Previous Chapter 25
"KHUSHI!" he screamed, shaking her roughly. This wasn't right, this couldn't happen, he wouldn't let it, he had to hold on to her, she had to hold on back, she had to.
He felt his own soul bleeding into the pool of red under him, it sunk into the snow making it look like crystals of the brightest red that burned his eyes under their heat. How had this happened? How did it escalate to this so quickly? Only a minute ago he was resting his head against her, she was there for him, his support.
Now she was leaving and he couldn't do anything to stop it, heart wrenching sobs escaped his throat as he thought of never seeing her again, never being able to see that smile or that sparkle deep in her eyes, never have a pointless conversation, never be mesmerised by her beauty or left in awe of her pure innocence.
He wanted her back, he couldn't imagine life without her, she was his life, if she died, he died right along with her. He brushed away all the tiny flakes of snow that landed on her, angry at them for stealing her warmth, he wouldn't let them take it away from her.
"Please, God, please bring her back to me, I can't ... I can't ... I don't know how to live without her" he whispered, hugging her limp body close to him, the rush of the wind and the sound of his own wails in his ears masked his hearing making it difficult for him to make out a heartbeat.
He rested his cheek on hers, scared to death that she would be taken away from him, and he might never get to hold her close.
He cried along with the howling wind, along with the falling flakes, along with the soft snow and along with the darkening sky as he remembered every moment ever spent with her and felt it slip right through his fingers, away with her soul.
His heart tore at the thought that all those blissful moments would remain just that - memories.
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"How long?" she frantically called into the phone.
"Give us ten minutes Ma'am"
He saw her fingers twitch against the snow, leaving him still as a statue, staring at her hand, praying to a God he didn't believe in, that what he had just seen was real.
"Come on Khushi, please just move your fingers, please just move your beautiful little fingers and let me know you are still here with me" he begged reaching out for her hand and waiting for what felt like a lifetime.
When he felt them hold on to him lightly he felt a sudden rush of overwhelming emotions he couldn't quite make out, but most of all, he felt hope. He didn't hesitate before swiftly standing up with her in his arms, afraid that he would hurt her, carefully but quickly making his way up to the road.
"Hold on Khushi, just stay with me. I'm here, please just stay with me okay?" he choked through.
When the ambulance arrived Arnav hopped up in to the back with his sister right behind him, feeling an aching pain of loss when they snatched her shivering form from his arms, so he held on to her hand, letting her know he was still there and that she shouldn't even dare to think about leaving.
They both ignored the second line of men that ran past where they had come from to tend to a dying Shyam, Anjali had watched them from the corner of her eyes, unsure of what she wanted for her cheating husband.
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He watched in horror through the glass pane in the wall as they punched holes through her delicate skin and cut through the dress that made her shine like an angel to start cleaning up the wound around her abdomen. The sound of her struggling to breathe through her face mask reached him through the narrow window, it made him want to hit something, break something, anything. His sisters hand on his shoulder made him turn around and drop into her arms, crying softly in frustration against his Di, he wanted Shyam to be alive, just so he could kill him himself.
"She is going to be allright" Anjlai tentatively said to her little brother, stroking at his hair caringly as she watched the doctors in the room hook the IV up to a blood bag and begin to stitch up the tear in her skin as the monitoring screens around her beeped and flashed.
"Chote, come on, come back here, sit down, you don't need to see this" she softly said, as she saw them roughly attempting to put her together like a torn rag doll.
"No, Di, what if I go and she.."
She stopped him from turning around, shaking her head at him, letting him know that this was one of those times when she knew better and that he should just swallow his pride and follow her.
He reluctantly complied, sitting down on the small wooden bench near the oak doors that led into the small hospital. He rested his head on his Di's lap who rested her own head on the wall behind her, sighing as she felt her little brother relax against her.
He was so tired from it all, he just wanted to sleep and wake up to find out it was all a bad dream, but he was so scared that if he closed his eyes, he might wake up to find her gone. He couldn't bear that thought.
"When did you find out?" she asked, breaking the long minutes of silence between them.
Arnav turned his head in his Di's lap "I'm sorry Di."
"I didn't ask you to apologise, I asked when you first found out" she replied, causing Arnav to flinch from fear, his sister had never spoken that way with him before, she was always childish, playful or upset, never hateful, rarely angry.
"A month ago..." he paused, not knowing what to say or do "I am so sorry you had to find out this way, I am sorry, I didn't kno.."
Anjali sighed heavily, placing a hand on his head "Chote, I didn't ask you to apologise."
"Di, I should have handled it better, you wouldn't be in pain... Khushi wouldn't be dying" his voice broke at the last word.
"I am stronger than I look Chote" she said "I knew something was wrong, I was stupid and blind to have not seen it"
Arnav shook his head against his sister's lap, telling her it wasn't true, this wasn't her fault.
"You were wrong to hide it, and you were wrong to take it out on Khushi, don't think we didn't notice all that tension Chote, you need to step keeping all your anger bottled up, because it is all just going to come out in one rush and people will only get hurt" she stopped, knowing this wasn't the time and place for a lecture "but thank you Chote, thank you for caring enough to go to such lengths to keep me happy, I guess I expected too much of you"
"No, Di, please don't sa..." he started, only to be shushed by Anjali patting his head lightly.
"I'm not upset Chote" she lied through her teeth "I am proud to have a little brother like you, but don't you ever feel like you have to hide something like this from me again to keep me happy, I would rather be in misery that live with someone like..." she stopped before her voice gave away, allowing the tears she had held back for so long to finally flow down her cheeks.
He waited in silence, knowing that she was only saying these things to make him feel better, even if she did really feel them. His heart was already in so many pieces from having seen Khushi be snatched away from him, he couldn't handle seeing his sister hurt as well.
"You really love her don't you?" she asked, once again breaking the silence between then with a question he didn't want to answer.
He nodded against her, unsure of whether his voice was strong enough.
"I love her, I love her more than I can say, and..." he stopped, taking in a deep breath " and I don't know if I'll even be able to say it..."
"Don't" she looked down at him angrily "Don't think like that"
They waited in silence, Anjali finally letting a flood of tears escape her eyes and Arnav, feeling the void deep in his chest grow wider with every passing moment without her.
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One of my favourite songs, fits this scene wonderfully, so do give it a listen !
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL2Uzz4j01s&feature=related[/YOUTUBE]
It all felt so familiar, the smell of poppies, their vibrant colour against the dull but enticing skyline.
He was there, just like before, standing, with the most beautiful smile stretched across his face. There was no cut on his forehead like she had remembered there being the last time she had seen him. She felt the familiar elated feeling in her stomach. Wait, her stomach? She threw her hands up to her waistline, surprised to find that she was still wearing her white dress, unmarred by tears and snow and blood. Still as pure as ever.
"I wasn't lying" he spoke up.
Khushi looked up from her stomach to the man standing in front of her.
Arnav Singh Raizada, looking breathtakingly handsome in one of his sleek Armani suits, standing out amongst the clear fields of high flowers.
"About what?" she asked.
"When I told you I loved you, I meant it" he finished, blushing ever so slightly to match the deep red flowers around them, but still standing as confidant as ever.
Khushi beamed at him, she had never felt so happy before and so light and feathery, like nothing mattered. She ran up to him, enclosing her arms around his neck, feeling the warmth that his touch brought as he responded by picking her up and twirling her in the air so that her feet lightly brushed the tips of the strong flowers in the plain. She could feel his pulse beating under the skin of his neck.
It was all so horribly familiar, something didn't feel right.
"What is it Khushi?" he asked, concern etched across his face as he placed her down watching her face crinkle up in worry.
"Shyam" she whispered "He comes and he.." she turned around looking behind her to see that it was empty "he had a gun and..." she turned back around and collided with a figure, broader, less lean, and she felt the elated feeling in her stomach vanish, replaced by a weight coupled with the moisture from the air around her again. No, this could not be happening again.
The image of the gun, the sound of its shot, all went ringing through the air in front of her eyes again. She screamed aloud as soon as she heard it, her voice disappearing through the fields in mere seconds.
It was floating, right in front of her eyes, dripping with blood curling around the edges of its soft petals, the poppy Arnav had given her.
Arnav, she thought.
"No, please not again, I can't watch this again" she thought, turning around when she felt his presence,with dread clawing away at her. He was standing there, like before, but something was different. There was no blood, just a smile on his face as he looked at her and admired what he saw.
"Arnav?" she asked slowly, too scared to have too much hope.
She turned back around to where Shyam was standing, seeing that he was looking at her, confusion spread across his features, the swirling smoke from the barrel of the gun he was holding wisped away in the air as it dropped to the ground along with the man that was holding it, his chest torn open from a deep wound staining his clothes a dark red.
She watched him for a while, hand over her mouth as he struggled to breathe. The same way she had heard Arnavs loud breathing hard against her ears, she heard Shyams. But she wasn't terrified of it stopping, on the contrary, she wanted it to stop pounding through her ears, marring the beautiful picture she had painted for herself.
His breathing died down after a while, enough so that it was only a feathery mumur low in her ears, not getting in the way anymore. Finally over the shock of seeing him fall before her, she turned and began to sprint her way through the flowers towards the man she loved.
It wasn't like before, he wasn't getting further away, strangely, he was getting closer and closer faster than she had thought until he was only a breath away from her. His perfectly aligned features sent her a crooked smirk that warmed her heart, holding his arms out, ready to catch her.
Just as she was about to collide with him and hold on like he was the only thing that was keeping her breathing, her eyes flew open.
Lights, and noise, and beeps and flashes.
She could make out the blurry images of a crowd of people frantically moving above her, breathing in sharply she felt the awful pain shoot around near her midriff, it was like they were tearing her skin apart and throwing in acid, making it burn beyond all feeling. Tears escaped her eyes as she searched the room for him, she tried moving her arms to find that she couldn't, she wanted it to stop, she wanted them to stop fixing her if it was going to hurt so much.
She couldn't remember what had happened properly, the last thing she remembered was the image of an angry Shyam holding a rough dagger in his hand as he turned her around.
Her mind was racing, fighting through the pain she tried to remember what had happened, she tried to remember where Arnav was, not knowing whether he was ok or not scared her so much. If he hadn't made it, she wanted them to stop fixing her and just let her die, if she was close to it already.
She didn't want life if she couldn't have Arnav.
Just as she was about to give up, stop trying to breathe through the pain, she heard him.
"I love you Khushi, I love you so much, I love you more than my life, please just shhh and stay with me."
She felt the words against her ear, ringing through them like he was standing right next to her, so close. She closed her eyes and let that feeling take over as his voice repeated those words over and over in her smiling mind, letting her know that she had to hold on, for him.
Every one, here is the link to Chapter 15 (at the end is the first dream sequence if you wanted a recap of it)
Hey, I won't be updating until the weekend so I hope this suffices until then, sorry it is a bit rubbish, I was in a rush to get something down before the week! Please leave likes and comments and divert any PM's you may want to send to my scrap book instead to avoid me reaching a max on my inbox 😊. Thank you everyone for giving this post more than 100,000 hits 😃! Love you guys xx
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