Kalarikkal House [7]: Chapter 82, p. 16 - Page 6

Chapter 81 Family

"She is f**king breaking my heart." She looked up from where she had been tucking the covers underneath her sister's feet when she heard his whisper.

His eyes had not left her sister's still form, now lying on the cot that she had pulled from under the bed where she had slept all those nights when he had been away from her.

Her eyes fell on his torso. She will have to burn the bloody sheets later; she never wished to see it again. His wound had ripped open from his exertion before. She was worried that it was now worse. But they had managed to wash it off and bind it again, this time she had made sure to wrap it properly.

"Pallavi..." he called quietly now.

If her sister heard anything at all, there had been no indication of it for the past hour.

"Pallavi..." he called again.

There was a tiny flicker of eyelashes and her eyes widened as she looked at Arnav's face. His gaze held the same surprise as he looked back at her. They both turned to look at her sister in unison as she waited for him to call her name again.

There was a pause now and she looked at him. He seemed almost nervous. But then he leaned in closer and whispered again, "Pallavi..."

Her eyes finally opened. Sitting as Arnav was by her side, Kashi saw Pallavi's gaze fall on the bindings around his stomach first.

They both watched her sister stare at the wound for a long while before she extended her fingers to touch the gauze lightly.

She could feel him hold his breath as he waited without moving a muscle.

She watched her sister and saw her pull her hand back finally and close her eyes. It took another moment before she noticed her sister's tears. They were slowly rolling down her face as she cried without making a sound.

And she thought her heart would break too.

She tried to remember that day when they had brought Anandan Namboothiri's body to the house. Her sister had looked shell-shocked. She had sat next to his corpse without moving for an hour or so. Then she had gone upstairs to his room and had locked herself inside. They had all left her alone and she had stayed in there the whole day and night before coming back out the next morning and returning to the illam. Kashi remembered watching her sister like a hawk for the next weeks, afraid of what might happen. But her sister had gone on, somewhat more silent than before, but with no catastrophic breakdown like they had feared. But she had known that that grief had left a crack somewhere. Somewhere none of the rest of them could see...

She recalled her earlier scream in bed. Even though it had been borne of pleasure, once the scream had escaped, she hadn't been able to stop. All the fear and nightmares and pain of what was to come had found some freedom of expression and had flown out before she could contain it, or think of who else might hear it...

She looked at Pallavi now and wished that she could scream for her... for all that her sister kept locked up inside.

"It looks worse than it is." She heard Arnav tell her sister then. He turned to look back at her and didn't notice when Pallavi's eyes opened again.

She looked from her husband to her sister and saw that Pallavi was looking at her now.

She nodded, silently agreeing with his estimation.

For reassurance, this was a poor job, she knew.

Her sister held her gaze for a moment longer before sitting up.

"I'm sorry. I must have given you quite the fright." Pallavi spoke, her voice measured and neutral.

Whatever Kashi thought to say in response stilled on her tongue when she saw her sister's expression as she looked at her now. She didn't want a response. She simply wanted to leave this room to collect herself.

"You did." Arnav said then and they both turned to him in surprise.

He didn't seem contrite that he had said that. In fact, he took her sister's hand in his and gave it a squeeze now as he added, "Don't ever do that again."

She saw Pallavi lower her eyes, hiding her expression, and just as she tried to say something to smooth over any hurt feelings, her husband spoke again.

"And we'll try to never scare you like that ever again."

She saw her sister's eyes close now and felt her own well up with tears.

With just those words, he had become not merely her husband, but family.

After a moment, Pallavi opened her eyes and this time shot Arnav a small smile before looking in her direction. She turned her gaze to the floor and Kashi followed it to find that she was looking at the bloody sheets.

"I'll send for the family doctor." Pallavi said finally before getting up off the cot and walking to the door.

----------