Is there something beyond love

Part-5

Shehnaaz left his hand as others came in their sight. Sidharth fondly caressed his hand with his other one and smiled. He felt his heart smiling at her touch.

They all started moving to the place where their SUV was parked. Lt. Malik had already called a jeep to carry the girls. They both were the last ones to join so were walking in the last, shehnaaz a bit ahead followed by Sidharth.Jay was walking before Shehnaaz.They had covered just a few metres when Shehnaaz turned to look at Sidharth out of nowhere.

Sidharth smiled fondly at her out of the blue and before she could respond to brightest smile she had ever seen, she was a man ,a few metres behind them pointing a rifle towards Sidharth.It was too dark but the torch that he held in his hand made him visible to her.
She gasped becoming almost breathless..... and then what she did next was going to give her the most beautiful pain of her life.

She pushed Sidharth aside with the speed of light shocking the heck out of him.....and the man fired....
World stopped... Everybody stood frozen at the gunshot....

Jay took a sharp turn without taking a millisecond to realise the big mistake they had made and shot the man within a second knocking life out-of him..

Sidharth found himself fighting for oxygen when he saw blood oozing out of Shehnaaz's chest, the source was quite close to her heart... He felt pulseless... His heart had stopped working.. His mind was numb.. He felt his life being snatched away for him...He was still lying on ground...fighting to even breathe...

Jay held shehnaaz when she was about to fall...Even he was too shocked to register what had happened.. They had made a mistake...And this girl was paying for it..

Sidharth felt himself choked...he was too devastated to even react...His world had turned upside down within a second... His mind was too blocked to realize that she was in that condition for him but his heart realized that even in the deteriorated state it was and the realization hit him hard.... Really really hard... So hard that made him scream at the top of his voice.
"Shehnaazzzzz".....he got up and ran towards her.... He took her from Jay's arms and held her to his dear life... He wanted her close to him... So close that he could pass his life to her...

"Shehnaaz, shehnaazzz ", he tapped her face so softly as if her face was the most delicate thing in the world....
"Shehnaaz plzz plzz don't close your eyes,try to keep them open",his heart was screaming pain..... Her blood completely soiled him ...there was way too much of it...

He felt her blood seeping directly into his heart as if trying to pump it again.... As if it knew the path it was meant for... As if it knew that his heart needed her heart at that moment to beat....

"Sid....sidharth....",shehnaaz whimpered. Her pain pinched his soul. She was in pain. She was in pain because of him...and this was enough for him to curse himself...

"I won't let anything happen to you... I fucking won't let anything baby", he almost cried...

He lifted her in his arms and ran... Ran for her life... Ran ever more for his life...

He kept calling her all the way to the jeep...
"Shehnaaz, don't close your eyes.. "

"Plzzz baby nooo... "

"Dekho,ham abhi hospital Phaunch jayenge "

"just keep your eyes open...."

Shehnaaz knew that probably she was in last moments of her life.. And goodness, they were beautiful ....more beautiful than her whole life... She was in his arms though fighting for life but was there... She wondered how she met him just a few days back and now even dying with him in front of her was peaceful....Blood oozing from her chest was taking life away from her every passing second but the concern and pain for her on his face was giving her peace...She tried hard to keep her eyes open, not for life but for him.... She was satisfying her craving of seeing him, of adoring him, of capturing him in her eyes and her heart to cherish him in her afterlife....she could close her eyes peacefully having him as the last person she would be seeing before her death..... She didn't mind leaving this world a bit with her in his arms......... But nooooo...... Sidharth would die alive if that happened, he knew it and hence he decided to fight even death for her...