Nandini

The Heartbreak King

The flames from the last night of battle were finally settling but the smoke was everywhere. There was not a single sign of a living human soul. After the battle and the jauhar, nayantara left that palace and went with Rakshit to his kingdom. She wanted to stay at her palace for a bit more time but Rakshit insisted her to take a break from everything and try to return to her normal life which included him now.
Nayantara gave the entire responsibility to piyali and asked her to look after the palace until she returns. Piyali was more than happy to have the entire palace all by herself, she kissed the hands of her princess or her new queen.
Nayantara left the state but before leaving she looked at the palace for one last time, she promised to herself that she will return to the palace, to inherit everything for which she sacrificed everyone.
There was a pale silence around the palace, once sparkling golden ambience turned into pale and dull to an extent that everything appeared melancholic blue.
Nandini was standing outside the palace, she was numb but still unable to understand as to why she was not able to escape her horrific memory, according to her the purpose of her being in the past was to witness her evil which she has already seen, what else was there for her to see.
Her eyes then stopped at piyali and without any specific reason Nandini felt an immediate urge to follow piyali and she did as if she had no control.
She entered the palace, the horror of the previous day came flushing in, the palace was horrific dark when piyali lit the lamp, she looked around and there was something strange, something weird about the palace with a lot a negativity she could feel it.
She was thinking about everything else when she saw piyali sitting on the throne of the Queen. Nandini was all confused unable to process when she saw Rakshit coming from the shadow and she was stunned. Wasn’t he supposed to be with nayantara? What was he doing here? So many questions were flushing inside her mind.
Piyali immediately started blushing at the sight of Rakshit and immediately kissed him and to nandini surprise Rakshit kissed her back.
Rakshit finally spoke after a while “ Piyali I wouldn’t be able to do all this by myself, if it wasn’t you helping me. My love thank you for planning everything from nayantara falling in love with me to her hating her parents, you did it all to an extent that she sacrificed her entire family for me which was really silly of her but good for us”.
Piyali smirked, “ I’ve always loved you Rakshit but I’ve loved this palace more than anything, it was supposed to be mine but in that unfortunate war they took it all away from my family, all this was destined to happen but now it’s your duty to keep nayantara far far away from this palace. Make her forget because it’s all mine”.
Rakshit held her hand with all the love in his eyes, the same love that nandini expected for nayantara but it wasn’t there.
Rakshit smiled towards piyali and said, “for that I’ll have to keep her next to me all the time, don’t you mind”.
Piyali gave a sinful smile, “Honey as long as I’ve the palace all by myself, I really don’t mind at all”.
Nandini felt so much rage just at the sight of those two, as if Rakshit being selfish wasn’t enough that he had to cheat nayantara.
Nandini was feeling all sort of emotions her eyes filled with tears, on the edge of breaking down when she saw piyali again moving towards the throne of the queen.
This wasn’t supposed to happen, piyali wasn’t suppose to sit on the throne, it doesn’t belong to her..
The moment piyali sat on the throne, something happened.
The chandelier started flickering and moving forward and backward swiftly as if there was any sort of wind responsible but to their surprise all the doors and windows of the palace were closed. The flickering of the chandelier was enough to creep down Rakshit but piyali was brave she was portraying herself unaffected but then suddenly someone pushed the Queen throne on which she was sitting and the push was so full of impact that piyali couldn’t hold anymore and was forced to move with the flow of the push and fell on the floor.
By now they knew that it wasn’t normal and they were not going to get away with it easily.
Rakshit was creeped out, he didn’t even try to help piyali and immediately started searching for a way out and he found one also as if the forces were helping him to escape like they didn’t want to punish him.
And Rakshit ran, ran for his life leaving piyali behind without even looking at her for once and that’s how his promise of love faded.
While Rakshit betrayed her, piyali was still there all alone or may be not so alone.
Piyali was still lying on the ground unable to move when suddenly the flickering chandelier fell over her with a loud sound.
Piyali screamed and blood started flowing from her forehead, all that innocence on her face was taken over by pain and only pain.
She somehow managed to escape from the weight of the chandelier and managed to hold firmly on the ground.
But she wasn’t able to breathe for a second when she saw something or someone and she started screaming certain things and in between all this chaos she didn’t realize she was moving backwards when suddenly she collided with a candle stand and the end of her cloth came in contact with the burning candle.
Her entire dress was on fire in a moment of time, her screams were pure horrific and nandini couldn’t bear all that anymore, she wanted to escape, she wanted to run and never look back..
But she saw someone, the same lady from the corridor, nayantara’s mother or now when she knows everything we can say her own mother, The Queen.
She was staring at nandini, as if she was visible to her but how was it possible the Queen has died a day before, then how can she see her again.
The Queen came closer to nandini and looked straight dead into her eyes and finally broke the silence, “ now you realize my princess what you’ve done, you sacrificed us all because of your stupid reasons and selfish needs. You choose to trust strangers than your own flesh and blood.”
Nandini unable to speak was just staring at the queen and then to the burning piyali, her eyes were rotating like a pendulum to and fro.
When Queen again said, “ piyali was just a bait to lure you back to the palace. We thought burning her to death would bring you back for us to settle the scores with but you were clever enough to not return back and we were bound to wait for you and look at the mysterious way in which destiny works. You were born again to come back to the same palace but we thought you should know the entire truth before being punished My Princess”.
Nandini was crying continuously when the Queen again said, “you’ve witnessed everything that you were supposed to and it’s time for you to realize that you’re cursed and it should have been you instead of piyali that should have been burning because it was you who betrayed her family and not her”.

With her saying this nandini suddenly found herself into the same room from where it all started sitting next to same dairy which took her to her journey of realization when suddenly she heard her mother in law banging on the door of the room and screaming, “Nandini… Nandini what are you doing inside, open the door”.