A Taara To Her Universe ~ Tale Of Us ✓

20. Flashback

TEN MONTHS AGO

I WALK out of the hospital once sure the stranger has his family
with him in his dire moment. My phone buzzed with Bhai and
Uncle Messages and phone calls.

I release a heavy sigh, I know this was coming.

"Where are you? I will come to you."

Uncle's voice bloomed through the line, he seemed on edge.

Hell! Everyone seems on edge today. I look down at my bloody
hand bathing in the stranger's blood.

"Hospital", I whisper.

"What," Bhai growled in the background.

"Bacha which hospital", Uncle asks calmly but I caught the barely contained discomfort in his voice. I could also imagine the
way he must be having Bhai backing down by his glare at this
moment.

He never talks to me in such a way.

Once during a case when
a man attacked one of Uncle’s Department men was the day I
saw him in rage. And that was something I knew I am going to
remember for my whole life, even the voices.

I have this thing against violence. Even the slightest sign of
violence has me going deep down into that darkness which
scares me.

The day my mom and dad met an accident I was in the same
car with them and it’s now a trauma for me. I was very small at the time. And that very same day, Panic Attacks took hold over
my nerves, deep in my heart.

"Tara" a voice sounded.

"Hmm" I reply absent-mindedly.

"Bacha, you are fine right?"

"Ji, I'm in front of City hospital."

There was hassle from the other side. I could picture my brother
running for the car key chain at this moment.

I release a sigh, I am fine!

"We are coming. Stay there,

Okay."

"Ji"

"Is there someone around?"

I look up. It was late in night and only a street light shining in a
distance as the front of the hospital was lighten up with the
hospital brightness, and a commotion deep in the far corner of
the hospital.

Movement from my peripheral view attracts my attention as I
look up zoning my eyes in the deep dark far corner of the street,
a blurry figure of a male looking straight at me.

Moonlight shadowed his figure. I was zoned in at the sight
until I saw nothing. And blink my gaze looking around as goose
bumps erupt over my nerves and senses, what the weird?

And my eyes lock on the watchman sleeping at the foot of the
entrance of the hospital.

"Here's a watchman, sleeping."

"Ok Bacha, we are almost there." Uncle says softly as I nod
my head even though I know he cannot see me.

Where can I go with my bloodied hand and my fading
surroundings?

Sitting at the entrance stairs of the hospital I watch as the
blood dries on my skin, marking its place. The blood looks a
shade darker with every passing second as light and voices fade
in my zone.

A darker shade of fogginess holding my senses captive and
turning me deaf for the world, their blanket binding my focus as
my hand and body shook.

I blink my eyes two times at the blood drying and as past
memories come alive in my vision once again. Dark grey eyes
and hands reaching for me in the darkness as blood pool all
around me. My eyes stayed locked on my mother dying and
taking her last breaths. And how I stayed right there, without
doing anything? Her eyes shining with pain and regret and Dad
had a look of dread in his eyes as he gazed right at me.

My surroundings fade as if there was not a single human
being present on this planet except me and my slow and almost
un-hearable breathing the only sound in the long miles of the
land.

"Taaru" I hear my name but it's all far away, and the voices
heavy on my senses as I try to blink and make sense of them. A
hand covered mine blocking my view to the blood on my hand
and I look up at the blurry vision of my brother. I tilt my head,
when did they get here?

They made me aware of their presence as Bhai looked
worried and a lot scared.

Why?

He looked at me as if I was a sacred animal ready to pound
on him any second; I blink my gaze looking around as the
headlights of Uncle’s car shine on us joining the only light in the
miles of darkness.

'When did you come here?' I opened my mouth to get the
words out but they seemed heavy, my tongue seemed heavy
and my mind light and dazed. As if I have lost my senses to
speak flooding my being with fear.

"Bacha look at me." Uncle crouches down beside Bhai taking
my hold of my hands, covering them with the white cloth of his
handkerchief.

I tilt my head at the gesture with frown eyebrows. It all seems
fading and my mind slowing and dazed.

"Taaru," I look up at Bhai who release a relief sigh.

"Come on, let’s take you home." Bhai pulls me upright,
holding my shoulders in support and engulf me as I stand in my
full posture, hugging me closer as he took me to the car.

Bhai's hand stops at the door handle looking at Uncle who
was zoned towards the dark spot where I saw the figure gazing
at me, the memory enough to birth the raising goose bumps on
my soul.

Uncle turns back looking straight at Bhai for a second as he
walks back to the car and slide into the driving seat, looking stiff
and a little different.

Bhai opened the back door as he softly ushers in the back
seat and slide behind me as he took the seat right next to me,
engulfing me back into his embrace. My Bhai always knows
what I need the most in a moment, and this right here is what I
needed the most.

I don't want to be left alone, not now, not ever. It's hurting and
it's different from who I usually am and I am scared.

I moved more into Bhai, snuggling my face in his shirt. His
warm hand cups the back of my head following a smooth
pattern. My eyes fall on my cloth covered hands.

I am scared for the stranger!