Seize Her And....

Chapter : 6 Erased.

Erased.

"You are born for a reason." The bloodshot grey eyes stare back at him. They are pained, filled with sheer rage and revenge. He has seen this face, this is the face he sees everyday, this is his face but not his at the same time.

"Find her. She is the heart of everything. Keep her safe, keep her protected, even if that makes you burn down the entire world around you!"
The man speaks as his voice raises an octave. A drop of tear falls out of his eyes as his jaw clenches and he adds,

"Protect her, no matter what. Keep your promise "

Taking a sharp inhale, Vulcan sits up from the uncomfortable slumber. His shoulder pains due to the weird position he was sleeping in. The entire studio room is dark apart from the red light that basically intensifies the darkness. Photos hang from the countless cables hanging horizontally throughout the room, some are spread across the table infront of him, some lay on the sofa. This is the only atmosphere he finds himself comfortable in but right now even this room feels nothing but painful. His heart is on the verge of bursting out of his chest. His lungs strives hard to draw as much air as possible but failing miserably. These are nothing new, he got used to with all these things, but the nightmare isn't the similar one this time. The man with glasses, who resembled his beardless old self seemed almost real, as if he was standing right infront him.

He has been seeing the nightmares ever since he left the Nagpati Mansion some three and a half years ago. He still remembers that day when his photos got accepted and he got slected for "A Jim Corbett Wild Life Tour" project. He didn't feel the childish excitement he used to feel before, it was more like a chance, an opportunity of leaving the past far behind him, a past that involved his childhood friend Teressa and his two brothers who suddenly took her away from him. They kept saying how they were fated, how there was nothing they could do about it. He saw Teressa falling for his Dev bhai, he saw his most beloved brother turning into a monster for her, he saw his emotionless, playboy of a Rik bhai going insane for her, to the extent where he actually stabbed his own twin brother. He understood nothing until Arjun, their family doctor, who for some weird reasons, seemed to know everything that was happening around them and decided to explain a few things to him. 'Reincarnation', he said.

Manik, who was yet to become Vulcan, couldn't believe his own ears, he would never believed if someone would've murdered him for it, but that day his destiny was pulling him towards a different route. A route that led to a forlorn, secluded, long abandoned, wrecked old house. He drove as if in a trance and found himself standing infront of the house that still held the ages old dark black burn stains. The once seemingly beautiful house had nothing left other than the proof of it's pathetic fate. The structure of the house stood there like a skeleton, waiting for salvation.

That was the first time he lost his consciousness and his sanity along with that. That was the first time he believed his brothers, because he had to. Because the skeleton of the burnt house felt familiar, felt good even when in that state, felt painfully personal, felt home. Yes, home, it was his home once. He doesn't know how, he doesn't know when, but he knows. Now more certainly than those days, because every night he goes back there, inside it, inside that house, inside his room. Every night he dreams of it and sees it in its original glory and with every passing night the pain grows bit by bit and he tries to cope with it.

He knows there is something going on, something beyond his control, something he wants to stay far, far away from. Atleast he wanted to, until a week ago, when he felt it, her presence, her smell and he felt at peace. Peace. He lost it three years ago and now he desperately wants it.

Hence, when he came back to his penthouse that night after running for the car even when it wasn't visible anymore, he ordered Purnit and Leo to hire men for him. Men who know how to deal with hostile situations, men who know what they are being paid for, men who know to bring him what he wants, men who'll do anything without thinking twice.