, to piece together the information. The girl's voice broke the silence again, this time with more urgency.
"A murderer killed her," she said, her voice trembling. "They cut her body into six pieces... put the pieces into sacks, and... and... they left them at the police station."
At that moment, Rafi's world shattered. It was as if the ground beneath him had been ripped away, and he was falling, falling into an abyss he couldn't escape from. His knees buckled, and before he knew it, he was collapsing to the floor, his legs giving out under the weight of the shock. Everything around him seemed to blur, the sounds of the party fading into a distant echo, the faces around him becoming distorted shapes.
**This couldn't be real.**
His mind screamed in denial. **This had to be some kind of cruel joke, a nightmare he would wake up from any second.** His body felt cold, his chest heavy as if all the air had been sucked out of the room. His breathing became shallow, labored, as he stared at the floor, his thoughts spinning uncontrollably.
"Please..." Rafi's voice was barely a whisper, almost inaudible. "Please, someone tell me this isn't real."
He looked up at Navilla, who was standing beside him, her face drained of color, her eyes wide with disbelief. She didn't know what to say either. She stood there, frozen in place, unable to move, her hands trembling at her sides. The others in the room were just as still, no one daring to speak. The reality of what had happened was too much to comprehend.
Rafi's heart raced, pounding violently against his ribs as the horror of the situation settled in. **Hanifa was dead.** She had been murdered, brutally torn apart and discarded like she was nothing. The image of her body being found in sacks flashed in his mind, and he felt bile rising in his throat. He wanted to scream, to shout, to do something, but his body refused to move.
**How could this be happening?**
Just a few hours ago, she had been alive. Just a few hours ago, they had been exchanging messages—angry messages, but at least she was there, at least she was alive. Now, she was gone. Rafi felt like he was losing his grip on reality, like the world around him had tilted on its axis, throwing everything he knew into chaos. His vision blurred with tears, but he couldn't bring himself to cry. He felt numb, paralyzed by the weight of his emotions.
**Was this his fault?**
Had something he done caused this? Had their final exchange, that last message she had sent him, played a role in what had happened? His mind spiraled, guilt washing over him in waves. He wanted to go back, to take back that message, to stop Navilla from ever sending it in the first place. But it was too late. Hanifa was gone.
"Please," Rafi whispered again, his voice breaking. "Please, someone wake me up. Tell me this is just a nightmare."
But no one could wake him up, because this wasn't a dream. It was real. The pain in his chest told him it was real, the numbness in his limbs, the hollow feeling in his heart—everything told him it was real. And there was no escape from it. No waking up from this nightmare.
He wanted to scream, to claw at the ground beneath him, to tear something apart just as the killer had torn Hanifa apart. He wanted to rage against the cruelty of it all, against the injustice that had taken her away. But all he could do was sit there, his body shaking, his eyes unfocused, lost in the horror of what had happened.
Navilla knelt beside him, her hand reaching out to touch his shoulder, but even she didn't know how to comfort him. She was just as lost, just as broken by the news. They sat there together, surrounded by the silence of the room, as the weight of Hanifa's death pressed down on them.
**Everything had changed.**
**Everything was broken.**
And Rafi didn't know how he would ever be able to fix it.
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