In my dreams you're mine,

In my life, you're just a dream.

.Rahul POV.

It was another series well done, another win in our crown. I didn't realize there was some kind of pressure on my chest until it got completely off my chest after scoring heaps of runs in England. I contributed to the team's win. I made the people who always believed in me so proud. It was such a happy moment for me, winning the test series, performing well and sharing the moment with my fav people in the whole world.

Now that the series is over and there's no tournament for the upcoming two or so weeks. I couldn't help but imagine a relaxing schedule for myself. A schedule that'll certainly involve heaps of sleep and some food and exercises too. But, I'll undoubtedly stay on my bed cuddling with Simba binge-watching shows.

And miss the ICT craziness. Well, maybe not miss that too much. I mean, after all, Virat bhaiya and yes, I definitely won't ever address him as bhaiya face to face, will certainly call and video calls me like minimal twice a day and let's not add the number of memes and other stuff he groups shares, just because he can.

So, yeah, I won't miss the crazy that much for it'll find me virtually too and it's just two weeks without them. So, right now, I was totally in the mood of enjoying the peace as much as I can.

My driver, yes, I have a driver, his name is Murugan. I call him kaka. He is like double my age but he is a very kind man. He tells me many stories while driving me to and fro through today he is silent letting the music play, maybe he understood I'm tired. I've slept in the car like loads of time, after, returning from a tour. So, maybe he doesn't want to disturb my rest.

I had just closed my eyes to rest them a little. No, I wasn't trying to sleep because a certain Kohli will have my head if I don't answer his calls. Why? Because my captain has this bad habit of worrying like parents. He wants all of us to inform him when we land and reach our homes. It's like the first thing he wants us to do, quite like worried parents, ordering their kids to call them after reaching the place they went too.

So, I wasn't that surprised that my phone started ringing just a few seconds after I closed my eyes. I was certain, it was a certain Kohli calling to ask why haven't I called and where am I? But it wasn't.

It was an unknown number flashing on my screen. For a second, I thought to ignore the call. I mean, I was tired and hoping to nap. Why should I answer an unknown call but the next second I thought I should pick up the call. Not many had my personal number. So, it might be an important call or my friends might be pranking me, anything was possible.

"Hello, Is this Mr KL speaking?" An unknown gruff voice asked as soon as I picked up the call. Well, right now it seemed like my friend's prank call to me. Were they really this faltu to prank call me after like spending three months together? still, I decided to humour them.

"Yes, speaking," I said as professionally and as seriously as I could muster.

"I'm sorry to disturb you sir but your contact was saved as an emergency contact in Miss Lily's contact list," The man spoke in an apologetic tone and I felt my heart thunder with fear and nerves. I last heard from Lily like five years ago when I was still a struggling cricketer not the star batsmen of the ICT.

"What...What happened? Is Lily okay?" I asked the ominous feeling emitting from the call, too much for my still helplessly in love with her heart, it's not like I hadn't tried to move on. I had but I couldn't. I still loved her too much even though I could never tell her so as anything but a friend.

"I'm sorry to inform you, sir. Miss. Lily isn't okay. She is admitted to the city hospital from the last week. She asked us to contact you," The man informed in his grim tone and I felt my heart hammer. What happened to her? Why did she ask them to contact me only? Was she alright?

I didn't know. I just knew that my heart was hammering very painfully and It was getting hard to breath. I was anxious and afraid.

"I'll be there," I informed the man and disconnected the call and asked Kaka to drive towards the civil hospital.

Numerous questions marred in my brain. What was Lily doing in a civil hospital? Why was she there? The last I checked, her husband was an heir to a very rich family. They were well off and it was one of the reasons for her father rejecting me. My family and I were kinda mediocre in front of that family. Plus, Lily never saw me as anything but her best friend and the guy she had to write notes for in the university.

While for me, she was everything. She was like the most beautiful dream ever made. The sand of the sandman igniting dreams and I...I wasn't her dream catcher yet, I found her in poems and stories. She was a book, I never wanted to lose.

Lily was this vibrating full of life being, outspoken and wild displaying a myriad of emotions with her eyes. She was expressive in a way, I wasn't and yet, she was my sunshine. The sunshine to my dreams, the motivator to my dark days. My best friend.

She was the girl that never truly knew what I felt and here, I was rushing through the corridors of the civil hospital because of her. Kaka had gone in and collected the information about her ward and stuff and though, I really was afraid of someone recognizing me. I threw caution in thin air for her. I've always done all kind of out of character stuffs for her.

And I really shouldn't have worried, people here were too busy in their own business to pay someone else any attention. It still took me sometimes but I reached her room.

And my heart died a painfully slow horrible death.

I didn't quite understand which memory was more painful for me. The memory of our last meet or now, the memory of our first meet after years. I never expected her to find her in a hospital.

Alone.

Broken.

She looked so pale, fragile, vulnerable and hurt. How did the vibrant girl full of sunshine turn into this broken being? Can the sun turn into the moon? Can the sun really ever need someone else light to shine?

I don't know.

I just knew I never wanted to see her like this ever.

"Lily,"

Her name escaped my lips like a holy prayer. A soft whisper. A mumble.

"Loki!!! You came," she sounded surprised, really surprised, like she didn't expect me to really come.

"Of course, I came. Was there really a time when you called your Loki and your Loki didn't come?" I asked her softly taking her hand in mine.

She smiled in reply. Even her smile lacked its usual lustre. She looked so broken and thin. She was just skin and bones merging with the hospital whites.

The dark purplish bruises on her hand making my heart bruised. How can you feel someone's pain like your own? My mind demanded, you just need to feel deeply, my heart supplied.

"What happened?" I asked her, scanning the various marks on her face and body. Some purple, some black, some faded yellowish. Her body seemed like a canvas of bruises standing against her ice kissed skin.

"Life. My beautiful people turned into hellish nightmares," She replied with a broken smile. The hollows in her eyes reflecting light and the ghosts of the past.

"Lily!!"

"Loki! Please, I know, I'm asking too much. I know I'm being too selfish now but I can't trust anyone but you. Everyone turned into monsters and I can't let it happen. I know, I'll die. I know, I don't have a lot of time but please, please will you do this one last thing for me?"  There was a desperate note in her feeble voice. A plea in her eyes. Her grasp on my hand-turned deadly tight and I didn't know what turned my sunshine to this shadow?

"You won't die, Lily. You won't. I'll shift you to the best hospital. You'll get the beat treatment. You'll live," I promised her. I believed this. I could save her. It wasn't too late till now.

Or

Was it?

"No, No, you can't...I feel it, Loki. I feel it but promise me, promise me you'll do this for me. Promise me, please. You won't leave her alone. You won't let them have her. Promise me, you'll love and protect her. Promise me!!" If I thought, she was desperate before I didn't know what to call her now. She was desperate and resolute clutching on me with her whole power.

"I promise but who?" I asked confused. Who is she asking me to protect? I didn't quite know but I knew when she pointed towards the side of her bed.

And for the first time, since, my arrival I noticed the baby wrapped in a bundle lying beside her. The baby was asleep and for the first time, I saw a genuine smile on her face. A smile which didn't involve the moving of her lips but her eyes were smiling.

"They'll kill her if they know about her," She whispered "just like they killed my three other babies, I never got to hold any of my girls beside her, you know"

She was broken.

A broken mother with lost children.

I could see it now.

"Oh, Lily!! Why didn't you call?" I asked her. I would have saved her. I would have done everything to help her. I let her go for her happiness.

Not this.

Never this.

"I was stupid but you have to protect her Loki. She doesn't have anyone besides me and I'll be gone soon. Will you look after her? Will you protect her? Will you love her?" Her voice was faint and breaking yet determined. It was a mother's voice trying her best to fight for her child's safety even with her dying breaths.

I had never heard her sound so low, so desperate, so determined.

"I'll," I nodded. I would do anything for her. I always did. I'll save her too their would be a way. She'll get to live with her daughter. She'll be happy.

She smiled at me.

One beaming smile.

And I stayed with her the whole day. Forgetting all about my tierdness, I watched her sleep. I talked to her about the good old days and I got to know her history from the nurses.

A victim of domestic violence and female fortified. It was a painful story about devils in humans clothing. No, not devils for devils were just too. They didn't differentiate between boys and girls, did they? The nurse talked about the poor baby to born in the hospital. Her chances of survival were slim too.

After every torture her mum went through she was malnutritioned and too small to be really healthy. I was ready to do anything to save both of them. It was night and I decided to stay with her here. She was fine all evening we talked about the good happy days. Our days.

But suddenly something changed. She kept on looking at the baby and me, she kept on looking at us with watery eyes. She asked for water. I helped her drink it. She ate her whole dinner. She laughed too and then it all ended. I didn't know then that it was the lamp at it's brightest before extinguishing.

"Loki!!" She called me softly.

"Yes,"

"Don't break my promise, like everyone else," she told me, a sad look on her face.

"I won't," I meant it.

"Please, protect her, love her, don't... don't let her be like me,please, take care of her, please,love her, promise me," She begged, her voice suddenly faint, tears seeping down painfully from her eyes.

"I'll Lily, I promise." I promised, throat clogged with emotions. I couldn't see her like this. I never wanted this to happen.I did everything for her smile, for her happiness, for her love.

How did she end up like this then?

Why?

"Love her!" She smiled, one last teary heart breaking smile. I could only watch and do nothing as the light slowly diminished from her eyes. She left.

Leaving behind a loudly wailing infant and an equally broken and wailing best friend, for she'll always know me as just that, her best friend.

I couldn't help it. I couldn't stop crying. I never thought I'll lost her like this. I never thought she'll die like this in front of my eyes. We will be so close and so far.

I watched her body being loaded in the ambulance after discharge formalities. I watched as she was taken to be cremated by kaka. I couldn't go. I've to keep my promise to her, didn't I?

I won't be like others. I loved her and I'll keep my promise to her till my dying breathes with watery eyes, I looked at the bundle in my arms and the birth certificate in my hand.

K.R. Nova written on it.

Yes, I'll keep my promises to her. All my promises to her. My heart may have gone with her, maybe my soul too but I'll still keep my promises.

After all, this was the woe of one-sided true love.

You might never truly have them but you won't ever stop loving them.

And I'll die before I broke my promise to her.

~to be continued~