THE RULERS OF RISHABHAPRIYA

Back To The Dungeons

Surabhi's POV

"I love you, Surabhi"

I stood in front of him not knowing how to react. He looked back at me with tears in his eyes while mine welled up in no time. He loved me. He said he was in love with me. We could not remove our eyes from each other while the only thought in my head was how wrong it was. 

"Bhargava!", his mother called making him tear his gaze away from me. He too looked like he was in utter shock because of his sudden confession. They were at a good distance from us and hadn't heard what he had just said to me. He walked away from me while still looking at me. I kept looking at him as his parents pulled him into a hug with tear filled eyes. Janaki and Radhika too hugged them making them laugh through the tears. I looked at them and a happy smile took over my face. I was happy he finally got the warmth of his family. He slowly turned back to look at me over his shoulder and his look begged me to not leave him and join him. But the burning scars on my skin told me how broken I was and how I would never fit into his perfect family. 

I turned around and ran away not knowing where to go. But I knew that I had to get away from him to think straight. I only realized where I was when I saw the dungeons I stayed in for four years from a distance. In all the months after the death of the previous king, I hadn't visited there even once fearing what would happen if I relived those hurtful memories. I strode towards the dungeons and placed my hand on the rusting iron bars of the front gate. I opened the lock of the gate and walked in. The place was exactly as I remembered it while walking out of it many months ago. My steps did not halt until I had reached the farthest cell where I was let to rot. I looked at the cell while my hands were on the bars that I used to try to break until I finally gave up. 

I opened the old rusting gate and the familiar screeching brought back some cold memories. I stepped inside and took a deep breath. The rock that I used to sleep on was still there. It was covered in dust and dead insects. I blew on it and looked around for a while. That place was my home for so many years and I hadn't even seen it properly. Constant pain and depression had blinded my eyes from letting me see anything else. The little ray of sun falling from the little gaps from the rock reminded me of how rain water would seep in through them and keep me up all night. I saw the chains that used to be tied around me all the time, biting through my skin, making me weak by each passing day. I picked them up and felt grateful for being free from them.

I suddenly heard footsteps behind me but I knew who it was. I heard him step inside the cell and pant loudly. "Surabhi, listen to me-", I dropped the chains to turned around and held up my hand. Tears were flowing down my face as I talked, "I thought you were only joking when you spoke about our wedding all these months. But I should have known you never joke around about anything. You, like most men, speak exactly what you think without judging if it is right or not before the words leave your tongue".

"How could you possibly fall in love with me, Maharaj? How could you even like the idea of being with someone like me? I am not a princess anymore. I was a prisoner. I used to live here and take all the beating until you relieved me from that torment. I am broken beyond repair. I was used in a game where I was just another pawn. My life is not what it used to be and will never be the same. Do you really want to be with someone so miserable?", he looked right into my eyes and said, "Yes, Surabhi. I want to be with you in spite of all that. I fell for you even when I knew how broken you were. I fell in love with you even when I knew you had given up hope on being someone's lover. Not because of pity. Because you are the only one who makes it feel like it is normal to be broken".

"You speak as if you are the only person who has gone through a lot. Well, wake up dear, because you are not the only one who's life was reduced to nothing. The four years you spent here, in this dungeon, I spent the exact same torture, outside. Just because I said something against him, that bastard had started to torture me day and night. I would be in the Gurukul learning something and someone would come running to me to say that Janaki was in trouble. I would go running back to her to see some creepy man talking to her while she looked scared as hell. You have no idea how many times I have saved her from how many men like that. You have no idea how many times I was beaten up and left to die god-knows-where. My father would be threatened everyday in the temple he works at. I lived through all that and one day, I snapped".

"None of our lives are a bed of roses, Surabhi. I am broken too. My own parents went against me for something that wasn't even my fault. What Sunaina said was right. I kept waiting for you that day I was at their house. I still had a small hope that you would return and say, don't worry I'm here for you. Surabhi, you have no idea what power you have on me. You have no idea how happy you make me. In those dreadful meetings with the other kings, even when you aren't around, you memories keep me sane. At night, if I don't get any sleep, your memories make me feel like it is worth staying awake. Sometimes, when I feel like the pain is too much and thoughts of death cloud my mind, your memories bring me back and give me some hope. I don't know what this is, but I just know that I love you. I just needed a push to realize that and Sunaina's outburst gave me that today", I was quiet.

"I have never ever felt like this before, Surabhi. You make me feel like being broken is not wrong. Like there is so much happiness in being broken too. If you don't feel the same about me, then fine. I will keep trying until my last breath. But if this is anything about you fearing to give me a chance because of what the people will say, even if you love me, it will be like cheating on yourself, Surabhi. Remember that", he said.

I was quiet for a while. My tears kept flowing but I did not know how to control myself. He had laid his heart out for me and I had nothing in me to step on it. "What next?", I asked. He hummed in confusion. "What next, Maharaj? You love me. So, what do we do now? Do you want to marry me?", he knew something was up and stayed quiet. "You only talk like you don't care about the people. How will you tell them I will be their queen? Now that everyone knows I was a prisoner, questions will arise. You know why I did not go back to Ratnagarbha. I was scared people would not accept me and call me impure when the only touch of a man I got was in the form of slaps, punches and kicks. What will you say to your people if they question about my character. They all know how prisoned women are treated like. I wasn't touched by anyone sexually because Mrinalini thought it wasn't the right time. Will you say that to the people? Do you think they will buy that?"

"I don't care what they-"

"Well, you should, Maharaj!!! They are your people. Thousands among them are angry at you for not being royal blooded. They think you are weak because you are not a kshatriya. If you announce our marriage to them, do you think they will sit quiet? Questions about our blood will arise. The riots that we have just gotten rid of will start again. What will you do then??"

He looked at me with no emotions on his face. He suddenly walked towards me and held me by the sides of my head making me look at him and him only. "Just forget about the people. Forget about the whole world. You are not Surabhi. I am not Bhargav. We have no one to question us. I am no one's king. Just a common man. You are not a princess. You are too a normal woman. We met somehow and I am confessing my love to you. What will you do? Do you have any reason in mind to say no to me?"

I closed my eyes and listened to him for whatever reason that compelled me to do so. I would never say no to someone like him if the world was not against us. He had given me the warmth I needed when I was alone. He had been there with me as my only support system when no one else was around to do it. I would have said yes and become his wife. But the real world we were in was too cruel to accept us. I broke down into tears and leaned in to hug him tightly. He wrapped his arms around me immediately and placed his head on mine. 

"I am in love with you, Bhargav", I confessed.

          __________________________________________________          

Don't hate me okay?

I'll give you guys the update you deserve so much very soon!

The next chapter is going to be so gooddddddd

Vote and leave comments for me!!

Lots of love💗