Promises: Till death do them apart

I Promise

          The blinking orange ray of the setting sun reflected at his face through the fountain near him. Chirping of birds and voice of children playing around him echoed throughout the garden. It was a perfect artistical scene which he would have loved to portray on white canvas with his colorful paints. But today he was not in the state to observe the beauty of this evening. His face registered a strange kind of hurt. He was not even able to lift his eyes up, as some crystal beads over his lashes were making his eyes heavy. He could feel the heaviness settled down in his guts. So many things had crowded his mind.

'Arav Khurana... Do you've a fucking idea of what have you done..?? You just ruined everything... You ruined her....' His heart screamed. He wanted to cry aloud but his cries melted into the silence and pinched his heart even more. He looked up as he felt someone's hand on his shoulder. But he was dumbstruck when he found her standing there.

'Riya...' He uttered.

She said nothing just smiled and sat next to him. Her smile was still heartwarming as it used to be. Her eyes stared at him with a spark in them. He too stared back at her. He could see her love for him in her eyes.

'I'm sorry...' He whispered with sin in his eyes.

'Sssshhhhh.... You speak too much...' She said. Then she held his right arm and continued,
'I wanna rest on your shoulder... May I...?'

At that moment he could just nod in yes. Slowly she rested her head on his right shoulder while holding his arm. Something inside him felt light and relieved as if he was getting free from his own captivity. He kissed on her hair lovingly.

Time passed like this, he didn't notice how much. But then all of a sudden he felt someone continuously tapping his shoulder. He found some blurred figure standing around him. He rubbed his eyes to see those figures clearly. He looked around and found himself sleeping on the bench, while keeping his head on its back. He settled himself on the bench properly. It was then he realized that it was a dream.

'Are you ok..?' One of them asked.

'Yeah I'm..' He replied. People went back after confirming he was ok leaving him alone. The sky had turned black till then. Some scenes trailed through his mind.

"GLENEAGLE GLOBAL HOSPITAL, MUMBAI..." He read on the board hanging on the building in which he was about to enter to meet his college friend Sachin.

'Hello...' His charming voice made the receptionist look up at him. She stared at him from head to toe his appearance was pretty charming and sober just as his voice. The tall and easy posture, his dark brown deep eyes and a little bit messy black hair.

'How may I help you sir..?'

'I'm Aarav Khurana.. I had an appointment with Dr. Sachin Tandon.'

'Yes sir.. Go straight and then take a right.... The first room...' She said after checking the appointment list. Aarav nodded and moved.
_

'So How's life apart from work..?' Sachin asked as they moved through the corridor of the hospital leaving the crowd a little back.

'Good.. Indeed.. How about you..?'

'Good as well...' Sachin replied. They kept talking about things in life while moving in the corridor.

"Aruu.." Aarav froze at his place, as this voice fell into his ears. He looked in the direction from where this voice came and found a girl in pale white patient's dress screaming and struggling to make herself free from nurse's grip.

'Don't bother... She's just a paitient...' Sachin said to Aarav.

But Aarav got shocked as he got the view of her face.

'Riya..' He uttered in shock.

His feet walked towards her on their own. He couldn't take his eyes off to her and gently took her hands in his. All of a sudden she stopped screaming and stared back at him silently. Her eyes were so damn naïve, her innocent face had bruises. His eyes brimmed with tears and his hands reached her face to feel her wounds. Slowly she closed her eyes under the effect of anesthesia which one of the nurse injected in her right hand. Aarav held her from waist as she fell unconscious. Soon nurses took the girl away. Aarav kept staring at their retreating figure through tears.

'Well she met an accident two years ago and went under trauma. She suffered from Schizophrenia as well as some dissociative disorders. After which she forgot her past life completely except one name.... "Aru.." I don't know the reality.. But I've heard that she used to love him. And after knowing the truth about this name even her family stopped visiting her.' Sachin explained as Aarav asked him to. And with each line a great tremor overtook him. Sachin went on with details but he got lost somewhere else.

_

He cursed himself for leaving her alone, while she was not ready to let him go.
'You'll learn to live with this.. It'll be better for us to be apart...' He said when she requested him not to leave. She stared at him silently with her teary eyes. She wanted to scream, break things around her, cry her heart out but all she did was stood there until his retreating figure vanished completely.

_

'Are you listening..?' Sachin asked while jerking him a bit. Aarav came out of his thoughts and left the place without replying.

At present, It was early dawn and he was still sitting there thinking about her. Thinking about the time they spent together. 

'You'll leave one day after driving me crazy...' She said and gave a light slap on his arm.

'No I won't leave you... I'll keep you with me saying that I've driven her crazy so now it's my responsibility to look after her until she gets well...' He replied with a creepy smile. She nodded in disbelief.

He stood up at his place as this scene flashed before his eyes.

'I know I've never kept my promises... But this time I'll... I won't leave you...' He said while staring at the bracelet gifted by her once. A drop of fresh tear rolled down his cheek.