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Gauri, a young village girl holding firm views about morals a...
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The waning light of the moon got lost somewhere in the silver fog.
Suddenly, the unnerving silence of the stagnant wilderness was broken by a pained bellow. The cries were choked and mournful. When Vasundhara's ears perceived the abrupt disturbance, she turned wary. But, when the same echo intruded the dreadful lunacy a second time, she found a familiar timbre emitting from the source.
Like a moth enticed by the fire, she found herself drawn to it. Before her mind could register what was happening, her body inevitably made the decision. Piercing the suffocating fog, she stumbled towards the butchering pull curdling her anxiety. The warnings of her son fell on deaf ears. His agitation failed to break the trance blinding her sensibility. Rapidly, her feet padded on the forest floor, and her eyes searched for the being who made the call.
Soon, an expanse comprising a cold lake surrounded by a canopy of tall trees came into view.
Into the glassy surface of the lake, she saw the reflection of spectral night, and a moon going through eclipse. But the natural phenomenon failed to capture her focus, for it was frozen on the man sobbing and quivering at the edge of the lake. He was shifting his weight from one foot to another while releasing wounded snuffles. His back was turned to her and his clothes were soiled, still, she knew who he was for she had spent 26 years of life with him.
He was her husband.
"Raghuveer"
Vasundhara whispered his name in a reverent prayer, like a sea kissing the shoreline. Tears were already spilling from her burning eyes as she approached him cautiously. The hermit thudding in her chest wished to sacrifice everything to quench its thirst for long-lost love.
Her quivering and hesitant hand landed on his shoulder, quietening him from grieving and crying out his pain. Holding both his shoulders, she gently turned him.
Her breathing laboured and her mouth dried after what she saw. A bubbling scream compressed between her trachea and vocal cords. She could only gasp and heave with a lax jaw and slowly back away on trembling knees. The shock of the events finally strikes the shaking dam of emotions inside her, and like a sinking tower, she crumbles on the moist ground feeling utterly helpless. The inevitable has finally arrived. The doom. The end. The numbness.
Her wide eyes take in the vision of the fate lurking over her. Her teeth chattered and her ears rang austerely as if a bomb had gone off inside her.
The strange man in front of her swayed as if standing on a wobbling surface before he landed on his knees in front of her and extended his bloody hands to feel her presence. He cried open-mouthed, choking on the blood dripping down his chin but no sound came. And soon, Vasundhara cried along with him.
"Raghuveer. Oh no. Oh no. What should I do?"
She bawled watching his condition and realized whatever happened so far was nothing in comparison to this livid hell raining its fury on them.
