wooing Meera Rai

XXIII | day four point something

XXIII | day four point something

Vihaan got up gasping and breathless, his hands raised towards the nothingness in the air, his heart pounding hard against his ribcage. It wasn't real - he knew it was another mindplay of his brain, forcing him to act accordingly and drive him more crazy but he couldn't put it past him.

Did his mother really show herself to him without the noose and the rope and the rotten smell? Could he actually remember his beautiful mother without being horrified and scared? Does he even have that lethargy to imagine a life without being scared of death? No, he was cursed to live a longer, scary life and he wasn't going to hope for anything remotely good.

Then what was that dream? That illusion, almost real, almost life-like. His mother appeared to him but in the same grace and splendour as she once was. She was smiling, happy even - was she smiling at him? Did she miss him like he did all these years? Or was she smiling at his cruel fate, the one she wrote for him? Was she sad to see her only son in pieces, or was she rejoicing that the son of her husband was living up to his karma?

Vihaan couldn't tell.

What he could tell was that something was wrong with him!

"You are finally up, you got me worried."

Vihaan got out of his trance, and held his aching head. He glanced at Shaurya who was seated across from him with his laptop and a relieved smile on his face. He then glanced at the hospital room he was admitted in, with the wires and the smell of disinfectants and gloomy and despair. He was dressed in those pale blue clothes and almost stripped them off.

Hospitals reminded Vihaan of all the times he had encountered a near-death experience, the acid trips and drug abuse, the fatal accidents and the lack of will to live. So he avoided being in hospitals as much as he possibly could. Only, hospitals were almost his second home after his office. They loved to keep him around and Vihaan almost got a knack for these expensive hospital visits.

Vihaan took out the saline and reached out for his neatly ironed suit near the foot of the bed, Shaurya got on his feet and helped take them away from the workaholic.

"You aren't discharged yet."

"I am not dead. That is enough."

Shaurya rolled his eyes. "You should have thought about it before jumping in the fire like a madman."

Fire.

Vihaan looked up at the tall builder, and his eyes immediately flashed a wave of concern and worry. "There was a fire." He spoke aloud, to himself and to his demons. "What about... what about Meera?"

That word got Shaurya to smile cheekily. Shaurya Arora was known to be a close resemblance to Flynn Ryder, a popular animated hero and ever since he was told that by a bunch of teenagers, Shaurya gloated about that to everyone. And that included his business partner - someone who would have punched that handsome face if it wasn't for the sake of their business.

"I didn't know you were this big of a hopeless romantic, Vihaan." Shaurya raised his eyebrows, a teasing smile on his face as he brushed his shoulders with the unimpressed guy. "Wow, who'd think that love could thaw the frozen, stony heart of Vihaan Singh Chauhan."

Vihaan didn't bother to reply or react. This was a way too of a common occurrence for him to lose brain cells over. So he called out to the doctor who was in-charge of his ward and asked what happened to the girl, and the rest of the school.

"Meera Rai - is that the teacher of RV School you were talking about.... She and the little girl were the only ones affected by the fire which was put out by evening. They were admitted but were discharged soon afterwards."