Faded#11
It's absurd to go away from someone you carried in your heart like blood. It's like a circle, a full closed circuit, even if it leaves it is ought to come back again.
Suman noticed that everything Vikram did was absurd, nearly for the last ten minutes. His sentences were incomplete, he was running a marathon in his head. He talked about some engagement ceremony she was least interested in. 'Coffee?' Suman asked trying to figure out some new topic she could rely on. She couldn't have fathom talking about a ceremony she gave a damn about.
'Coffee?' Vikram was hysterical.
'I reckon its not poison.' Suman nodded her head in sincerity. What was up with this guy?
'No, not at all. I, I just had a mood of you know drinking...umm...' Vikram pointed towards the wine he had bought in.
'Its peach you know, and ...' Before Suman could complete, he had completely changed the topic.
'We will go with some coke. Is it fine? You know, just wanted to drink something cold. Ambala's heat.' Vikram chided and Suman understood.
'I'll bring it.' Suman walked towards the kitchen. Her house was small but was exactly her taste. She liked mahagony teapoy's kept almost at every lounger- wherever you could sit. Wooden wallpapers, creamish sofas, chocolate floor, and her vintage classic collection of litrary novels standing high and mighty. She had posted a coffee bean wallpaper all over her kitchen and she likes the smell of wood from the dining table she had antiquely designed.
'Here..' She took two glasses of cold drinks. She hated them, honestly. It was just sugar, soda- and blimey! they were awful.
'Do you have some bread? Garlic bread?' Vikram was awful with his choices or as Suman thought. More or so he was sweating.
As Suman went away to fulfill his other wish, Vikram slipped a bit of wine in both the glasses. Surprisingly or not, the wine bottle was used- opened instead. It wasn't a gift, but a plan. He had put on some sleeping pills. His plan sketched from making Suman Tiwari, fall unconscious in his arms so that he could put up a great show of something happening between them when she wakes up. Girls, you know, he thought were really weak in such cases. She would die to marry him, contrary to her present dubious behavior. And secondly, he could help himself with some information for his pending case.
'What's up in your work front, Vikram?' Suman slipped some cold drink oblivious of Vikram's plan.
'You know I am a defendant, I am up with some industries, fighting with the allegations against them.' Vikram smirked.
Suman shifted uncomfortably in her position, sparks of Devraj Malhotra burning in her memory.
'I reckon you believe the truth is with the prosecutor most of the time and defendants are some frauds, don't you?' Vikram laughed at her confusion.
'Not really. Rather I believe in the truth.' Suman felt herself smile. She slurped another sip of her soft drink.
'Oh, Mrs- to be Raichand' Vikram waited to see Suman's response to his address and he wasn't surprised by her annoyance 'There is nothing such as truth, in the courtroom. What you see is the only truth, nothing more and nothing less.'
Suman felt herself clenching her teeth and reconsidering her decision of marrying him.
'Don't go on the intricacies of my profession, Captain, it's not too bright. Anyways, do you really love me?' Vikram walked to her side and sat really close to her, something Suman strongly disapproved of. She shifted aside and made a point to maintain distance. She had started feeling itchy in her neck. Her heartbeat was increasing, not because of Vikram- she was sure.
'I don't think I can help you with that question.' Suman felt herself drifting. She wasn't really feeling good. She clasped her forehead. But with that Vikram had taken her cheeks by his palm. He looked straight into her eyes and she felt insanely driven by a weakness lurking over her body. 'Don't' she pushed him aside, but his grip was strong.
'Your eyes, why are you crying?' Vikram asked in his most dense voice, and Suman could hardly hear it. Her eyes streamed with water, she felt her mouth swelling, her tongue coming to rest.
She was suffering an anaphylactic shock. She was extremely sensitive to allergens.
'You foul mouth!' she afforded to speak through her tight situation ' You mixed that wine, didn't you?' She accused him, but Vikram was halfway in kissing her forcefully.
'Don't worry, I will remove its taste.' he mumbled on her lips, as she sat twisted and chained. So the only thing she could do was to ignore the itching all over her body, ignore the rashes all over her back- the tears in her eyes and the congestion of her breath and fight back. With all her remaining fight she punched him right in his eyes. She knocked his stomach and heard him whimper. Suman could barely stand, as she felt almost crying. She was trying hard to not faint. There was something she had never felt before in any of there attacks. She felt a sudden urge to sleep, her eyes were drooping unconscious.
At that point, she could hear Shravan screaming at the door. Maybe, he had ringed the bell as well, but she had turned selectively deaf she felt. Coming! Wait! she wanted to say but words dissolved on her lips. Don't go! Don't go! she mumbled on her lips, as she crawled like a snail on the wooden floor. It was such a small distance to cover.
Before she could reach, Vikram had gained his position. 'Stop! Suman!' he came for her, but it was too late. Karan Bassi and Shravan Malhotra had unhinged the door, scratched through it already. They were standing there in flesh and blood.
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'You bloody arse!!!!!!!!!!!!' Bassi almost took Vikram by his collar.
Suman lay on the floor losing her conscious, as Shravan picked her up. 'Suman! Wake up!' his voice shivered in uncertainty. He hadn't seen her in such a bad state. Swollen face, rashed body, running nose, and a fresh pack of tears. The white of her eyes was read and she struggled to breathe in his arms. 'Hey, darling..' Shravan couldn't help but sob in his throat. He could feel the lump of her helplessness in his arms. ' I am sorry.' he proceeded to kiss her forehead.
'What did you do with her!!!!!' Shravan screamed with all his might. He delicately juggled Suman's shoulders carrying her in his arms.
'Peach wine and sleeping pills.' Vikram had blood running through his nose, curtesy- Major Karan Bassi.
'You take Captain Tiwari to the hospital, and I shall take him to the Cantt.' Bassi assured a distraught Shravan who couldn't nod but run to his jeep.
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Suman straight smashed in the emergency as the anaphylactic shock had traveled deep in her body. The doctors hummed around her like bees around honey. Much to Shravan's relief, she had her nerves depressed due to the sleeping pills, which more or less worked for her condition.
He saw her sleeping figure through a glass. His hands trying to get past the texture of the thick glass separating them. He felt getting closer to her each passing second. Not to say that he was any less angry with her decision to go with a complete rascal, yet again stranding him in the middle of nowhere.
When he had carried her to the hospital it felt like driving through oceans and mountains together. She had robbed all his senses. It was his same maniac-self he had decided to dump seven years ago, which resurfaced in the oddest situations. He felt that nothing could stand the love for his country, but Suman Tiwari can. His eyes were seeing just her and the road, and he barely remembers going through the motions of car driving. It all throbbed down his sorry heart that had successfully betrayed the brain.
Late in the same night, when Suman was asleep, his mother had called her. Tearing his eyes away from her vigil he had listened to the wise words of the aged lady.
'No, you aren't losing focus.' His mother's voice was a chuckle. Strangely whenever he became restless, she was at peace. As if they transferred each other their energies.
'What is happening Ma, I wasn't like this, at all-- ' Shravan mumbled.
'Who told you that? You were always like this. Soft, careful, and what they say, protective? Weren't you? You literally ran away with Suman that day. You wanted to save her from the pain of separation, to get her away from all the accusatory glares, to prove her innocence. It was for her, it always has been.' His mother was on her toes to explain.
'Figuratively' Shravan looked at the waning face of Suman, which glowed for him, her breath was a life-saving tonic 'I should hate her.' the words bitter on his tongue.
'Actually, you don't. You never did. By the way, Suman came and met me, maybe 4 days ago. She spent almost a day, learned a few cooking tips. And of course, apologized' At this Shravan's eyes went nuts.
'You never told me.' Shravan accused.
'I couldn't break our pinky promise' She laughed. 'She is a sweet girl Shravan, need I tell you? After 7 years, I felt her pain. It's different, but no less traumatic, imagine losing both your parents at a young age. At least I was with you, Shravan, can you hear me?'
'I do Mamma, I do..' Shravan trailed low. He was digesting what his mother told him.
'You don't leave people, who, you have carried in your heart for so long. Don't ever. They would take away a piece with them- which could never grow back. Somethings are special, very special, and true love counts.' Kavita knew that she was speaking the absolute truth.
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