Pain: Part 1-
This takes place after today's episode where Suhani's body couldn't be found.
Was it possible to live if your soul got sucked out of your body? Was it possible to die of a broken heart? Could a perfectly healthy person just die of sheer, piercing, blinding, and numbing levels of emotional pain? I closed my door and slid down to my feet with my back against it. My legs simply gave way. I began to wonder if I was actually dying. I clutched a piece of her dress which was stained with her blood. I stared at it. I knew I had to be hopeful and I knew I had to keep looking for her. I couldn't show the exact amount of pain I was feeling in front of my family, especially Maa, Lata aunty, and Pankaj uncle. Biologically, I was still alive. I pressed my hand against my heart and listened. My heart was still beating but I wondered if I could keep it beating if another day passed like this.
This was only day 1. The pain came in waves. A few were small, and a few threatened to drown me. It felt like I was submerged and struggling to swim to the surface. I was struggling to breathe. That was it. I couldn't breathe. From the moment that I realized that Suhani was missing, sensed that she was in danger, I was unable to breathe properly. Maybe my lungs were going to fail. Maybe I would just die. I thought of what would happen if I died. My family would fall apart, but most of all, what if I died and Suhani came back and found me dead? She deserved better. What was the point of our relationship if I gave up and she came back to find that I'd given up?
If Suhani was in my place, she'd never die. She'd spend every single day waiting for me and searching for me. She wouldn't give up. She'd be stronger in the face of hopelessness and loss. But that was the difference between Suhani and I. Suhani's love wasn't selfish. She'd continue living for her family and mine's. Above all, I knew that Suhani could actually live without me. I knew that I couldn't. Today was just the start of my pain. I knew myself well enough. I'd been through enough to know that it always got worse. Each passing second, my pain became more unbearable to the point where I began to wonder if I'd ever be able to stand up and even walk. Was I paralyzed?
Hours passed and I remained in the same spot, against the door. My brothers knocked. I gave them all some sort of a reply which even I didn't remember. Everything began to be just a blur. She wasn't there and the awareness of her absence started to choke me. I felt suffocated. I couldn't close my eyes because her face kept appearing in front of them. I couldn't keep them open because her things were everywhere, reminding me of her. It felt like I was being pricked all over my body with a thousand needles, all at once and the worst part was that it was constant. After God knows how many hours, I managed to get up at some point during the night and walk over to the bed and lay down.
Someone kept knocking on the door, I couldn't move so how could I possibly open it? I held my phone and saw the messages pouring in. Word gets out quickly, apparently. Some were condolences, some were words of encouragement. I touched my face and realized that I was crying profusely. Was that how bad things had already gotten? I didn't even know that I was crying? Tears were freely flowing from my eyes but I couldn't feel them? What could I actually feel, other than pain?
I'm not sure if I slept at all that night. At some point, I heard her voice. I was lying on my back and quickly turned over and saw her sleeping as usual on my right. I touched her cheek with the back of my hand. She responded by doing the same thing to me in return. She looked fine, alive, warm, lovely, soft, all Suhani, just the way she always looked sleeping peacefully right next to me. I smiled at her and she smiled back.
"Don't leave me again...ever..." I said. I was sobbing. She nodded. She curled up against my side and I wrapped my arms around her just the way we did on so many nights. Then, I woke up. It was morning. The room was brightly light by the sun. I was clutching my pillow and in tears. I was sweating. It hit me again, she wasn't here. I didn't know where she was. Was she safe? Was she scared? Was she in danger? Was she badly hurt? These questions knocked the wind out of me. I staggered to my feet and looked around the room. My head was spinning. A new emotion overtook me as another day began without her. I was afraid, deeply afraid not for myself but for her. I was so scared that she was in serious danger. Her life was in danger and I couldn't do anything about it.
"She's in trouble..." I mouthed. "Suhani isn't safe..." I whispered. I grabbed my head and fell to my knees. What was happening, why was it happening? Why was I so helpless? What was the point of everything? What was the point of her meeting me, me meeting her, her loving me, me taking one year to fall in love with her? What was the point of this damn relationship if I couldn't do a thing for her? She was out there somewhere alone. How could she possibly end up alone after all the promises I'd made her? Was I really so useless?
I robotic-ally showered and changed, thenopened my door. Everyone watched me and shouted different things as I grabbed my keys and ran out the door. I drove far, far away. I kept driving and driving till I reached the exact spot where we'd found Suhani's mangal sutra. I ran and ran. I fell down and slipped over branches, twigs, stones and God knows what else. I didn't find her. I screamed her name at the top of my lungs. I didn't know how much time had passed and how long I searched aimlessly for her. Eventually I sat down out of sheer physical fatigue and weakness. I traced my steps back towards my car and went back home. I knew that I was being selfish. People needed me. Her parents needed me. I just couldn't function.
I tried to live, I really did. I talked with everyone sensibly and made a plan with Sharad to search. We ironed out the details of how, when, with whom, and until where. We notified the police everywhere and distributed her picture among anyone we knew, all within a day. But I wasn't alive; there was no way that I was actually alive.
At dinner, I didn't eat at all. Everyone talked to me and tried motivating me. I listened to them and I responded. A part of me felt like a useless person because I was so lost in my own pain that I couldn't look anyone straight in the eye and notice theirs. I couldn't console them because I was barely getting by myself. I just got up from the dinner table and went straight to my room, closed the door, slid down again against it and went through yet another night of torture.