Abhira Off-Tracks: Short Stories

The Fate's Lesson - Part 10

Sorry for the super late update! I had thought of ending it there, but then I have 2 more alternate endings, so bear with me!

Recap - Ruby orders the men to finish the game. Jiya's police force had spotted Neil while Akshara and Ruby were spotted in the same place, near exit 16. Neil was found and sheltered by the police. Before Abhi or Kairav could reach Akshara, Ruby's goons blasted bombs at several spots, turning the place into a devastated land. 

A traumatised Abhimanyu sat near a little dead girl crying for Akshara. There was a deep burn on his leg, he was gasping for breath, but every cell of his body turned to where his heart was pulling him.

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Amidst the cries, the hullaballoo and the bodies lying on the ground laid a feeble figure, almost buried below the debris. Abhimanyu toppled over a tyre and fell right next to it, face first on the ground. He heard the crack of a bone in his left arm, but it hardly mattered now, for his own heart was being crushed under the weight of his helplessness. The sudden pounding of his heartbeats and the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach gave him the proof that his Akshu was close, and surely in a miserable state. Abhi rolled over to his back letting his tears flow and threw his arms on the ground.

And he froze.

Abhimanyu slowly turned his head to the right, at the sight of his hand brushing against a soft palm whose body was buried below the broken parts of a wooden trunk.

His heart stopped beating.

How could he not recognize that touch? It was the same fingers he had held onto, when he fell on top of a patient coming to his hospital with a panic attack, who had in fact sang him all the way to his peace. The fingers that strummed the guitar and the strings of his heart in the same rhythm, Abhimanyu could recognize this touch in thousands. It was impossible that he failed to recognize the very hand he dreamt of holding every single night, the hand that would clutch onto him every time he saved her from falling.

Abhimanyu stood up almost instantly and tried lifting the pieces of wood with all his might. He screamed in pain, not because his broken left arm was begging for mercy, but because his life was lying unconscious below the debris.

Kairav, Vansh and Jiya dashed to the spot hearing Abhimanyu's painful screams. Kairav's blood ran cold the moment Abhimanyu lifted the log of wood from Akshara's face.

"Mere bhaiya world ke best brother hain!"

"Akshu, Arohi, aap dono na bilkul bhi mat darna... kyunki aapka big bro haina aapke saath! Jab papa nahi honge, tab main aapka khayal  rakhunga!"

"Papa ki princess!"

"Mumma ki aankhon ke taare, Kairav aur Akshu sabse pyare!"

Kairav dropped to his knees, silently watching the scene unfold as Abhimanyu, and Vansh hurriedly threw away the debris while Abhimanyu lifted her hand to check for pulse. For the first time since his Naira mumma's death, he could see devastation standing at their door, ready to shatter the remnants of his family and snatch his reason for living once again.

Anyone who saw Abhimanyu, saw the sight of this man's whole world crumbling down to pieces. Abhimanyu shook in tremor at Akshara's dishevelled condition, the blood on her forehead running down her face, the bluish mark on her left leg and to his utmost horror, the imprints of physical abuse on her neck, shoulders, arms and legs. The doctor in him needed just one look at her feeble unconscious figure to decipher that Akshara may have been molested or worse, raped. He picked Akshara up and made her lie flat on an even land.