<hope you have checked out my new story called MaNan FF~ Stars, in my profile now. If any writer out there could give it a shoutout ;) >

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warning: written in sleep (having a hangover of twilight), having no idea what shit was I typing. Highly unedited, feel free to point out at mistakes.

The return of the dead?

N A N D I N I

He left.

Just as unbelievable it sounds, he left. He really did. Somewhere deep down, I knew this was going to happen. I knew he was destined to leave. He wasn't like us, any of us, and he didn't fit into this world. So, as simple as that, I already knew he would leave soon.

But just as it was hard to take that he left, I couldn't make myself believe why, although I knew his reasons. If all he wanted to do was leave, why did he fall in love in the first place?

I wiped another trail of tears flowing off my eyes, and sniffed as it hurt, just all the way more. And heart break was the worst pain ever, it was like being stabbed in reverse, as if being able to taste heaven and then being dragged away to hell, as if being promised a forever snatched away in seconds. Heart break was just a lump of pain that made you feel that you were breathing, but the oxygen never reached your lungs anyway. It makes you feel empty and hollow. It kills you, slowly and bitterly.

"Princess, you cry another drop of water behind that book, and I swear I'd walk out. This is just so boring," Manik growled yawning and I took up the cushion beside me and threw it at where he lay grumpily, at the sofa beside this king sized bed.

"You have no feelings, Manik. Edward just left Bella. You have to learn to be kind!" I scolded snoffing as I closed my signed copy of twilight and kept it beside me preciously, while he just controlled his urge to roll his eyes.

"Common Nandini, you can be politer. You don't have to act so rude when all my mistake was that I offered to accompany you tonight instead of you lying alone in pain. And trust me, I regret every thought that made me make this offer. I would have been better in my house than my rivals, sleeping peacefully instead of babysitting a girl who is crying about a fiction character called Emmit.," He now rolled his eyes looking into his phone.

"Edward.," I corrected staunchly and he raised his eyes for a moment to give me a whatever look before looking back into his phone with disinterest, leaving me irritated ofcourse. I was an immediately territorial, and moreover protective person if anyone even tried talking bad things about my Bella or Edward. It pissed me to no extent, making me possessive alpha.

"Then can you please propose anything else to do instead of you lying on the sofa and pretending to do something serious on your phone and me reading a book?" I raised my eyebrows and before I knew, he pounced from the sofa to the bed, lying horizontally in front of me, still on the phone.

"Now what?" I raised an eyebrow and he pretended to be in deep thinking and I would lie if I say I wasn't affected by his face looking so cute. If he didn't suggest anything soon, I might as well drift back to sleep looking at his face, so serene and peaceful, yet expressive and aware in its own manner.

A cold wind passed through the air outside making the window rattle and I shuddered. The night was cold and dark then the others in winter and such might made me scared for an unknown reason. One such night, I had lost my mother. One such night, I lost Mukti. And one such night, I lost my father too. And I had nothing left to lose on another such night, except myself. Was I going to die after being saved already?

"Feeling cold?" He asked and when I laid my eyes up, he was no where. He was already closing the windows to stop the wind from gushing inside. "You don't need to do that. It's beautiful, it's Diwali tomorrow," I whispered with a soft smile and he did as he was told, no arguments at all. Sometimes, I like this side of him too. The quiet one, not the monster mode, although I knew it was just a blink of an eye until the good side of him ends and is replaced by a devil, as if it were two different people residing in him.

And as much as I have been observant, this calm side of him appears only at night. The rest of the day, he's as grumpy as a four year old kid and as scary as a living ghost. I bet, night was the best time for him out of all the hours God gifted. Or should I say, until dawn. The moment the sun rises, his temper and monster mode rise with it.

I think I heard a loud noise, something like a a wolf pouncing on his prey and I shuddered in my place, and this didn't go unseen by him for sure. His eyes flickered something before he immediately hid it, a smile— smirk taking over his lips. "You need to stop reading books that take your mind to things that don't exist, princess. I'm sure you must think it was some lion or wolf or something, isn't it?" He sounded amused and I shivered more. Was he some mind reader?

"Take it the way you like," I frowned, though deep down, I was scared. What was it? Or rather... who was it?

"Huh!" He sighed softly and before I realised, he was sitting next to me. "Nandini," He barely let his hands touch mine, and it felt odd. Not that he touched my hand or because he was behaving soft, but that he called me Nandini and not Princess. I didn't like this name until it came from his mouth.

"I am no good. I don't promise to be your knight in shining armour, because I cannot be that. I cannot do that, because if I promise so, the first danger I would have to protect you from would be myself.  And I don't have the power to do that," my heart fluttered with his words and he tightened his jaw, staring down at his thumb that gently drew doodles at my hand. "But I can promise you that, I wouldn't let anything that you don't deserve touch you. Nothing at all, just trust me if you can. Or rather, trust is a heavy word, just believe me. Your belief would be enough," He whispered.

Some unknown feelings rose in my stomach as my eyes drowned into his, and I wondered how to find my way out of the maze his eyes had left me in. Looking into his eyes is an unexplainable emotion, looking at how his eyes change colour, black when he's angry to a hazel when he's in a happy mood. And they were a bright hazel now, which said he was happy. And if even an ounce of this happiness is because of me, I'd want to do the little good I'm doing forever. As long as I can, taking in as much as he had the power to hurt me, but I knew he doesn't. He'd never hurt me intentionally.

"I trust you," I barely muttered, but I knew he heard it as his smile increased, reaching his eyes and he left my hand, looking away from me, and I selfishly wished that our little moment would have never got over.

There was another loud noise, breaking my chain of relaxing thoughts away, that grabbed my attention towards the door. Someone was... howling, if that was the right word. He seemed angry, furious, or any other word that describes dangerous. The noise took away the colour of my face, but Manik stood there unaffected, rolling his eyes as he got up to open the door.

'Why had he locked it in the first place?' My mind wandered and I was forced to shut it down, to calm itself. Manik is there with me, everything will be fine, I reminded myself an ample times but I couldn't stop feeling scared. This night was very similar to the three other nights in which I lost the three important people of my life. And I had no power to lose anyone else. Neither Manik, nor Aryamman, or Zubin of course.

The door was opened by him and I saw a very familiar fave ahead. Zubin. But he wasn't concerned at all, his eyes didn't even fall onto mine for once, they just dig graves for Manik and I insecurely wondered if he was still so angry at me to even look at me? Did he really feel nothing for me anymore?

Or were his eyes and mind occupied with something more important than... me? The way he looked at Manik was as if he would murder him if killing was legal. His eyes weee dark and furious, screaming danger. I couldn't , couldn't look into his eyes; the intensity it held was so much that it seemed my eyes would burn and fall out of place. I wondered what such happened that caused my extremely calm best friend to be all furious, firing burning in his eyes, as if waiting to come out and burn Manik away.

And just as much as I was scared, Manik seemed unaffected. Does anything-... I repeat, anything scare the boy standing in front of me casually, shrugging away the strong gaze on him?

My eyes flickered back to Zubin and he was looking at me, and just as my eyes met his, he pulled away again, as if some kind of guilt, or anything else was stopping him. His eyes were angry, but his face screamed vulnerable. I just wish I was able enough to run to him and give him a big hug, asking him what makes him vulnerable and so so miserable. He was always there for me, but I could never be for him. Just like everything else, I felt as a failed best friend too.

"Manik," he just murmured but the silence made it seem like a thunderstorm was our way, knocking peacefully before it thrashes the entire city down. "I'm glad that you finally got time to visit you almost dead be-.......," Manik's words halted when he found Zubin on Manik's collars, gripping it tight.

"Come with me," he just whispered dragging Manik away but his eyes reached me, and he stopped midway, not moving an inch. "I'm not leaving her here, atleast not amongst my sweet mother and half brother," he threatened moving Zubin's hand away calmly.

Was Manik really putting efforts in being polite to the people around him or was there something more chaotic going on in his mind that caused him to be silent, his silence being the thunder that warned the upcoming storm? Either ways, things were not right. And just like every time, I was the only one not knowing what was happening.

"Well, Manik, my girl is safer here with even vampires and spirits around her then she is in your presence. So you rather don't use this as an excuse to stick your ass here instead of buckling up to come with me," Zubin's voice was dangerously low, making the hair on my arms stand up in fear. I had never, even seen Zubin sounding like that, and it feared me. But Manik seemed unaffected.

"I don't really care what you think about. Fact being, I'm not leaving her here. She was already on the death bed, and the facts being, her accident was not an accident, it was a planned attempt to murder," his voice sent shivers down my spine and I almost jumped on my place, an unknown coldness gripping down me.

Zubin didn't protest further. "You have a minute, get her into the car outside," His voice was frail, as he dashed away, leaving me away in my thoughts. I was pulled away by something strong, and before I realise, I was in his arms, my body sticking close to his chest as he carried me down as if I was a feather, but my mind was too pre occupied by everything else.

Why'd someone want to kill me? And even important, why will Manik protect me? Not that I doubt him, but on the insecure side, I was no one to him, nothing at all. As if reading my thoughts loud, his arms tightened and jaw hardened, and I hid my face more into his chest, breathing his scent that calmed me better than drugs.

"Don't think much," he almost ordered me but it was simple to say, harder to believe. With no harm done, why would someone be behind my life? Me, after all? "Alright, I'm sorry," he whispered , his voice getting softer. "I wasn't wanting to tell you that, and it isn't even confirmed. I just feel that this could be planned, and I feel this could have a way through me. I've already hurt a lot of people, I don't want anyone else dying because of me. So stick around," he put me into the back seat of the car standing by the gate.

Why would someone kill me because of Manik, when we were clearly not even connected except the fact that he had used all his power to destroy me at a moment, and made me his clerk? But that is no reason for anyone to kill me, isn't it? Or was there something I was missing out on? Something that was obvious to everyone but me?

I had no idea where we were driving with my mind full of questions until we stopped in front of a huge bungalow, and the moment I peaked out, I knew which it was. It was my old house.

Zubin's eyes remained unaffected as he glared towards the house as if glaring would make it come tumbling down but Manik's face had lost all the colour, as white as a sheet. I barely limped to catch Manik's arm for support and my touch made him immediately aware of his surroundings, his body tensed under my palm. But being the amazing actor he was, he hid everything behind his calm face and ignored Zubin as he helped me walked inside, with a growling Zubin following us.

In usual cases, Zubin would have pulled me away from Manik, but that didn't happen. I couldn't know why we were here but getting here at 3 AM better have some reason behind it, if the boys don't want to die by my hands. All my anguish was turned into silence when we reached inside, and Zubin stood between us.

Me and Manik on one side, and a dark figure on the other side. I couldn't see anything for it was dark, but I could still feel someone very familiar, the way of lightly walking, breathing, and even the scent seemed so much known that it bothered me until Zubin cleared his throat to grab all our attention, moving towards the switch box.

"It's time for some questions," his voice were sharp, and I could see him gaze at me and Manik even in the dark before his face turned the other side, to the darker person, his muscles clenching, as if it took everything in him to not pounce upon the person and kill him, and it scared me. "....and answers,".

The lights fled on, illuminating my house and it took a minute for our eyes to adjust to the light after being in dark for so long but just when it did, I gasped, in shock, fear, surprise, happiness, nervousness, anxiety, and everything other feeling known to a human running through me. Mukti, her body and colour and face and everything still the same except her eyes that stared down, not matching anyone's and her hair that was much longer, flying away with the breeze.

I was right, there was something about the breezes and the winds and the gushes and the sudden cold. The lump and fear in my heart was not for nothing, and also, all the silence was just the chaos before the war began. As much as I hated to admit it, my heart already knew what was happening. My happily ever after would be snatched away from me without even starting, just like Mukti's and Zubin's was. Nothing will be the same after tonight, nothing.

~ some people know how to hide the chaos in their heart by their silence and the darkness in their life behind secrets ~