But was the fall prevented?
Ranbir caught her hand tightly. "Prachi! Prachi!", Shahana and Ranbir chanted. Priyanka was hell shocked at the scenario that unfolded in front of her. She stood white with shock for a whole minute, her mouth ajar, her brain fuzzy, not able to make sense of what was happening around her. She came back to her senses when she heard various voices shouting a certain name.
"Prachi. Prachi. Meri taraf dekho. Meri taraf.", Ranbir consoled her. "Kuch nahi hoga kuch nahi hoga." He kept on chanting as he slowly tried to pull her towards him.
Prachi was white with fear. She had closed her eyes tightly. Her feet were slowly sliding off the slippery ground. She kept on breathing heavily as the fear of falling down constantly nagged her. She couldn't make sense of anything. One moment she was enjoying the cool breeze, which was caressing her beautiful face gently, and then the other moment, she was standing on the edge of death, on the edge of the terrace. "Prachi? Prachi?", she could hear someone chanting her name with worry and fear etched in their voice. A particular male voice was the most dominant and seemed to provide her some solace. She opened her eyes slowly and met a pair of brown, caring and worry-filled ones.
He was none other than Ranbir Kohli. "Prachi? Prachi? Dekho meri aankhon mein. Kuch nahi hoga thik hain?", he kept on saying the same words. "Mera haath pakde rehna chodna mat.", he said, getting concerned like anything. "Hmm. Hmm.", she managed to say. "Shh daro mat thik hain? Daro mat. Daro mat.", he consoled her. "Shh. Ab dheere se upar aane ki koshish karo main tumhe khinchta hoon. T-thik hain?", he muttered to her. She hummed silently, trying to stay calm, while she was actually afraid to the core. But he was trying to help her, and she didn't want him to lose his concentration. "Haan haan bilkul aise hi dheere se.", Ranbir uttered, as she slowly tried to move upwards. "Ho gaya ho gaya bas ho gaya.", he tried to console her, while in reality, he was damn scared himself.
She slowly moved upwards as he kept on pulling her upwards. Yes, she was slowly straightening and reaching safely. Ranbir's heartbeat which seemed to have stopped a few moments ago, was coming back to normal. Shahana heaved a sigh of relief, watching her coming safely back. Even Prachi was relieved.
But destiny had planned something else for them. Prachi had almost reached the hard ground of the terrace when her foot slipped yet again.
Unaware of the forthcoming action, Ranbir had loosened his grip on her hand. She screamed loudly which caught the other's attention.
She started falling down from the terrace yet again. Ranbir immediately clasped her hand again, as she sensed her falling down. But this time, her hand left his. He tried to catch hold of her fingers but to no avail. It was too late now. Their fingers were very far away from each other's now. He bent down completely and tried to catch hold of her hands, but couldn't.
"Prachi!", he let out a heart-wrenching scream.
She stared at him with expressionless eyes while he stared back at her with his eyes displaying pure horror. He kept stretching his hand out to her, hoping that they might reach hers. But she was going away from him. The terrace was right above the third floor of the building.
As she fell from the terrace, the winds unwillingly whammed her body. Even the wind felt wistful to hurt her delicate body so dangerously. The earth too pulled the innocent soul towards her greedily. She glanced at the people standing above her, who stared back at her helplessly. However, her eyes moved towards those brown eyes of her friend, whom she said to have hated completely. But today, he had tried to do all what was possible to him to save her. And what was that in his eyes? Pity? Fear? Or wait, was it ... the fear of losing her? But why? Why would he feel so? He didn't care about her, right? Then why was he af...
She couldn't think anymore. Her mind stop working and she began to lose consciousness. Her arms, which were extended upwards in the hope that someone might catch them, began to lie flat and spread wide. All the sounds around her stopped as the cold air filled her ears. The cold air began to make her eyes go watery. Her feet lost all the strength they had. She lost almost all of her consciousness now and dangled from the air.
With all of the last piece of consciousness that was left within her, she prayed for the fall to come soon. She couldn't bear the pain anymore.
And as though answering her prayers, she finally hit the ground.
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All the people who were present in the party hall suddenly stopped whatever they were doing when they heard Ranbir scream.
"Kya hua achanak se ye aise kyu chillaya?", Vikram shouted.
"Uncle vo Prachi bolke chillaya!", Aryan exclaimed.
"Kuch hua hain. Aawaz kahan se aayi?", Meera asked everybody.
"Aunty upar se aayi aawaz.", Aryan told them.
"To chalo upar chalkar dekhte hain kya hua hain!", Mitali exclaimed, biting her nails.
"Haan chalo!", Aryan ran straight upstairs as everyone else followed him.
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They reached the terrace and saw Ranbir, Shahana and Priyanka standing there white with shock.
The Kohlis quickly went towards Ranbir who was sitting on his knees, staring at something far off. He was completely quiet and didn't even notice that his family was shaking him hard.
"Ranbir? Ranbir? puttar kya hua?", Dida shook him asked, while the other two Kohlis and Aryan did the same.
On getting no response from him, Aryan moved towards Shahana who was standing like a ghost, staring bleakly at something. "Sahana? Sahana?", Aryan tried to bring her back to her senses. He had no idea about what had happened, and so, was shocked to see that she hadn't opposed or retorted him for calling her Sahana. Something was definitely not right. "Shahana?", Aryan forcefully turned her towards him and was shocked to find her face glazed with tears. Shahana stared at Aryan in a lost way and managed to say, "V-o ... v-ahan ... kh-khadi ... dh-dhakka ... gir ..." She couldn't speak further and collapsed on the ground as people gathered around her and started bombarding her with questions.
The atmosphere suddenly went wild. The skies went pitch black all of a sudden. A loud thunder made the people shudder, whereas the flash of lightning that followed it ran shivers down their spines. Mother Nature seemed to be enraged today. Her wrath seemed to be savage. People shivered as the warm winds of the Diwali turned into chilly ones.
"Kuch to bohot galat hua hain.", Aryan whispered dangerously. He had never seen Shahana in such a state, and this was the reason why he had felt so. "Kuch bohot bada.", Vikram agreed, as he saw Ranbir's state.
Aryan suddenly remembered something and immediately rushed towards Ranbir. "Ranbir? Ranbir? Ranbir Prachi kahan hain?", he asked him somewhat hyperventilated, as a sudden fear arose in head when he remembered Shahana's words.
Ranbir came out of his trance as he heard Prachi's name. He glanced around him and ran away immediately muttering like an idiot, "Prachi? Prachi!"
"Ranbir? Kya hua?", the others asked, but he ran away without answering anybody.
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