~Wounds and Inhumanity.~

"You return like autumn and I fall every time," ~ Faraway.

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

"What will you do if I say that they are blooming upon someone's grave?"

Grave.

Someone's grave.

Shravya blinked, trying to reminisce herself as the words rang in her head, slumping slowly into the canals of her conscience.

Grave!

Please, no it couldn't be!

Air seemed to burn her tracheas, making her struggle to breathe. His name got caught in her throat. Aayush!

"You...yo..u...are....ly..ing," a weak whisper came out of her mouth, making her wonder - was that trembly voice even hers?

"At this moment, even if I want to, I can't bring myself to lie," he spoke, his words bestowing no feelings, completely vacant. "Sach bahut behka raha hai."

(The truth is deluding me.)

"Zaid-" before she could speak further, the call was disconnected, abandoning her unsettled self behind.

The phone slipped out of her hold and fell on the floor, creating an erratic noise similar to the volatile whimpers of her heart as she stumbled back, her strength showing cues of submission while her back squatted against the window's cold surface.

Her chin wobbled up and she closed her eyes, allowing the warmth of pain to soar upon her cheekbones in the form of tears.

Trembling, her body slid down, with a faint thud numbly falling on the marble floor. Her mouth parted but nothing seemed to succeed in coming out, her tongue lagging in voicing out her wails.

She sucked in deep breaths with her cries becoming a hurdle between the oxygen and her inhaling ability.

What had she done?

What had happened to him?

What did her one careless decision do to him?

Her one verdict taken in cowardness bought death upon him.

Greedily clutching the shawl to her body, she gritted her teeth, feeling suffocated as she cursed her own existence.

"Madam?" With a concerned look, Maria hesitantly approached her. She didn't know what Zaid had told her, to suddenly make her break down, but the old woman sensed the zeal of her chaotic emotions, erupting on the wounds of her soul, which now, were again scratched fresh by him.

"Is something troubling you?" Gradually, she kneeled before her as her wrinkled fingers delicately caressed Shravya's fists that were clutching the shawl. "Is it hurting somewhere?"

Yes.

With tear-filled eyes, Shravya glanced at her, slowly blinking her eyes. The doleful motion of those hazel eyes reflected her mute words in the volume of her orbs.

My heart. It's hurting in there.

"Should I call a doctor?" frailly, Maria held Shravya's chin, inching closer and trying to see any physical cause of her tears.

But there was none.

Even if her insides were ample of scars, her outer appearance was flawless, he had made sure of it while on the other hand, she had always pushed the limits to lessen her emotional pain through the expanse of physical one.

Sympathy pellet through Maria's frail heart. "Are the bandages too tight? Should I change them?" She peeked a worry-served glance at her bandaged head. It was the most severe and the only remaining wound left, otherwise, Shravya was healed, physically.

"No-" Only this left Shravya's mouth, the voice was too soft, too rasp, and too weak as her distress made her snuggle closer to Maria and wrap her arms around the old woman.

Maria's warm embrace reminded her of someone very special.

Her embrace felt motherly. It made Shravya crave some moments of peace with the woman who raised her - Her grandma.

At the recalling, Shravya's jaw clenched bitterly and she closed her eyes, her heart throbbing and stomach twisting.

Only if she still had her grandma.

Her cursed fate even stole that motherly figure from her life.

And now, Aayush too.

She didn't realize, suddenly, how tightly she hugged Maria with the memories mounting over her. Not that the woman cared.

She held Shravya near to her chest, allowing her tears to saturate through her clothes as with tentative affection, she weakly ran her wrinkled fingers through Shravya's loose strands, who in return, like a dry land, soaked up all the affection she rained on her parched soul.

~Her emotional wounds began bleeding again.~

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

Silence - a fascinating kind of lifelessness where no one dies but still, the atmosphere quietly narrates the journey of someone whose soul was finally seeking peace, leaving others to mourn and feel that calm in the form of silence, rather than discerning it with their eyes.

Silence was something you couldn't see with your eyes but could feel with your senses.

At that particular moment, Zaid had silence but maybe not peace.

Gradually swirling the wine in the glass, he stared at his laptop screen that was showing her.

His one and only. His everything.

She was crying, snuggling into the embrace of someone who obviously wasn't him.

At the sight, a cold aspect of resentment surged in his body, making his insides frozen, quietly prickling his heart. He wanted to be with her, very badly.

Their interaction that's what he was craving.

Even his demons were wailing, needing her and begging to feed on her pain, which Zaid refused to agree upon.

They can feel pleasure from others' pain. They can hurt anyone if they want, but not her.

Near her, they have to stay confined, in their limits with a leash around their neck.

Lifting the glass to his mouth, he took a sip, his black eyes memorizing every changing expression on her face.

Right now, his words were haunting her, blessing her fear with life and depriving it on the surface, once again alive.

"It's for the better," he mumbled to himself, running his tongue over his lower lip, the wine was still tastable there.

Everything was happening for the better.

Keeping the glass on the table, he stood to his feet, gradually stepping closer to the vast window, whose look-through glass was adorning itself with the raindrops.

With him, being many weeks apart from her, the cold winter have ended and the warm spring had quietly approached, rehearsing about the upcoming arrival of summer's wrath.

It was the month of spring but still, the rain appeared, uninvited.

Outside, it felt cold, gloomy - everything was appearing full of colors, full of new birthing life. But to him, they occurred to be devoid of any real color that would really uplift him from the charming hallow of loneliness, where he had kept himself in dark, surrounded with a frivolity of sentiments, alone and numb without her.

His arm stretched out as one of his long fingers traced the flow of a drop that glid outside, on the slippery surfaced window.

He hoped for her to see those drops too. And recall - how she tried to leave him as if she was one of them. A raindrop that would have evaporated in the air or got absorbed by the ground if the rain had stopped, ending with a simple greet to the scorching sun.

But fortunate for him, the rain didn't stop and kept giving her new forms of drops whenever she showed cues of fading.

As if she was meant to live rather than withering like a fragile flower just because of some climate alterations.

"You tried to leave me and look where nature bought you." He turned, resting his back upon the window. "Back to me."

Even nature played with her.

The rain continued for days. Falling day and night, soothing his burning soul and solacing his troubled heart whenever that restless little creature expressed its fear of losing her.

Unknown to his adamant mind, it was nature's way of showing that God was his too. No being was alone.

His gazes flickered to the wine glass, the red liquor inciting him to take another sip as his ignorant eyes returned back to the laptop.

The device now, showed Shravya having her body curled into a small ball, almost invisible in the enormous room as she sat by the window, gazing outside.

Maria had left the room, leaving her isolated with her tears accompanying her.

So much desperation just for him. Why?

Just by a mere glance, he felt the familiar tightening in his chest, his heart thudding normally yet painfully, warning him to look anywhere except her. But being intractable, he kept looking at her.

If pain was with her then the pain was with him too.

A hurt was there and a hurt was here too.

The only difference was - when he forbade himself to perceive those emotions, she forbade herself to feel nothing but those emotions.

"Pta nahi upar wale ne tumhe assa aur muje assa kyon bnaya?"

(Why did our creator make you and me in this way?)

A chuckle left his mouth, his lips notching into a mocking smile. He didn't know whom he was mocking - her, himself, or his creator.

"Tumhara dil uska aur fir mera dil tumhara kyon bnaya?"

(Why did he make you love him while making me love you?)

Sighing, he closed his eyes. "He has done so unfair and that's what urges me to change his ways." His eyelids fluttered open, the empty voids now, filled with madness. "It will be fair when I would be the one possessing you because it was always me who has loved you more than anything."

With these words, he bought himself some relief as he strode back to his desk.

Holding the wine glass again, he settled back on the chair. The seat's expensive black leather only amplifying authority in his posture.

As the wine again made contact with his taste buds, he let his head fall back, his body restful, and eyes blankly staring at the pure white ceiling, playing along with the extinct ambiance.

~It was a feeling of becoming inhuman while wanting to stay a human.~

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

A hope.

With just holding on a little hope, Shravya stepped out of the room, for the first time after so many weeks.

Her eyes trailed to the far end of the corridor and she looked around, eventually moving forward with the chilling atmosphere draping her.

Things have changed. Her hell has been reconstructed.

The walls no longer had pictures of the families, who spent their life among those customary walls, instead, now, the unexceptionally beautiful space has more blankness, the things around no longer confide someone's tale.

The costly paintings proudly stayed attached to the walls as if saying that they were enough for decoration. They had made up for the loss of those tales.

The black marble floor felt cold under her bare feet, but her body didn't show care for the cool sensation.

The soft lights---embedded on the ceiling---reflected the sight of her moving figure, her frame appearing as a rare aspect in the vacant hallways.

As she appeared before the staircase, all the servants stopped working, glancing at her, astounded.

Peeking a glance at them, Shravya deliberately stepped down while the servants hurriedly went back to their chores, trying to treat her existence invisible to their eyes.

It was better to stay far away from her.

"Good afternoon, madam." Roy; the Butler came to stand by the end of stairs as she descended to the last step. "Do you need something?" With keeping his posture rigid, he was trying to hide the surprise in his tone.

Feebly shaking her head as no, Shravya moved past him. She didn't have time for chatting, moreover, it was not like they were really going to talk with her.

The servants discreetly stole glances of her as she walked ahead, her eyes staring straight, emotionless, while on the other hand, whoever made contact with those hazel eyes, was fast to look away or down.

That was the intensity of fear ruling them.

His fear.

"Madam, where are you going?" It was Maria who called after her, abruptly, causing her to halt in her way.

"Outside." It was all, Shravya could muster as her feet moved again, steadily.

"Why? You can't go," Maria sounded speculative and a little scared. "It's raining."

Approaching Shravya, she gently turned her, her old yet life experienced eyes searching her blank face, with a glint of dismay. "I'm not allowed to let you go. Please, go back to your room."

"I'm not asking you to allow me." Staring at her uneasy face, Shravya softly removed her hold from her shoulders. "I'm simply going. You're stopping me but I'm not paying awareness. Clearly, it's my fault here."

Looking behind Maria, her eyes meet Roy's stunned ones, but the old man was decently quick to look down. This gesture of his made her heart clench. Why do even the elders have to treat her this way?

Gulping, she looked back at Maria. "I'm the one breaking his rules."

If you like the chapter then please follow me PanchiVerma

Q - How was the chapter, guys?

(I know it was quite a filler one. But believe me, it's just the starting and as the story have shifted from Shravya to Zaid, so things are bound to get interesting. ¯\_ʘ‿ʘ_/¯ )

Q - Did Zaid really kill Aayush?

Q - Why Shravya wants to go outside?

Next update = Sunday