Hi fam! How're you doing?

Missed me & this book?

Hope you guys were having an amazing Sunday.

Long, long chapter to compensate. Please leave inline comments.

Happy Reading! Vote, comment, share... but most importantly, enjoy the read.

Also, introducing two new faces who'd be playing big roles in the story ahead:

Dr. Stella played by Natalie Portman

Dr. Parker played by Brett Dalton

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[unedited]

Nandini

ten hours later

It was almost ten hours I was stuck in here. The clock had struck dawn but here in, it was like there was a flea market. Cabir somehow convinced my Aunt to go back home and take rest for a while. She knew she had to be okay to handle things if anything went wrong. Dad stayed with me for an hour. It was weird. He just kept staring at me for an hour without saying anything and then left the room. The rest of the time, Manik and Aliya day together, it took turns with Cabir.

With Cabir away to drop his Mom, Manik and Aliya were slouched on the couch. They had been whisper arguing about something that I was too busy to hear.

I was slumped against a wall, my eyes closed. I felt tired and drained but I couldn't sleep. I couldn't feel exertion or pain but all I wanted now, more than anything else was sleep.

Everything was interrupted when a nurse entered and spoke to Aliya and Manik, "Why are you both talking to yourself? Why not talk to her and convince her to get back?" She was older than the average age here, probably mid 40s.

"We've been speaking to her since the past twelve hours," Aliya sighed taking a deep breath, "Is that even causing any difference?"

The nurse smiled to herself, changing one of the many wires plugged into my wrist, "It does more difference than you know. She's here. She can hear you, feel you, even partially see you when she wants. This COMA... it's just a show. The real game lies in her hands. It's upto her, everything's upto her."

It's true. She knows! Someone, Someone knows. Can she feel me around? Can she hear me? Can I finally speak to someone?

"How-- How do you know?" Aliya stammered. I could understand the confusion plastered on their faces. This could be overwhelming to know that I was loitering around them like a ghost.

"I've been working in this hospital since twenty years, seen a thirty different patients like her every year. It's mythology, today's generation doesn't doesn't believe in it. But for all I know, it's true," the nurse said in her thick English accent before the doors flew open again and Dr. Stella entered.

Aliya was freaking out, "You mean-- you mean she can see us? Like a third eye or something?"

"Don't worry," Dr. Stella re assured, "Science has nothing on this theory to prove it yet. It's just that, when some COMA patients wake up, they're already aware of what's happening around them which can be because they hear things and important stuff gets saved into their subconscious brain. What gave rise to this was that some people start have glimpses of what was happening around them in their dreams and if they meditate, being actually able to see things. But nothing's proved yet, calm down."

She was smiling a radiant smile like she always did and it made me happy to have her around. She wasn't my doctor, my mother's instead so it made me wonder what she was doing here.

She bent down, her hair over my forehead as tucked some hair behind, "I am going to take her Mum for her last surgery. I just wanted to have a look at the Kid before I go."

"Her mum... she's gonna be okay right?" Manik asked.

"I'm going to try my best. Not just because I am a doctor, but because I lost my mother when I was young and it pushed me into a spiral. This Kid's been through a rough patch, I hope I can do something to make it right for her," She smiled radiantly before stepping away.

Thank you. Just make my Mom alright. Thank you so much.

Happiness felt weird in this state. But I could feel something, it made me smile and ecstatic. The monitoring machines beeped a higher note. "She's responding," the nurse said happily, "I don't think she'll need the oxygen pipes anymore. I told you, it's all in her hands."

"I'll just send Dr. Parker to check. Excuse me," Stella said before leaving, but not before giving me a radiant smile and reassurance to Manik and Aliya. She told them everything was going to be just alright.

And for once, I wanted to believe that.

For once, I wanted everything to be alright.

"Do you think she's right? Nandini's here?" Aliya asked Manik once the doctor and the nurse left.

"I don't know," Manik said taking a deep breath, "but if it's true, we gotta do everything we can to make her happy."

"Maybe you could go grab her iPod from her place when Cabir returns? She... She loves a particular song and if this theory is true, I'm sure that song is it," Aliya was determined, a big smile plastered on her face.

"I will. But what's so special about it?" Manik asked.

"Her mom played that tune, and she loves it. As a teenager, she would listen to it every night, all the time. She'll never get sick of that one tune," Aliya told him. I smiled to myself.

"Okay then, I'd bring it. Now let me read her diary in peace," Manik teased, picking my black diary again.

"Come on, she'll kill you if she gets to know that a stranger read her entire diary," Aliya laughed sitting next to him.

"Stranger?" Manik teased back, "Hello, she's my new best friend."

"And how so?" She pretended to be surprised.

"I just told her a big, big secret about myself when I was speaking to her earlier. Something that even you don't know," Manik winked. They were like two best friends who loved flirting with each other.

"Wow, damn she must be special," Aliya teased back.

"She is," Manik whispered to himself, his eyes suddenly softening and smile turning genuine as I sat on the wall adjacent to both of them, an unknown happiness filling in my heart.

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"The Kid?" I overheard Dr. Parker ask Dr. Stella, my mum's doc as I slipped into her cabin an hour or so minutes later, "She's doing alright, if you could say that with multiple plasters and a few broken ribs. The good thing is, her breathing pipe would be out any minute to check her stability and there are no brain concussions. We're hoping she'd start responding soon."

"That's good. She should respond to the treatment soon, it's been a day that kid's in COMA," Dr. Stella smiled softly, but there was something off about her. She wasn't smiling as radiantly as she did when I first saw here and the positive attribute of her talk had disappeared.

"What's wrong, Stella? All okay?" Parker stepped ahead, putting a hand on his co-doctor's arm as she broke into a sniff.

"I couldn't save her," She sniffed. Save whom? Dr. Parker looked just as confused as he raised his eyebrows.

"I promised her I would...," her voice broke before she took a deep breath and collected herself, before continuing, "Kid's waking up orphan. Her mother.... she's gone."

I stumbled a few steps backward, unable to process what that doctor had just spoken. "You're lying!" I shouted at her on the top of my voice, my hands covering my mouth. I felt a knot over my stomach and an unusual sensation. A part of my heart broke and sank deep inside.

I couldn't do this. Not without my mother. My mum was my only support system. She was the only person I could call family. She was the only person that I loved in this whole world. She was the only person who loved me. And now she left too?

I ran out of the Doctor's cabin as fast as I could and ran into the ward where my mother was operated an hour ago. She still lied on the bed. The lights were dimmed and the machines monitoring every pulse passing through her body was switched off. There was a thick blanket covering her till her mouth and there was a tag on her left foot: Deceased. 13th August, 2018.

No. "Mom?" I called, ruffling my hand through her hair that didn't move anymore. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. I wanted to do anything that would give me pain. I wanted to feel the pain and mourn her loss and not just be left behind with the unsettling feeling everywhere.

"Get up Mom! Please wake up. I need you. You-- you promised that you'd never leave me, you said you'd stay with me. You said I was a little part of you, that was the only feeling I always loved. You don't get to take that away from me, Mom! You-- you can't just die. You-- you can't...." My Voice broke away but she remained as still and lifeless as she was.

She was gone. She wasn't coming back.

I walked out of her ward, as the world broke through chaos around me. My Aunt was crying in a corner, Aliya trying to console her. My Dad was standing by the window pane, staring at my mum's body, as still as he could be. Cabir and Manik just entered.

"What-- What's wrong?" Cabir asked, looking at everyone crying in different corners of the waiting room.

I could see my black iPod in Manik's hand. He brought that for me. Little did he know, my world had already fallen apart. I could suddenly feel pain that I didn't feel until now.

I could feel darkness and I could feel the urge to cry. My mother as the strongest and the loveliest woman I had ever known. She went through all that pain, all that sufferings, all that torture and it all just made her kinder than she was. I once asked her how she did it, smiling everyday for me, being kind when life had left her nothing to be happy about, life had just tormented her-- her parents disowned her when she told them she wanted to marry Dad, Dad left her for another woman she was left with a ten year old child whom she had to take care of all by herself. She had smiled, held my hand and whispered in my ear, "That's because seven billion smiles in this universe, and I love yours the most. You are my inspiration to open eyes every morning and go on with a smile, because even when I have nothing, you are my everything."

She didn't deserve anything that life threw on her like harsh bricks. But she still accepted them with a smile and built her own castle out of it. And even without my father, she was the king and she kept me no lesser than princess. She was my ray of sunshine. She was happiness, my safe place, my home.

I wouldn't be able to crawl into her bed at nights when I saw a bad dream and sleep hugging her. I wouldn't see her eyes open anymore, I'd never hear her laugh. All my favourite things she makes to surprise me every second day would just be a memory now and she'd be nothing except a framed photograph that I would keep on my bedside along with my father's. I'd have to live every day from today without my Mum and I wasn't prepared for that-- not now, not ever.

Everything around me was disappearing. Slowly, softly. I felt relaxed and all the pain I was feeling started vanishing. Outside the hospital, as the sun rose, a sphere of sunlight held me as if it was calling me to itself. It felt salvation, warm and beautiful.

The doctors rushed into my room, machines beeped. "What-- What's Happening?" Manik questioner hastily.

"We don't know. She was okay and then suddenly, we're losing her. She's slipping away. She's stopped responding and her vitals have dropped dangerously low, we're shifting her back into the ICU," doctor Parker informed quickly before rushing and seconds later, he ran out again with my body behind on the stretcher.

The colour in my cheeks that had just started flowing in had vanished again and my body was pale, my closed eyes were suddenly peaceful and even though they said I was slipping away, even though my body looked like it was thrown into the deepest pit on earth-- scarred and bruised, I just felt more alive than ever.

I smiled for the first time in the past sixteen hours, feeling fresh like a flower that had blossomed for the first time on a beautiful spring morning.

I closed my eyes, feeling the warmth and my sensations again after one long day as I walked towards the light.

This is what death feels like.

Peaceful. Beautiful. Calm. Painless.

And just as I touched the light when I was close enough, a smile over my lips that were suddenly all red and flashy, I felt everything around me change.

Just as I was taking a step inside, I heard a melody. A soft song, delicate piano beats connected together beautifully in a perfect symphony. I felt a sudden wash of relief as my hand fell back.

Death could wait. Just this one song and then I'd be gone away forever.

I shut my eyes tight, and I could almost see my Mother, in her cotton dress and open brown hair, flawlessly playing the huge piano in our living room to a thirteen year old me. On my toughest days, the one thing that had always helped me was this. It felt soulful, because I just didn't listen to the music by my ears like every other song, it reached my soul, it reached the very centre of my existence and everything I once feared disappeared, making me delighted and free. Music made me taste freedom when the clutches of a heavy past wouldn't leave me.

And right in the middle of the tune, I heard a voice. It was Aliya, "Nandini, the nurse says it's all on you. It's your choice if you want to stay or go. And I just want to tell you, that no matter what everyone is saying, no matter how much I want you to stay with me, I just want o tell you that it's okay. It's okay if you don't want to do this anymore. It's okay if you want to let go. I wouldn't be mad, I promise. I understand, it's hard to stay when life doesn't give you any reasons to. If you're choosing to go, go with a light heart and know, there's nothing holding you back. We love you, and always will."

Thank you Aliya. I knew you understand.

I was suddenly in my ICU room again, looking at Aliya and Manik and Cabir ponding over my body. Aliya was trying her best to hold those tears in. Cabir was quiet as I had never seen him while Manik was giving Aliya the look of a mad woman.

"What? Aye you going nuts or something?" He almost whisper screamed at her.

She broke down into tears, nodding negatively, "No. If she wants to go, you know she will. Then why send her with her heart full of guilt of leaving her friends behind? I've said my Goodbye." She could hardly hold in as she put her hand on her mouth and ran out of the room.

Manik ran a frustrated hand in his hair as Cabir kissed my forehead and whispered into my ear, "You know what's right, and do just what your heart says. But if you stay, you should know, you'd never be alone. I'm your family. Your aunt is your family. And we'd never leave you alone. We love you, okay?"

And then he left too. The melody slowly ended, fading away as the ball of sunshine that now seemed more like a secret passage to death re appeared.

Thank you, Cabir. I wish I could tell you that I love you too.

"Okay? I'm not your friend alright? So you're not going to be guilty of leaving me here, so I'm not saying Goodbye," Manik said in haste. "But listen, this might sound selfish, but please, please don't leave. Don't die. If you're still here and you can hear me, please don't give up yet. You're a fighter, that's what your Mom has taught you to be. Stay Nandini, live your life. You don't deserve to just go away without making a mark of your own in this world. Please stay. Choose life over death. Choose me. Choose Aliya. Choose your Aunt & Cabir. You still have to fight your Dad, you still have to see all the places in the world that are left. You still have to be my real friend. Don't give up just yet. We need you. I need you here."

I sighed. I'm sorry, Manik. It was nice knowing you, and I wish I could have stayed a little longer.

But I can't.

I turned back to the ball of sunshine which was suddenly smaller then it was. It took me just a few seconds to realise that it was diminishing.

No. I want to die.

I don't want to stay here.

I have to go back to my Mom.

I want all this pain to get over.

I ran in, as the sunlight submerged me, it was too bright and then it was suddenly too dark. Darkness was all that was left.

And then I felt it all suddenly. The pain from the accident, all those emotions looking at my dad, the pride looking at Aliya defend me in front of my Dad, the happiness of Manik confiding in me, the guilt of leaving my friends behind, the pain of my mother's death. I felt it all, in one shot, all the pain-- physical and mental.

I wanted to scream, to shout, to cry, to mourn-- but I felt trapped. The darkness just kept getting darker if that were even possible and then suddenly, I felt my eyes-- heavy and painful, and they flew open.

"Nandini?" I heard Manik's relieved voice. And then again, "Nandini," he laughed and cried at the same time.

I was alive again.

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1. Long chapter! Was it worth the wait?

2. Did you like the chapter?

3. Expected Nandini to wake up soon? ;)

4. What do you thinks going to happen ahead?

5. Do you think Nandini will have any memory of what happened and what she saw?

6. Nandini lost her Mom :(

7. Would you want to die too if you were in Nandini's situation?

8. Favourite part of the chapter?

9. Rate the writing on 10?

10. Do you think Aliya was correct in saying her goodbye?

11. Do you think Manik was selfish to ask her to stay?

12. Anything you'd like to see ahead in particular?

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Love, love & love.

~Heer.