Winner of Wattpad India Awards 2020 (Judge's Choice) in the New Adult category.
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"The lights are cheeky, you can't live without them, and yet if you get too close, they'll blind you. Darkness? Well it doesn't cheat. It's cool and soothing. It's r...
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Acid blistered her throat as she heaved the contents of her stomach. There wasn't much in it, yet she couldn't stop retching until nothing except bile came out. A hand held back her hair, another stroked her spine. She heard Nakul's murmured words without really listening. "It's okay, it's over now."
Was it?
Shrugging him off, she pulled the knob, flushing her sick. Any other day, Nakul seeing her in this state would've been embarrassing. However right now her mind won't stop replaying images. Not those of what had occurred merely thirty minutes ago, but of other, earlier times.
She saw Brigesh babu kicking Kamal into a pulp. She saw his men setting Rani ablaze. She saw a long, bleeding gash on Champa's face, drawn on her skin with Vishal's knife. She saw his open palm land on Sunanda's cheek. She saw him point a loaded gun at Nakul, and then at his own wife.
Other senses joined her mind, supplementing the images. She felt his nails digging into her neck. She heard Kamal's cries. She smelled the soot from flames consuming the Ramlila stage.
Her body was playing a movie. A feature length propaganda film to justify what had happened today. Madhu hated it.
Somehow, Nakul managed to half-walk, half-carry her to the bedroom, tucking her under a layer of thin blankets. She caught his wrist before he could leave.
"Stay."
He did. Gathering her until she was comfortable in the familiar nooks of his body, Nakul stayed. And soon the movie faded into a blank reel.
She woke up two hours later to a room bathed in the hue of dusk. Her phone was ringing, and she reached over to the nightstand to look at it.
It was the Superintendent.
"Hello?"
"Miss Thakur? I just rang to say that Vishal is stable now, still out of it, but he'll recover."
Exhaling loudly, she slumped on her pillows. She wasn't sure what exactly she'd been hoping for but was relieved he wasn't actually dead.
"Okay, that's good, thank you Sir."
"You should also note," he paused to consider his next words, "I came to know from his lawyer that he'll be filing an FIR."
"Right," she said without feeling. "Thanks for telling me. And for everything else you've done today. Thank you."
"It's my job."
Then why weren't you doing it till now?
Madhu didn't say that though. Instead she thanked him again before hanging up.
She left her room and then the house. The field behind her house still sported the same grass, only it had grown even more in the past month or so that she'd been in Bhabra.
