AbhiRa One-Shots - Mix & Match

4. Poison

Today was the day that she was getting married. Married to someone else. Married to someone...who...who was not...him.

Abhimanyu felt the ache in his broken bones. The knife gashes on his back burned like hell. As if they had been just dosed with kerosine. His head felt heavy. His eyes blue. His cheeks swollen. And his lips marred with deep cuts.

His knees didn't work and his hand was broken, his arm in a sling, due to the excess force her brothers and their goons used on him after they dragged her away.

"Abhiiiiii!" He could still hear her pained scream. The affliction in her voice. Her sobbing cries. Her loud screams as they dragged her away from him whilst they kicked him repeatedly in the stomach and the shins.

That was the last time he saw her. Being dragged him away from him.

That was two days ago, two days before her wedding. When they had planned to run away. Start a life of their own. Together.

"Abhimanyu, where are you going?" Rohan, his friend who had managed to reach him in time to admit him into the hospital asked him.

Abhimanyu got up from the hospital bed, breaking free from his IV line. He felt his bones cracking as he pushed himself up against medical advice. Against better judgement.

"I...I need to see her." He mumbled, under constant pain.

"Abhimanyu, you want to go see her? Despite what her brother's did to you? That is madness."

"No. That is love."

"It's a suicide mission! They'll kill you the moment they see you!"

"I hope they do. Because living without her, being without her is no less then death itself." Abhimanyu grinned, unafraid.

He didn't care about a future which did not have Akshara in it. He was better of dead, then go on and live a life without her.

Abhimanyu got up on his two feet, numbing the excruciating pain. Because now, all that mattered to him was Akshara.

"Take me to her." He ordered.

"Abhimanyu..."

"Now!" His eyes were bloodshot red. The veins in his head about to burst. He was in pain. But he was going to bare it all. Power through it. For her.

~*~

Abhimanyu wrapped a shawl around himself, covering his face as he snuck around the back of her house where the wedding was taking place. The entire house was lit up, shining bright lights everywhere. There was music playin the hustle bustle of guests arriving and leaving on will.

He snuck through to the back tents which was reserved exclusively for the staff. The chefs were putting together the dinner menu.

Abhimanyu snuck in deeper until he came across an all white waiter's uniform laying on the counter. He grabbed it from the shelf and quickly found a secluded corner to change.

Once changed, he joined the staff quarters and paid heed to the head chef rattling off orders. He nodded his head, took a tray of soft drinks and carried it out to the front, where the guests where.

~*~

As soon as he entered the main hall, that is where he saw her. Sitting on the stage, along with the man she was promised to marry, putting on a fake smile for the world to see and wearing garlands.

But he knew she was dying a slow painful death inside. The life in her eyes was gone and she was fidgeting nervously with the tips of her fingers, lost in her own world.

His Akshara.

Looking so beautiful as a bride.

Except she was not his bride.

He sucked in a deep breath. If this was a suicide mission, then he might as well go out guns blazing.

Fearlessly, Abhimanyu carried the tray of soft drinks up to the stage, watching her brothers and the security guards from the corners of his eyes. There were 10 that he could count, carrying guns. But he was sure there were more.

Abhimanyu walked up the steps to the stage and bent down, offering her a drink.

"A drink Ma'am?"

Akshara eyes which were lowered to this point darted up to meet his, shock marring her face. Her lips quivered and tears began rolling down her eyes. A single tear rolled down her eyes and fell into a glass of Coca Cola.

His heart ached. And he was sure her's did too. There was so much her eyes were saying to him. There was so much that he wanted to say to her. But alas. Such was life.

As if on cue, her brothers and security along with the guy he was marrying realized something was wrong. And before they both knew it, the security had Abhimanyu in a chokehold and were dragging him out.

The tray of soft drinks he was carrying crashed onto the floor as a smile of triumph plastered itself on his face. "I love you, Akshara!" He yelled, content just as he felt a security guard hit the back of a rifle in his stomach.

But his smile, his smile stayed constant. His smile never faded. He was going to be a martyr in love.

His smile never faded even as Akshara's brother's pulled her up with force and dragged her to the mandap and sat her down on gunpoint. They told the pandit to start the marriage rituals. By now, she had cried her heart out that there was nothing more left. No more tears.

Her eyes stayed focused on Abhimanyu just as his eyes stayed focused on her as the security dragged him, beating him to a pulp, breaking each and every bone in his body.

Abhinanyu closed his eyes, counted to 10 and pulled at his arms with all his tethered strength. He pushed and pulled at his arms, kicking the guards, breaking free from their hold, before making a run for it. Back to where Akshara was.

"Akshara!" He yelled, getting the attention of all the people in the room.

But all that mattered to him was her. And the smile on her face, as she saw him. And she was staring right at him. As he grinned at her, smiling to his heart's content, happy tears lining his lower lashes, that is when he felt it.

The first bullet piercing his back.

Abhimanyu felt a jolt in his body, just as Akshara's expressions changed from a yearning smile to horror.

She got up from the mandap and stepped towards him just as he stepped toward her.

The second bullet hit him, on his spine.

Then the third.

Abhimanyu fell onto the ground, chest first, extending his hand, wanting to reach out to Akshara. His eyes felt heavy as they began to close and his vision began to blur.

All he saw was Akshara crying, yelling, as she ran towards him, reaching out to him with her hand. Her brothers were yelling at her to come back, bewildered.

"I love you, Akshara. I'll wait for you on the other side." He yelled with the last amount of power left in him. Yelled so she could hear.

He smiled like a maniac, knowing that it would be soon. Soon that he would be free. Soon that he would meet Akshara on the other side. Where he would wait for her to join him.

Just as his eyes began to close, he saw Akshara's eyes roll to the back of her head, as she dropped down to her knees a few feet away from him before crashing onto her front. She extended her hand until their fingertips barely touched.

"I love, you too, Abhimanyu." She whispered, hoarsely as she opened her other fist only to have a small vial roll out of her hand.

Soon, white foam began seeping through the corners of her lips just as Abhimanyu and she smiled at each other, holding hands, and breathing their last.

Stepping into the Afterlife together.