It has been a week since Jiya's execution.
It has come to everyone's attention that Shefali has started being less attentive, less talkative, and less active. She has stopped roaming about the campus looking at the beautiful architecture all around. She does not even go to her terrace anymore.
She spends her days doing chores and evenings in her room.
Something brutal has touched her soul and she cannot get over the scar it left her with.
No one knows how strikingly she remembers Jiya's smile before she was thrown into the fire of horrors.
Shefali misses her home back in Bengal.
It gives her chills to think she could not save Jiya even when she knows she was not in any position to do the unthinkable.
Even when Shefali knows that it is just her imagination, she can't help but think Jiya smiled at her out of all the people standing around her in pity. Jiya pitied her for a life with no meaning, she pitied Shefali for not being able to keep her word.
I shouldn't have assured her so strongly that night, She keeps regretting it.
Shefali's mind was racing with all these thoughts while she stared at the Diya (sort of an oiled lamp) when she heard loud whispers from the corridor.
Her head turned to the open door and she could see a few girls pointing at something in front of them with tiny smiles.
"Shefali..."
She was about to turn back at the diya because she held no interest in their regular gossip when she heard Barkha call her name.
She frowned and walked out quickly.
Barkha's voice sounded weaker than usual and Shefali did not know if she still had a fever or not.
As soon as Shefali stepped out, she saw at the farther end of the corridor stands Barkha with a messy braid, half of her hair was out of the knot.
Her face was tired and her kajal was chaos.
Most of the bangles were missing from her wrists.
She held her dupatta in one hand and balanced on the wall with another.
Shefali gasped and almost ran towards her and held her straight.
"What happened?"
She asks holding her.
"The thing that was supposed to happen long ago but fortunately did not... but well, today it did"
Barkha said with a faded voice and Shefali knew at the very moment what was up.
She walked her to the room slowly.
Shefali felt annoyed at the girls smiling and whispering to each other as if something so praisable was happening here.
"Speak no more"
Shefali says in her ear.
Barkha laughs lightly.
"You still have a fever"
Shefali exclaimed walking into Barkha's room, feeling the temperature rise up her skin.
"I do"
Barkha says sitting on her bed and leaning against the adjoining wall.
"Help me with the-"
Barkha says pointing at her braid.
Shefali removes the half-torn gajra and frees her hair gently.
Barkha removes her bangles and jhumkas, handing them over to her helper.
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𝟏𝟓𝟐𝟗: 𝐀 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐣𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐚| Indian Historical Fiction
Tarihi Kurgu𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 Ⅰ 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐀𝐉𝐏𝐔𝐓𝐈-𝐁𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐀 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘 Shefali Roy had lost her parents in a pandemic when she was just one year old. That was the first time she was orphaned. The next time she was orphaned was when she was seventeen. The army of...
