~Sympathy and Love.~

"We can die

A thousand times

In one lifetime."

- d.j.

************

It was how the story of Danish Singh ended---at the end with his family, identity, everything thoroughly erased, destroyed.

Thereafter, there was no reason for him to stop and look back at the past...until he met her.

_______________________________________________

(Flashback)

That night it was raining badly, yet somehow, it seemed as if it wasn't just raining, but the sky was crying in sorrow with its thunder-like cries, darkening the atmosphere further.

The sound of her own rushed and frightened footsteps followed Shravya under the agony of the sky as she ran.

His men were after her. He was chasing her!

And, she was scared of losing the little freedom she just stole from Zaid.

She ran away from the hospital, where she was kept. And that kind nurse, she helped her.

Soaked and completely broken, but alive, she forcefully dragged her bare feet across the ground. She was tired. Her legs were showing incapability to support her yet she couldn't stop herself, the terror of again being caught by him was aiding her more than scaring her.

She was scared yet persistent.

Suddenly, the noise of screeching tyres chaperoned along the havoc of the night.

They were in cars, very near. It won't take them much time to catch up with her.

Her mouth opened, forcing the air down her throat as fast as it could as exhibiting resilience and strength by taking her time over the old and wet road, covered with many water puddles, she managed to reach the nearby place---a graveyard, behind a church, that for some reasons seemed abandoned.

The vast space prevailed proudly but gloomily alone in the middle of nowhere, with almost no houses or anything except graves and trees in sight as far as one could see.

Only thick walls around and two aged metal gates in between those walls were separating the realm of corpses from the outer human world.

At the sight, uncertainty settled in the aura surrounding her yet she chose to walk past the entrance. She didn't have much time anyway, not with him chasing after her. She couldn't risk being caught.

Her eyes widened in horror as the noise intensity increased - they were here!

Frightened to her bones, with rushed movements she entered deeper into the graveyard, trying to find a hiding spot, moving wherever her feet were taking her.

She looked left and right, searching through all the shadows for any sign that someone was there---fortunately, no one was.

Quietly, she hid behind a gravestone that seemed big enough to hide her as she sat on the ground, pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, trying to be as small as possible.

The rain, which began to fall harder, dripped from the tip of her eyelashes and from the strands of her messy hair, making her already soaked hospital gown drench even further as she, the woman silently taking shelter under nature's aggression, muffled her own cries by putting both of her palms over her mouth.

Cries and cries, pain and pain, sufferings and sufferings.

Cries were leaving her mouth, unstoppably.

Pain, it was running through her whole body.

Her body was paining physically, her soul was paining emotionally, and she was suffering...just suffering.

At that moment, it felt more like living on was endless torture than ever before.

Why does he have to do this with her?

Why?... Why?

Why?!

She questioned herself for the 100th time.

Her hands shook while resting over her face, tears rolling out uncontrollably and unceasingly.

How did he become such a person?

So inhumane.

So vicious.

He had become so powerful that she couldn't even dare to stand against him, especially when she had a family as her weakness.

A lump began to form in her throat and she swallowed hard to keep it down, but the tears eventually came again. They were not the tears of pain or fear but of frustration.

If she managed to escape today, she will take her family and leave the country forever, away from him.

She will protect her family at any cost, even if it means hiding forever with no attempt to seek justice for her crushed dignity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The darkness, the night ended, taking the gloomy rain along with its departure.

It was a dead morning with no sun in the sky and warmth of sunshine in the visibility of sense.

The fog was engulfing the surroundings and the air was moist and cold due to the aftereffects of the rain in winter.

Serenely, a car arrived into the view, quietly stopping right before the entrance of the graveyard.

Holding a bouquet of white roses, Aayush briskly stepped out of the vehicle only to cease his pace after a few steps, halting and staring at the gravelled pathway which was beginning from the entrance.

He peered at it silently for some time, feeling as if something is not quite right. But the only thing he felt was sadness and disappointment. As he stood there, because of the fog he could vaguely make out what looks like an array of gravestones on both sides.

The place was empty and quiet. No one was there except him.

After a few moments of hesitation, he began walking again. His steps were steady yet quick as he walked forward towards his destination - his mother's grave.

It was her wish to be buried rather than getting cremated.

And he didn't know why she demanded such thing. But he was sure of one thing - even in that wish, her selfishness might have been involved.

She was selfish, so selfish, and there was no lie in it.

"I wish I could treat you the same way you have always treated me, Maa," he said, looking down at her grave solemnly. The grave had been neatly carved in the ground. "But I can't make myself so heartless."

"I just can't. No matter, how many times or how hard I try." He kneeled down and placed the bouquet upon the grave before resting his hands on his legs. "I tried to stop myself from coming here, from visiting your grave. But, I failed miserably."

"Somewhere in my heart, I still crave for your love, Maa. Somewhere, I'm still that little child doing everything possible just to get his mother to treat him with some motherly warmth and love," his voice sounded slightly distorted as his fingers lightly traced the edge of the grave.

"Kaash, kabhi aapne daulat ke alawa mere baare mein bhi socha hota."

(I wish, you had once thought about me apart from wealth and power.)

His words seemed to be swallowed by a certain thick silence and the winter's smoke while the corners of his lips formed an ironic smile as he stood up to his feet.

"I hope I'll not come here again."

For a long time, he remained rooted in front of the grave. Just like always, standing unmoving as if waiting for something, wanting some upheaval yet nothing ever changed.

Nothing happened.

For some more reductions of moments, everything lasted as it used to be.

Until that moment.

Suddenly, everything stopped and all sound ceased as even with the thick fog swallowing everything, his gaze fell upon a figure of someone, slightly visible in his sight, sitting by the gravestone of a grave resting at a little distance from where he was.

Wary but curious, he paced to the strange grave while that figure slowly began to appear more defined the nearer he got.

He halted and his eyes slightly widened when he finally stopped across that figure - it was a girl, unconscious, crouched behind the gravestone, as if hiding, protecting herself with her arms wrapped around her knees.

Abruptly, a small whimper escaped from her lips, as if she was struggling against something. Her body shivered slightly, seemingly cold.

Anxious, Aayush approached her and knelt beside her - unsure of what to do.

His heart began to race violently in anxiety as he reached out to touch her forehead while his eyes raked over her form - dressed in a soaked hospital gown, with no footwear or anything, she seemed suspicious but...helpless, burning with a high fever.

Who is she?

And what she was doing in the graveyard in such a terrible state?

The questions loomed over his mind but his heart's urge to help her won ultimately.

_______________________________________________

That's how he met her.

That's how the fate played with him.

That's how their path crossed together.

That's how his past again confronted him, in its most vulnerable and pitiful state.

At first, when he got to know about her identity and her relation with Zaid, he felt sympathy for her, but...

Pata he nahi chala, humdardi ki kan bunde kab mohabbat ka samandar baan gayi.

(He failed to notice when the mite drops of that sympathy transformed into the ocean of love.)

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