Part 1 - Kindered Souls
Part 2 - The Heart Always Knows
Author's Note
Please read the 1st 2 OS in this series for which the links are given above. Else it will feel disjointed 😳
Alien feelings assailed her. She was slowly becoming aware of her surroundings. She was engulfed in a warm embrace which was unfamiliar yet strangely familiar at the same time. She lifted her head slowly & her eyes collided with molten chocolate or was it honey brown. She had never been able to make up her mind & this had been one of the midnight debate with her sisters. She felt it depended on his mood. When he was in a light mood & flirty it was honey brown & when in the grip of intense emotion it was pure molten chocolate like now. Why did those eyes look familiar. Why had she never noticed this before. May be because she had not been in close juxtaposition with him before & not been examining with such microscopic intimacy for such prolonged period uninterrupted.
She felt a jolt travel through her body. She jerked away from him & eyed him warily. How had she ended up in his arm. All she remembered was panicking in the club & then getting a call from Advay. She had stammered the name of the club before she had dropped the phone. She vaguely remembered PP depositing her in a suite later to disappear. Panic attack had set in & she had stumbled around the room. After that everything was a blank.
She looked questioningly at Advay. Seeming to understand her unsaid query he replied.
You did not sound fine over the phone so I came over to pick you up. You were experiencing a panic attack & the enclosed environment in the room seemed to exacerbate your claustrophobia. Hence I brought you out for some fresh air.
She gulped nosily as if trying to fill her lungs to ward off the suffocation within, which had nothing to do with physical discomfort.
Thanks... a faint whisper
She espied a strange expression flit across his handsome visage to be swiftly replaced by his usual nonchalant demeanor.
Why... Again that almost inaudible whisper.
She paused as if to collect her wayward thoughts & rein them in.
I thought you gained pleasure from my pain. That you exulted at my humiliation. Why then did you rescue me?
May be because only I have the right over your tears!
Again that challenging tone. But this time Chandni refused to back down. She was exhausted physically & mentally. After the panic attack, she felt drained. She had had enough of his innuendos. She desperately wanted a few answers from him.
Please, tell me why you are doing all this. What do you hope to accomplish by binding me into a hateful relationship.
Is your mother not doing the same?
She flinched visibly at that strike.
She has her reasons.
So do I
She was shaken.
Who are you? You are not really whom you claim to be. What is your real name?
Advay smiled & to Chandni it looked like he was remembering some past hurt, a pain too massive & corrosive that it refused to leave him & had left him scarred for life.
That is for you to find out Chandni. Ask yourself this question & who knows you might discover that you knew the answer all along. Sometimes we hold all the clues & cards in our hand but still fail to see the obvious. Take off the blinkers & observe closely what is happening around you. You will find answers to all your questions & even those unsaid & unasked.
Why do you always talk in puzzles Mr Raizada.
Why do you put up this pretentious front of innocence & truth
He started to turn away & she almost lunged to grab his shirt. In her clumsiness she lost her footing & stumbled forward. She closed her eyes waiting for the ground to rush up to her but the impact never came. She was safely encased in his embrace & again that strange familiarity hit her. As if this was not the first time he was near her. It sounded crazy but her heart accelerated & her body ached for his touch, his vicinity, his warmth. Was she in the throes of blind lust. She was ashamed at her forwardness.
She looked up to apologize to him & lost the train of her thoughts captured by his mesmerizing eyes. She felt magically drawn towards him. She failed to muster the will power to look away.
No this was not mere lust. There was something indefinably more here, something which she startlingly realized was the case with him as well. There were moments when he looked at her like this, not speculative, not calculative, not flirty. Moments when she felt he was not merely gazing at her but staring into her soul.
Who indeed are you...
Suddenly this question seemed the most critical one in her life at that moment. As if her entire existence revolved around this single point.
Why Why...
Why did he look familiar. Why did he make her heart race. Why did he bring out the worst in her. Why was she inexplicably drawn towards him
Why Why Why her heart set a disconsolate wail knowing that there would be no peace till answers were revealed.
The ride back home was disquietingly silent. It was as if they had already spoken volumes, said all that need to be said & were each wallowing in their personal purgatory.
Chandni silently stepped out of the car & started walking towards her home which was slowly resembling a prison. She was being tossed around like a ship caught in a squall with her mother & Advay on opposing sides. She was being pushed & pulled like a marionette at the mercy of the puppeteer. Advay stepped away & turned to leave. Then suddenly overcome by emotion pulled her closer.
Look into your heart Chandni. You will find answer to your question.
She was too shocked to respond & numbly stared at him, his expressive eyes yet again reeling her in. And then as suddenly he was gone, like a phantasm.
Her wildly thumping heart the only surviving remnant of this strange encounter. She held her hand on her heart & felt its rhythm & suddenly the shocking revelation dawned on her. He was right. Somehow her heart seemed to hold the key to this entire mystery but she was floundering to plunge its inner depths to discover the truth. The thought broke her even more!
Yeh Fitoor Tera
Bollywood
Udne Ki Aasha
108 Base Hospital Uri
Seher Hone Ko Hai
