Arhi FF:Who Got Your Tongue,Honey?Last part Page43 - Page 24

Arnav woke with a start. Everything around him was a blur' had he overslept? He thought, internally kicking himself. He shouldn't have decided to take that nap. 'It won't do to sleep in' he had told himself over and over, but his exhaustion had got the best of him. As his vision slowly returned, he made his way out of bed, wondering why it was that it simply wouldn't do to sleep in (which he had) ' what was so important about today? What was' KHUSHI? Where's Khushi? "Khushi..! Where are you?" he said, his voice hollow and broken. His voice sounded empty, like the way a resounding gong sounded in a sound proof room.. without meaning, otherworldly. Something was amiss. He headed toward the door that led out of this ' where was he, again?... wherever he was, the door must lead out. He must look for Khushi' but why was she with him in the first place? What had happened? He wanted to remember, but he just couldn't. It was in front of him, he could  see it but then he couldn't really. No matter. He only had to open the door. His hand closed around the unnaturally cold golden knob, and turned it. As soon as the outside air gushed in, all thoughts of Khushi left his mind.

Ofcourse!  It was his sister's wedding! How could he have forgotten? He started across the ground, the walls and pillars around him were covered in flowers. Beautiful, golden flowers. He inhaled deeply, trying to take in all the scent he could. There were so many flowers, but he could still sense the smell of new paint' they had had the walls newly painted just last evening. Arnav had loved this smell ever since he was a child. He hadn't known why back then, but now he associated it with new identities. He loved that sort of thing. You could just change the color of the walls of a room, and it's mood and atmosphere would change automatically. Like magic. He wasn't particularly fond of the color the walls were painted now, though. That is why he had insisted that the wall be covered with flowers. It was a horrible, sickly green.

Arnav's hands closed around the sheets ' he was having one of those dreams he had been having in an undistributed pattern since' the kind where you know you're dreaming, but can't seem to get out. He had stopped having these dreams altogether a few months ago' since he had met' whom had he met? It didn't matter, because an odd haze seemed to fall over  him the moment he thought of the name'

"Chote?" Arnav turned around, in anticipation. His sister was dressed in bridal red, and looked, to say the least, absolutely beautiful. "Di!" he said, hugging his sister ' something he didn't normally do, but he could make an exception for this very occasion, couldn't he? His sister returned the hug, surprised. "Wow, Chote. If I knew you would react this way I would've done it a long time ago". Arnav smiled. "You look beautiful, Di" he muttered, even though he wasn't much into the whole compliment-mechanism. His sister smiled. "Thanks, Chote ' but now I've got to go inside, Ma must be looking for me". As she walked away, Arnav thought about how, soon she would be leaving, and then nothing would quite be the same. But, wait? Wasn't he supposed to be looking for someone? Yes, but ' who was it? Or what was it? Why did it even matter? Whatever it was would had to find itself, thought, as he walked toward a stall adorned in'

He knew where this was leading. Snap out of it! He told himself. But it was of no use. His whole body was numb, and he was no longer in control of it, it seemed like it didn't belong to him at all. His heart rate quickened as he felt himself being pulled into this horrible world that belonged to his memory.

Arnav was in a different place now, but he didn't know how. His sister was sitting on  a huge blanket that had been folded around five times over, her face bright with happiness. He smiled to himself. He would miss her, a lot' not that he'd say it, of course. He started as loud music suddenly started resonating around the hall, the exact kind of music he did not like. But it was okay, for today. Everyone around him started dancing. Well, since the music was on and it was his sister's wedding day, it wouldn't hurt to shake a bit himself, would it? Only, he already was. He looked down at his hands, surprised to see that they were shaking ' or rather ' trembling. What the? His legs were doing it too, trembling, that is. In fact, the whole of him was. He looked around to see if anyone was looking. Nobody was. Better get out of here before Di notices. She'd be worried. It was a bit unnatural. People didn't just start trembling out of the blue. He went toward a small set of stairs that led to the kitchen, and sat down. The shaking was uncontrollable now. What was going on? His breathing was growing shallow, his heartbeat alternating between alarmingly fast and surprisingly slow, and his vision was clouding. He had had this sensation before' but not here. Somewhere else, he didn't feel like he had had any sensation here, at all. Weird. He covered his face with his still shaking hands.

Arnav's jaw clenched. He knew what was coming. He knew what he didn't want to see. He took in deep breaths as he tried to steady himself, but to no avail. The air around him seemed to be trying to choke him, it was closing in. Either that, or there wasn't enough of it. Someone had drained the air out of the room. He tried desperately to wake himself up, but his eyes just wouldn't open. Or were they already open? He didn't know. But if they were, he didn't like what he was seeing. He didn't quite like anything that was happening at the moment, and the fact that he couldn't breathe just made it a whole lot worse. He wanted this to end, but he didn't want to go through the final passages ' did that even make any sense? Not really. But then, at the moment nothing really did.

What was happening? Maybe he should call for help. He cleared his throat and -

BAM!

Whatever he had been about to say got caught in his throat. The harm had been done.

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Arnav's eyes flew open, for real, this time. He sat up, the whole world was spinning round and round and round' and ' he felt something cold and foreign trace the outline of his cheek. Blood? He reached up to see. But no, it was only water. He could also hear an unsettling sound, and it was a short while before he realized he was the one making it. A sniffling, breathy sound. He was crying, probably. That would explain the water. It was still the middle of the night and he had been lying the same position he had been in when he first lay down. Only a few hours had passed. He didn't want to go back to sleep, for he was afraid that if he did, he would really not be able to get out. Besides, he wasn't very fond of panic attacks in the night. He realized his eyes were still closed.He opened them to see the familiar outline of ' "Khushi?" he wondered aloud. His voice no longer sounded hollow, but was still broken. Somewhere far behind him, the sniffling sound continued. He felt compelled to speak, but nothing more would come out of his mouth, so he gave up trying.

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