An Aesthetic Love: A Collection Of Shivika Short Stories

27.1| bonds and misunderstandings. [Part 2]

The goons stop with their task on inflicting torture on Shivaay, when it was too late at night. Telling each other to come back tomorrow, they leave for their homes.

At around 2a.m., midnight....

Annika is sitting on her bed, holding a picture of her and Shivaay.

She caresses his face in the picture.
"Shivaay," she says, the tears she had been holding back for so long falling from her eyes, "kahan hain aap, Shivaay. Jaldi ghar aa jaiye na." She says, and closes her eyes as a reflex action when she feels a pain in her chest again.
"Shivaay..." She says again, sensing that something is definitely wrong.

On the other side, Shivaay regains consciousness.
He is in his senses now, but is unable to open his eyes because he's hurt. He's terribly hurt. He's in pain.
He tries to hold his head in his hands, but is unable to move them.

It takes him a lot of effort, but after a lot of struggle, he opens his eyes, and closes them again when the light enters them.
He reopens them after a while, and sees that it is the same room he was in during the afternoon, just that there is light in the room now.
He tries to recall the events that led him to reach here like this, in this situation.

"Mai toh bade papa se baat kar raha tha na...." He says to himself, in a soft voice that shows he's in pain, "uske baad mujhe kuch yaad nahi hai."

He closes his eyes again, trying to recall what happened, before his eyes open, widened.
"Kahin aisa toh nahi ki bade papa ne yeh sab...."
"Nahi nahi nahi. Aisa kaise ho sakta hai? Bade papa yeh sab kyu karenge? Woh mujhse naraaz the lekin phir bhi woh itna extreme step toh nahi lenge."
He says, and suddenly, his attention goes to the ropes around him.
He winces in pain. "Jisne bhi yeh kiya hai, usse mai zinda nahi chhodunga. Shivaay Singh Oberoi ke saath yeh sab karne ki saza toh usse zarur milegi." He says through the pain, and looking at his hands that were full of blood by now, he realised that whoever kidnapped him did inflict a lot of torture on him while he was unconscious. He closes his eyes again. Who could have done this?

In the process, he wriggles, trying to loosen the ropes in an attempt to escape, but they don't move at all. All they do is leave a mark on his skin. He winces in pain at the sensation. What is happening?

In Oberoi Mansion, Annika is still looking at the pictures of her and Shivaay. She knows Shivaay is in danger but she cannot do anything about it. Even Om and Rudra had come back without any result of their search operation for Shivaay, and so she had told Bhavya to get to work with her police team.

She felt so terrible for being so problematic, for involving others in her problems.
But she cannot help it. Shivaay is the one she got after so long to call her family, and naturally she is so possessive about him. Right now, as she hoped he was okay and will be back soon, she vowed to not spare the person who took Shivaay away.

Shivaay, at the other end, is thinking of Annika. Even the pain he was feeling did not bring tears to his eyes, but just thinking of what Annika might be going through makes him emotional.

"Annika," he speaks out, the tears of being away from her and thinking of how vulnerable she might be right now coming out of his eyes, "mai waapas aaunga, Annika. Mera intezaar karna. Aur bilkul bhi himmat mat harna." He says, as a message to her.

"Pata nahi kaisi hogi Annika. Mujhe pata hai woh bahut pareshaan hogi. Mujhe uske saath hona chaiye tha." He says, cursing himself for not being there for her, with her.
He closes his eyes again, recalling all their moments together, hoping to go back to her soon.