Rekindled | ✓

Chapter 36. Die

🎶 Till It Happens To You

Published on 19.02.2023

tw:// self-harm, suicide attempt, sexual assault, pedophilia

❝ tell me how the hell could you know?
how could you know?
'till it happens to you. ❞

🥀

Where do scarred souls go? Because it seems they don't even have themselves to return to. And how would they? You can't expect a cracked glass to carry water despite it being so desperate to just be held that it moulds itself into whatever container it's poured into.

Inaaya felt sick, literally and figuratively. She hadn't cried though but maybe if she did, some weight would've had lifted. Instead, she just stayed locked in her room, slumped against the cushions, staring outside the window with an empty head and throbbing heart. She just had a little something during lunch because Maya forcefully fed her. She felt miserably guilty that Maya stayed at home the whole day for her and she wasn't even trying to make anything better but god, it hurt way too much.

No calls, no text, nothing from him. It should've felt something like relief but it just made melancholy and loneliness curl their fingers around her neck, leaving her gasping for air.

Her attention was diverted when Maya knocked at her door.

"Ayansh is here."

Inaaya shuddered. She glanced at the clock to see it was past six pm. She was so engrossed in her own world that she didn't even notice the doorbell ringing.

"Come outside. He's waiting." Maya said in a clipped tone and turned to leave when Inaaya stopped her.

"No." She said as if she was threatened. "I don't want to talk to him."

"But I want to." His voice bloomed as Maya stepped aside to find him standing at a distance behind her.

His blank gaze raked over her and suddenly, she felt self-conscious as realisation hits her and his eyes narrow, worry flickering in them. She knew she looked distraught and defeated, she hadn't even combed her hair the whole day and she also felt feverish.

Ayansh contemplates what to say before finally settling on. "You didn't come to office."

"I had informed that I'm on a sick leave." She responds weakly, looking away, not wanting to meet any of their gazes.

He nods. "We received the message. I just came to check on you."

There's a moment of silence.

"So, you extend this special service to all your employees?"

Maya couldn't help but chuckle. It was the first time since yesterday that Inaaya had done something close to normal.

"No, just you." He replies smoothly.

Inaaya didn't know what to expect, what to want. She knew she had to stay away from him but at the same time, she wanted to be nowhere but near him. It was a dilemma and she felt helpless. She scoffed and she would be lying if she said it didn't take a massive effort and strength on her part to try to act normal and not just give into the urge of letting yourself float in this exhaustion that surrounded her.

"I had some work," Maya intervenes. "But I couldn't go in the afternoon. If y'all don't mind, I'll be back after its done. Y'all can sort your issues meanwhile."

"No!" Inaaya opposes immediately, her head snapping at Maya. She was being selfish and she was aware it.

Maya directs with her eyes for Ayansh to wait outside and he follows, leaving the two alone.