Treacherous Souls

XXV. "My plan seems to be working."

Third Person

Tere mere darmiyaan hai
Baatein ankahi
Tu wahan hai, main yahan kyu
Saath hum nahi.

Manasvi sat near the windowsill of her room, gazing out at the enormous  trees below while the melody played out in the background on a continuous loop.

She missed her husband now more than ever. She missed the distraction he brought with him. She missed his repetitive teasing. She missed his haughty smirk. And most importantly, she missed him.

The palace was shrouded in darkness and grief, dampening the enthusiasm of the residents of the Rajput Palace. The anxiousness and fears were too much to bear, and Manasvi needed her husband to comfort her at this point of time.

Even though they weren't on great terms, Manasvi believed that her heartless and cold husband would be able to provide a shred of certainty and comfort to her.

The shrill sound of her ringtone brought her back to life, leaving her stunned for a momentary second before she gained the courage to stand up and pick up her phone, agitated at the sudden disruption.

However, her initial disdain immediately vanished when she saw her husband's name flashing on the screen.

She picked up the call in great excitement, struggling to remain calm and poised.
"Hello?"

"Hi!" Kabir breathed out, relieved to hear his irritating wife's voice.

"How are you?" She questioned, moving around to sit on the bed.

"Great! How's everyone in the house?"

She took a pause, hesitating for a second before gathering her wondering thoughts,"Nice. Why did you call?"

"Oh! Um– I wanted to... uh, talk to Manav? Uh, yeah."

"Kabir, you could have just called Manav bhai if you wanted to talk to him." Manasvi sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration.

The indignation in Manasvi kept surmounting the more the silence between them stretched. She kept her lips sealed, not knowing how to put her thoughts into words. There were many things she wanted to get off her chest, many things she wanted to confess but couldn't because of the lack of words at the tip of her tongue.

At last she heard a defeated sigh, and a voice that sounded extremely low, filled with trepidation,"I have to go. There's some work I need to attend to."

"That's fine. Take care." Manasvi hung up, immediately regretting later for not opening up her mouth and blurting out the words weighing heavy on her chest.

'Maybe next time.' Her mind revolved around these words, the words that had taken a permanent residence in her heart for as long as she could remember.

***

Guilt; it is such a terrible feeling, weighing heavy on your chest until you take your last breath. Nothing stays with you until the very end, but remorse? It does. And, the worst part is you cannot get rid of it even if you put all of your energy and effort into it, for you cannot rectify your past mistakes. You cannot rectify the things you regret now, and that is why they say— don't do something you will most likely regret later.