Shivaay looked around himself. He was in a hospital bed. There was nothing around him except a window at the far end of the room. There wasn't even a door. Shivaay tried to get up, but couldn't. It felt like someone had strapped him to the bed using invisible restraints. He thrashed around wildly and shouted, hoping for someone to listen to him. He had no idea for how long he struggled before he gave up and fell back on the bed. Trying to catch his breath, he laid there and stared at the ceiling. It was an old fashioned false ceiling with thermocol. He counted the total number of grids. And then again.
How had he landed there? Had someone kidnapped him and put him in a secret room? But then, how did he not remember anything? And why would anyone kidnap him and keep him in a hospital? Something did not add up.
If there was no door, how was he going to escape? Could he use the window?
He was wondering about such things when he glanced back at the ceiling. It was no longer white. Suddenly, blood was dripping from the grid joints. Drops of blood fell on the white sheets of his hospital bed, on his clothes, on his skin. Shivaay shrieked and tried to move away. He stared in complete horror as the blood trickled down and stained him.
"Annika!" Shivaay shouted helplessly. "Om! Rudra!"
But no one heard him. He tried to cover his face with his hands, but his arms refused to move. He cried, "Please stop."
The blood didn't stop falling. It fell with more intensity. Shivaay screamed in a last-ditch effort, "Let me out of here. Please! Help me out."
"Shivaay..." Annika's soothing voice filtered through the bare concrete walls. Shivaay felt her touch his face. He looked around in bewilderment. She wasn't there. How was he able to feel her?
Out of no where, he felt her lips on his forehead. Then on his eyes. It was her. He could recognize her anywhere. And then she spoke. "I am so happy baby!"
"Annika! Where are you?" Shivaay yelled. "Help me. I am trapped. There is blood all around me. Where are you?"
"Hey Papa..." Annika talked without listening to him.
Papa? Shivaay looked around the room. Where was Shakti? Why couldn't he see his father?
"You look so happy!" chuckled Shakti.
Shivaay thrashed on the bed again. His father was around. He could hear him. Why was he not visible to him? Was something wrong with his eyes?
"Of course!" said Annika. "His reports are so much better than the previous time. You know what did the Doctor say? We can wake him up soon if Shivaay shows similar progress!"
Progress? Wake up? Reports? Shivaay didn't understand a thing of what Annika was saying. What was wrong with him? Was he asleep? Or was someone impersonating Annika and his father? Was he in a seclusion cell? He had no idea.
But before he could think anymore about it, the blood around him rose to an unbelievable level. As the metallic taste of blood entered his mouth, Shivaay tried to jerk up. He couldn't. In a few seconds, the red fluid drowned him completely. Shivaay didn't feel anything after that.
****************************************************
"I am so happy..." Om said.
Annika smiled to see some spark in his voice after a harrowing and week full of torment. They both were sitting on the small couch in the ICCU room and staring at Shivaay on the bed. His chest gently rose up and down as the mechanical ventilator pushed air into his lungs. In a few days, he would breathe on his own too, thought Annika.
The Doctors had taken new scans of his brain in the morning and the reports had been encouraging. Shivaay's brain was slowly healing. The swelling had gone down considerably. Though he wasn't out of the woods yet but he was doing much better.
"Me too..." Annika mumbled in a relieved voice. "That Doctor was briefing me about Shivaay's rehabilitation post this. It sounded tough but if he was telling me that, then he knows that Shivaay is going to make it."
"I was there with you!" Om smiled. "I heard all of this."
Annika smiled sheepishly and took him in a side hug. The excitement of seeing Shivaay a little better was making her giddy with joy. She didn't know what she was going to do when Shivaay would actually wake up.
"What are hallucinations though?" asked Annika.
"Well," Om rubbed her arm. "Hallucinations are also dreams. But everything seems so real in a hallucination that one is convinced that they are real. Unlike a dream, all five senses are active in a hallucination."
"So Shivaay is having them now?" she quizzed again.
"Perhaps. The Doctor said that when his brain activity reaches a certain level, they give him drugs to keep it down and restrict that activity. So I am assuming that the few minutes the drugs take to work, that is the time when Shivaay might be aware of his surroundings. But the side effects might alter the reality and make him have hallucinations. Or nightmares. Depends..." answered Om.
Annika closed her eyes. It all sounded crazy. "Did you ask him about the blood in his mouth?"
"Yes. That was a one-off thing. Shivaay's throat must be hurting because of the ventilator tube. Like a vessel burst. Nothing to worry about..."
Annika looked at Om's serious face and felt her heart clench. She hated how both the brothers looked. So she smiled and mused, "Ah I see. I thought that all the screaming, shouting and yelling Shivaay usually does is showing its after-effects now."
Om's shoulders shook with mirth. "You know if that was the case then we would have had him vomit blood."
Annika laughed but soon mellowed down. "I really hope that we can end this soon. I can no longer see Shivaay like this."
Om's vision clouded. He couldn't either. But some things had to run their course. For the umpteenth time, Om told Annika, "He is going to be fine."
He pressed a small kiss on Annika's head. "But you are worrying me. You need to vent. Look, I am here. Cry if you want to."
Annika looked up. Om was sincere. But she politely refused. "No Om. I will cry but only in Shivaay's arms. I love you but only Shivaay has the right to console me. The only man who can pick up my pieces and put them together is Shivaay. No one else."
******************
Happy weekend!
