#01.1
He was standing in front of her clasping an elongated string that passes from his hand towards her.
She was there, in front of him, near him. Then he saw her moving backward.
His grip at the end of the string tensed. He held it firmly as if he is holding onto her.
He conveyed to her through his eyes not to let go of that piece of string and she apprehended it. Her foot stopped at a place. Her hand clutched the string tightly with a resolution in her eyes to never let it go.
His heart felt a certain serenity but.........
But his sight fell onto the middle of that string that was getting weak. The string was getting damaged at the center......
He looked at her swiftly and he could see someone standing behind her with a sharp knife in his hand. Fear emerged in his eyes as he saw the appearance of red liquid on her white shirt.
Blood, it was blood, he went numb on seeing it. He could see painful expressions on her face and he felt as if someone had stabbed his heart.
The next moment he saw her fading away with the breaching of the string that was held by both of them.
No....... He couldn't see her withering away. He couldn't let her go.
He tried to hold that string desperately but it veered around into two pieces, one hanging in his hand and the other left in her hand.
And then, she disappeared with that piece of string.
No!!!......... He ran towards her but she was not there. He tried to search for her desperately but he couldn't see anything except emptiness, darkness, and hollowness. The feeling of loss, a deadly loss took over him.
He glanced in his hand and fell on his knees. He was left with that piece of string in his hand and he just kept on staring at that broken string.
With the passing seconds that broken string started coloring red. He could see the blood on his hands.
His surroundings started getting red with the liquid.
A sharp knife could be seen on the floor covered in blood.
He tried to get up but stumbled due to a sharp pain in his head as someone hit him with a rod.
With his blurred vision, he tried to see the person but he couldn't comprehend anything.
He fell holding his head. Everything was blurred. He wanted to see her before the unconsciousness hit him but she was nowhere near him. He was alone. His eyelids became heavy and he gave in to the pain.
"Roshni........" He whispered while tears made their way from his eyes to his cheeks and his eyes closed.
Arjun woke up with a jerk. He looked around trying to grab about his surroundings. He was in his room. A little yellow light from a side table lamp was enlightening the surroundings.
His sight involuntarily traveled to his hands as if trying to find that broken string but he was empty-handed.
The images of his hands soaked in blood flashed in front of him.
Blood blood blood, everywhere, there was blood. His hands were covered in that red liquid. Someone was standing with a sharp knife in his hand.
No.....
He held his head and tried to divert his mind.
"I am in my room. There is no one around me."
He tried to assure himself.
"Nothing is happening."
"There is no blood. There is no blood. There is no blood."
He was telling himself again & again.
It took him some good minutes to stabilize himself. He was going through this torture for the last two years since that unfortunate incident took place in his life.
There was rarely any night when he didn't wake up like this and he craved such nights.
He touched his cheeks. There was wetness.
Was he crying.....? He thought and wiped the stains of tears.
Patting his hands on his face he took a deep breath and pour a glass of water that was placed on the side table. He drank the water and climbed down from the bed.
Rubbing his chest to ease the feelings of uneasiness, he took some steps and came across the window, and sat there looking outside.
It was four in the morning. Everything seemed so peaceful except him. He was not at peace. There was a constant war inside him. There was so much noise inside him that was haunting him.
He closed his eyes and leaned back. He wanted to absorb the silence around him.
Silence......
The one thing he wanted in his life. He wished to turn all the chaos in his life into mere silence, peace & calmness.
He was tired of all the noises around him. He didn't want to hear the blames, the painful voices, the shrieks that haunts him.
He wondered about the nightmares, the panic attacks, the anxiety, the uneasiness, and the stress he had been dealing with almost for two years.
Two years......
He thought.
The time passed so quickly but not for him because he was stuck somewhere in the past. He could still feel the breaking of his heart into million pieces but once somebody told him that, "Broken hearts feel the most."
And that's what had kept him going.
No doubt, time was frozen for him to a particular point when he lost everything when his strings of hope, trust, and friendship were broken but he could see himself holding onto those broken strings.
Yes, his broken heart was holding onto those broken strings, those invisible broken strings.
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In the late hours of the night, she was standing on her flat's balcony, staring at a non-specific point.
"One day everything will be fine Baba."
Sakshi could hear her voice in her ears.
A lone tear escaped her right eye. She didn't bother to wipe it and it dried on her cheek.
It had been almost two years since she had been seeing the lifeless body of her father who didn't talk, didn't reply, didn't say anything.
She wanted to hear his voice. She wanted him to talk to her but all she got in these two years was a mere silence.
Silence.......
That's what she doesn't like, that's what she had been afraid of for almost two years, and that's why she always preferred noise around herself either through the bangles she wore or her chirpy voice, or her nonstop blabbering.
All she wanted was some noise around her but not silence.
She wondered about her life. The connection she was craving was broken and she was holding onto those broken strings in the hope to bind them together one day, to connect herself back to life one fine day.
Yes, her broken heart was holding onto those broken strings, those invisible broken strings.
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