TALAASH | ON HOLD

"After all, what you seek is seeking you." Sidharth sighed, resting back on the wall in the small room.

"You know, it is wrongly translated," Her voice was so feeble he almost missed it. "It's 'You are what you seek' " She lay on her bed, the very berth that had doomed her forever, the bed that had drained her with every creak the springs made.

He reeled through her words. It was unsettling.

"No. That can't be it." He shook his head to shake away the series of revolting thoughts. As a cop, all he ever did was look for thieves, scammers, and criminals. He can't be amongst those, he couldn't afford to be on the other side of the boundary.

Or perhaps, that's what he really was.

"That's not what I meant. You are not seeking that." She wrapped her arms around herself. She knew she wasn't the peace and harmony that she desperately desired. Did the Sufi lie all those years ago?

"Then what am I seeking?" He lay on the ground, his arm becoming his temporary pillow. He closed his eyes as if his query was rhetorical. He wanted nothing more but to lull into the darkness. It was futile, though. Sleep had left him years ago.

"Something everyone is looking for." Now that she really thought about it, she wasn't sure what she was looking for. Is it important to be looking for something to survive?

"Then is everyone that particular something?"

"It will all make sense one day. Enough now. I want to sleep." She closed her eyes, looking through the darkness, hoping she would never wake up, not in this life.

"Unawareness would suit me better, any day." He believed that the more you know, the more you die. And for once, he wanted to live. Was it too much to ask for?

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Cover by my dearest, @AakritiPathak