After few days.

Haider, dressed in a dark blue jeans and a sporty Ronaldo T shirt with yellow neon joggers plus imperfectly gelled hair, he was waiting outside the main gate of their house.

"Aoa dad." Haider greeted his father, who was getting out of his car and let out an amazed chuckle.

"Wao, how are you?" Amjad replied while warmly hugging his son and observing his hair at the same time.
"I am good." Haider replied breaking the hug. "Where is Maria?" Amjad asked him as he noticed her absence.

"She is coming, running a bit late, as always." he answered while chuckling naughtyly. After some time Maria appeared from the main door. She smiled embarrassingly when she noticed her father waiting for her.

Maria was dressed in a dimly faded dark blue jeans and a light blue thigh length shirt topped up with a  denim jacket and heeled mauve sandles. Her wavy hair were neatly tied up in an elegant french braid.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Maria greeted her father with a smile to which he replied by pulling her into deep fatherly hug and kissed her forehead.
"No problem dear. It's ok," he said while breaking the hug.

"Let's leave then, get in the car." Amjad announced as he opened the driving seat door.
"I'll sit in the front." Haider said, Maria was about to sit at the back seat when her father said
"Are you going to carry this backpack with you? It seems heavy." Amjad sarcastically asked her as he assisted Maria to carry the bag and Haider giggled at it.

"No I don't have to carry this, it will stay in the car, just the essentials." Maira replied playfully. Amjad gestured her to slip inside the car while he took the bag and placed it right beside her at the back seat.

"Well let's go then." Amjad declared and walked excitedly towards the driving seat.
"Dad you didn't tell us where are we going." Haider asked Amjad, who just started driving.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. We are going to the arcade, then we'll have lunch, then we can go shopping then you guys tell where you want to go." Amjad  told them eagerly and excitedly.
"Sounds fun." Haider childishly applauded.

"Let's go for a long drive after that." Maria suggested.
"Sure." Amjad answered.
"Yes." Haider replied as he started mingling with the car radio, shuffling through the programs.


***
In a nice and graceful restaurant, Haider, Maria and Amjad were seated around a compact square table and were enjoying their dinner, mouthwatering  grilled  mutton chops, delicious chicken biryani, sizzling prawn curry served with fresh butter and garlic naan. They were enjoying their dinner or to be more precise Amjad and Maria were eating while Haider was enthusiastically checking out his new smartphone , he just bought. 

"Haider, put your phone down, atleast have your dinner first. You are still playing around with your starters." Amjad irritatingly proposed to Haider who was playing some game on his new phone.
"Just two minutes dad." he replied still engrossed in his phone.
"He won't until he is satisfied." Maria commented on Haider as she wiped her hands with a napkin and Amjad laughed while he took another spoonful of biryani.

Haider was deeply involved in his phone when Amjad abrubtly snatched it.

"Two minutes are over.
Eat now." Amjad announced as he mockingly smiled at Maria who smiled back similarly.

"Stop being a baby." Maria teased him while she played with her set of cutlery, rolling the spoon between her finger.

"I am not." Haider protested and stuffed his moth with biryani drowning in prawn curry. Amjad was looking at his children nostalgically, when in the meanwhile he clicked a few photos of them without them knowing about it.
"Hey, why are you using your phone." Haider cribbed and pointed towards Maria who was checking out social media on her phone.

"Because I am done with my dinner." Maria replied proudly, pointed towards her empty plate and Amjad added, 

"Yes indeed." and patted her head.
"By the way, did you noticed my phone has better features then yours." Maria teased him again.
"That's cheating dad isn't it?" Haider protested again.

"No it isn't," Amjad straightforwardly replied. "She is elder than you, she deserves it." Amjad smirked at Maria naughtyly, Maria smirked at his words and Haider glared at her childishly.

"Dad did you like that perfume, I choose for you?" Maria asked smiling curiously at him.
"Well It must be good." he replied.
"Come on check it out once." Maria insisted, took out the perfume from the brown bag and passed it towards Amjad. He took it with a smile and inhaled it's fragrance at once.

"Hmm it's really nice." Amjad complimented. "I am glad you like it." Maria replied.

Just then the desert was served to their table, a slice of red velevet cake, a serving of kheer and a plate of arabian delights.

Amjad moved ahead and pulled over the bowl of kheer and passed it over towards Maria.
"You remembered." she said with her face glowing with happiness.
"of course." he replied and Maria stuffed a spoon full of kheer into her mouth enjoying every bit of it.

***
"How was your day?" Naima asked them as they entered the house. Naima was watching a music show on television at the moment, but as she noticed Haider and Maria, she turned it off and invited them to sit down on the sofas beside her.

"It was good." Maria told her while putting her bag on the wooden table.
"We had so much fun." Haider added as he excitedly showed Naima his new phone.
"Oh you got a new phone," Naima said as she examined the phone.
"So where did you guys go?" She asked again.

"First, we went to the arcade, I beat her in air hockey." Haider happily told her and she laughed.

"Yeah he won this time, but trust me only this time." Maria challenged him.
"We'll see." he replied.

"Mom, I bought new phone too and these perfumes." Maria said and pulled out beautiful perfume bottles from her shopping bag.
"The blue one is very nice, sweet fragrance." Naima commented while inhaled the fragerence of the perfume.

"Haider what about you?" Naima asked him who was still into his phone.

"I bought these speakers and novels." he said while calmly showing her his big red speakers and four novels from different horror and mystrey series.
"Hmmm better than those stupid video games." Naima mocked him playfully.
"These novels are really good. I might borrow them someday or I might steal." Maria said winking at Haider. Naima broke up laughing at both of them, who still fight over things as if they were still little kids.

"Mom, I am off to bed. My head is blasting." Naima told them and went to her bedroom.

She went to her room untieing her braid, rubbing her fingers through the hair such that she slowly massaged her sweaty scalp while moving ahead to her temples which gave her temperary relief  from the headache. She put all her stuff carelessly on her desk and took off her shoes. She then fell on her bed to deep sleep or unconsciousness!

***
Unknown POV
I should do it now, this is the right time, no no this is the perfect time. I kept my handbook on my seat and escaped the darkness making my way towards the exit door, bumping into a few bags on the floor and almost tripping over those steep auditorium steps. As I reached the exit door I looked around once and acknowledged that I was all alone and no one had any idea of me slipping out of the class.

I started walking towards the backstage, up the staircase.
I got there in less than a minute, thanks to my adrenaline rush. I gazed at the area fully and observed that it was empty except few wooden tables, some old notice board and a few annual function props and costumes, specifically the devil costume.
The one with a black dress with a bright red rim, a pair of sharp deadly horns and last but not the least the mask, a mask with a true devilish face.

I must confess that I am in love with the devil costume among those costumes, but there is no time for me to dance around in a devil costume but to bring out the devil buried inside me, voila! 
Apart from that stuff there were a lots of paint and ethanol cans. I smiled cunningly and opened my sweaty closed fists to unveil  a shiny black lighter.

I abruptly lighted it up and threw it over the ethanol cans. After a second it started to catch fire.
I was satisfied yet calm now. I felt the monster roaring inside me is now ready to be caged once again until I let it to un leash, like I did today, voila!
I hurrid myself to the dark auditorium and took my empty seat before anyone could notice my absence.

'Behind every mask there is a face and behind that, a story'

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