[COMPLETE] ArShi SS: Cruise Adriana (Moved to Blog) - Page 5

They say that your whole life flashes in front of you as you realize that you are breathing your last.

And hence the saying: Regardless of how long you live, live it full.

But why wasn't anything flashing in front of her eyes anymore?

Why were all her attempts at envisioning any tiny thing or frame from her life futile?

She tried hard and failed miserably as her breathing hitched and she could feel ripples forming in the water as the abstinence of oxygen in her lungs became more and more evident with every passing second.

'I can't breathe!!'

Her insides churned as she helplessly shouted in her mind, but couldn't be verbal about it at all as the parting of her lips only made the endless salty water choke her.

She couldn't see anything but the extensive blue arena as she felt her body become limp, the air knocked out, and her eyes closing.

Was this pain going to end now?

Will she finally be able to embrace peace once and for all?

She could feel the curtains falling. The whole drama called life was finally getting over. The other side awaited her..

Khushi woke up with a jolt, aghast at what she envisioned just moments ago.

Another nightmare!

The sweat beads on her forehead validated the intense dream that woke her up abruptly.She sat up straight, resting her head on the headboard of the queen sizedbed of her suite. As her breathing finally returned to normal, she darted her eyes across the room.

She found that Sehaj wasn't there in the room.

'Perhaps she left for her suite.'

Khushi thought to herself, before glancing at the antique wall clock..

'1.00 a.m.'

So the night was still not over!

She exhaled deeply as she took her coat from the dress stand on the left side of her bed and wore it.

She was in desperate need of some fresh air.

..

No matter how much the reality hurt her, there was one thing about it she could never get bored of.

Nature.

She would give up every materialistic thing, every single penny, to just be in nature's embrace forever. The stars, the horizon, the sea, the shore, the trees, the valleys. Everything, for she believed it was always worthwhile to count stars more than counting dollars.

And right now all she wanted was to stand near the bow railing of the cruise, under the starry night sky, and hear the sound of the ocean and feel the cool breezes.

She could spot the ship's radar as she took one more step to climb on the ship's upper deck when her steps automatically halted seeing her step mother present there.

She took a step backward, the tension in her body building once again as she saw Garima Gupta speak to a crew member, the physical proximity between them making bile rise in her throat.

How could some people always get away with such unjust acts?

The 45 year old widow of her father had no qualms flaunting that seductively charming smile and inviting body language, to men so much younger than her.

Khushi felt disgusted at the sight in front of her. Not that this was the first time she was seeing something like this, but as they say, there are some things in life you can never outgrow, and this was one such instance for Khushi.

She immediately ran back towards her suite, her mind suddenly not working when she abruptly halted her steps, a vital part of her not willing to go back in the confinement of that giant room.

She urgently changed the course of her steps, walking through the silent corridors as she took the staircase and descended downstairs.

..

She looked in awe at her surrounding as her steps marched forward on their own accord. The place that seemed like a vast expanse to her was relatively warmer than the other part of the ship and she realized that she had reached the base deck of the liner, which was fundamentally a storage unit housing perhaps unconventionally brilliant things, making her mentally term the place as a mini-museum.

Stepping ahead, she keenly observed her surrounding, her eyes intently scanning every ounce of the surprise that this room was. The paintings, the artifacts, the music instruments"all antique.

The deafening silence in the ambiance made her heartbeats audible to her as she softly started crooning a hymn, as a reflex to combat the pin drop silence.

She took out one hand from her coat's pocket to graze the French portrait that caught her interest before she heard a voice that halted her in motion.

"You are not allowed to touch that, you know."

Khushi flinched in her track as the impact of that intent husky voice reverberated through the empty space, making her slowly turn at the direction the voice came from.Her eyes widened in shock as she spotted him.

The person who had permeated through the shield of her mind in several indirectly uncanny ways since that evening.

She immediately looked away, slightly embarrassed at the unexpected encounter, before her mind processed his accusatory words, making her gaze settle on him once again..

He was busy exploring some of the finest pieces in the French galleria section of the extensive storage unit. Staying close to art had always given him an inner peace for reasons very conspicuous in his life. A warm blanket of satisfaction enveloped him as he gave a final glance to the set of priceless paintings, when suddenly he heard a soft female voice humming an unusual tune.

He alerted himself as he slowly walked towards the direction that croon came from, when he spotted a certain petite female frame, with her back facing him. He couldn't really make out much about her from that distance except that she wore a grey overcoat and had waist-length wavy auburn hair.

With her gesture he figured that she was going to touch one of the paintings, and his voice earnestly escaped from his larynx as he pointed out at her direction, "You are not allowed to touch that, you know."
.

.

He found her immediately halting at tracks, as if she was flabbergasted at his voice, while he kept looking intently at her direction.

Five seconds passed and he was all set to take a step towards her when he found her turn slowly towards him, her face now thoroughly visible to him.

He felt a pulse drop in his system as he stared at her countenance, the vague flashes from the evening gushing back to him, and he suddenly let out a deep breath he didn't realize he was holding for so long.

He stared at her as he witnessed her staring back at him, their confusion and questioning gaze mirroring one another in an uncanny fashion. Yes, she had seen him hours back in the upper deck like he had seen her, but if that vague glance was all it was, then why did he feel an inexplicable and unusual pull towards her?

As he walked towards her he could see her tense as she fiddled with her fingers before putting her palms inside her coat pockets.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry. I just accidentally came in here. I.."

He saw her struggle with words as she clarified her unwarranted presence in the place. Somehow it wasn't something that had caught his attention. He stood only at a two feet distance from her now as he studied her features. It made his previous inference of her only augment tenfold.

She had milky white flawless skin that had semblances with the white snowy beaches. Her cheeks had a natural pink hue to them, and he could see how her delicately plump pink lips quivered at his sight, and her hazel orbs held him in captivity.

"No, that's okay. Don't worry, I didn't mean to scare you."

He said in a tone blended with honesty and apology, because he for genuine reasons disliked her being petrified as she now looked.

She smiled faintly at that, before asking in a voice that was barely audible,"Is this a restricted zone?"

He smirked at her innocent query before nodding in approval as he said, "Well yeah, technically it is, but there are exceptions."

He started strolling from the spot while she followed him, not really conscious that she barely knew this person and was now stuck in a restricted zone with him.

"The crew is allowed to visit the room and then the people who own some of the stuff here," he said.

She knew he wasn't a crew member of the ship. His attire that comprised of a zed black crisp shirt and black trousers with a signature black coat could simply validate that.

"..So, so you own these?"

She pointed at the paintings as they stood near them and inquired.

"Well, not all of these, but yeah, some of these. My mother painted these when she was 21 or something and these were being exhibited in Southampton by a dealer, so I bought all of them."

Khushi listened to him keenly and could see a strange tinge of nostalgia and sadness show up on his face. Though it lasted only for a fraction of second, but she saw it.

"Your mother is a gifted artist then I should say. These are just.. beautiful."

She spoke with a deep exhale of breath looking at the intricate brush strokes in the paintings in front of her.

"Yeah. She was."

He replied.

.

'Was?'

Khushi immediately felt a shot of inexplicable pity and empathy rise in her system seeing the man in front of her. She didn't even know his name let alone his past, but she could already feel that he had an extensive quota of pain accumulated in some corner of him. After all, she too felt incurable pain after her beloved father's demise.

"I'm sorry, I- I didn't know."

She said, apologetically.

She saw how he only smiled at that, as if trying his best to put on a brave face before she saw him extend his right towards her.

"By the way, I'm Arnav. Arnav Singh Raizada."

She waited for approximately five seconds before taking her right hand out of her coat pocket and accepting his extended hand in a shake as she said:

"I'm Khushi Gupta."

.

'So her name's Khushi?'

'Beautiful. Just like her.'

'But why doesn't her name reflect in her face that only conveys some kind of sadness?'

He had noticed this when he had spotted her in the evening on the upper deck, and he was noticing it now.
.

Seeing her awkwardly looking here and there, he let go of her hand, and tried to strike a casual conversation.

"So you like art?"

He saw the awkward essence from her face cut down a little as she looked at him and then at the paintings and with a small smile, said, "I believe everything to be an art, Mr. Raizada. I love nature and believe nature to be the crudest canvas of art, and hence, I admire art."

Arnav could deduce that she was very good with her words and intelligent too, by the way she spoke.

A beautiful young woman with intelligence.

If one had such a blessed combination with them, then what could possibly go so wrong that they had sadness as their accomplice?

His thoughts were broken when he saw her look at a painting with keen interest and he looked southward of the canvas to see whose it was.

''Darnell De La Beaulieu''

He enunciated the words making Khushi look at him hearing his voice. She smiled softly while Arnav quirked his eyebrow indicating her to spill what was so fascinating about this particular painting.

"Well, I read somewhere that this painting has too much of history, something daunting, because apparently the woman in the painting died just a day after this was drawn, and same goes for two other women who Beaulieu drew on his canvas."

She spoke nonchalantly, hoping against hope that he doesn't deem her a folklore victim or even worse, superstitious freak.

But to her surprise, he only gazed at the painting with a similar keen expression like her before saying, "So you like lore and legend, hmm?"

She nodded slightly at that before he held her and took her away, saying in a slightly excited but serious tone.

"Then I guess you should probably see this."

She didn't know what happened in that mere second because he was so fast that she couldn't invest even two seconds to react. All she knew was he held her hand and was ushering her to one corner of the massive hall and for some odd reason she didn't stop him either.

He halted finally, letting go of her hand as she finally realized they were standing at a secluded spot in the expanse. He gestured her to look down and that's when she saw it.

A glass coffin that breathed the word ancient, as she saw the Egyptian mummy in it, which wasn't completely ruined but not in a great condition either. She read the label tagged in the bottom of the coffin that stated the mummy was more than 4000 years old.

She gasped at the fact, while she heard him speak, "They say the mummy is cursed. Whoever tried to be in its close radius for over 24 hours either ended up dead or their lives were brutally turned upside down."

She listened to him as she keenly watched the antiquated body in front of her, which once upon a time would have been a normal human just like her, walking, talking, smiling, crying.He silently watched her think of something and to break the sudden monotony, he added, "What are you thinking, Khushi?"

She felt a strange stream of warmth pass through her when he addressed her by her name.

What's in a name?

But for the first time her heart told her, there's a lot.

She brushed off the chain of thoughts as she replied to him, "Nothing Mr. Raizada, I guess we should be prepared for a collision with a massive iceberg now."

"What the?" Arnav retorted, confused and shocked, while Khushi chuckled a little seeing his reaction.

"Yeah, don't you know? The legend associated with the RMS Titanic said that the ship was cursed and was fated to sink since it carried a similar cursed mummy that was some 5000 years old."

Arnav smirked at that theory but could also see her small smile.

So this beautiful damsel has a sense of humor too?

He thought as he too willingly participated.

"Oh! I guess you are right, Khushi. And hey!"

He exclaimed as he made a calculative face making Khushi look at him with a frown.

"Oh my god! We are on board in the Atlantic, and we are going to cross the coast of Ireland by tomorrow night."

Arnav saw her flinch a little at the mention of the coast of Ireland, but it lasted only for a tiny second before she looked at him trying to decipher where he was getting at with this.

"Khushi, don't you get it? Titanic too sailed in the North Atlantic Ocean, and was on its way from Southampton to Philadelphia, just like we are right now. It too crossed the coast of Ireland and soon after it collided with the ice-berg, and hell! Even the cursed mummy thing matches."

"Oh!"

Khushi mumbled while Arnav thought it was scaring her and hence, he decided to end the charade, displaying his ever-famous smirk as he said,

"Khushi relax!"

"I was just kidding!"

She looked at him and found him smiling at her as he held her hand once again and took her to the miniature glass holes on one corner that showed them the sky.

She watched him questioningly while he gestured her to look at the sky properly, and so she did. She saw the shimmering and radiant moon at its apex, looking very beautiful like it always had been.

"Khushi, if supernatural theories are to be taken into consideration then the night when Titanic sank, there was no moon in the sky, that made it all the more difficult for the crew to spot any iceberg. And additionally, (he turned her towards himself) it was the month of April when the Titanic sank. It's November we are in right now."

She smiled at that knowing fairly well where he was getting at with this as he concluded, "So coincidences aside, we are not ending up dead due to a sinking ship."

She giggled at that explanation and he only watched in awe how beautiful and out of the world she looked with that heart-melting smile. It was infectious in its truest definition..

.

After a long time she felt a certain ease in the air around her, which until today had always constricted her breathing. She felt a weight lifted off her chest as she laughed as a carefree soul and something in her heart said it was all due to the company that she was in right now.

Her smile was still plastered on her face only to die an abrupt death when suddenly she spotted something that made her heart clench and lips quiver.

Cuts..

His wrists were filled with small cuts, some of which looked pretty old while some looked recent, as the red tinges validated her inference.

It made the congeniality in the atmosphere become evanescent for her all of a sudden.She regained her composure as she said in a soft tone,

"It's called S.H."

He looked at her as he heard her voice after their little session of laughter only to see her looking at him with a serious gaze.

"The cuts on your wrists. S.H."

" ..Self Harm." She explained.

He then looked back at his wrists only to realize that in the excitement to show her the ancient mummy and the moon in the sky, he had rolled the sleeves of his coat, which explicitly revealed his proof of self-mutilation. He awkwardly rolled down his sleeves as he heard her voice once again..

"Are you in pain?"

.

Arnav really didn't know what answer he had for her question. It was something he had asked himself for a zillion times now, but to no avail. Some part of him just wanted to blurt out everything that he had mercilessly tormented himself with due to his horrendous past, while some part of him said to let things be the way they are.

The first cut in one's life is always the deepest and here, he had such deep wounds within himself that opening them once again meant sacrilege of that vow he had made to himself of never going through the doors of the past again.

Khushi lowered her gaze feeling like she was being intrusive knocking the doors of a person's painful memories. Especially when she hardly knew this person.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to nudge you with something you don't want to talk about Mr. Raizada. But I feel there's no escape you can make by inflicting pain on yourself. That's all."She said in a soft voice.

Arnav nodded at that, feeling an unusual push from his inside to tell her that she shouldn't be sorry; it wasn't her fault to ask him if he was in pain for it was something he had been asking himself for such a long time now.

Not able to stand the sudden lull that the ambiance around them portrayed now, he tried to bring some levity as he said,"Thanks Khushi. I'll remember that."
"By the way.."

And it got Khushi's attention as she felt a certain relaxation at his normalcy.

"Since we are talking about lore and legend, we simply can't ignore this one."

He said, making her look at him questioningly.

"This." (he pointed his finger in circular motion, hinting at everything around them)

"Cruise Adriana. Do you know where the name Adriana for an ocean liner came from?"
He asked her.

"No..Where?"

Khushi questioned, honestly having no clue about this whole thing.

"Well, there's a big legend associated to it. It's slightly creepy though."

"Mr. Raizada, stop beating around the bush and go on, please." She insisted.

Arnav was happy that she was away from the distressed stance that directly or indirectly he had put her through moments ago. Taking a deep breath, he continued,

"Well, it is believed that hundreds of years ago there was this rich sea merchant who lived in a village near Philadelphia and had an exquisitely beautiful daughter named Adriana. He would sail across the sea for his trade exchanges and his daughter would always accompany him."

Khushi listened to him with perked interest, while he went on:

"Things were all fine until she fell in love with a boy, who wasn't as rich as her family but regardless of his financial status, she wanted to get betrothed to him. This wasn't received well by her family, who admonished her and locked her in a room because she wouldn't change her mind at any cost. Soon her father's trade business faltered and his empire fell and not being able to bear the losses, he ended up committing suicide. Soon the deaths of her mother and two siblings followed who died under mysterious circumstances."

Khushi was awestruck as she heard him say all that and felt deeply enthralled by the story. He looked at her and continued,

"The society started treating Adriana like a bad omen and deemed her responsible for everything that went wrong in that family. She was treated as a jinx. Many started calling her names like witch, a bad spirit. Heck, some even went on to say she was a shape shifter who would just kill people in the middle of the night.."

He paused for a while and narrated what he had heard further:

"They had tried to burn her alive but it is said that she had run away, to unite with her lover. But nobody knows whether that happened or not since there was a sea storm in the ocean that night and she had just disappeared in that sea storm."
.

.

"And.. And her lover?"

Khushi asked, all engrossed in the story.

"Don't know what happened to him. But what I do know is this theory that people have about one point in the ocean where she had apparently disappeared and subsequently died or what I don't know, that is now considered to be a time warp."

"A time warp?"

Arnav looked at her and smiled at her innocent question.

"Well, a time warp is something where either one is stuck in a time loop or transported to some other arena or time in space. It can also be a time freeze."

He looked amused at her shocked expression, her eyes looking like saucers that would pop out.

'She's beautiful.'

.

"Then what happened?"
Khushi asked eagerly.

.

"Whoa! Someone's being all inquisitive, eh?"

Arnav teased her while she rolled her eyes and he said, "Okay, okay. Sorry. I don't know what happened next, but the legend has two theories. One of which says she is this curse like some Bermuda triangle--exaggeration I know! (He said as a matter of factly to Khushi), and the other theory says that she's this uncanny being in the vast ocean whose only purpose in life is to unite soul mates, since she herself couldn't unite with hers."

Khushi was lost once again and seeing her in deep thought he intervened, "You know, all of this can be simple folklore. All made up sh*t and we may be just wasting our time right now!"

She looked at him immediately as he said that, and averred, "Yeah, maybe you are right. I don't like the name Adriana anyway."

Arnav chuckled at her thought process and said, "Then what do you like? ARIANA Grande?"

Khushi pouted at him as he once again teased her and said, "No way! Aria seems like a better name than both Adriana and Ariana."

"Yeah, who knows! The Adriana chick's pet name might have been Aria too!"

He winked, making her pout in annoyance once again.

He laughed inwardly as he watched the many dimensions of this female called Khushi Gupta in less than 30 minutes and only wondered what more surprises were in store for him. He somehow felt this ease and serenity looking at her smiling, pouting, irked, and everything but sad. And for some inexplicable reason he wanted to see more of her. Those positive expressions and features.

He suddenly saw her looking at her wrist watch and realized she would be leaving pronto. He felt his heart clench at the thought and seeing her all set to bid goodbye to him he spoke pretty spontaneously, "Khushi?"

She stopped at her trail of whatever she was going to say and gestured him "What?"

"..Umm, there's this event called the Aeneas Ball in the cruise tomorrow. Will you, will you come with me for it?"

She gasped at that invitation.

'Was he asking her out?'

'On a .. On a date?'

She didn't know what to make of that unexpected invitation, especially from a man she hardly knew. But some part of her simply didn't want to refuse him. She didn't even know how but the next chain of words just escaped her mouth on their own accord,

"But why me? Don't you already have a plus one, Mr. Raizada?"

Arnav was taken aback at that statement.

He knew very well what she was pointing at. The incident that happened in the late evening when he had seen her sitting on the trestle in the upper deck.

Lavanya!

His hatred for his ex-girlfriend multiplied with that question of Khushi. Trying to not let go of his calm, he said,

"Khushi.."He deliberately paused to make sure she was fully attentive.

"Back there on the upper deck.. Whatever you saw, it was nothing. Lavanya is my ex-girlfriend. Trust me."

Khushi didn't know why she was even having this conversation with him at this time of the morning.

.

.

1.40 am.

But she didn't feel her heart complying with her mind on the thought of leaving this unattended. She felt his words to be genuine in spite of the fact that words had deceived her the most in life, and people's charades were something she grew with.

She chalked the negative connotations away from her head and finally nodded in approval at Arnav's direction.

"I trust you, Mr. Raizada. Will see you tomorrow."

She didn't know why she said she trusted him. Trust was such a big word and even forever could fall short for being ensured that you could indeed trust someone, and here, knowing him for only 40 minutes, she said she trusts him?

Arnav was all smiles at her acceptance for his invitation to the cruise's ball. He was more happy when she said she trusted him, and for some unknown reason, it meant the most to him.

"Let's go!"

He said to her as they both finally walked towards the exit of the base deck together, both heading in the opposite directions of their respective suites after mumbling a soft "Good night" to each other.

**