Meri - An Avneil story

Part 1- Smiles

"Don't touch me!" Avni screamed stumbling backward, hitting her head against the wall. "Please! Dont touch me!"

She slid down the wall to the floor, in manic sobs that rattled through her shattered body. She curled her arms around her knees and hugged them to her body protectively, rocking back and forth in trauma.

"Stay away from me! Stay away! Please- please don't hurt me..." Neela frowned at Avni's state, tears in her eyes seeing her daughter suffer through these memories every day.

"It's okay meri baccha... your safe now... he's not here... he's not here anymore... and I won't let him find you again..." Neela stroked her hair and finally calmed her down a little. She stopped punching the air frantically and fell exhausted in to her mother's arms.

Neela rubbed Avni's back gently, pecking the top of her head as she broke out of her psychotic trance and realised that it was just a hallucination, "It's going to be okay baccha, I will find you someone that will love you more than anything and treat you the way you're meant to be treated..."

"I'm never falling in love again..." Avni muttered in to her chest, her eyes burning in pain.

"But baccha not all men are like him... Tumhare di ko dekho wo itni khush hai..."

Avni smiled faintly, but a single tear fell from her eye, "Khushi sab ki kismat main nahi likha hai maa... I will not trust anyone with my heart ever again..."

Neela sighed, knowing it couldn't carry on like this, her daughter was broken on this inside. This blazing fiery front of hers was just a facade, and she needed someone that could heal her, piece together the shattered fragments of her soul.

.....

Neil shot up in bed, panting. With a sharp intake of breath, he realised it was just a nightmare. He sighed, running his hand through his hair, and wiping away the cold sweat that had formed at the nape of his neck.

He hid his face in his hands, struggling to regulate his uneven breathing, to shake the disturbing thoughts out of his brain. Guilt racked his body, stabbing him. He chanted to himself, hissing in hatred.

"I shouldn't be here, I shouldn't be here- I shouldn't-"

"Beta... Kya hua?" He looked wearily to see prakash perched on the bed beside him, peering at him in worry.

"Kuch nahi..." He mumbles, rubbing his eyes harshly.

Prakash frowned, the agony in Neil's eyes was unbearable, "Please beta, aisa jhoot mat bolo..."

Neil looked at Prakash for a second, but his eyes flickered away immediately in shame.

"Mein bilkhul teek hu uncle ji..."

Prakash sighed heavily, pain soaring through his chest as tears fell from his eyes.

"Neil-" his voice stern, pained. "I told you, I'm your papa..."

"Nahi..." Neil looked up and the look in his glassy eyes cut straight through Prakash like a knife. They were so vulnerable and hurt. "Wo ghatiya insaan hai mera pita... mera pita ek rakshaas hai, bilkhul mere tarah"

Prakash shook his head, this was excruciating. His eyes were so guarded, his son, his son that he had raised as his own for all these years, that told him everything, his eyes were now guarded. He was hiding all that pain and guilt from what he had found out recently and buried it in to the depths of his heart and he refused to share it with anyone.

And it was painful to see his son destroy himself.

"Beta... listen to me... you are nothing like that man. Nothing like him..."