Iniquity: a tale of guilt and love || Completed

21. Rain and fire

~ he always said he would remember my face even in a huge crowd, he would recognize my fragrance even among thousand others. I always thought he was bragging but today I realized he was serious~

The scenery was beautiful, the horizon could be seen and the reddish hue around it, calmed his burning eyes. Shravan wanted to touch the horizon, he extended his right hand towards it, his mind under the impression that he would be able to touch it. To his utter displeasure, at his mere advance, the horizon disappeared from his far range of vision. He frowned at the act, why did it appeared as a déjà vu to him? Before he could ponder on the thought, a rain drop fell on his outstretched hand, and Shravan smiled. He gazed up to find the blue sky now wrapped under the quilt of blackish-grey clouds. For some unexplained reason, he felt immense happiness surging through him, at the sight of rain. His eyes lingered on the grass around him, it had all started to shine under the reflection of water, the floweres had bloomed and the view was very pretty. He walked towards them, and touched a soft petal with his thumb. Smiling wide, he looked up but his brows furrowed to look straight. She was standing, in a wedding dress. The orange blended with baby pink contrasted the golden blouse well, but why was her face tear stricken? He squinted his eyes to look at the face and as his eyes focused clear, Shravan took in a sharp breath. Was there any chance in any world where he won't recognize his Sumo? One look at her face, and all his smiles faded. Every tear that rolled down her cheeks, screamed accusations at him. It all came rushing back to him. The rain had stopped by now, and he could see Suman getting drenched now standing on the other side, and that was the moment he felt himself burning, alive.

Shravan sat up with a jerk, panting for breaths. Sweat trickled down his forehead, along his cheeks, and mingled down in his think stuble. His fist had tightly clutched the bedsheets, and his entire body shook under the dream he just woke up from.

Dream or nightmare?

Before he could realize anything else, Pushkar opened the door and entered with a man following his suite. Pushkar saw him looking at all of them with scared eyes, as Shravan pulled the comforter to himself hiding his tall frame. Pushkar could feel tears stinging at the back of his eyes, his brother who had this aura of confidence and power was scared, of him. The doctor sat beside him, a friendly smile on his face. Suman entered the same moment, and Shravan looked at her, through his peripheral vision, his eyes dilating in horror as the recognition set in.

This was the same women from his dream, the one who got drenched in the rain of happiness, at the cost of him burning alive. This was his Sumo, the women he had wronged the most in his entire life.

Suman had her eyes locked at his face since she entered, and she could see the array of emotions passing through his eyes. Shravan gasped as his memory finally settled at her, and the doctor who had held his right hand could see his pulse raising.

" Shravan?", The doctor's voice broke his reverie.

Silence. The doctor tired again. Suman took in a breath, her hands folding in prayer.

" Shravan? Can you hear me?", He called again. Shravan looked at him, but didn't respond.

"You know your name?", The doctor started from the basics.

Shravan shook his head. The first response.

" You know what date is today? Where are you? What time it is?", The doctor questioned again, and Shravan closed his eyes, silently pleading his brain to answer the aksed questions. But he got nothing. Tears streamed down his cheeks at his own helplessness.

"The patient is not oriented to time, place and person", the doctor talked to Pushkar, " there is something wrong with his brain functioning. We need to do some tests, asap to gather what had actually wrong with him!", The doctor concluded and there was this uncomfortable silence lingering in the environment.

" Bhayiya", Pushkar called and Shravan smiled with wet cheeks at him.

A ray of hope.

" You know who I am?", Pushkar asked, and Shravan frowned. No trace of recognition.

The questions followed the same way for his parents who were standing stiff as a statue but Shravan's memory could not trace them out.

The doctor shrugged and stood up, when Pushkar dragged Suman to Shravan.

His eyes dilated again, and Suman could see traces of fear in them.

"Bhaiya, you know her?", Pushkar tried his last punch and it worked when he nodded.

"Sumo", his voice seemed horse, " suman!".

Suman felt like she had conquered the entire world in that one instant.

" Rain. Fire. Garden", the murmurs caught their attention and they found Shravan's eyes fixed at space, he seemed lost.

"Shravan!", Suman sat beside him, and held his hands, but he was still in his own world.

He kept mumbling some more random stuff she could not make sense of. The doctor shook him to bring him back and he looked at the doctor with such innocence dripping from his eyes that it broke all the hearts there.

"What do you remember Shravan?", The doctor asked and Shravan gulped.

His gaze fluctuated amidst all the faces he could see in the room and settled on Suman.

" I have hurt her.", One sentence in last seven days and it was enough to bring suman back on her knees, writhing in pain.

As the doctor questioned and Shravan answered, it was clear that he remembered nothing except what all he had done to her, only the wrong things though. He knew no one else, not even his own name, not his parents, not his siblings, not even Suman and his friendship. He didn't even remember Suman's faults or his father's betrayals or his mother's lies. His memory was blank. All that was etched in that white canvas was his guilt in bold black letters.

That was Suman realized how badly can your guilt destroy you. And also why they said never to break a heart!