Love Letter Written in Winter

Wound from Past

Sylvia sat and thought for hours. She hated how this person was slowly crossing the barrier of being 'Stranger.' The last time someone crossed this barrier, it was a catastrophe in her life. Steven had given her so much trauma that she was suffering till this day. No, she couldn’t let history repeat. She vowed she won’t let her guard down.
She didn’t have dinner that day. She slept early to avoid the chaos inside her mind. But the deep darkness and solitude of the night felt even more deadly. Her eyes wanted to sleep, but her mind was awake. The silent chaos mixed with her masochist subconscious thought turned it into fatal waves that tore her into pieces. In that half-asleep trance-state, her mind could only play the memory of that day when she lost the love of her life. Steven was her childhood sweetheart, whom she loved with all her heart, also the person who abused her emotions in the worst possible way. The last conversation between them was when he said he was being disturbed by Sylvia’s presence. It was soon after Steven had got his new friend, Lailia.
Sylvia remembered each of the words said by him on an Autumn afternoon. He said,
-‘Please don’t send me any emails or calls. Can’t you understand I was avoiding you all this time. My other relationships are being hampered because of your presence…’
-‘But I thought we were…’
Before Sylvia could complete her sentence, he said with sheer hatred in his eyes,
-‘Never! Even if some supernova or famine occurs or the time cycle changes its rotation, there is no way I would ever fall for you…’
Even after this kind of insult, she had let go of all sense of self-respect just to hold him a little longer. She became so calm, momentarily out of words, yet she gathered herself and said in a tone of request,
-‘I see! Then will we at least be friends?’
-‘Oh! Oh No! God! Not at all!! I would choose death over seeing you again… I didn’t want to say all these… But you never understood yourself. And see, don’t take it the wrong way, I am just being honest.’ He played as if he was the victim.
She couldn’t hold her calm temperament anymore,
-‘I wish you had shown your honesty years ago. I wouldn’t have spent an ocean of emotion on you.’ She said in a fiery outburst and left. Even though she never looked back that day, her mind was still hoping for some impossible thing to happen. The knife was hurting her, there was splattering of blood all over her hand, yet she loved it so much that she was unwilling to let it go.
With some extremely disturbing nightmares, she opened her eyes and sat on the bed. Her brain was not fully awake. But she felt like someone was snatching a part of her forcefully. She couldn’t wait until her brain started functioning again. She was driven out of her bed by that sheer pain. She couldn’t see anything. It was pitch dark. But she just took steps ahead.
In that trance-state, she opened the door of her room and came out. She was running behind her love, whose address she never knew. She just tried to come down through the stairs. She was coming down with her trembling feet, while her long white gown kissed the dust, and the cloak was left at the door knob. But in the last few steps, she couldn’t control her nerves. She slipped and fell with a huge thud.
Murph was having a light sleep. Murph was that only family member of her. With the sound of the thud, he immediately woke up and ran towards his Missy's room. The moment he saw his Missy on the floor, he lost his sanity. He ran to hold her. A little cut was visible on her forehead, from where a pinch of red fluid came out. Seeing that, his jaw dropped, and he pulled her close while his hands wrapped around her as if it was trying to save her from the catastrophe of the world. She was lying in one of his hands like a pampered little kid, while he kept his other hand on her cheek with absolute adoration. He kept saying,
-'Are you okay, Missy? Did it hurt very much?'
She felt a bit of pain, but by this time, she had gained her consciousness back.
-'No, no! It's fine now,' she murmured.
But he didn’t listen to her frail voice. He kept looking to see if she was hurt anywhere else. Seeing there was no more visible cut, he was a bit relaxed. Then he carried her to her bedroom. Maybe she was saying she could walk in a faint voice, but he didn’t pay any heed to that. He made her sit on her bed, while keeping a soft cushion behind her as support. Then he ran to get the first aid box. The wound wasn’t deep. After putting a bandage on the wound, he was a bit relaxed. He gave her a medicine and before leaving, he just said with a hidden grief in his voice,
-'Missy, you’re not taking your medicine properly!'
Then he left without listening if she had any answer against his complaint.
After taking the medicine, Sylvia fell asleep very soon, and she didn’t remember any of the nightmares or traumatic memories. Thanks to the hypnotics, her central nervous system was finally allowed to have some peaceful sleep.
However, Murph couldn’t sleep the whole night. He even slept in the storeroom opposite to her room just to keep an eye on her. At any noise, he would immediately go to check on her. This was not the first time; similar incidents had happened before.