Darlings Of Love💕

~Epilogue~

The next day when I woke up, I was laying on a hard rough surface. I couldn't realise my eyeballs were wide open, the pupils searching for a beam of light but I was welcomed by a darkness.

Hardly taking the support of what I didn't know, I started walking. I was mad at anything I had a sense of!!
I was unable to find Mallika, my footsteps crossing the hard roads. I felt the warm fluid tearing out of my skin beneath my toes. The harshness eroding away the top layers of my skin badly. The rough daggers of the way felt nothing as my legs eventually started to rush coordinating with my mind. I had fear, I had bad vibes... But she was no where .... No where to be seen.

"Mallika where are you???" I screamed again and again but I was stunned by the numbness I got back in return everytime.

The heartbeats raised, my nerves were going out of patience. I increased my speed and finally a small beam of light was being seen. I followed it asif my only day if hope.... The ray turned wider and a painful scream touched my ear drums. I suddenly stopped at my tracks. I stopped to hear the direction of the sound. But the sound echoed.....

Where was I? What was the place? A Hollow room or a vacant cave? Was I really becoming mad?

I had no trace of Mallika neither I had answers to my confusions.
"Mallika... Please come back. Is that you?"
I shouted.

The screams were stopped for a while then suddenly the banging sound of chains started ringing.... Asif they banged over the rocky floor once and once of a skin surface. But they were so rough, those made them audible miserably.
Without thinking anymore I ran out of the passage as soon as the wider of source of light hit my body.

I closed my eyes instantly as it took some times to adjust with the strong sensation of the lights after a hell darkness. Looking around properly, the familiar feminine figure caught my sight. My body froze at the spot, a shiver ran down my spine seeing her horrible state. She was standing at the edge of the mountain, the same place I was standing yesterday!!

Yes it was my Mallika!

Badly bruised and tied in chains all around her waist, neck, hands and toes!!

I was unknown about the tears those came out betraying the boundaries of my mind. It was no longer being felt like the old night haunting dreams. I was desperate to hold her in my arms. To caress her bruised areas with love to heal. My heart pondered wildly against my chest. Pain raising up my stomach to heart seeing her bleeding every where. The more I ran faster the more felt the distance. I wasn't able to reach her. I'd have helped myself if i had known what was happening.

"Please don't let me go Sumedh. I love you" she said with utter pain and difficulties reflecting her voice.

"I won't love, I won't!!" I cried still running towards her.

"But they've hurt me."

"Who??"

"The ones who hurt YOU. See na they've tied me in these chains Sumedh"

She was crying and her voice was cracking in her throat. I reached to touch her finally at the edge.

"Sumedh wake up.... Heal and grow. Or they'll hurt you"
She said with teary eyes and her fingers softly touched my cheeks.

A peaceful sensation filling my heart but soon the touch slipped off, I look to see her moving back.
"No Mallika, u will fall...." And before I could hold her, she vanished in the air...

My world blanked and my eye sight covered with black dots.

I woke up straight on a bed. I was tied with chains. My ankles were bruised....
"MALLIKA" I screamed her name with full intensity in my voice.

My parents rushed inside with a guy beside them wearing an apron. The doctor, certainly!
"Mom where's she? I want to see her! And why I am here again. I'm saying na, I am not mad. I'm saying the truth. We were together"
I shouted but no one believed me. No one believed my words....

My mother gave me an apologetic look and my father stood there expressionless.
"You guys .... don't be.... believe me?"

"Leave meee open my chains, i want to goo. She is hurt. These chains hurt her. U guys hurt me, u guys hurt her"
I cried and cried but my cries fell on deaf ears.
Two nurses came to hold me meanwhile I watched the doctor coming with the injection. I screamed and tried to wriggle out of their grip but it was too late to do anything. The medicine was already pushed into my nerves.

The powerful dose Instantly started working as my body fell back and I saw my mother wiping away my tears as well as hers in my blurry vision. And then the touch of her motherly kiss on my forehead was the last thing I remember before I fainted.

His pov ends.

At night when Sumedh woke up, he was freed from the chains. The blue moonlight entering in his cubical. He witnessed the clear sky presented with twinkling and beautiful stars with the pretty moon ever....
The sound created by the little friction of the pages of his dairy caught his attention.
That was kept in a corner.... He grabbed it to write the thing he learnt again.

"One year of this disease.... I'm suffering from, Psychosis. It's hard for me, to differentiate the truth and my own imagination. I imagined many things. I saw fear, I saw my death, I saw love..... Love, yah! The most pretty imagination i had. It was you. The girl named Mallika. Who I know doesn't even exist in real but in my imaginations. I'm not mad but I was lost, I had lost my ways out of my own life problems, my sanity was dominated by my own dominating mind.  cool winds blew touching my soul, I feel u in these airs. I get ur smell.

Idk if I'll ever get i in real or there'll be someone who'll understand me like u did. I just want someone to understand me, my helpless situation. After my mom, u are the most pretty girl I've ever seen, my prettiest imagination. It was a hard realisation but I am not hurt, cause u taught me love, self love and learning u, the first love of my life. I love you Mallika .....

Nevertheless, I'm still happy to say that I HAVE FALLEN FOR MY ILLUSION. The image of my heart. Mallika...."

He finished and closed the dairy... Another wind blew the curtains, he sighed.

"We came a long way together, Mallika" He said and looked beside to find her smiling at him with pride and care.

"U r free from those chains now Sumedh" she said taking his hands to touch her healed up skin🖤.

May be it wasn't true, but the love he felt definitely was! The self-love, most pure and true! It's okay to sometimes fall for the illusions bcs at the end the memories only matter!🖤

The end

I hope u liked this story. If yes pls drop ur reviews and votes and let me know if u want another short story?!