Raging yet foamy grey clouds hovered over the once blue sky. Gigantic black waves crashed against the white sides of the enormous cruise. Thundering rain dribbled on the idle rocks, deserted islands and various ships in the Pacific Ocean.

The cruise was divided into many basement chambers. Silent whimpers from scared teenagers and louds sobs from frightened kids surpassed the wild ambience outside.

In a particularly cosy chamber of minimum red, gold stripping and sea emerald and blue, seven members sat close to each other- women comforting the children and men talking about diverse topics as politics and weather.

"Mum, I need to use the washroom." said a frightened teenager of fifteen, Rhea after having a meal.

The middle-aged lady Sadhna nodded. Rhea moved briskly yet hesitantly towards the bathroom. Fifteen minutes gone yet the girl had not returned.

Her father Sarthak had gone pale with worry. Sadhna blinked in comfort towards her husband and went to check on her daughter.

After knocking on her door, she asked but was met with a deadly silence. Shoving away every negative thought, she pushed open the door only to find a dead body. Her daughter had a ghostly look on her face and dark marks around her cartilaginous rings.

Her legs betrayed her and she kneeled beside her daughter and on the doctor instinct, first examined the marks and concluded that it was the consequence of a deadly poison. Tears covered her entire face and a noticeable lump formed in her throat. However, wiping away her tears she considered the opportunity of saving her daughter and walked up with a zigzag pattern, held Rhea to the hall of the chamber.

Silenced by another terrible shock, she found her younger son- a nine-year-old boy slumped in the corner. Vir had a blank expression on his face.

Freshly formed tears covered her whole face as she saw her husband lying dead in a corner with two more of their companions stabbed with a knife and her friend Alice lying in her own pool of blood. Alice had grabbed the knife loosely in her right hand as her left wrist was battered.

"You are a betrayer in the veils of a friend. Was your jealousy so huge that you killed my family and companions? On top of that, ashamed of yourself for the deed you did that chose to suicide?" Sadhna spoke in a ridiculously coarse and heavy voice to a half dead Alice.

All the opportunities to confront the half dead lady and grieve more was snatched away by Sadhna as the announcement of the ship hitting with a lone huge rock was made.

Wiping her tears, she spent a couple of moments with her dead family before holding Vir close to her heart and running towards the lifeboats. Thundering rain dribbled more as she adjusted herself on the boat.

Her numb mind didn't register her son tugging her with himself on the vacant island and giving a lopsided smirk. Vir reached out for a knife in his bag but before he could even try to kill his mother, tremendous waves took him with them and his shout was surpassed in the wild rain.

Sadhna sat there in a state beyond human understanding. She might look numb, might look throttled, might look broken because none knew. Her life was shattered, but only if she knew that her survival and family's demise meant a lot to the life of a seventeen-year-old vulnerable boy.

● /*●

"Breathe deeply, until sweet air extinguishes the burn of fear in your lungs and every breath is a beautiful refusal to become anything less than infinite. Inhale the future, yes, exhale the past." a sweet voice reached his ears.

His hands reached to wipe the sweat from his forehead and he opened his eyes slowly as if shutting them open rapidly would break them. His breathing was rapid and ragged, chest heaving up and down, his state not less than a traumatised human, which he unfortunately was. His insides were burning in discomfort yet his brain couldn't analyse that all.

"That's it, dear boy. You have crossed the major obstruction against your well-being." the voice said again.

He looked up and found his favorite smile directed down at him. The dusk coloured lady was his only hope in the crude world.

"Thie was your fifth session, Dev. Some more in some months and dare anyone taunt you then." owner of the voice, psychiatrist Asha Bose spoke softly.

"I am going to be fine? Mom?" he asked with a fear yet hope in his voice.

"All will be well." Asha replied with a throaty voice.

She radiated motherly aura, and so his supposedly only support system- actually his psychiatrist came to be his emotional adoptive mother.

"You are stable Dev. Do you know what does this indicate? The personality which last resides in you positive enough to always find you pragmatic. You have conquered over the dark..." her remarks signified that he was healing, yet many stages were left to be crossed.

He watched Asha Bose walk out of his chamber towards her comfy cabin after giving him a comforting smile at a professional distance of few feet. The warmth he felt left with her and he laid down closing his eyes, fighting with his inner demons and long hours of horrifying nightmares.

● /*●

Asha Bose processed in the state of her priority patient. He passed the most crucial stage of his disorder which was worthwhile yet she could figure that he was not sharing everything with her. His traumatic past was unknown to her and therefore, she didn't know how to deal with his nightmares and fears.

Settling on the lilac velvet sofa, she dumped her bag in the other corner and waited for her only daughter to greet her.

Her line of thoughts soon came to a halt as she felt the side of her sofa drip.

She took the glass of water from her daughter while keenly observing her posture and facial expressions to guess her mood. She soon concluded that Sonakshi was in a grumpy mood.

Sonakshi removed her temporary glasses and furiously blotted up tears from her cheeks. Asha held her hand in midway and pulled her in a warm embrace. She knew that she was never able to give time to her daughter- being a single parent and a successful psychiatrist in a city like Delhi. Overall, she didn't have many true friends in whom she could confide her feelings and their relatives were never genuine. Sonakshi felt alone in the world.

"Your patient?" a sobbing Sonakshi asked while keeping her head on her mother's chest

"Ah, he is recovering Sona." Asha felt Sonakshi nodding.

"What did you say about his problem the other day?" she asked.

Asha sighed audibly but continued, "Although I am not allowed to disclose my patient's case study to anyone as professional ethics, I can give you a brief idea of what he is suffering from."

Asha kissed Sonakshi's forehead and patted her head before continuing.

"Dev Dixit is an orphan with traumatised past. At the age of nine, which is the only age to have this disorder, got suffered from a rare psychological condition- dissociative identity disorder. To protect himself from his traumatising childhood, his brain created several identities. The various identities control a person's behaviour at different times. The condition can cause memory loss, delusions or depression. In these numerous identities, one is to which the victim can relate. In most cases, it is a child with the age around nine- who sets out to destroy the victim.

In today's session, we worked on destroying these identities, one of which should remain. The remaining can be any instead of the nine-year-old one to instil the personality of positivity. We were successful and he is in a few percentages of people who can overcome it." Asha said.

"Should I be lucky to at least have you, mom?" Sonakshi asked feeling berated of herself for being so moody.

"I know that I barely give you time these days, Sona. We're fortunate to have each other, definitely-" she paused. Sometimes being a psychiatrist too didn't help her to participate in such intense conversations.

"Does he have any kind of nightmares too?" Sonakshi asked sensing her mother's hesitance.

"Absolutely." Asha stopped sensing something worthy for both her daughter and almost son.

"He doesn't expect visits from anyone except me and some medical helpers. We, mostly you can visit him and open up to each other. As his psychiatrist, I can give you the permission as you are already eighteen and he does require some external intervention." Asha suggested.

She looked at Sonakshi and she knew that behind her stunned façade, Sonakshi meant acceptation.

● /*●

Cold, damp and dark black room suffocated him. His head was spinning. His attempts to stand up were in vain as his legs felt twisted like noodles. His limbs were bruised, arms cut and face contused. His eyes opened furiously only to come across a dark, smelly, alcoholic and disgusting manly figure with a sapwood stick in his right hand.

"Please don't." he pleaded but it was surpassed by the wild beatings on his already bruised body.

More and more contusions, blood out of his mouth and nose, there was no way even Asha Bose could save him. He was going to get lost in darkness.

Darkness!

Lone Darkness!

He jerked open his eyes to find the most beautiful hazel eyes with steaks of emerald and electric blue boring into his own black ones. His rapid breathing didn't help him as he felt disturbing fire in sore throat. His body was covered in cold sweat and limbs full of physical stress.

"I'm here for you. Take as long as you need. Everything is going to be just okay. You are relaxing..." her melodious voice soothed his pain and fear. His state of half paralysis left him and he jerked out in the reality.

"Get up. We can talk, right? You can share what happened with you?" the beautiful girl of his age asked while stretching a hand.

Feeling lost in her, he stared at her hand before grabbing it hastily as if his last support system would vanish. And so, he talked, for the first time emptied his soul in front of a stranger. How a rich family lured his orphanage owner into selling him to them when he was barely six. How the family turned out be just an alcoholic man who was toxically sadistic and took pleasure in beating him mercilessly and giving him scraps of stale bread. How his only support turned out be the seven people he could connect to- Sadhna, Rhea, Vir etc. How his last resort of support was Asha Bose.

"She's, my mother. And I am your friend?" Sonakshi took a deep breath and extended a hand towards him. Dev stared at her hand before shaking it and crying loudly at the prospect of someone considering him their friend.

And so, the two friends started their journey together in their lives. Sonakshi being Dev's support led him to set out free from those chains of vulnerability after a couple of years. Dev being Sonakshi's companion led her to believe she had someone and become the advocate she aspired to become and now only for getting justice for Dev.

● /*●

"How does it feel Devil? The alcoholic is finally getting his punishment." twenty-nine-years old advocate Sonakshi said with a lopsided grin while punching a twenty-eight-years old author Dev.

"Free from the past, Akshi. Shut that grin of yours though, otherwise I will-" Dev hesitated.

"You will?" she asked inquisitively.

"I will kiss you." he blurted out abruptly.

"Wha-" she was gobsmacked.

"I have shared my golden years with you as a friend. You want to make me a better person. But I want to become better with you at my side forever, Sonakshi." Dev took a deep breath sighing looking at the high court. He would do it now, better than later.

"I love you, Sonakshi" he said.

"You love me, as a friend, right?" Sonakshi asked stammering with an intense gaze.

"I love you as a man loves a woman." he said.

Sonakshi stared at him for seconds which felt like hours, "Can you hug me, Mr. Dixit?"

Devil opened his arms and his Akshi jumped in his embrace. The feeling was beyond human explanation and consciousness. So pure and divine, the friends to lovers united. The friendship started with a simple comfort conversation towards letting Dev find his interest in books and stories. And now reached the point of nothing but solace and rectitude. Dev had thought that being demisexual was a curse, but he was so emotionally attached to Sonakshi that he couldn't help but fall in love. Sonakshi always knew that this man was what Sonakshi had wanted in her life the minute she started understanding him.

At this point, Asha Bose knew that letting DevAkshi meet was her best decision in life.  

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