He turned, but instead smiled a bitter smile and answered in a sharp tone:
"You... always prefer the warmth of illusion over the coldness of reality."
Zahra moved closer, until she was right beside him, sitting near him to the point where she almost touched him. His heart trembled in embarrassment, so he shifted slightly, as if fleeing from a confrontation he couldn't reconcile with.
She opened her mouth, but the words froze on her lips when his gaze fell on her. She was staring at the horizon, as if she could see the secrets of the universe harmonizing in the distance. She whispered softly, like a song in the void:
"Beautiful... could it be that this desert, with its deadly beauty, has swallowed eleven of us like a hungry beast?"
She added, as if speaking to herself:
"Ah, this deadly beauty..."
Amer answered, his eyes fixed on the dark horizon:
"Yes... beautiful, as much as it is deadly."
Zahra looked at him with a questioning gaze, concern filling her words:
"What kind of world are we in? How did we get here? And why? Is it real, or just a dream?"
Amer sighed, as though his voice reflected his surrender to the mountains of the unknown:
"There are no answers in our hands... who would have thought I'd wake up to find myself in another world?"
Zahra looked at him with eyes full of observation and worry:
"Didn't you notice, Amer? The exhaustion that covers everyone... look at them... did you see?"
Amer raised his gaze, studying the weary bodies, the empty eyes, as if the sand had drained their souls before their bodies. He whispered softly, yet firmly:
"Yes, I saw. If this were just an ordinary desert, they wouldn't be this tired. This land... is not what it seems. It's from another world, and its effect on us is different... it drains us in ways we don't understand yet."
He paused for a moment, then added quietly:
"The desert here is not just about hunger and thirst... it sucks the life out of us."
Zahra smiled gently, then placed her hand on his shoulder tenderly. She whispered in a clear voice:
"Why don't you sleep? Is there still something weighing on you? Haven't you felt the exhaustion like they have?"
She paused for a moment, then whispered shyly:
"Especially after you carried me all the way..."
The winds between them stilled for a moment, as if the desert itself had quieted to listen.
Amer suddenly laughed, his eyes full of astonishment and curiosity:
"What's this gentle side of you, Zahra? I never imagined there was so much warmth and tenderness inside you."
Zahra froze, as if his words had pierced a veil she was hiding her true self behind. She averted her gaze from his eyes, afraid he might discover her shyness, but the redness of her cheeks and the beating of her hands betrayed her.
She tried to speak, but the words failed her, so she chose silence to hide her flushed face.
Amer, who noticed her discomfort, also preferred silence, then looked at the distant horizon where the darkness blended with the blue moonlight, saying in a quiet voice heavy with worry:
"Yes... I'm tired. I want to sleep, to close my eyes and pass through my last night quickly, but a great feeling of fear fills me. I wish I could sleep..."
Zahra's features tensed, as if Amer's words had cast a shadow over her heart. She quickly glanced at him, filled with concern:
"Last night? What do you mean?"
Amer replied, his face reflecting tension and sarcasm:
"Do you think we'll wake up tomorrow? Maybe one of the creatures from the sand will swallow us as a meal... And if we survive, how will we endure the scorching sun with no water or food? That's the truth... Zahra."
Zahra's heart raced when she heard his words, but she answered in confusion:
"You? Saying this now?"
Amer looked at her in surprise:
"What do you mean?"
Zahra smiled faintly, but it was filled with warmth:
"If you were this pessimistic... you wouldn't have been the calmest person when we woke up here. Don't you remember? You were the only one who didn't break down. You didn't lose your mind while our companions fell one by one."
Her smile faded a little, replaced by a deep sense of gratitude, and she said softly:
"You are the one... who carried me and saved me until I got here."
Amer felt confused, wanting to respond, but words failed him. Zahra, who suddenly realized what she had said, tried to downplay the impact of her words, saying:
"So... for you, respect yourself... and don't repeat this after all you've done."
Amer laughed for the first time in a long while, a pure laugh that came from deep within his heart, soft and free from sarcasm or bitterness. His laughter spread like a warm breeze in the silence of the desert, dispelling some of the darkness of their sorrow.
Zahra, astonished, couldn't bring herself to look away from him. It seemed to her as if she was discovering a new face of his, one she had never known, finding in it a beauty she hadn't imagined.
Amer stretched his body on the sand, resting his head on his arm, staring at the star-filled sky. He said with a slight smile:
"At your service, my lady."
Zahra smiled as well, a sense of comfort filling her heart. Then, unexpectedly, she lay down beside him.
In a soft voice, she whispered:
"I'm sorry... for everything... and thank you for saving me."
Amer replied, without shifting his gaze from the sky:
"I've forgotten everything. No need to thank me, you're part of us. Any of us would have done the same."
Zahra shook her head, whispering shyly:
"Don't be modest, Amer... everyone left me... but you stayed."
Then, in a deep tone, as she lay beside him:
"Now I understand why Sarah loved you."
Amer turned toward her with a curious look, a faint smile on his lips:
"Really? And what's the reason?"
She answered with a deep look:
"Since childhood, Sarah lived only with her mother, and her father was always absent. The voids in her life pained her... and when she saw in you maturity, awareness, and honesty, she felt at peace and turned to you."
They were silent for a moment. Amer looked at the sky, feeling the weight of her words, before he remarked:
"I didn't expect an explanation like that..."
Zahra, still looking at the horizon, added:
"But there's something I don't understand... Sarah is a wonderful girl, she lacks nothing, and many wish for her approval. But you... you always pushed her away, with a firm rejection. Why didn't you think, even once, of giving her a chance? Why didn't you accept her feelings?"
Amer looked at her from the corner of his eye, then said in a lightly sarcastic tone:
"Is this the right time to talk about that?"
Zahra chuckled softly, then closed her eyes and said in a playful tone:
"Stop dodging, for your own sake... Let's talk, let's get everything out. Who knows? Maybe you're right... and this could be our last night, hahaha."
Amer looked at the distant horizon, as if speaking to the void, then said in a voice that blended wisdom and bitterness:
"We haven't reached maturity yet, Zahra... We are just lost teenagers, caught between the transformations of spirit and body. Our emotions are fragile, and our concepts of love are unstable. We're at a stage where we're searching for ourselves before we search for others.
Sarah, like everyone else, hasn't discovered her true self yet, let alone understand her feelings toward others. Perhaps what she felt for me was just a reflection of the emotional void left by her father's absence... so she clung to me, believing it was love.
But I'm sure... the day Sarah truly matures, and her depths settle, she will look back on those feelings with irony, perhaps with a touch of childish nostalgia, but she certainly won't see them the way she does now."
Zahra fell silent for a moment, not expecting such deep understanding from Amer. But she noticed something more complex, so she studied him carefully before asking with curiosity:
"You? Strange... Do you mean there's something missing in you? What is it that you lack?"
Amer smiled sarcastically, returned his gaze to the sand, and then said in a light, charged tone:
"Tell me... what is it that I don't lack?"
Zahra let out a soft sigh, carrying with it some surprise:
"Strange... If it were someone else, they would have seized the opportunity for themselves and taken what they wanted."
Amer replied in a calm tone, filled with understanding but with a depth that showed in his serenity:
"I completely understand what you mean, and your words hold part of the truth. But I thank God that I'm not someone who walks the path of vice, exploiting the feelings of girls to fulfill my desires.
I don't want to leave Sarah with memories coated in disappointment and pain. I don't want to be the reason she's deceived into believing there's a future for this relationship, or in building false hopes with no foundation."
Zahra looked at him with astonishment and admiration, then whispered:
"You're different."
Amer smiled lightly, replying with complete calm:
"No, I'm not different. The truth is, it's all quite ordinary. I don't have anything that deserves such praise."
Zahra let out a soft laugh, then said confidently, yet with a touch of kindness:
"You're rare."
Amer paused for a moment, thinking, his eyes reflecting his inner peace, then he responded calmly:
"I'm not rare, perhaps you just haven't met the right person for you yet. That's why you formed this idea about men."
Suddenly, Zahra shook, and Amer's words made her heart boil with unasked questions. She said, her voice trembling:
"My belief? How did you know about it?"
Amer fidgeted in his spot, trying to hide his own tension, then smiled despite the torrent of questions in his mind:
"Sarah told me..."
A moment of silence followed, then Zahra sat up, as if the unspoken words weighed heavily on her. She looked away, before speaking in a voice filled with longing and pain:
"You and I, we grew up in the same place, lived through the same circumstances. The wars that stole everything from us, and made us refugees in this place. And Sarah was my only friend."
Amer replied in a deep voice tinged with sorrow:
"I know, Sarah told me, but she didn't mention more."
Zahra sighed, as if opening a deep wound that had never healed, and said in a pained tone:
"My father and mother married against everyone's will, running away to live in their own world. Then my father died while I was still in my mother's womb, from a deadly disease, and my mother died giving birth to me. My mother's and father's families rejected me, so I lived in an orphanage."
Amer responded with a voice that came from deep within his heart, expressing his sympathy:
"I'm sorry for that."
Zahra shook her head with a sigh full of disappointment, then said in a sad voice:
"When I grew up, I heard words of praise that made me think I was invincible. They said I had a beauty that could captivate minds, but over time, the pain accumulated inside me, and the memories became like thorns that wouldn't leave my body. I searched for a companion, for light in the darkness of my soul, but I found that everyone was only chasing my body."
Amer remained silent, carrying all that pain in his eyes without saying a word.
Zahra smiled a bitter smile, as if hiding a deep sorrow behind it:
"I was searching for something deeper than fleeting touches, for honesty and warm feelings, for the touch that reaches the soul before the body. But, unfortunately, everyone I met saw me as just a body to satisfy their desires. So, I built a complex inside myself, and pure love hid behind high walls, until I began to hate men."
Amer responded in a calm voice, carrying deep empathy:
"You've been through so much. It's truly painful to see a woman as just a body to fulfill endless desires. Young people sometimes get overwhelmed by their wants and overlook their feelings, they only seek to satisfy themselves, leaving behind everything pure."
Zahra's eyes widened in surprise, as if she was wondering about the depth of Amer's thoughts that easily entered her mind.
Amer added confidently:
"And unfortunately, this isn't limited to just young people. Men, regardless of their age or background, look for physical pleasure when they see a beautiful woman. Can we blame them?"
Zahra was about to respond, but Amer preempted her, saying:
"The answer is both yes and no. It's natural for men to be attracted to beauty, but the mistake lies in how they express their feelings and satisfy their desires, in making a woman feel like just an object."
Zahra gently moved her legs, as if trying to protect herself from mixed feelings, then leaned on her arm while watching Amer, her eyes carrying a faint hint of admiration.
Amer spoke with a deeper tone:
"You're looking for someone who can control himself, not someone driven by physical desires. Someone who places respect and sincere feelings as his priorities, and the body comes after that."
Zahra watched him with eyes full of anticipation, as if she was seeing him for the first time. She tilted her head slightly and smiled a faint smile, then said in a calm voice that carried a challenge:
"Now it's your turn… Tell me about yourself."
Amer paused for a moment, as if her words had knocked on a closed door inside him that he didn't want to open. He muttered in a tone almost skeptical, as if talking to himself more than to her:
"When did we get this close, this open?"
Zahra raised her eyebrows slightly in mild surprise, as if she was questioning his sudden hesitation. The silence between them was enough to increase his discomfort. He took a step back, as if trying to escape the question without moving from his spot. Then, with a hint of feigned sharpness in his voice, as though wanting to end the conversation before it even began, he said:
"Forget my life."
But Zahra didn't retreat. Instead, she took a step toward him, their eyes meeting with quiet determination. Then she said in a deep voice, overflowing with curiosity:
"But I want to know… Tell me about yourself."