Affront

Epilogue

epilogue

three and a half years later

Chaya had died on the spot of the accident itself. She had no chance, the doctors had told him.

Aditya survived, but not easily. His will to live had reduced quite a bit and this was causing trouble with his recovery. His family and his friends were more supportive than he expected.

But he had seen Chaya die four times. He saw her dead body four times. He loved her and it was traumatising for him to remember.

Whenever he remembered her fondly or their memories together whenever they touched or kissed, his thoughts would wander off to her dying automatically. And due to this, he had cried and made a scene many times. He even had panic attacks in the first six months. His parents and both Rehaan and Justin were scared of his situation and they realized how much of a trauma Aditya was actually in. They convinced him to seek professional help and go to therapy.

It had taken two years of extensive therapy to make him normal again.

In the two years, Aditya had realized and understood a lot of things.

When his Grandmother had mentioned the numbers 1, 4 and 3, he thought them as one night, four chances (for Chaya), and three chances (for Aditya). He was right about what four and three stood, but utterly wrong about the one. One hadn't mean one night.

One meant one life.

Only one of them would survive, and this was destined from the starting itself.

When Aditya had his last lapse and was in the car, he realized what went wrong that Chaya died instead of him. Before, he had spotted the truck and his side took the blow causing his death. But the next time, he was looking at Chaya and she was the one that spotted the truck. She moved the steering such that her side took the blow this time, causing her death.

Knowingly or unknowingly, in the last lapse of their story, Chaya had sacrificed and died instead of when Aditya was supposed to die. This death of Aditya has begun the whole lapse.

And if he had died again in the same spot, the loop would've begun again as Chaya gets her first time lapse unknown to her.

By taking the blow and dying, Chaya had stopped the entire loop from continuing.

When Aditya understood that, he felt a little relieved because if he was in her place he would've rather die than to go through that horrible time lapse again and again.

Aditya remembered how devastated his Grandmother had sounded on the phone call he did to her in order to get an explanation. He knew she didn't remember anything about his time lapse with Chaya as he had a time lapse after that, he decided not to put her through it once more. He didn't tell her about it, and has no plans in doing it in the future also.

He had missed the second semester of his final year in college, delaying his graduation. It was after his two years of therapy that he completed his course with great marks.

He began to work in his parent's company, who were still keeping a worried eye on him. Aditya knows it even though they think he doesn't.

He doesn't mind their careful watch on him, in fact it makes him feel protected.

It was when his life slowly seemed to be coming back on track, professionally and personally, he told Rehaan and Justin the whole truth about Chaya.

His friends were of course horrified, but they felt more bad about how much Aditya had gone through alone. They understood how brave he actually is and why he suffered so much after that accident. There was so much more to the story than they thought of.

Aditya was working well, his relationship with friends was improving, his relationship with his parents who have always supported him was becoming stronger, and he had come to terms about Chaya's death.

He even visited her grave and talked a bit with her friend, Kia.

He thought Kia would blame him for Chaya's death, but instead she seemed extremely concerned about him. They keep in touch at times.

Though what happened to him was something that shouldn't happen to anyone, Aditya still found it in himself to keep going.

And he had begun hoping a little that one day, he will meet a girl with whom he can find it in himself to love her wholeheartedly.

The End