Paint it Red - Vignette collection [Completed] - Page 13

I have read first four updates from the collection. I'm sort of speechless after reading them. You have written the angst amazingly well.

Ok I couldn't hold myself and read it all in one go. You have given a new dimension to the characters with your writing. I loved how you changed/enhanced every scene you took. I wish makers had shown their thought process, what they were thinking like you did here.

Some of these are pure gold!

Thank you, RB, for agreeing to do the scene I asked. You have literally made my day. I often turn to Paint it Red for my dose of angst. Your insight into the human condition and what makes them tick is amazing.

Bleeding hearts

It takes bunch of harsh experiences or years over which a person numbly realizes that actions or even words said to another, have consequences. These consequences go along a long way in changing lives. People remember actions, incidents, conversations, speech and interactions. One rarely remembers to follow those moments in time to understand the true impact of those decisions which has risen to consequences. He remembers a Wikipedia article he read while waiting for a flight; Fault Tree Analysis. It's a deductive failure analysis where the problems posed as questions are answered in "True" or "False". A tree is drawn out of it and while stripping down the problem, all the actions can be derived as consequences of other actions. Thus in a way root problems can be identified. In his head he had put the status of his marriage as a problem and analyzed the mistakes that were made along the way. It clenched his stomach when he realized there were only ten days left to make an attempt with Khushi. He didn't want to think what was going to happen after ten days. If Khushi had her way, she would make very sure she stayed away from him. And to achieve exactly that, she had left his home and came to visit her family.

What began as a passive aggressive way of wooing his wife who he realized meant more to him he ever thought she could be, it became ugly in a hurry. All he wanted was for her to be back home with him and give himself ten days to change her mind.

He had of course expected resistance. He had expected harsh words and even tantrums. He had expected a fight. He hadn't, however, expected blatant indifference.

Her indifference slices his insides like a woodchopper from hell. Her words strip him off his dream, shred his hope to pieces and make his skin too tight to live in.

He wanted to scream and tell her that he wanted her. And tell her that he was stupidly in love with her. And tell her that he wanted to have irrational arguments about inane things with her all the time. And tell her that he needed in her in his life so that when he closed his eyes, he wouldn't see his demons mocking him, taunting him or telling him that he doesn't deserve her. He wanted in her life because she would keep him sane. She would love him with tender hands and warm smile. She would poke his ribs and pinch his cheeks, all the while teaming with his family to tease the shit out of him. He wanted that slice of normalcy. He wanted to lay his head in her lap and forget all the problems in the world.

And he wanted all that with her. Only her.

"What we had was a contract. In ten days the contract will come to an end. As per our agreement I have done what was needed by me. After the contract time is fulfilled...we are done." Khushi said defiance in her tone. A sheen of tear covers her eyes making it look bright. Moments ago she was refusing to meet his eyes and now, there is a fire in her eyes and a fight in her heart. "It will be all over between us."

This, this was the woman he loved and the finality in her words shook the ground beneath him. He summoned all his residual will power to stand straight and fight. Fight for both of them. Fight for the future they would one day have. "Then let's tell your parents the truth about our marriage, our contract." It was one last move in the game to save himself and his queen, a final weapon in his arsenal. Khushi was incredibly attached to her family and went lengths to protect them. In his effort to save marriage, he wasn't below using his in-laws as gambit.

He wondered idly if this is the primary difference between them - he had come to call it marriage while she insisted on calling it a contract. Yet, she was more wifely with him that he was her husband in last few months. What she practiced, he preached. Never in sync and always imbalance.

In this imbalance they found their synchronicity. In between crevices of his punctured heart and shattered hope, she had made her home with easy and familiarity only she could muster.

"But they will not be able to..."

"So?" He doesn't allow her to finish. "You cannot be that nave and think just because our contract is over, the relationship forged between our families will just stop operating. What will you tell your parents? Lie to them again?" He taunted. He couldn't hear his words across the rush of blood in his ears. The anger this time was directed at himself; he was using her innocence against her. Neither families were part of the violent game of hearts they had been playing. She had implicitly trusted him and so had he. He had broken the unspoken rule in their relationship in the name of doing the right thing for both of them. He hadn't simply ordered her but delivered a threat considering the condition her father was in and the precarious relationship between his aunt and her sister.

He took pleasure in the way her face fell, tears gathered in her eyes and clumped her eyelashes together. Her shoulders tensed and her chest rose and fell as what if' scenarios started to run in her head. Her lips trembled from a probable devastating future as her eyes widened at the thought. She was too angry to move so she stood her ground and watched him shatter the illusion of normalcy she had built around her. She was truly a wonderful study in disappointment.

"Fine." She replied flatly. She looked defeated, all the fight left from her. It didn't feel like victory and he ignored the hurt that came crashing down on him. It was important for him to take her back to his house where she belonged.

"Good." He said simply and left her alone to pack.

His affection for her was now a cancerous growth, its poisonous tendons touching every cell in his body. Ripping her off from him would be a fate worse than death. He would be a shell of a man, all skin and bones caged by fragile bars of her indifference.

He didn't think he could survive if she looked at him with no emotions in her eyes.

Petrichorlove: This is for you. My apologies for the delay. Hopefully this coda is satisfactory. :=)

This breaks my heart. Bas 😔

Uff, the pathos of Khushi's desperation and helplessness.😭. Absolutely poignant.