CHECKMATE : Game Of Shadows

14. of hearts and scars

The wind lashed against Arjun’s face as he rode his bike through the dark, empty streets. The cool night air usually offered solace, but tonight it did nothing to ease the turmoil in his chest. He was on his bike going back to his home alone while Yuvan had decided to drop Vanshika and Yukta went away with her older brother, Keshav. Yukta’s voice still echoed in his mind, sharp and laced with anger, her words reopening wounds that had never truly healed.

He pressed harder on the accelerator, as if the speed could help him outrun the memory clawing its way back into his thoughts.

It was years ago, but it still felt fresh, like a scar he couldn’t stop tracing. He had been just a boy, no older than nine, and Yukta, his best friend at the time, was nine. The park had been their haven, filled with laughter and innocence—until that moment when everything shattered.

"I’ll push you higher, Yukta! Trust me!" he had said, grinning as he stood behind her on the swing.

"No, Arjun! Stop! I’m scared!" she had pleaded, but he was too eager, too confident, to listen.

And then it happened. The swing lurched forward with more force than it should have, and Yukta slipped. The image of her tiny frame tumbling to the gravel replayed in his mind like a cruel film reel. Her cry of pain echoed in his ears, the sight of her bloodied knee burning into his memory.

"Yukta, I—" he had started, his voice shaking, but before he could even reach her, another voice boomed.

"What did you do to my sister?"

Keshav. Her older brother. Arjun looked up, his heart pounding as Keshav stormed toward him, his face a mask of fury.

"I-It was an accident!" Arjun stammered, his words barely audible over his own panicked heartbeat.

But Keshav didn’t care. He grabbed Arjun by the collar and shoved him to the ground. The rough gravel bit into Arjun’s palms, but the sting was nothing compared to the shame that coursed through him.

"Don’t you dare touch him!"

Shraddha. His sister. She had appeared like a storm, her voice shaking with anger.

Arjun remembered the way she stepped between him and Keshav, her eyes blazing. "You think hurting my brother will fix anything?" she shouted, her voice trembling with a mix of rage and protectiveness.

Keshav had fired back, his own anger uncontrollable. "He hurt Yukta!"

"It was an accident! He’s a kid, for God’s sake!" Shraddha shot back, her words cutting like a knife.

The shouting match that followed was a blur, but the damage was irrevocable. Yukta had sat there, clutching her knee, her tear-streaked face etched with betrayal. She didn’t look at Keshav. She didn’t look at Shraddha. She looked at him.

That look. It was more painful than any fall or shove. It screamed of disappointment, anger, and worst of all—loss.

From that day onwards, Arjun asked for forgiveness but Yukta stayed cold towards him and there came a day when she totally stopped visiting his house. Being frustrated, he too decided to never talk to her because he believed that he was getting punished for a mistake he did unintentionally. Arjun used to feel a dagger twisting down his heart everytime he saw Yukta's cold gaze towards him.

Now, years later, Arjun felt that same dagger twisting in his chest when Yukta's words pierced. The memory was a weight he carried every day, but tonight it felt heavier, suffocating.

The bike slowed as he approached his street. The dim light of the streetlamp illuminated the quiet road, but his mind was anything but quiet. Yukta’s face from earlier today overlapped with the one from all those years ago, and the pain was unbearable.