AN: Hello forumwasis...Niki here! Had the urge to pen down something and this is the end result. Hope you all enjoy it.
Previous Works:
Coming Home (OS) : http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4664289
A Meeting (OS) : http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4670350
Niki's Drabbles (Ongoing): http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4672608
FATE
[This piece is dedicated to Shivani, who takes up a lot of trouble to present us all with her daily analysis]
A minted rust glows in the abyss where thousands cry and scream their predilection;
Douse they might, the inferno of vice but innocence is a slight cavorted by fate's diction!
These were the words that resounded in his mind as he stepped out of the enormous white gates that swung open to pave his road to the next end of his destination already decreed by fate.
It is often said, that while man is bounded by his own will and choices there are certain paths that actually select their own traveller. Rather than a man selecting his goal; the goal and the path to reach it deliberately choose their own storyteller.
It was something he had heard been said long before, but it was today that he fully understood its meaning.
As he dragged the duffel bag behind him, his other hand tightly gripped on the cold trembling fingers of the person next to him who walked in a state of frozen shock. He looked at her wide eyes, trembling chin and the green pallor that had descended on her.
She was still in shock. His thoughts turned grave.
The white gates clanked shut behind them and she snapped out of her state with a surprised hitch. Abruptly they stopped, and stood still for a moment, the echoes of the iron gates promoting a realization that their previous lives were well and truly over.
No matter how much the brain tries to advocate reason, human beings tend to emotionally lean towards the dictions of the heart and they fell prey to the same. With a slow movement like two puppets dancing on the whim of a puppeteer they both turned back to look at their past.
The huge ostentatious Oberoi Mansion fell like another planet. The marbled gargantuan structure loomed with a kind of finality that hit them with a sharp intensity. Their lives, their reasons, their dreams, their feelings; all drowned by the inferno of sins that darkened the beauty of truth and the sinister game of chess that the pawns inside it fell in line for.
She gave a choked sob.
Immediately his attention reverted back to her. Leaving the bag on the gravel path, he turned to face her and gripped her shoulders. Her head was bowed down and tears cascaded down her cheek. She felt his grip tightening and gaining strength she turned to look up at him.
Her teary eyes fell into his anguished ones and a sudden realization hit her that while she was crying over her fate, he had lost more than her.
She had lost a future she had dreamt on the fragile sandcastle of the illusion that hid the reality. He on the other hand had lost his past, his relations; his very own identity. It hit her like a sucker punch and the effect was such that she staggered back sliding out his grasp.
His eyes widened. But she shook his head.
Her eyes spoke volumes as she stared at him and cursed herself for it were her actions that had landed them at this fork of life. A life that he should have never stepped into!
But he did.
Because of her!
Guilt is a tremendously annihilating emotion. It can dull the biggest of joys with a wave of its cloak and can make the sweetest of freedom poisonous, dipped in the toxicity of the darker truths of life.
Helplessness grew in her as she stared at him; weak and weary.
These past few weeks had been ruthless and had greatly dented her emotional stability and exhausted the supply of self -belief she had always carried with herself. She felt frail today, unable to swallow the destructive hand fate had gifted them, unable to let go of the tiniest ray of hope she had kept cloistered inside her.
But he understood everything.
It was funny how their relation had been such that he could read even the clandestine thoughts from her eyes. He had always been able to do that.
And he had been her sole confident. No matter the problem, personal or family related; she had been easily able to share it with him. The ease with which she regaled all her thoughts and emotions at him sometimes scared her. For with it came a blind bond of trust between them that made her verily dependent on him.
This was a first in her life.
She had always been alone. No one to depend on in her life, no one to lean onto in bad days and even no surname to fall back into in case of any slight to her dignity.
Her whole life, she had slogged on trying to somehow succeed on her dreams of giving her little brother a real home and all the happiness he deserved.
She realized much later how obsessive she had become of those dreams that she had stopped living for herself. And with that realization, which she now cursed with vehement hate, came the truth of her life, the sole light of her existence.
Her axis expanded to accommodate another person to the small dual existence and it became a second nature for her to care for both. Her brother and the man she loved with all her heart, mind and soul; the one whose name was imprinted on the very vestiges of her reality that she could embrace the cold arms of death rather than forget it.
Her grimmer life started to look brighter and somewhat more bearable and she loved. She loved him like she never loved before with a startling intensity that shook her to the core with feelings of insecurity and fear that he would abandon her.
She had always been unlucky in terms of family and love and so when things changed for the better it brought with it the summer she had always longed to have but could never hold onto.
And then another important person entered her life.
Her brother-in-law and perhaps the only person in the world she can trust to not deceive her.
Tears cascaded in a dismal dance of its own.
She had never believed in the stand that blood meant family. And today as they stood in the deserted road, she knew with startling alacrity that she had been right and Shivaay had been wrong.
Blood did not make families, for it only dictated the bond a family should share.
For a real family became by connecting the strings of the heart.
One may not share the connection of blood but they can be the strongest of families for family came with an unheeded trust, a poignant belief and a wordless conviction that gave an unasked support and a helping hand always extended.
And in the end after the storm blows away, a family made with joined hearts remain strong withstanding the tumultuous blows that one might strike.
A whimper broke her thoughts and she turned to look at her little brother.
He stood there, the innocence of childhood dripping down as tears from his eyes as he stared at her with a pain that hurt her more than her own miseries.
She perhaps had failed him even more than she had in the past and this time she had no one but herself to blame. She was wrong; wrong in trusting the spider, wrong in believing the snake, wrong in relying on the scorpion and wrong in loving a stone.
She heaved a broken sigh and clutched at the hand of the brother she always had.
Her other hand gripped the hand of the brother who from now she would have.
He gripped the bag and the three looked back at the mansion that was once home for the last moment. Swallowing they looked at each other and made a silent promise that everyone responsible will get what they deserve.
And they turned.
A certain feeling of assurance and readiness burnt in them as they took the first step into the destiny Fate had planned for them.
It was a synchrony of life when the threads of their lives wilfully tore at angles and joined themselves adhering to the Wheel of Fate that had begun its motion.
The winds had changed their direction and every ruffling breeze spoke of the moment of change and retribution that every step of theirs sang as they fell on the ground.
All of a sudden she stopped.
Her brothers immediately pulled short.
He looked at her questioningly. She made a last try.
"You should go back. Leave me. Go back to your family."
He gave her a small smile. "There is nothing to go back and," he gestured to the three of them, "I have chosen my family."
Her throat closed up and a shearing pain of relief rose in her. No matter what she said, her selfishness wanted him to choose her. And he did.
A look of pained gratitude spread on her face.
"I am sorry Om. It is my fault." Her voice broke.
He gently laid a hand on her head. "It is not your fault Anika. It never was."
Taking a deep sigh he looked at her intensely.
"This time Lakshman chose Sita over Ram."
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