Kalarikkal House [6]: Chp. 80 - new thread link p. 156 - Page 98

First of all Happy New Year! It is incredible that you are still writing the story. I almost gave up. Thank you thank you thank you for continuing and writing this brilliant story. Will wait for your next update.

wow Devi you are finally here!..can't wait to see how this gets unfolded..thank you for coming back!..I know good things always come back..:)

Thanks for this chapter Devi! The writing is brilliant as always.

I just couldn't believe my eyes. Thank you Devi for coming back and continuing the story. Hoping that you would continue Lavender too

A Big "Thank you" for coming back and continuing this story. Deeply appreciate it.

Chapter 78 Possession

[Music Selection]

She didn't know why it took her as long as it did to notice, but she did just a few minutes after the ceremony ended. He didn't make it obvious, in fact, she didn't think anyone else caught on aside from her. One of her uncles had patted his back rather forcefully in an overexuberant effort to welcome him into the family and she had seen, felt rather, the sudden pause in his breathing. It was for just a moment before he exhaled normally and returned the greeting with a polite smile. Standing as she was near him for the hour that followed while he met her sprawling family that had come from far and wide, she thought morbidly that it was to witness the misfortune that would surely befall the wedding, it was hard not to be completely tuned into his breathing. After several minutes, she could detect it fairly regularly, a slight hitch here, a short catch there, all faint, but nonetheless regular.

Once an approximation of an hour had passed and his uncle, aunt, and cousin had returned to their hotel, she finally felt safe in appealing to her father to let them go upstairs to change. There would be a reception tonight at a five-star hotel somewhere an hour's distance from the village; it was the nearest one Arnav could find and she thought he was determined to announce the event to the world in the most significant way he knew how. Most of the remainder of the family and friends that he had invited would be arriving then. Everyone needed some rest before that. Her father understood. He nodded.

When she waited, her father looked at her in question.

"Achan parayu." (You tell him).

She caught her sister's gaze then. If her sister sensed anything was amiss in any way, she did not show.

"Avalu paranjalengana acha. Achan parayu." (How can she tell him to rest? You tell him, Father.). She heard her sister say and released the breath that she hadn't known she was holding in.

Her father appeared to buy this explanation and she saw him go up to Arnav.

The jewelry and sari felt suffocating suddenly and she pulled at it harder than she meant to. Pallavi stilled her hand discreetly. She looked at her sister.

She saw Pallavi look at Arnav and followed her gaze to watch her father speaking to him. Arnav looked in her direction in that moment and their eyes met. He looked back at her father a second later, nodding at something he said.

Her sister squeezed her hand and she looked back at her.

"Nee chellu." (You go). She thanked the Lord for giving her a sister like her who could do more with one gaze than a thousand words.

She nodded.

The crowd started to disperse shortly thereafter and she made her way over to the stairs. A moment later, she saw him approach as well. She didn't break stride as she climbed the stairs to their room. He followed several steps behind, not saying a word.

She opened the door to their room and waited inside until he came in before turning to lock the door. He didn't turn back to acknowledge her now, his temporary truce from before seeming to have vanished.

She didn't care. She was done with his brand of punishment. But not before she confirmed for herself... she walked over to his side and lifted his kurta without warning.

"Hey!" he shouted, turning away, but she had already seen it.

The bindings were tight around his waist and stomach, extending down to his hips, the bulk of it covering a dressing on the side, low on his belly.

She gasped before she could stop herself.

She could still see the faint pink of his wound through all layers of gauze.

Fear was sharp and cold as it clutched around her insides again, tightening its claws.

It was already starting.

She felt herself sway slightly but straightened herself just as he reached out to hold on.

She put her hand out to ward him off and he stilled.

"This is not the work of the supernatural before you start letting your imagination run wild." He said flippantly as he now started to remove his kurta entirely.

She didn't respond as she waited until the whole kurta came off.

He looked at her in question.

Her expression didn't change as she waited him out.

"Clearly you have left behind a bevy of ardent admirers in your wake. One of them merely wanted to put up a last ditch effort to win your affections, I guess."

That explanation was the farthest from the one that she had expected and for a moment, her stunned surprise stilled her tongue.

"What? Don't tell me you didn't know?" he asked as he looked down at the layers of bandage as if trying to figure out something mysterious.

"Who wrapped this for you? It's atrocious!" she forced a bite into her tone to mask the ice in her veins as she approached him briskly and started to unwrap the bandage from the back. She wanted to see how bad it really was.

"What the f**k, Kashi!" He tried to grab her hand from behind, but she had already managed to get the closure open. Before he could figure out how to hold it together, she pulled it off completely. She knew she was not thinking clearly, but it still didn't prepare her for the mass of bloody gauze that fell out to leave the wound open to air.

"This... is a stab wound..." her voice was almost a whisper as she took in the sight.

He said something, but she couldn't hear him from the loud ringing in her ears as the room started to spin.

"No! No!" she suddenly felt him pull her to his chest, holding her roughly. "Do NOT faint on me. Damn it, Kashi!" Within seconds, he was slapping her cheeks back and forth with just enough force to make her wince. It righted the world for a moment from the crazy spinning.

"Arnav..." she heard the weakness in her voice.

"It looks worse than it is. I promise. If the idiot who did this knew anything about how to properly stab people, then would I be standing here alive and well?"

"You are not well!" she protested, pushing him away, she thought, but her arms appeared to be pulling him closer.

"I am absolutely well. And I need you to look at me properly and see that too."

He pulled himself back from her and looked down at his torso, forcing her to look down.

There was a trickle of blood running down from the wound where the friction between their bodies had just irritated it.

She exhaled hard and closed her eyes.

"It's a f**king trickle! Because you f**king unwrapped the bandage! If I had organ damage, this would flow like a f**king river!"

She clapped her hands over both ears when a sudden image of blood running down like a river from his wound flashed through her head.

"I'm sorry." His voice was immediately contrite as he took her again in his arms, this time softly.

The softness got through the madness in her head.

She told her to keep inhaling and exhaling slowly, measuring out each breath until she felt the strength come back to her muscles.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes and looked at him.

He was right. He really did look well, his wound notwithstanding. There was a light in his eyes that she hadn't seen there before.

And for a moment, she thought that maybe she wasn't his jinx, but his charm.

She looked down at the wound again and could see that the blood had transferred to her, dotting the skin of her waist where he had once bitten her under water.

She touched it, the red now on her index finger.

Taking the cue from every dramatic movie scene she had ever seen, she brought the finger up to the part in her hairline where the red powder from the ceremony remained. The red of his blood mingled now with the sindoor as she drew her finger back, watching his eyes.

His pupils dilated as she watched and he lifted her up on her toes to take her lips in a bruising kiss.

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I'm not good with words, all I can say is thank you for deciding to continue with this.

Aww.. the final part was awesome. Especially what kashi done.

Thank u again for a wonderful update, wow that was so romantic, i cant stop loving arnav and kashi, the love they have for each other is unexplainable... The way she was worried, the way he assured her that he is fine and the truth is nothing could stop him to make her his.

Okay. The title of the update scared me to bits.