Something Wrong About Love

Raghu

(Present Day)

I crushed the cigarette butt on the edge of the terrace. I breathed in the fresh scent of midnight. Paris, the city of love, they say. I inhaled deep again breathing in the love of this city and the smell of burnt cigarettes.

It is our 2nd year of being together and to celebrate that Mira planned this trip. I was never the textbook classic lover and always thought this as cliché, but I can do anything to make her happy, even if it means I have to change myself. But coming here and seeing this city, unfiltered, makes me question every doubt I ever had about this city. 

Is this just my understanding or is this hers as well? Is her happiness and mine related? Is this city enchanting me or is it Mira who has made me under her spell all this time? Love is always supposed to be like this I guess, to be completely under the spell of someone ,at times to surrender yourself and your partner pick you up and when they fall you will be right below to grab them?

Well I wish my thoughts about love would have been always like this but unfortunately it wasn’t. I was not the man I was once, I have changed for the better and I owe everything to Mira. I always thought I knew what love is and when Mira came to my life, I realized I was wrong all this time.

The air felt chilly, I pull up the zip of my jacket. The sun hasn’t quite risen but the buildings below were visible. I could see the top of the Eiffel Tower. Skylines, I was always quite obsessed about them.

So many buildings, all of different heights, different shapes and structures but how gracefully the sky envelops them all without any complaint, without a hope of getting anything back. Some people are like them, they just stay with you enveloping all your different virtues, all your good and bad, accepting all of you.

”You and your obsession with skylines’’ a female voice said. It took me a moment to recognize the voice but when I did realized I was shell shocked. I turned immediately to look at the speaker. A chill rushed through my spine when I looked at her. The dim lit sky wasn’t helping a lot but from the distance I could make out her face. I remember her, everything about her. She was the chapter of my life which haunts me still. Her face was the one that still comes in my nightmares, Akansha. But she can’t be here, maybe its just my imagination.

She was stark naked, she had nothing on except a necklace that shone faintly against the light. I felt an eerie settling over the lonely terrace. There was not a single soul except us. She started walking towards me, her steps slow and steady. And with every step that she took, my heart started beating a little faster.

But how is she tolerating the cold air blowing in the terrace. Her nipples were erect which proved that her body could feel the coldness but her mind had something else? I remember every bit of her body. Those breasts, that navel that I used to love, those lips that I used to kiss, those butt that I couldn’t get my hands off of. She was nearing me. I could see her eyes and in that moment I realized why she wasn’t feeling the cold her, her eyes burned with anger. Or was it revenge? Can it be passion? Lust? Or is this the fire that once used to set my soul on flames, is this of Love? But this isn’t real after all.

She was nearing me and my heart stopped beating all together. She is still that beautiful. Her eyes were looking straight into mine. She was wearing her smirk with a confidence that I never saw in her before. Has she changed?

But this can’t be true, she can’t be here. Am I dreaming? Am I hallucinating? Maybe I had too much to drink.

“It has been 4 years Raghu and I thought I have left every bit of you behind but look who I have found here” Her voice sounded like someone who died a long time back.

I tried to speak, I couldn’t. My throat felt dried out.

“I will destroy you Raghu. Have you forgotten what you did to me?
I couldn’t answer. My eyes were fixated on hers.

“Come on Raghu look at these” she pointed to her breasts , “Or this” she pointed to her vagina, “Come on Raghu, you loved these nah? Loved these so much that you wanted the whole world to see them”

Teardrops began to flow from her eyes. I lowered my head hoping that this imagination of me goes away. I shouldn’t have drank that much tonight. Why isn’t this dream ending, why isn’t she going away. I looked below the terrace. 21 storeys above ground. I closed my eyes and hoped that she goes away. I couldn’t hold back my tears anymore. I opened my eyes to find her wiping her tears, she was smirking once again.

After all, she can’t be here. It was like this, terrace of a building, 10 storey and I was gazing the stars when she came crying to me, complaining about what I did to her. I assured her I would make things allright. She sobbed some more and then did something that I couldn’t think in my worst nightmares. She jumped off of the terrace. I tried to catch her but it was too late. The next thing I saw was blood splattering all over the floor and she was dead instantly.

She can’t be here, this is just my imagination

“I am going to destroy you Raghu” she said and come near me, so close that I could feel her, alive. And then the thing that followed stopped my heart from beating altogether. She planted a kiss on my cheeks.

She is alive. She isn’t dead. She is alive. She is alive.