THE RECURRING

✨ The Gathering Storm

AUTHOR'S POV :

Arjun's vision blurred as he parried another blow, his muscles screaming with every movement....The dull ache in his side pulsed with each breath, the wound from the earlier skirmish burning like fire... Blood trickled down his arm, soaking through his torn shirt... He knew he was at his limit, but Aaron's men kept coming. Desperation had sharpened his instincts, but his body was breaking.

"Not here", he told himself. "I have to get to Sanvi."

With one final swing, Arjun knocked the last man unconscious, his gun falling to the ground. His breathing came in ragged gasps, his chest heaving as he looked around the once grand mansion, now littered with the bodies of Aaron’s soldiers. The battle had been brutal, and the air smelled of sweat, blood, and death.

The door loomed ahead, an exit to freedom. He could see sunlight spilling through the cracks, a sharp contrast to the darkness inside. Pushing through the pain, he stumbled forward, his hand gripping his side as the world spun around him. Each step felt heavier than the last, but Sanvi's face flashed in his mind, driving him onward.

When he finally shoved the door open and stepped outside, the scene before him stopped him in his tracks.

Sanvi, his Sanvi, was standing there, laughing still weak due to the poison. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke, her hand gesturing animatedly. Beside her, Ayesha, his grandmother, stood with a smile while talking with her, the unknown lady and Aaron by her side. The sun bathed them all in golden light, as if nothing in the world was wrong. The laughter echoed in his ears, an innocent sound that felt alien after the bloodshed he'd just endured.

But the sight of Aaron—the man responsible for all this—standing so casually among them gnawed at Arjun's soul. His head swam, unable to process why everyone was so at ease, why Sanvi was so carefree.

His legs gave out.

Arjun fell to his knees which caused the table beside him to fall, gasping as his vision darkened. The pain that had been gnawing at him exploded into full force, ripping through him.

Sanvi’s laughter faded as she turned towards the side the sound came from.

Her eyes found his, and everything else seemed to fall away. The joy vanished from her face, replaced with terror as she ran toward him.

“Arjun!” she screamed, her voice distant, as if muffled by the weight of his own collapsing consciousness.

She caught him just before he fell face-first into the dirt, his head resting on her shoulder. Her arms wrapped around him, trying to hold him up, but he could barely keep his eyes open.

“Arjun, stay with me. Please!” Her voice cracked, trembling as she brushed his blood-matted hair away from his face.

"Sanvi..." he rasped, barely able to form the words. "What...why is Aaron...?"
Hearing this Sanvi glanced at Aaron with anger in her eyes and turned to face Arjun.... But his strength was gone, and the darkness pulled him under.

---

ANUPAMA'S POV (BHARGAV'S WIFE) :

A man approached Bhargav, carrying a wooden crate. The man spoke, I can only see Bhargav’s reaction.

His face paled as he opened the crate, his hands trembling. I ran towards him and my attention turned to the wooden crate in front of him...Inside, the lifeless bodies of his men stared up at him, their eyes wide in death, their necks slashed cleanly. The very men he had sent to kill Arjun and capture Sanvi.

The message was clear: Arjun wasn’t finished. Not yet. Which made me laugh after a long time thinking about how cruel his death can be...

AUTHORS POV :

Bhargav grabbed Anupama by the hair with a vicious yank. Her scream echoed in the dim corridor, but no one was around to hear as he sent them away. She fought back, struggling, her nails scratching at his hand, but his grip was relentless. With each pull, he dragged her closer to the dark room ahead, a place she knew she'd never leave the same.

"Let me go!" she gasped, her voice trembling with fear.

Bhargav's smirk was cold, devoid of any mercy. "How dare you laugh at me." He shouted which made her tremble..

With a final pull, he threw her into the room. The door slammed shut behind them, and darkness swallowed her whole. The torture that followed was cruel, a punishment for reasons only Bhargav knew. Every sound she made, every cry of pain, reverberated within the suffocating walls, a twisted melody to his ears.

....

AT THE VOLKOV'S MANSION (GUJARAT)

Sanvi stood in the doorway, glaring at Aaron. The younger brother she’d always looked out for, always tried to protect, now stood as the source of her deepest frustration. He was sitting on the edge of the table, his posture defiant yet uneasy, as if he knew what was coming but didn’t know how to stop it.

"Aaron." Her voice was sharp, like a crack of thunder. He flinched, but didn’t turn to face her immediately.

When he did, he met her gaze with a mix of stubbornness and guilt. "Serena, you don’t understand—"

"Don’t start with that!" she cut him off, taking a few angry steps toward him. "I understand perfectly. You’re the reason Arjun’s in trouble, and you’re standing there acting like it’s no big deal?"

Aaron folded his arms, his face hardening. "It’s not that simple. You think I wanted this to happen?"

Sanvi let out a bitter laugh. "What I think is that you didn’t care enough to stop it. You’re my little brother, Aaron. I’ve spent my whole life looking out for you, and now I find out you’ve been lying to me?  All this time he was here.. He was here in this mansion "

He bristled, stepping forward. "I wasn’t lying to you! I was trying to handle things on my own."

Sanvi’s eyes flared with anger. "Handle things? You can’t just run off and ‘handle’ things like that, Aaron! This is serious, and you don't know how much Arjun means to me and do you even know who he is ?"

He nodded his head negatively...

"He is Sara's brother and that's the fucking truth I've been hiding for so long... Protecting both the Ranauwat's and the Rathore's and that's the only reason I called Sara to India... I agree the poison incident was unexpected but let me tell you something.... Arjun doesn't have a part in it, HE.DOESN'T.KNOW. He was innocent all along.... It was his step-mother who tried to kill them... And you didn’t just hurt Arjun. You hurt me."

Aaron faltered, the weight of her words settling in. He opened his mouth to say something but couldn’t find the right words.

For a moment, the room was silent, the tension between them thick with unresolved pain.

"I’m sorry," Aaron finally whispered, his voice breaking. "I was just trying to fix things on my own. I didn’t want to drag you into it."

Aaron’s shoulders slumped as the reality of his actions set in. He looked up at his sister, his eyes full of regret. "I messed up. I know that now."

Sanvi let out a deep breath, the weight of the fight slowly lifting but leaving behind a lingering ache. "Good. Because next time, Aaron, there won’t be any going back if you lie to me again."

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