A Thousand Encounters

Chapter-35

"She hasn't come back yet," Rishi informed Daadu checking Nandini's room at 4 in the morning.

Apparently only two persons were worried for her and couldn't sleep at all. 

"She won't come anytime soon, Rishi," Daadu informed Rishi.

"I thought you are worried," Rishi said as he came inside, "So I thought to keep a check on her for you." Rishi cleared awkwardly. He was indeed a stranger amid his family, not knowing a thing about them. 

"I am," Daadu answered briefly, sipping wine.

"Go and sleep, she isn't coming back anytime soon," Daadu said and Rishi nodded. This gap which had grown in all these years when he was abroad had distanced him from his family. He could feel the stiffness.

"If you need anything, I am in next room," Rishi tried to tell his grandpa who were looking more than distressed. He wanted to be there for him in someway.

"Sleep, Son," Daadu smiled at his concern and he left the room.

Daadu fretted over whatever happened that night and his face twitched painfully. He could see this coming. He knew his son would use Raghav's death as his weapon to tackle Manik. He had warned Manik but he proved to be weaker than he had assumed. Daadu closed his eyes trying not to blame that young boy. He was trained for battles but not these sordid mind games. Madhav had played a trick on Manik's mind and he got played. 

Daadu tried to sleep on his rocking chair forgetting the stinging topic. He prayed for her granddaughter as last thing before trying to give some rest to his mind. 

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Manik stared at the little contest between raindrops and hard ground as he sat in corridor. He couldn't collect courage to enter the dorm. It helped how dorm was almost empty as cadets had left for their homes when it was equally haunting. It bolted up there loud and her crying face flashed in front of his eyes for nth time. He had hurt the only person he ever had in most cruelest way. She was the first one who had gatecrashed his uptight life. She was the only one he could have. Fear was louder than those thunderbolts that where would she be with those outrageous driving talent of hers. Weather was crazy and so did she. He didn't know if he did the right thing or not, but nothing felt right in ached heart of his. It felt like he had done something very wrong. He had left her alone in storm and was now sitting there like a loser. He palmed his face. 

"What have I done?" He asked himself one more time clutching his hair in his fist. He burst out crying holding his head and it didn't matter if his sobs echoed in empty corridor. He had pushed her away when he didn't have strength to walk away. 

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Nandini sat in rain on edge of cliff looking at drenched night. It was dark in and out. She wiped her tears despite they hardly existed amid raindrops. It was poring heavily. 

She didn't regret a thing in her life. She didn't think twice when she had let Manik have that big chunk of her sanity. She was this free filly who had never quivered to take leaps. She still didn't regret how she had let someone make her that weak. It was a first when she had been afraid, it was a first when she had counted seconds in anxiety when he was with her father. There was nothing which could twist her heart the way his words had done. She shouldn't have let him, she swayed in this unjust urge to turn the clock. Anger rushed in her veins as she allowed herself to ponder over it.

"Coward," She murmured closing her eyes and turned sideways to curl herself into a ball. Each her pore was aching in agony and cold, she needed him. It was brutal how he was the one who had left her hanging and only his warmth she needed to stop that pain. She cried and so did sky. It was still an hour till dawn breaks.