Unreachable Destiny- The Curse Of Your Love

Chapter-21: A Dream-like Reality.

In the darkness of that dreadful night, Ranav stood alone in a house in clothes that didn't seem like his yet felt familiar. He wondered what he was doing there.

"Prathap Bhai." A man wearing a Blue Lungi and a white shirt ran into the house towards Ranav and bowed in front of him as if to show respect. What the hell is happening here? Ranav thought. Ranav does not understand why he is being addressed as Prathap. "Madam Akriti's house is on fire!" He does not know who that was, but his heart contracted, responding to that name as his heart raced with fear unknown to his mind. It was like there was a curtain in his mind that didn't allow him to pass to the other side and somehow, he felt like everything would make sense if only he could see what was on the other side of that curtain. As if his feet had a mind, they started moving as he ran out of the house with only one intent. To find Akriti, whoever that was. He ran into a forest-like area filled with trees and kept running until he stood in front of a Mansion on the mountain. Ranav knew that he knew that woman and the mansion but couldn't exactly gather that information in his mind and his body, which seemed to be in auto mode, moved towards the mansion on fire. He tries to break in but the main door is locked from the inside and the door is very hot due to the fire inside. The heat didn't bother him as much as the woman's voice coming from inside. The voice was so familiar that he couldn't stop banging on the door with no regard for the hot door. He can feel the hot surface burning his hand red but his mind wouldn't listen to his pleas to stop the action. It was as if he had no control over anything that was happening. He should call for a fire engine; that's the rational thing to do but what Ranav can think of, Prathap apparently couldn't because he kept banging on the door.

In a situation that makes no sense, Ranav can only let go of his will to change anything. He stops resisting and takes in the pain to see what's going to happen because clearly, he can't change a thing. The door breaks with the impact of him physically throwing himself over it, and Ranav looks intently as his body takes him inside. As soon as he enters, the fire spreads even more somehow, blocking the entrance, and leaving him no chance of going back out. He watches the door break, catch on fire and melt in front of him, but he has no time on his hands. He has to find her. He looks around in the smoke that barely allows him to see anything as he follows the voice of the woman. The voice guides him and he blindly follows, relying solely on his ears to lead him.

"AKRITI!" He screams into the smoke as the voice stops.

"Who is it? HELP." The voice comes from a closer distance than it did before and he turns around to find the silhouette of a woman amidst the fire. The fire catches to the curtains behind the woman as Ranav sprints towards the woman. He falls over her, trying to block her from the fire. The moment he hugged her, he felt the heat rise in his body as his breath hitched. It was the first time he embraced her, his mind told him but he could not understand the context as he had no memory of the woman. What confused him even more was that he felt that the hug was familiar too. If he was hugging her for the first time, then how is it possible that the hug felt familiar? Soon he realized the heat rising in his body was not just on the inside but the outside as well, as he watched their clothes catch fire. The woman was wearing what looked like a lehenga but it felt very heavy. The green and red fabric burned in front of his eyes. He tries removing the duppata to prevent the fire from spreading any further but the fire then catches onto the lehenga itself. The woman fainted in his arms and he finally looked at her face. Ranav felt as if he was struck by the lightning thunder as he looked at the woman in his arms.

MAYA. Ranav felt his heart break at the sight of her unconscious and on fire. He screamed in his mind to let him save her but his body didn't allow him to do anything as he looked on at her as a lone tear slipped out of his right eye and slid over his cheek only to fall over hers. At the moment the teardrop felt more alive than she did and he wanted to do anything if it meant he could save her. She can't be saved, his mind told him. They can't be saved. The entrance is blocked and their clothes are already on fire and the smoke doesn't allow him to see the way to take them anywhere. The fire crept up his back, burning him in the most painful way as he watched the same happen to her, but she probably wouldn't feel a thing as she lay unconscious in his arms. Yet he hugged her to his chest tighter, telling himself that this would help her with any pain, but it was his pain he wanted to diminish. Not the pain from the fire but from losing her. The fire was about to completely take over his body and he could not hold in the pain any longer as he started holding on to her tighter and tighter as the pain came out of him in a heart-wrenching scream.

"AKRITI!!!" He screamed into the night as his soul burned that night and so did his restraints, his dreams and his eternal promise of love for her. His scream of pain took a life of its own, changing the course of their fate to rewrite their future. There is always a cost for going against the nature of time and Karma.

***

Ranav wakes from a deep sleep in what looks like a hospital room. He looks around to find the room empty. The loneliness gives him the space and time to reminisce about his dream which felt more real than the present. He knew that what he saw was an important part of the puzzle he couldn't solve for a long time but he had no idea where it fits in his reality. What was Maya's role in all of this? He had only met her a month ago. How is it possible that what he saw in his dream could be real? He now understood why the voice and the hug felt familiar but how was it possible that they ended up in a mansion they had never seen before and how was it that he was touching her for the first time when he had already touched her in various situations? the first time they met, he held her when she lost balance and then he hugged her when he saved her from the falling Veena. He knows deep down that this will all make sense once he puts the pieces together but how is he supposed to do that when he doesn't know where to begin?

"You're awake." The familiar voice pulls Ranav out of his thoughts. Maya enters the room with a sweet smile that she rarely ever puts on and takes a seat beside the bed as she looks at the monitor beside him, probably checking his vitals.

"Maya." Ranav breathes out her name with a sigh of relief upon seeing her alive and healthy. She looks at him with an eyebrow raised in confusion.

"You seem way happier for a person who had been lying in hospital unconscious for 36 hours. It means that you're okay, I guess."

"36 hours!" Ranav thought it was probably a few minutes.

"Yep. And what's weird is that your vitals were completely okay except for your incoherent words and panic in sleep. You seem to show symptoms of sleep paralysis but we can't be sure yet, so you're suggested to follow a few instructions from now on to see if it makes any difference."

"Okay." Then, Maya carried on, listing all the things that Ranav needs to pay attention to from now on but he could barely keep up with her as he drifted off into another tornado of his thoughts and worries. He knew one thing for sure. He has to find a way out of the maze he finally discovered. Only then can he have peace.