KRITIKA: HIS CHILDHOOD OBSESSION

Prologue:

The sound of the ambulance sirens echoed through the night.

Everything around me felt blurred.

People were running. Someone was shouting for the doctors. The flashing lights were making it difficult for me to see anything clearly.

But I could see him.

Atharv.

He was lying unconscious on the stretcher as the doctors rushed him towards the emergency room.

A gunshot had changed everything.

"ATHARV!"

I ran behind the stretcher, tears continuously falling from my eyes.

"Please... please, open your eyes."

He didn't move.

Not even once.

One of the doctors tried to stop me before entering the emergency area.

"Ma'am, please wait outside."

I held onto the side of the stretcher for a moment, refusing to let go.

"Atharv..."
My voice broke.

"You can leave me..."

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"You can leave me whenever you want. You can hate me.
You can blame me. You can walk away from me..."

My tears wouldn't stop.

"But please don't leave me like this."

The doctors finally moved him inside.

The doors slowly closed between us.

I stood there, completely helpless.

My hands were trembling.

I stared at those closed doors as if staring hard enough could bring him back to me.

"When I actually started loving you..."

I whispered through my tears.

"When I finally realised that you had become the most important person in my life..."

My voice broke again.

"You are leaving me like this?"

I covered my face with my trembling hands.

"Please, Atharv..."

For the first time, I didn't care how weak I sounded.

I didn't care who was watching.

I just wanted him to come back.

Because I had never imagined that the person who once walked into my life so unexpectedly...
would one day become the person I would be terrified of losing.

And that night...

I realised that some love stories don't begin with a confession.

Some begin with a wound, a thousand unanswered questions, and a promise that was never meant to be broken.