IPK FF:Broken Mirror-Chapter 10 Pg 109 Upd-16/06

She clutched at the sheets as if to tear them apart as her limbs flayed on the bed trying to shove away her invisible captor. Drenched in sweat, mingled with her tears, she seemed to get weaker as she continued her struggle.

"Anjali ji! I did it for her' I didn't want to see her broken. You must understand. Please"

Another blood curdling shriek ended her pleas and she was halted into silence.

Breathing heavily, her screams ceased to be replaced by sobs. Dry, heart rendering sobs filled the room as she clutched at the bed sheets to her chest as if to cover herself away from the horrors of the approaching monster.

He watched her helplessly as he felt bile rise up to his mouth. He knew exactly what her nightmare was. He wanted to physically hurt himself. Take everything within reach of him and smash onto his body. He was a heartless monster who preyed on her innocence. He needed to make amends. He wanted to damage himself and bleed until there was no blood left in him.

Is there a way to rip his heart out and flung it away because the pain he felt there was shreding him to pieces.

Unable to take it any loner, he took a shuddering breath and reached for her. He hesitated a moment before touching her.

"Kushi! Kushi! Wake up!" he shook her hard. Her sobs was cut in mid utterance as she opened her eyes suddenly as if she had been fully awake all along. She stared at him for the longest moment and swiftly sat up straight in the bed, startling him. One look at his approaching hand and she cringed away as if a scared deer running for cover from a poacher. She gasped and tried to scramble away to the far end of the bed but the tangled bed cloths around her immobilised her for a moment.

"Kushi!?"

"Don't touch me" she whispered in a rasping voice. It wasn't a command. It wasn't even a request. It was a desperate plea.

She looked as pale as a ghost. The moonlight streaming through the open French windows made her look ethereal. Her usual white skin looked deathlike in appearance. Intensifying the look, light reflecting off the waters from the pool fell on her, making her a glowing bluish vision. Her wide frightened eyes mirrored back eerie haunted depths.

"I won't. I promise" Arnav said.

She prised herself away from the sheets that's draping her and jumped out of bed. Suddenly she clutched her mouth in her hands and rushed to the bathroom crashing the door shut.

He heard her becoming violently sick. He rushed after her and banged on the door to make her open it, the urgency to break it to make sure that she was fine getting stronger by the minute.

Several minutes passed and the bathroom door creaked open as she stepped outside. She looked calmer but one look in her eyes told him a complete different story. She looked haunted, lifeless beyond recognition and completely broken. There were no signs of that happy-go-lucky girl he known her to be. She looked demented as she stared back at him and began to edge away from him.

"Kushi are you alright? Do you want water? Do you want me to go downstairs and get you some juice?"

She backed several more steps away from him and stumbled. Not the endearingly klutzy way of Kushi Kumari Guptha. This time she stumbled due to weakness and fatigue and he knew it.

"Kushi!" he yelled as he ran towards her but halted in his tracks at the look she gave him.

"No. stay away from me" she gasped her breathing uneven and her eyes terrified. He saw a memory flit across the depths of her eyes and shudder.

There was nothing he could do right now. He turned swiftly around and walked out of the room. Several minutes later he returned with a concerned looking Payal.

She walked straight to Kushi who was sitting near the bed, crouched on the floor and hugging her knees to her chest like a child.

"Kushi" she touched her tentatively. "What's the matter? Did you have a bad dream?" she asked softly.

She looked at her sister for a moment and threw her arms around her neck and began to cry.

Arnav looked at her, feeling a lump rise up his throat. He never was able to see her tears and when the tears were shed on account of him, he wanted to die a thousand deaths, every single minute for the rest of his life. And even then it would be of no use; he won't be able to bring back what was lost, what was lost in her.

"Kushi., darling. Stop crying. There there. It's just a dream"

The more she heard her sister's attempts to comfort her, the harder she wept; her sobs becoming stormier as she cried in torrents as if to wash away her pain with tears.

"Jiji, I want to go home" she said unexpectedly.

"Home? But Kushi, this is your home now. You are married and your place is with your husband"

"jiji I want amma and babuji. I don't want to live here" she cried brokenly as if a little girl asking for her parents on the first day of school.

"Kushi stop it. It's high time you stop behaving like a child. You are married and you can't afford to act like a child any more. You have to take care of the people in this house."

"Jiji please. Take me home" she cried brokenly.

"Kushi as I explained, you have to grow out of your eighteen year old mentality now. Now go to bed and stop troubling Arnav ji. He's here if you need anything."

Saying this she got up from the side of the bed and walked out.

"Jiji!"

But her sister wouldn't look back. As she stepped out of the room, she blinked back the tears, hating seeing her broken like this.

Kushi was crying silently as she slowly got up from the floor and began to walk towards the door as if in a trance.

"Kushi. Where are you going? Wait! Are you going to your sister?" Arnav hurried behind her afraid that she might hurt herself in her dreamlike manner with her fragile physical conditions.

Slowly walking towards the mandir, she sat down beside her beloved devi mayya statue and folding her hands in earnest, began to pray.

Arnav watched from afar not wanting to disturb or startle her. As he observed her, he realised that first time in days, she looked calm. She had leaned back against the temple wall and within a few minutes of closing her eyes was in a deep slumber. Now, only her devi mayya's presence could assure her of comfort and protection.

He walked softly over to her. Making sure that she had indeed fallen asleep before approaching her; he picked her up gently and carried her to the room. Settling her on the bed and covering her in the comforter, he leaned back against the bed pole and sighed.

She indeed looked like a child. She is still a child.

How could he do this to her? How could he break her to this extent? What kind of devil is he? He was willing to pay for the rest of his life if he can only have his Kushi back. But could her young innocent self come out of the ordeal she was forced through? Will she ever be the same?

---

I must warn you that it's an intense emotional ride and might not be to the taste of some of the readers.

Lemme know what you all think about this. Criticism is more than welcome.