The Golden Cage

Prologue

Eva Stewart

The wind was chill, and the stars were perfectly illuminating the darkness of night. The glitter in the sky crumbled all my fears to dust beneath my feet.

The words, the lies, the hatred and the failure- they now lingered at distance.

"You were here?"a crisp dainty voice broke my trance.

I could hear his heartbeat against the back of my head. His soft breath was adorning my skin.

I turned back, and wanted to savour in the proximity of that moment.

"Do you remember?"he asked, "When we met first time, I told you, not to mess up with me" I nodded.

"But you never listen, do you?"He said in a slow tone.

Tears had poured in his eyes without any change in his facial expression. His face was showing pain and there was surrender & defeat in his voice.

"You messed up really bad with my heart, my soul & lastly my life."he completed.

"Had I?" I sniffed.

"No! It wasn't me but you. It was always about you. Then how I am to be blamed Agastya?"my tears took that lie as their cue and started streaming down my cheeks.

With a muttered curse, he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed. It felt remarkably like a hug.

"I'll find you again Eva. Then it will be not about me but us."He whispered.

I slightly moved back and gave a confusing look.

As a reflex action, he stepped forward. Just to take a curl of my hair between his fingers.

He was close enough that I could feel the warmth of his body and smell his cologne.

He leaned impossibly closer, the slender muscles in his forearm flexed. He bent his elbow to bring himself nearer to me, almost touching.

I was heady with the proximity and grew legitimately concerned that my heart might explode.

My eyes were automatically closed, but I shivered, and leaned into him- barely but it was a permission enough.

His mouth came down on mine and that was it. I was going to kiss him back, and was going to regret it. But at that moment, I couldn't bring myself to care.

My arms came up around his neck, his hands flattened against my back. I was up on the tips of my toes, kissing him back as fiercely as he was.

Before I could pretend away or taken aback, I heard a hiss of laughter in my ears. It was enough to jolt me back to reality.

I pulled away, unlocked my hands and stepped back.

"Going away from me is your choice now, but finding you again & that too for life is my promise." He said in a stern voice.

The voice which held a promise & maybe a demand.

"No" I moved my head negatively.

"This is the last time we are seeing each other."I replied.

I kept moving back while uttering those words. Those same words about which I was unsure myself.

With that my legs themselves started running other side.

"Fèach tù go luath darling." he yelled with a mocking tone.

I was running, I didn't know what I was afraid of more; to not able to see him again or from his promise of finding me.

But one thing was for sure, I discovered an indelible truth that day. I discovered that love isn't something that's necessary in life.

Moreover it's an emotion that's controlling our lives. The luxury that not many of us had without any pain attached to it.

Everyone think love set us free but I strongly disagree. It's a cage, a very painful one; whose bars are gilded with yearning, sacrifice, betrayal & unfulfilled dreams.

I realized that it's not a necessity but a luxury. The one which I can't afford. It was costing my freedom. But I let myself free.

No one would have power to hurt me again. I had set myself free from this golden cage.

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Key words

Fèach tù go luath darling - See you soon darling.

Author Note:

Hello everyone
After a good amount of time, I'm back with a new story. This time with something different.

This is the prologue of 'The Golden Cage' , if you like the plot. I will share the character sketch soon.

Would love to know your views in the comment section.

With love
Your author
Purva Narang