The Concealed Curse

prequel

Trigger Warning: The chapter ahead mentions Child marriage. The author doesn't encourage the idea or set an example.

Author's POV

Age: Ved Singhaniya : 10
Age: Akira Suryawanshi: 5

The sunrise was quite earlier than usual. It was a day important  for the Singhaniya family as it was the day their only heir, Ved Singhaniya would be married off to take down a curse.  They had to carry on this custom, which they had acquired from their family's forefathers, from generation to generation in order to preserve the younger ones.

Akira Suryawanshi, she was the only blood alive of the Suryawanshi's. At the tender age of five, she was sitting in the room all attired in red saree and veiled. Having no knowledge about the occasion she eventually became excited.

"I look like a princess Nana." Giggling to herself on the mirror she spoke to her grandmother sitting right beside her.

"Yes beta." Patting her head, she responded in a broken and painful voice. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she watched her grand-daughter eagerly anticipate the miseries she would endure.

"Nana." She turned her dark Hazel orbs to  the old lady.

"You will stay with me na?" Akira pouted and questioned.

"Yes, I will always stay with you." Kissing the forehead of Akira, she voiced.

"Let's go, its time."

They walked out of the chamber while Akira was almost dancing.

As they approached the ritual room, her grandmother tightened her grip on Akira's hand and moved slowly. Akira's anklet jingled along the hallway. The mid hall had a lofty pedestal with flames rising above the pavilion.

The small boy, Ved, was already sitting near the pavilion wearing a brown kurta with black embroidery designs and a turban. Sitting quietly, he looked at Akira, who was giggling and tinkering with her anklet. A smile surfaced on his lips..

He wasn't known to anything happening either but he indeed knew she was his bride. With negligible understanding of what a marriage entailed, he carried out all of the procedures sought by the priest.

"Now bring the bride." The priest announced. How difficult it was to call a five-year-old a bride for a ten-year-old, when neither of them knew what was going on, only for the sake of their family legacy.

Akira took cautious steps to the pavilion and sat near Ved. She gazed at him with a significant smile. "Hello, I'm Akira." She giggled.

"Hello, I'm Ved." He replied with a smile.

"Shsss, don't speak." Akira's grandmother hit her lightly and shushed her. She nodded and looked at the burning woods in the pavilion. The bells in the small pedestal temple rang. Everyone joined their hands, praying the lord for a happy life of the two kids.

Within half an hour, the wedding was done. Ved was still sitting on the pedestal while Akira was gluing with her grandmother. 

"Nana, I want to go home." She murmured, being tired of the heavy saree and jewelleries. "We are going beta." 

Both of them walked to the other family. Everyone there was standing in a crowd and discussing with each other about the rituals and the other important things to be done.

"Akira, go there and play with Ved."  Ved's mother said with a smile on her face. She seemed very kind and loving but things were quite the opposite. As soon as Akira left, she looked at the old woman.

"The rituals are done. You can leave now." She said turning her expressions hard and full of hate.

"Let me take my daughter with me. She is still a kid and knows nothing about the world." Grandmother voiced in a calm tone.

"She is our daughter-in-law, we can't let you take her. She holds my son's life." Mrs.Singhaniya spoke and turned around to look at other family members with a smile. 

"We will keep her safe." She assured me.

"You won't, I know it very well. The curse is down, you no longer need her. Let me take her, at least let her live her life." Grandmother spoke in defense and raised her hands together, more like begging for her granddaughter's life.

Mrs Singhaniya nodded and looked at both the kids Playing together on the pedestal and giggling together.

"Don't be so selfish for your son, my daughter is a kid too, now like your own child." The old lady voiced. Her voice shivered at the sight.

"Take her. But make sure she never returns to my son's life."  Mrs. Singhaniya made her statement and walked towards Ved.

Ved's mother, Mrs Singhaniya, was the family's main authority figure. Mr. Singhaniya was no longer in this world, subsequently she made all of the family's salient decisions.

"Ved, let's go." She called him. He looked at her with a pout not wanting to leave.

"Mumma, let's take little Akira with us too. I want to play with her." Ved  canvassed pointing to Akira who was standing near him with a smile holding two wood in her hand.

"No baba, she has to go home too." She replied with a nod of disapproval.

"Okay." He whispered and looked at Akira.

"We will play little Akira later." Ved spoke out in a gloomy tone.

"Okay. Give my anklet." She hopped to him and gave her plan forward.

"No, I will give it back next time when you will lose the game." He tittered and hid the anklet in his pocket.

"Don't forget it, okay." She said and hit him with the wood and ran away to her grandmother.

Ved laughed and walked to his mother.

Both of them parted their ways the same day. Carrying prim memories of each other that would fade away with time.

It was midnight, Ved was sitting in his room on the bed near the table. He used to sleep alone since he became five as his parents used to fight each other.  He was holding the anklet while looking outside the window. There was a different kind of happiness bubbling inside him.

He opened the drawer of the table that stood near his bed and kept the anklet in a wooden box with a smile.

Meanwhile Akira was sleeping with her grandmother in their small house at the end of the city.

"Nana?" She called in a sleepy tone. "Hm?"

"When will I meet Ved again? He took my anklet." She murmured.

"Never." Grandmother retorted and patted Akira's back to make her sleep..

"But nana, I want to play." She spoke again.

"You can play with me, I will buy new anklets." Grandmother assured her.  She giggled with  delirium and hugged her tight before falling asleep.

"Forgive me beta." Grandmother whispered and caressed her soundly sleeping Akira.