Chapter 9: Captive
The sun had set and a faint grayish blue colour filled in the sky. The yellow light could still be seen like a shimmering fire just above the horizon. The weather turned colder.
We walked to the shed.
It would be wrong if I call it a shed, it was like a room with a long, permanent seat lining along three walls.
Madhu took the end of the harness from my hand. We did not have any handy rope to properly tie the horse. I leaned against the door and watched her tie the animal to a grill of the only window the shed had.
She looked at me after she was done. I managed a weary smile to mirror her satisfied one.
My eyebrows pulled together when her mouth changed its posture to a semi-scowl.
"What?" I demanded, little confused.
Without saying anything, she walked to me. I noticed her gaze was fixed coldly on my left arm. She gently held it up to have a better look and then stared up at me.
"What?" She emphasized.
I couldn't help myself from laughing at the guardian-like look she held on her face.
"Told you." I answered, "Something silly but threatening."
"It's not silly." She hissed, "It's..." She shook her head to find some fitting word, "It's insane."
"Whatever you think it as." I slowly walked into the shed and she followed me.
"You think it's very heroic to let yourself get hurt for me?" She was ecstatic, "Then I'm sorry but I'm not really proud of my hero. Who did this to you?"
I turned to face her, "Err...should I lie?"
She smiled weirdly and wrinkled her nose, "You don't need to. You don't need to say anything."
"You are reading my mind?"
"I am reading your eyes."
I looked down and pursed my lips, nodded, "Okay." She waited for me to say something more. But when she saw I remained silent, madness started to creep into her eyes.
To lessen that, I said in a badly audible voice, "I did not really do that for you." I admitted, honestly, "I...I felt like doing that. It was not because of the promise or the fact that..." I was afraid to say the words in this moment, afraid that in her unstable temper she would say something she would not mean, afraid that I would helplessly hurt myself again in spite of knowing her, "...the fact that I love you." She remained silent thankfully. I continued, "It was just because I thought it right. Necessary. If there had been someone else, I perhaps would have acted from my brain. That's the difference. In your case, I cannot help it...but I keep using my heart."
I trotted to her and touched her shoulders, "Even when the first time I saw you...now this is something tricky, I saw you and I thought you were the one we were looking for. When I was sure, I knew you couldn't be the one we were considering as. And even today, I knew I had to work it out like that." I shrugged and dropped my hands off her, "And I did."
She was staring into my eyes, "You are bleeding."
I waved a hand in the air, "C'mon I'm not that a fool! I did it...gently. Not deep at all. Yeah dangerous scratches you may call them." My lips curved into a smirk and I said lightly, "And plus, you are there to heal me. So why should I care?"
There was amazement in her eyes, "You are...impossible!" She frowned like a child who just dropped ice-cream on her new dress, "I will not heal you this time! You are taking that as an advantage and you will keep hurting yourself!"
I sighed and walked out of the shed, muttering, "You are angry."
She stood in front of the door as I collected the dry leaves and branches lying here and there, some fallen from the trees guarding the shed and some brought by the wind.
"What are you doing?" She asked with frustration.
"I am feeling cold."
I felt her freeze suddenly. She let out a desperate breath when she realized what I meant.
"You don't understand." Her voice was calmer.
I turned to give a smile at her, "I think you don't."
"I didn't mean to hurt you."
"You didn't." I convinced her.
I walked into the shed again and dropped on the ground everything that I had collected. When I turned again to bring in a few more, she was guarding the door.
"Excuse me." I started to slip out from the gap on the left side when she caught my good arm. I turned and saw it directly in her eyes.
She said in a deadly serious voice, "You don't understand. I can heal the wound, Rishabh. Not the pain that was felt when it was caused. And I know; you should too. No pain is good."
I managed, "I know." I turned and walked out again.
"Would you stop it?" She grabbed my shoulder, the desperation changed to worry, "You will infect yourself if you work with those dust and all." Her eyes fluttered and she looked down to the ground, "Let me do this."
I shifted on my feet to face her properly. I lifted up her face by the chin with my index finger and searched her eyes, "You are still angry. What should I do?"
"Nothing. You have done enough."
I shook my head, "Not enough."
I lowered my head to bring my mouth to hers. She stood still without reacting. Her stance made me feel weird, I backed away an inch. I thought she was not prepared. I looked her in the eyes both questioningly and reassuringly, and what I found there was not a forbid, but an invite, an invite so that she may apologize.
I smiled before touching her lips with mine. I had thought it would just be a touch, but it turned to be a craving, a craving for more"mine a long forgotten truth and hers a longing for love. I didn't mean to deepen the kiss, nor hold her so tightly that none of us would be able to breathe. But I was now a captive, her captive. And a captive can never work on his own will, but is always directed by his mistress.
I pulled away when I ran short of breath, we both were actually. I hadn't realized that her hands were wrapped tightly around my neck, or that mine were almost crushing her backbone.
I sighed and touched her forehead with mine, closing my eyes.
"I'm sorry." She whispered.
"You should not be." I opened my eyes and backed away, managing a reassuring smile. As a hint that I was not dismayed with her, I said, "You wanted to do that yourself?"
She nodded and walked away outside while I entered back again and collapsed on the ground. The day seemed would never end. Only a few seconds back did the sky darken completely. My left sleeve was almost completely wet with blood. I wondered lazily what might have happened if those cuts were not given to me by myself.
When she entered in with her arms full of dead branches, I held out my matchbox which was still luckily there in my pocket. With an experienced gesture, she lighted one up and dropped it on the pile. It lighted up in a rage. The room lit up and there was sound of crackling fire.
She walked to me and sat down on the left side.
"Won't you tell me?" She enquired.
"Nothing really king-size." I droned, "You have already known almost. I had taken out my sword and slashed my hand, threatening them, if they move an inch..."
Then in the usual barely audible voice which I seemed to be possessing this entire night I told her everything. Bit by bit. She listened silently, without moving. Only once during the inception did she shift to rest her head on my shoulder.
When I stopped, she asked, "The conclusion you hold?"
I inhaled, "They may come back later."
She rubbed her right hand in the inside of her robe. It took me a moment to realize she was cleaning her hand.
I added, "Only because of Mukund's intervention did they pause. Yeah, they paused. I don't believe they have stopped."
"And you did nothing?" She ran her clean finger on my scar gently. I winced and took my arm away.
"I have already said how Father reacted."
She turned my face towards hers, "You feel your intuition. Let me tell you what I think." She paused before adding, "They have stopped. If not, then they will."
With sudden stimulation, she crushed her lips against mine. I tasted desperation, determination and worry mixed with a good amount of optimism and hope. But above all, I tasted love and faith, which conquered over every other feeling, almost rendering them non-existent. And I took every little bit of those in. Slowly, tenderly. Then, none of us could hold back our patience, and we dived into each other. Each one trying to take the other in completely. Fighting, loving, winning and again losing.
I don't think I could have stopped this if I had not felt the piercing, sudden pain on my left arm that I had unknowingly wrapped around her waist tightly. I flinched again and pulled back abruptly. That was when I realized her left hand was tightly gripping my hair while the nails of her other hand dug deep into my shoulder. We were in an oddly tangled posture; she was almost on top of me and we were half-lying down.
I chuckled and touched her forehead with mine. Tiredness ripped through me and my eyes almost drooped close. My words seemed to be mingled with each other, "You say no pain is good. This one is."
She pulled back and looked at me with that same guardian-like look, "You are...Sit properly." She tugged at my left arm gently and rolled the sleeve up. The cloth was sticky. She touched the first scar.
I stared at her, fearing to even blink as it might close my eyes to a deep sleep, "You won't sleep?" I asked her instead.
"No." She said absent-mindedly, then stole a quick glance at me, "You already are."
"I know." I breathed.
With half-open eyes and shaking vision, I saw her look at me tenderly and then touch my cheek with her free hand. She had a smile that was the sweetest one I had ever seen, "I love you." She said.
"I know..." I trailed off.
The twinkling stars in the dusky sky were my last vision and her soft laughter was the last sound, other than the fire crackling, I heard for that night. My eyes gave away and I drifted away to a black, imaginary world as she slowly healed my wounds one by one.
Hindi TV Shows
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
