Sense & Sensibilities

What happens next ....

Arjun Rawte thinks he knows people on a surface level- as a criminal and non- criminal one. The segregation is pretty simple in his mind, he mainly go by his instinct which has never failed him- albeit once. He has clear lines for people who are close to him, who are supposed to be close but no really, and some what ifs which didn't see light of the day. On some particularly hard moments, he thinks about those what ifs and goes into a spiral.

This day was a particularly hard day for him- Roshni's birthday- and his mind keeps going the last time they were together, how he had surprised her by coming early from work and took her to this fancy restaurant, and the chain he gifted her which now hung around his neck. The way she smiled, how deliriously happy she was during the dinner and after, how her eyes sparkled as she whispered I love you- she was so easy to please. Simple gestures, coming straight from heart, and she would melt.

So no wonder he kept losing focus on and off the entire day, leading upto the moment when he got shot and Chotu had to carry him away from the carnage as Rathore kept shouting in his ears. The bloody shirt soaked through him, and no matter how much he tried to be lucid, after a while his eyelids started to drop shut as his head hit the pillow inside ambulance.

Not before seeing her face before he lost consciousness.

He woke up post a horrid dream where Roshni was lying in a pool of blood as he wept next to her. When he opened his eyes, the face had changed. As if his body reacted to the unbelievable scene- he pulled off the duvet, ready to get the hell out of his hospital room and his twisted minds who keeps seeing alive people dead.

_

Rathore was not surprised to see Riya calling. He had started it when she left for abroad, in the pretense of taking her opinion on work. What he wanted was to keep an eye on her- she was not in a good mental &physical state when she left, he wanted to be sure she was settling well. It became thrice a week phone call and once a week with team, everyone updating everyone about their life. From the little she shared- she never spoke about her own life much in contrast to deduce others- she sounded ok. The educational path was obviously less stressful for her.

Somehow it became an unspoken rule to never talk about Rawte. He did these calls to get away from him- as he was a giant figure in his life, he was everywhere and it was suffocating to make a space for himself. In the initial months post Riya left, Rawte was an insufferable asshole getting on everyone's nerves and punching criminal and police alike. It started suddenly, it stopped suddenly too- like a switch has flipped. Rathore had made this connection slowly, over the next course of months. He had resented Riya for a little while, for leaving this reckless man all to him. But Rawte calmed down, the work was bearable and Riya seemed to be fine, and all was well.

Riya had a plan to visit India before Navaratri so that she can stay with her mother for a while, so he wasn't surprised when she called one day to inform him on the same. But he was in a hurry- there was a shootout going on. The conversation was hazy- he don't even remember her telling the location, but when Rawte was shot and taken to ambulance, she stood there, her face ashen.