• Eternal Night •

14

"This is nice..." Shivaay mumbled. 

"Yeah..." Annika whispered and kept her head on his shoulder. 

They were sitting on the beach and looking at the sunset. Shivaay looked at everything more closely. He wanted to notice everything and remember it. He wanted to remember how this moment felt. How the wind felt in his hair, the noise of the waves, the birds chirping behind them and most importantly, Annika's presence beside him. 

But Shivaay wasn't happy. He thought that he would be. He wasn't. Ever since they had started the trip, Shivaay had felt a deep melancholy. This was going to be his last trip with her; that thought sat heavily on his heart. He wanted to be brave. It was tough. He kept slipping back into the same darkness. 

"Evenings are so weird, no?" he thought out loud while watching the sun go down. "Everything is so beautiful, bathed in golden light. But it is all so short-lived. Slowly but surely the light goes away and all that is left behind is the darkness, this night." 

Annika knew that he was comparing himself to the evening. 

"Every night ends. Morning always comes..." she said in a quiet voice. "One must just hang in there."

With a small smile, Shivaay turned towards Annika. "Hanging by a thread." 

Annika also turned towards him. "Sometimes, that's all one needs." 

She pressed her palm on his cheek. "I am scared. I know that you are scared too. But Shivaay, we will have to believe that this is solvable. If we don't have faith, then we will not win this." 

"Faith can't be bigger than science and facts, isn't it?" 

Annika sighed dejectedly. "No. But I want to try. I have no other option this time around." 

Shivaay whispered. "Anyway. We will see. Let's not talk about it. I am sorry I shouldn't have started that topic." 

Annika nodded. Holding his hand, she sat back on the lounge chair again. Shivaay asked, "Waise, can I ask you something?" 

"Yeah..." said Annika. 

"I am intrigued. Why did you choose me for marriage? I am sure you had good options. What did you see in me?" he asked. 

Annika smiled. "Respect. You were the only man who didn't see me as a prospective wife candidate. Your eyes saw me as another fellow human." 

"Really?" Shivaay narrowed his eyes in thought. "I don't remember anything. Actually, everything is so cloudy in my head that I don't even know what I was doing." 

She laughed. "Why is that?" 

"Come on!" Shivaay shrugged. "I was meeting you for the first time and that too for marriage. I was so nervous. I was literally shitting bricks." 

"Ew!" Annika scrunched her nose. "Kuch bhi."

"No, really!" Shivaay exclaimed. "I was very scared. But it all melted away when I saw you. You are just so...I don't know the word. But there was something very different about you. Something that was very different. I felt like I knew you." 

"Did you feel all that in our first meeting?" Annika raised her brows. "My god. The only thought in my head was that dialogue from Luck by chance...after so many gorillas, there is a chimpanzee. Say yes to the chimpanzee, Annika." 

Shivaay laughed. "Wow. I must say that my wife holds me in the highest regard." 

"I do!" Annika laughed. "On a more serious note, how did you feel so deeply about me?"