~Finale~

Light

I was floating. I didn't know where I was at the moment or maybe what I am but I felt so light. The feeling was so heavenly and I wanted to stay like that forever.

Dead or alive

Dead or alive

Dead or alive

The semantic satiation continued for a long time till I felt my lungs bursting out.

"I am sorry, guess this is God's will."

"You ought to be sorry. How dare you give us false hopes?"

Up down, up down. I felt my body being pulled in various directions along the force of gravity. Where was I going? Am I even a human anymore? Was I at another planet? Perhaps I am in a new era?

I tried to auralize the scene around me as if I were alive.

"Nathalia, come here."

"UHHH."

My head was throbbing in pain, my body was burning. I wanted to explode but the overbearing sensation was replaced by the light sensation again.

Ting, ting, ting

There was an influx of memories that began to replay like a loop. The memories kept burgeoning one after another till the last one where I lost my consciousness.

This feeling of being unknown was infernal but what could I do? How long could I feel before it starts to fade? Maybe I was about to find the privy of life?

"I tried my best Sir."

Teeeeeeeeeeeeeek.

Dhak dhak, Dhak dhak, Dhak dhak

My body began shaking at an insane measure of Trevor, my vision was blurred but I could make out a few faces; voices were calling out to me, a few were moaning in pain.

"Sorry"

Ting.

The air around me was sucked out, I was going somewhere at an insane force with no control over my body but the feeling resided by lightness again.

"Poor kid, she was so young."

Deep breaths Inhale exhale. Keep calm.

"Holy shit... did you just move your fingers?"

I looked at the person before me who had an appalled expression on his face.

I saw him holding a sharp pair of scissors in one hand but his other hand was hovering near the plug of the ventilator so me the insane person I had become let the world a message that I was indeed alive.

"MURDER" sadly I couldn't scream because my throat was dry so I ended up coughing sputtered alphabets.

"Ha! I knew you would be alive, like... why are you moving? Stay on the bed woman!"

My vision was split into two but I could make out the silhouette of the man before me who was dashing around like a mad man or maybe my head was spinning so that must be the reason why the world seemed to be upside down.

"Please don't stand up, go back and lie down on the bed. I mean no harm! I come for peace."

I wanted to smack the man for talking so loudly right into my ears. What could I do to shut him up? Stab his mouth with my smelly feet?

"NURSE! HELP ME!"

My head lolled back when I felt an army of people pulling and tugging my body till my back reached a soft mattress; I felt a sting on my arm and the next thing I know I was embraced into blackness once again.

"What did you do? What is she never wakes up again?"

"Calm down sir. I am trying my best."

"DON'T ASK ME TO CALM DOWN!"

"This is a hospital, not a debate room please shut up."

"We all have a freedom of speech, don't ask anyone to shut up. We should know proper etiquettes but you all need to learn some manners first. There's a patient in this room and instead of maintaining a calm aura all of you are creating a havoc."

"Nivea please keep your gyan to yourself."

"I wasn't giving you... oh look she grabbed my pinkie finger.

The little oxygen left inside my lungs was taken away when a million pairs of arms embraced my body and the next thing I know I lost my consciousness again.

***

"Please don't behave like I'm some kind of porcelain, honestly, I am FINE."

"Can't she pee while just lying on the bed? Like, can you attach some tube thingy in her body where her excretes just float out."

"No Ankit, she..."

"What if her stitches snap out? Wait did you make sure that none of your operating instruments were left inside her body nah? I will bloody sue you if something happens to my sister."

"Listen sir..."

"What if those sedatives make her permanently pass out?"

"SHUT UP" Ankit bolted towards my direction and engulfed me in his embrace. He hesitantly left me when I started to cough on his face.

Random people kept coming inside my room to meet me and ask about my health but my dad shooed them away when I got tired of repeating the same line in a loop.

"Honey, you are alive. You scared me."

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Zara standing next to a Farah who was not in her wheelchair.

"She... She..."

"Yes, beta I can stand now. It was going to be a surprise that I got prosthetic legs but you gave us all a bigger surprise."

Zara helped Farah back into her wheelchair because her legs started to pain. I felt tears welling u in my eyes when I saw Farah standing on her feet even if it was only for a few seconds.

Nitesh uncle has helped Farah as much as he could, Farah couldn't walk again but rather stand on her feet for a few seconds but something was better than nothing and she accepted what she got with open arms.

"She is going to be discharged today." The old nurse gave me a warm smile before leaving me alone in the room with my infinite thoughts.

I was changed into a fresh pair of clothes but I didn't leave the room till I spoke to my doctor.

"Honestly, all of this looks so filmy. You got shot yet you are alive instead of being dead ha... ok sorry I won't joke with you anymore. You were shot on the left side of your chest but your heart is on the right side so that's why you escaped from the bullet that didn't pierce through the lines that connect your heart. You had passed out for a few days but you had reached comatose for more than a month. I honestly thought you were going to die because your body was not responding to anything. Everything lies in the hands of fate. He is the one who brought you into the situation and he is the one who took you out. Who knows, he might out you back into the same place again in future?"

The condition of my heart actually saved me, I only remember being shot and blood was pooling around me before I lost consciousness. This was all a cruel game of fate but I am alive, I am breathing but what about my mother?

The doctor had already left the room so I waited till I could reach home and get the answers I needed.

Zara was taking me home because she wanted to make sure that I was physically present in-front of her. She kept having nightmares that I was going to vanish; Poof, just like that.

There was no celebration upon my arrival because I had asked them to keep everything num.

My dad just handed me a letter when I had approached him to get answers.

"I didn't read it. I just saw your name in this letter by your mother so I think she must have written it before the incident"

Nathalia,

By the time you read this letter I think I would be in jail for a few hours or maybe a few days and your uncle would be in the hospital.

I keep trying to get us back together as a family but no one is taking my side. Your uncle Nitesh has brainwashed my Ex so badly against me. There was a time when Shahid wanted me to get married to him and start a family but now he had second thoughts!

You are my daughter; nothing could take this title away. I wanted to harm Nitesh a bit so that Shahid succumbs to my wishes and takes me in along with you.

Your father lived without his brother for so long; he can survive without him again. Ankit is not his real child so let him stay back and take care of Nitesh.

Would everything be settled right? Don't worry; everything will go back to how it was. We can refresh everything and start again.

I would try to be at home more often, I will learn to live life like the way you both want to and we could be happy, all we need to do is try. I know my methods were wrong but could you blame me? I was desperate.

Things will fall back into space like nothing ever happened.

I re-read the letter, again and again, to make sure that what I read was not a product of my hallucination but it wasn't, nothing else was written so I crushed the paper into my fist.

"I am not going to ask you what was written in the letter but I want you to know that we are all there for you, I might not have been there for a major part of your life but I will spend the rest of my life to make up for it. I guess I never tried hard enough to stay? What's done is done so we can't do anything about it."

He kissed the crown of my head while soothing my back but I didn't burst into tears. I was done crying, I didn't want to wallow in self-pity anymore.

"Your friends are waiting for you outside; you should stay with them more for now."

I smiled at my dad before making my way outside in the backyard. Zara had stopped me because she had made a flower braid and didn't allow me to pass till I wore it.

Farah was wheeling around in the lake area by a man of her age who was leaning very close to her. I could see Farah blushing.

Guess cupid decided to spread some love.

Bobby was smacking lee on the head while he tried to pull Rajiv's pants down. Nivea was standing near them with a small book in her hand.

"For four years I have been tolerating your brother but I could stand to tolerate another three set of monkeys."

Nivea glared at me while I laughed at her distraught expression. I had never seen her looking so restless.

"Lee, what are you trying to find inside of Rajiv's pants?"

Bobby glared at lee who mumbled incoherent words to himself.

"You see. There is something moving inside is thingy..."

What the hell was he blabbering?

"What thingy? Speak properly."

Hammy popped his head out of the buckle area in Rajiv's pants.

"HOW IN THE WORLD DID MY BABY REACH INSIDE YOUR PANTS? WHAT WERE YOU DOING? THIS IS NOT GOOD."

I plucked hammy off from Rajiv's clothes but Hammy began to nibble harder on him then we ended up crushing little Rajiv that made Rajiv hiss out in pain.

Luckily or unluckily Ankit was passing by with an ice-cream in his hand so Lee snatched it from his and stabbed little Rajiv with the Popsicle to reduce the hot pain with coldness.

A few moments passed by in patronizing silence then we all began to laugh like mad men while Rajiv howled in pain.

We all lay on the grass with a big smile on our face.

"Hey, what's that piece of paper in your hands?" Ankit asked while pointing his fingers towards the letter in my hands.

"Oh, it's nothing important, just a piece of trash. I will be right back."

I began to walk away till I reached in-front of a fire place. I didn't have any second thoughts before I threw the paper ball inside the fire place; I watched the flames rising up and paper crackled up burning away the evidence of its existence.

Nivea was standing right behind me but she didn't utter a single word. She just hugged me tightly, she was trembling but we both passed comfort to each other in heavy silence.

I don't know for how long we stood there but Nivea pulled away from me and placed the book in my hands.

"I have some work to do, can you take care of this book for some time? I will be back soon. Take care and be happy while I am gone ok?"

I furrowed my eyebrows at her weird behavior but dismissed my thoughts when I saw her walking back inside our home.

"Where is Nivea? She told me she was going to fetch you back."

Bobby spoke while looking behind me only to find no one.

"She told me she will be back and handed me this book."

We all waited for some time but the night had risen and there was no sign of Nivea. No one had seen her since noon time other than my dad who gave us a small smile.

Ankit's hands began to tremble after he looked through the book in my hand.

"Nivea... she left." he rasped out slowly.

I flipped through the pages of the book where I spotted a few photos of the Ngo followed by a description. I reached the end of the page which was a snap of all of us happily smiling at the camera before Holi had begun.

"I met really good people here; they were more like a family to me. I came to this Ngo when I was 23 and now I am 26. I don't stay in a place for a long time but somehow this place was an exception. It was not just a place but had become my home. I started to get mushy and develop feelings but feelings crush us, they destroy us so I plan to leave the day Nathalia gains consciousness. I was never looked upon as normal in the society but everyone here made me feel human, made me feel alive. I have learned a lot of things here which I hope to carry and pass on to the new people I meet. I hope they all remember me forever and always just like how I would never forget them.

Aashiyana is forever engraved in my heart. My heart needs more beat but sadly this can be done only if I go to more places. I have to go and I guess my time has finally come.

We tried to find Nivea but she had managed to leave without a trace of her existence.

"She is like the wind, never dwelling in one place. Who knew she would have actually left without even giving us a proper good bye?"

Ankit was the only one who was more affected by her departure than any of us. He clutched Nivea's book in his hands while mumbling about trying to meet her again.

A few days passed followed by a few months followed by two years but we never got any message about Nivea.

I had moved on because of my dad. He made me forgive and forget the acts of my mother saying she would have done it all out of misguidance.

Maybe in her next birth, she would be a wonderful person? Maybe in a parallel universe, we could have been living a normal life? Maybe all she needed was someone to hear out but she never opened up. She could have taken help, spoken more to people yet she framed her own questions and answers inside her mind thinking that's the way everything works or should work.

Life was going on normally; I wasn't running away from my problems anymore. I was learning to embrace whatever that came to as a lesson.

I have made three wonderful friends who I know would be with me through my entire life and even if we were all physically away from each other, we would always be there for each other.

Ashiyana was not just a Ngo but a new home, not for me but for thousands of people.

We all found love for each other.

I was running away from something only to run into something better and worse. I ran away not because I was a coward but because I knew I would always end up running into something better; ultimately that's what happened. I have a loving family of thousands of people who hope for a better future and a simple life.

Sometimes you run not just because it is a race track, you run because you want the satisfaction of breaking the ribbon with the people who are a part of your life.

I, Nathalia Beckham Kaur Khan had finally won the race of life but this is not the end. This is only the beginning of more future race tracks that's going to be longer, rougher and tougher...

Life is just a race, you can either aim for the win or you can make amendments with your racing mates so that you call all finish the race line together and create beautiful memories to cherish forever and always that would create a big win.

***

:') I have so much to say but I won't stuff my speech in this chapter. A special Thank you post will come up soon that maybe followed by a special Bonus chapter. I now mark this book complete <3 This is my second book (Novel/Novella) that is complete on wattpad.

I will rant in the next update xD

Thank you for reading this book people :*

0<lC