A Promise - Ballads Of Rapture OS (Part I)

He wanted to end this. This feeling of desperation gnawing away at the depths of his soul, of feeling alone despite being in a house full of people, of feeling incomplete. Oh! How he hated the demons he had grown up with! He had lived with them for a lifetime; a lifetime that never taught him how to let go, a lifetime that never taught him how to let that one person look in. He had hurt her but he hurt more.

Zoya was picking up the last vestiges of her self-respect before leaving the Khan mansion forever. She could not allow herself to be humiliated anymore, allow her being to be questioned anymore. But her heart spoke differently. It only reminded her of the love it had experienced amongst these insular walls. She had to fight it, fight it hard because she had laid herself bare and her very essence had been slashed into a million tethers. "I love you Asad". That declaration made with all the novelty and anguish of first love was shot down in the most brutal manner possible. "How could you think, even for a moment, that I could love someone whose values were as shallow as yours?" Tanveer had driven a wedge so deep that neither Asad nor she could ever cross it without causing destruction. Were they so wrong for one another? Was everything that had transpired between them only a farce of a romance? Had she been misguided by the passion that flared in their presence? Was Asad irrevocably broken? Was her heart irrevocably broken?

The sense of finality she perceived this time made her want to break into tears. But she had to go through that door and not look back. She would never be able to return, that was a mirror she could bear looking at right now. The bag seemed heavier than usual; as though it did not want leave as well. "Allah Miya, please help!" she pleaded within.

"I love you too Zoya". She slowly turned to check whether she was re-living her most desired dream or if it was reality. But there he was, tears streaming down his face, as miserable as her.

Asad had known this was a battle he could only lose, a loss that would ultimately set him free. He had not realized just how unrestrained he would feel when he let Zoya become a part of his being. It was an intensity he would cherish forever, the same manner in which he would embrace all that Zoya stood for. Why he said what he did in the first place would be explained. There were many more years for him to redeem himself, to abate Zoya's justified anger. For now, all that mattered was she was in the only place she was meant to be in, in his arms.