Flouting Our Destiny

Chapter 26

"No one needs you here!" A feminine voice quivered.

The shrill quivering spiralled down Arjun's spine, his eyes which were steadily facing the brunt of her fierce gaze now hazily studied the white marbled floor.
The petals of the rose which he had bought recently appeared to be thorns which harshly pricked his palm.

"What brings you here? Mr Arjun Kuruvanshi, I seek a valid explanation for my question!" Draupadi's stiffness overwhelmed her lover.

"As a matter of fact" Lakshana squeaked analysing her dumbstruck cousin, "he's my guest"

In a parallel world, Karan's soul walked out of his body and danced victoriously, the dead silence in the hall, the murderous stare of Draupadi, everything merged as one big trophy for him.
He won, he really did.

Samarth's best friend wanted to fly high in the sky and give him the news of their accomplished task of separating two souls.

"Ughhh...I am having a severe headache, Karan, can we go to work, I am sure dad must be waiting" Draupadi massaged her temples while inhaling loudly.

"Drau..wait" Arjun shouted, gaining a stable state of mind.
"Not a word from you" The woman irked him.

"Can we talk?" frustration boiled inside him, "please!" He raised his tone.

The world dissolved for the heartbroken woman, she blinked her eyes to manifest a known set up,
The princess of Panchala rushed out of the small cottage, her heart's giddiness blinding her eyes.
Drupad's jolly offspring wept away her undesirable feelings, the heavy feeling which sabotaged her conscious seemed like a nightmare, the worst nightmare of all times.
How can she trim herself into five equal parts?
The man who won her ran behind her, calling out her name with a guilty and forbidden gentleness,
"Rajkumari, can we talk? please!" His emotions antagonised the naive flowers decorating the garland around his neck.

"Please" Arjun's magical accent covered up Draupadi's absence from the actual world, she jerked her mind observing the reality that Karan had gone out while attending an important call and Lakshana had already left the two alone while she was drowning in the ocean of the past.

Draupadi now turned to perceive the man, her self made enemy comfortingly cupping her cheeks, his light brown orbs contrasting with her dark ones.

"Stay..stay away" she stuttered, demented by the sudden quick movements around her, first being left alone with him and then him being so near her.

The man walked two steps away from her,
"Don't....just don't do this" Arjun's heart jittered as his mind relished her appearance.

"I am not a toy to be fiddled around, you cannot come to me whenever you want, for heaven's sake, we had decided to not cross each other's paths" Draupadi exclaimed while her heart coughed.
"if we are not meant to be together then let's not.."

"Stop!" Arjun announced, he couldn't control himself from taking her delicate body in a secure embrace, his touch subsided the flame of agony within her, she let a deep breath comfort her senses,

"I cannot..you cannot...we cannot live without each other" before his words reached her ears, his top started to soak her silent tears.

"But we cannot live with each other either" a sharp and insoluble cry forced out of her mouth, a cry so raw and sore that any person witnessing them will moisten his eyes.
"I have experienced a similar situation in the past life wherein I made a compromise for us"

"But this time" her verbalisation solidified with a precipitous unflinching spark. She hurriedly and dramatically wiped away the crystals rolling down her cheeks, "I won't ruin my life for us"

"And I have decided" she smiled proudly, reclaiming the manipulated version of hers,
"I will marry Karan"

They say words are the greatest weapon and for the previously famed archer, words were indeed the only greatest weapon which could fight him. His eardrums hit with erratic vibrations which twisted his nervous system and drove him numb.
If you suddenly take everything away from a person, his family, his friends, his house, his luxuries and even the tiniest of his possession, the screams of his pain will echo in his hollowness.
Arjun felt like everything was snatched away from him within a blink of his eyes.

What did she just say?
Draupadi's internals crushed seeing the man in front of her emotionlessly stare at her, as the flashlight of anger turned off inside her brain, she seeped in the harshness of her own words, regret washed over her like a high tide of repressing sentiments.

"You are not the woman whom I love" Arjun panicked, his sweaty palms rubbed against each other. "You are steered by Karan"

"How can you? How can you even think of this?" He continued showing the resentment.
"How can you think of marrying the man who labelled you as a who.." He screamed the incomplete words, forcefully grabbing her arms, the wrath in his reddened eyes lurched her stomach, she bit her tongue in feared agreement. The lady shuddered as he lashed out at her for speaking words which were unbearable to his ears.

"Enough of your stubborn behaviour, now I will do what I want" Arjun violently smirked, the woman flummoxed by the unseen turn of the whole situation mumbled few words in contradiction but her mumblings were silently left unattended.

"What are you going to do?" Draupadi asked like an obedient child, much contrary to her personality.

Arjun calmly let the tumultuous wildfires within his brain settle to regain his passive self.

"Well, I do have a plan" he clapped his hands proudly.

A certain warmth and fullness filled the woman's soul again, seeing him normalise. Even though her delinquency weakened her heart, she managed to retain the position of power among the two.
"I am not going to listen to you and you better go back to your house because I don't even want to see your face" she bluntly pronounced.

"I am so grateful that I met Subhadra in my previous birth!" Arjun's out of the blue reference sparked jealousy deep within the woman.

"Why are we talking about her?" She fumed, forgetting everything else.

"Because she's my inspiration here" Arjun specified, pouting merrily.