Alternative title: What exactly went down that night?
***
After Shivay left, I hop in the shower to get the reek of alcohol off me. The warm water washes all of it away. I lay there in the bathtub for a few minutes. Almost dozing off. But the ringing of my phone wakes me up. I roped the bathrobe around me and stepped out.
It stopped ringing before I could reach it though.
A missed call from Rudra. I was about to call back but It was 11.40 and I almost fell asleep in the bath. I need some sleep. I'd call him tomorrow. So I changed into a loose shirt and PJs.
I looked at the bed before me. It was soft, white linen, built for the cause of comfort.
But I felt no sleep coming over me. So I explored the room. I set the air conditioner to a minimal and started opening doors. To the balcony, to the closet, to the bathroom. There was one more. I think it went to a lounge.
So I pulled it.
The room was vast for a lounge. It had several pillows stacked up on the ground and the far end wall, was a glass one, giving a view to the night outside. The room was stacked with a mini-fridge and a cozy hearth of fire. The fire lit up, burning slowly as she switched a button. It felt like a new room altogether.
I opened the mini-fridge to hunt for water. But it was filled with wine bottles. And they didn't look like the good ones.
There was a wooden table between and I settled in. I take a breathe in and out. But when I take another, tears fall down my cheeks. My tears.
I don't know why. Is it because of Lafin or because I was alone?
The incidents of tonight became clearer in my head then. I knew that I had to deal with the aftermath of it later. I just didn't know that later would be here so soon.
***
She hated other people touching her. Even on the plane, she was scared. She had dashed the doctor's hand away in her faint sense of consciousness.
Annika continued sobbing as the other door she hadn't noticed, opened.
Shivay paced in with a butter knife in his hand, alert and searching, " Where? Where is it?"
She stopped crying," What?"
"The insect- the cockroach, that has you crying."
"There's no cockroach," she said, looking into the garden ahead. It buzzed with crickets, a mosquito bit her cheek bringing her back.
She leaped back, staring at the door," How did you come in here?"
"Let's see," he rubbed his chin, thinking of some bullshit answer, "first I heard you crying, then I thought what's the best way to save you? Then this magical door came into view and I thought hmm, should I let this cockroach eat Annika or let her live another day to scold me," he smiled wide.
She could not stop smiling through the tears, "And you chose the latter?"
"You're alive, aren't you?" He smirked. Indeed, Angel or not her room was being watched over.
