Spies & Spice (Completed)

Chapter 8

He couldn't breathe!! He was suffocated, forced into the water by strong hands. He tried to pull up his head, gulp for air but he had no strength left. He wanted to scream, cry for help, but all that left his mouth was a gasp and a whimper.

If only someone could reach out to him, right now...

But he was afraid it was too late, he was drowning now!! His body began to feel light, almost floating... and then his head desperately came up for a breath of air! His ears and nose were all blocked, he could hardly hear anything.

"Ashwin!! Ashwin!! What happened? Wake up ... did you have that nightmare again?" Words reached him slowly, as if they were spoken by someone far away, in a silo.

Somebody was shaking him, but the hand was soft and gentle unlike those which forced his head into the water. He woke up, still afraid, to find the anxious face of his wife Mrinalini, hovering over.

He sat up on the bed, as a violent shudder left his body.

Mrinalini, took her time in getting up, owing to the extra weight and strain she felt now that she was in the 8th month of her pregnancy.

"Please Ashwin, talk to me and tell me why you feel this way. What exactly happened in Afghanistan? I know that you are worried about me, but trust me, I have heard many horrifying stories from the people our NGO works with. I will be okay. "

Ashwin shook his head and said "I am fine Mini... it was just a nightmare."

"Please Ashwin! Don't insult my intelligence. I know you are suffering from anxiety attacks as a result of whatever you went through in Afghanistan. You must see a professional before it spirals into something more. You have never been like this before." She tried to give him a glass of water but the very sight of water made him recoil in such a way that it left her perplexed.

She cupped his face with one hand, and wiped the beads of sweat on his forehead with the other. Ashwin smiled feebly, and tried his best to veer the topic away from his traumatic nightmares.

"Don't worry about me Mini. You shouldn't have any such things on your mind right now. Let's go through the shortlist of names we have thought for our baby. Why can't you agree to my choice, Vihaan if it's a boy, and Anvi if it is a girl?"

Mini sighed vexedly. But before she could say anything, her husband kissed her on the forehead.

"I am okay. If I feel like I need help and if these nightmares get worse, I promise you I will seek help. Okay? Now, let's go back to sleep. We need to go and see your Gynaecologist tomorrow. Come on."

"Appointment is day after tomorrow Ashu, and I am glad you are willing to seek some help. I keep forgetting to tell you, but my gynaecologist Mrs Sravya Ghoshal, is the wife of Dr Ghoshal who treated you in that hospital after you came back from Afghanistan. And If I remember correctly, they had a counsellor and Psychiatrist too in the same hospital. After my appointment, lets to back to that hospital and speak to Dr Ghoshal and get some counselling. What do you say?"

"Oh god, Mini! I just say one little thing and you make it into full blown plan and schedule. Why do all women feel hell bent on forcing their husbands do something they are really not into? Let's take things one at a time, shall we? Now please rest up. I beg you. We will discuss all this later, when necessary."

He helped her ease back on to the bed and hugged her gently and remained like that till she finally fell asleep. Sleep eluded Ashwin for a long time, as the sights and smells of that dingy cellar room, where he was held captive, invaded his thoughts again, immediately followed by the taunting words of Victor in the hospital room, adding insult to the injury. Why couldn't anyone else rescue him? Why it had to be that cocky bastard Victor? He sighed in frustration.