I'm Dying

24.

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Shravan's mobile screen flashed a notification as he felt a cold breeze swap on his left side. He was sleeping in an empty bed. His hands rushed over the absence in a hurry alerting his damp senses out of sleep. He confirmed it by giving a slight glance and then rolling his head. It was 6 a.m in the morning. 

She might have gone to the washroom

A thought. Sweet and pious and comforting. But then he felt the coldness and emptiness of the bed run through his spine. 'Suman!' he said. For a few blissful moments, he stayed in his comforter thinking that everything is fine. Her skin and soft-touch were still raw on his fingers. 'Suman!' he was annoyed. He grabbed a sweatshirt and lazily rolled it down his torso. 

'Suman!' he knocked on the door of the attached washroom which horrifyingly went ajar. She wasn't' there. An insane jolt of emergency rushed through his veins. His tongue fiddled with her name. He rushed downstairs, calling her out- but was greeted with painful silence.

With his eyes moving in enormous directions he saw pinkish water coming out of the long slit of the closed door of the guest room. It had scarcely reached the entrance, wetting the doormat partially. Shravan rushed towards it trying to make sense of the scene.

Or maybe he didn't want to.

'Holy crap!' he banged the door which opened with an icy rigidness. With an impetus hurry, he walked inside, greeted with an ugly sight of a lot of water sprawling through the bathroom door, redder in color than he could have imagined. 'Suman...' his voice was meeker and he didn't intend to call her this time. It was like an ominous ultimatum of the future escaping his lips.

He wanted to rush inside and see what had gone wrong. He wanted to mend it back to a few hours ago when they were happy and together. But it felt like there were stones tied to his feet depreciating his pace. He was demolished.

The door to the washroom was closed. It wasn't locked. He moved his fingers across the mahogany wood, languidly. With a slight push, he saw something he would have wanted to redo the other moment.

Suman was lying in the bathtub, with her head maybe an inch above the cold- red water. The water was so, so red that for a few seconds, Shravan couldn't help but just stand and take in the nasty sight. He gulped, but his throat didn't work. His bile rose, bitter in his mouth. He wanted to scream and throw up and maybe run and take her out of that bloody bathtub- but he just stood with his wretched guilt surging over his body.

He took the first step and recognized his utter failure and loss of strength to walk. With another, he fell. On the ground, with his clothes socking in the scarlet water. Her blood smelled pungent in his nose as he again took over the perilous sight of her afterlife.

'Suman!!' Shravan yelled his eyes synonymous with her blood. Tremulous as his voice was, he was filled with terror and a slight grain of anger. Anger, which felt growing exponentially with each passing second.

'Nothing... Nothing has happened.' he again cried, this time grabbing her arm. He double-taked before splashing his hands in the mixture of her blood and water, her cold body yet again touching his fingers. But this time, he didn't feel the spark of love infuse in his system. It was a resentful feeling of betrayal and fear.

Her limp body was soaked terribly with water. She was heavy and so, so far- that he wasn't able to catch her. After two unsuccessful attempts to take her out of the water, Shravan gave out a mirthful cry. 'Love!' he couldn't cry a word more. He let her sink in the bathtub, not leaving her arms for a moment. She again gravitated back to her position. For the first time, he traced his fingers over her whitened complexion. There was no trace of a slight blush, no trace of any expression. She was empty. As empty as one can look.