Chapter 1

So I have three pending works but here I am with this two-shot... I promise no more than a two shot (maybe😆)... I was reading the Yeh Hai Aashiqui article on IF and this is inspired from there... I think that episode was aired last Sunday?! I am not quite sure This one is for Aastha! I hope you like it (LOL, who am I kidding)... And guys a little trivia, does Pari ever proof read her tortures?🤣 ~Yeh Hai Aashiqui~ ~Part One~ For the umpteenth time, she tried to persistently scrub the prominent red mark on the crook of her neck. She even tried to redden her skin around the mark, so the mark could be camouflage in it. Even that came to no avail, as she watched her skin return to its original warm brown colour. The water from the shower drowned a salty stream of tears from her face. She brought her arms to her face and saw the indicative and bruised scars from last night.

Her skin agonizingly blazed under the hot stream of water, but she couldn't care less about pain it was causing her. Her threshold of pain was tested to its pinnacle last night and nothing or no one could ever have top that. She tasted her own salty tears as the hot water continued its assault on her scars, attempting to cleanse her from the sins of others.

She had run. She had hid. She had fought. But to no avail. She had begged. She had resisted. She had cried. But to no avail. She had fisted her small hands, as their assault continued on her. They had said that it was her clothes as well her frolicking at night to blame. They had dominated physically, but as their molestation continued, they had began to dominate her mentally as well.

They had said that they were not to blame. They had said that she was to blame and that she was compensating for her own mistakes. She had no strength left in her frail body but to stay grounded as they continued, one by one, all four of them. Insult? Pain? Humiliation? These words were not enough to justify her convoluted thoughts at that moment. For she was in no conscious state to think, she was in no state of mind to struggle anymore, as her brain had completely shut down.

She waited. Waited till they left her there, to recuperate for herself and walked home lifelessly. They had said that she was lucky that they were leaving her alive. They had said that she should be grateful to her Gods, that she had a pretty face, otherwise they would have dealt with her the same way as "that other" girl.

She could hear no more, as she started to walk away. Away from it all, away from the torture she had just faced. Some say that intercourse is a sign of love, of passion, of desire, a form of a love at its purest. Yet the ordeal she had just faced then was an example of torture at its purest. An ordeal where she was reduced to nothing but an object, as her honour, her innocence, her confidence was stripped off, one by one, just like her clothes.

She had watched previous TV coverages, where they had said that rape was a form of assault that removed how pure she was or that the victim's values were in question, they were to be blamed. They were wrong. This torture had deprived her of her confidence, her innocence. Her values or her chastity cannot be calculated by the vile acts of hungry animals. Never.

A knock on the bathroom door brought Sanyukta Aggrawal back to her present state of mind. She stepped out of the shower and realised that the hickey mark was still as prominent as before, and she had no choice but to cover it up with makeup. She had always read one should not hide the scars from war, but she had felt ashamed upon the sight of those red marks. She had felt ashamed as how incapable she was.

Walking out to main hall, the former Sanyukta would have held her held up high and proud, yet the Sanyukta today stared at the ground, like it was the most interesting thing in the entire world!

Looking at the faces staring up at her as she walked to the dining table, grabbed her bag and walked out, Sanyukta had felt her stomach being ripped out and reinserted. One thing she hated apart from feeling the pain was the sympathetic looks she had been getting from her family. It was their sympathy that cut, like a knife, through her. She had told them what had happened, how could she not? She came home in ragged, torn clothes, with eyes bloodshot and lips blue.

As she walked out of her home, whatever she passed by seemed to be staring right through her. Even the usual pleasantries with the old aunties, seemed like a chore, as she felt their prying eyes burn her back as she managed to pick up her pace rapidly. She needed to get away from it.

Work was her solace in life, working in a marketing firm; Sanyukta knew how to work her charm and wit together. Though the same corridors, the same people, the same routine scared her, her comfort zone now intimidated her.

Looking down at the pile of papers on her desk, the glint of the diamond ring caught her eye. She started to twist the ring around her ring finger, as a million thoughts ran through her head.

I Love You. She gulped as she remembered his confession, his proposal, how he wooed her, how he convinced her parents, how he had promised an eternity, with her. Sanyukta knew for sure that he would never leave her side, no matter what, that he would always support her during the most troubled time of her life.

She looked outside and saw the dark clouds gathering and shadowing the beaming sunlights. A warning of a storm brewing nearby.

As she packed up for the day, she glanced at her phone and sighed. He hadn't replied back, though she wasn't upset, she knew he obviously had other important deals to manage. His was an engineer by profession, she knew he obviously had barrels of paper work and contracts to review. She knew, but she couldn't help but keep checking her phone, in hope for a reply.

She could hear the thunder roaring outside. Yep! A storm, a damaging one, was definitely on its way.

As she looked around for a taxi, she could feel the hair at the back of her neck raise in terror. Swallowing the bile threateningly rising up her throat, she closed her fists and managed to compose herself. Holding her bag closely by her side, Sanyukta jumped in to the first decent looking taxi she could find.

As soon as the taxi reached her place, she jumped out and clumsily paid the driver extra and ran to the security of her apartment lift. That way she was only confined by the suffocating four walls, yet it was not the lack of air, it was the feeling of being uncomfortable in her own skin, that was making Sanyukta shiver agitatedly in the middle of summer.

Being in the lift with another resident, Sanyukta held her breath and leaned in the corner, trying to even out her breath. "Are you alright?" he asked in a concerned tone. Even though he meant no harm to her, Sanyukta shrieked unconsciously at his rather polite question, before composing her herself to an extent and nodded a small 'yes'.

As she rang the door bell of her house, her mom opened the door in a frenzy and hurriedly closed the door behind her. She saw who was sitting there, in front of her dad, holding an expressionless face. She ran up to him and flung her arms around his neck and finally broke down in front of others.

Being the proud woman she is, Sanyukta never broke down in front of her parents. Even as her mother opened the door last night, Sanyukta had just tightly held her bag and locked herself in her room. Yet today in his arms, Sanyukta finally let her emotions let lose.

He didn't respond, but just firmly pulled her off him and looked at her with judgmental eyes.

His face was no longer expressionless, Sanyukta could now clearly see, the judgmental cynicism he held in his black eyes for her and she couldn't help but be with repulsed by him. She was repulsed by the one she had decided she would marry.

"Look, I have already explained to uncle that I cannot marry you... You are tainted! You are an amazing girl Sanyukta, but I need someone more complete. I hope you forgive me" he said without a tone of regret or pain in his voice. Nothing. Nothing at all, emotionless.

Sanyukta had already known what was coming before he had even opened his pitiable mouth. And she had already started to steel her nerves; she was not going to let him break her again. After all, how long can she let other men walk over her?

"My ri--" Before he could complete his sentence, Sanyukta had already slid his ring of her finger and thrust it upon his hands. Putting on her best poker face, she said, "I am not incomplete. You are incomplete, incomplete of accepting someone who is with imperfections. I am not the one tainted. You are the one who has the tainted mentally. I wish all the best in life Mr Mittal. You can show yourself out"

As Sameer Mittal left the apartment, Sanyukta could feel the burning eyes of her parents on her again. With the same piercing sympathy, but this time the intensity had doubled.

Clenching her fists, she walked to the room with such composure that anyone would have missed the tear that had rolled out of her already bloodshot eyes.

Locking the door securely behind her, she went and closed all the windows and curtains in her room and sank to the ground in one of the corners.

Three years she had spent with him, three blissful years instantly transformed into three years of lies, deceit and betrayal. She felt betrayed, betrayed that the man she thought would stand by her side decided to show his true colours during her time of need.

She looked at the photo frame with their beaming faces and slammed in on the floor. It was already past midnight, so no one had knocked on her door. Looking at the shards of the glass from the photo frame, they too were just as irreparably broken as her.

She took a shard of glass and ran her finger over it... Sanyukta could feel the sharpness of the glass along her finger and continued to run her finger alongside the sharp and rough edges.

Sanyukta started at the glass, hoping to find some sort of answer in it... She looked up for an instance and found herself staring at the floor length mirror. She saw a sight that was completely foreign to her, the girl in the mirror was an intruder, eyes hollow and bloodshot, lips quivering, hair messy and fingers, that held the glass, bruised and pale.

She looked at the mirror and walked for to it and touched the reflection. It was her alright but the sight that welcomed her had not pleased her at all. Her eyes fell on the table next to her mirror, a table she had decorated with all her memories. Her eyes fell on montage of memories right in front of her. Cleaning away the glass and clearing the table of all his memories, Sanyukta looked at the mirror again and rubbed off the makeup that was covering the hickey and a few bruises on her neck and face respectively.

She had read that the scars obtained after a war should never be hidden from the public eye. These were scars of survival, these were her remainder that she was always capable.
Haaye teri hoon saari ki saari main .. ho .. oo ..
Par tere liye baazari mai... ~*~ Precap: "Beta, let's go see a doctor?" Her mother asked, her eyes no longer bearing sympathy, this time her eyes beared concern and an infinite amount of love for the fighter, that was her daughter.

"Is there a female doctor on duty?" Sanyukta asked as she gulped at the situation in front of her. "Sorry Ma'am, but there is only one doctor that is available at the moment". ~*~
Link To Part 2

~*~ I felt those two lines from the song Awari' from Ek Villain' fitted quite nicely with this part... I wanted to use another section as well, but then laziness kicked in and I couldn't be bothered fitting it in somewhere.

Please spare this part! Ladies please put down those jhootis and hit some likes and type some comments? Pretty please?! If you don't want me to continue, do rightfully say so! I promise I don't bite! gujjupari2014-07-15 07:20:26