The Princess Who Returned

Chapter Four

" May I ask why you asked to meet up here instead of somewhere in your palace, princess?" asked doctor Francis after we settled ourselves in an isolated booth in the 'Fruitland' a very famous juice parlour in town. Me and Aasha always came well used to come here after a joyride through town, it was our place and I could not think of a more appropriate place to learn about what Aasha had been hiding from me. 

Other than that, this place was always crowded so my safety was sort of assured. There was no way he could try anything here if he was planning to so I explained, "I do not know you at all and do not feel comfortable bringing you to the palace." And he said, "I understand but don't you think this place is too crowded. I was hoping to have a confidential conversation." "If that was what you wanted sir, this is the perfect place. Everyone is too wrapped up in their conversations and will pay us no mind, besides that I trust the person who runs this place." He sighed, "You aren't changing your mind, are you?" "You got that right sir now please speak and tell me everything like you promised."

Realising that he could not argue with me he warned, "If this gets out I will get in trouble so you better be sure this does not get out. The world could probably end up in peril if it did." I rolled my eyes to his disbelief and said, "It won't get out, I have been here with Aasha multiple times and whatever we spoke about never got out." "Ah so that is why you insist upon this place. Please think about this carefully princess, this piece of information can make or break the world. Do not let emotions decide the place." I simply glared at him and he thankfully got the message and started, "Aasha Patil has a twin well had a twin." 

My eyes widened and I interrupted not able to stop myself, "W-what do you mean? Why did she never tell me?! How were they able to keep this twin a secret?! Wha-" I would have kept going if he hadn't covered my mouth with his hand from across the table. He meant well I knew but I was too agitated to see sense and bit the hand causing him to immediately let go and swear rather loudly attracting everyone's attention.

On realising that he had become the centre of attention for a not-so noble reason he flushed a deep scarlet and I could hardly stop chuckling because of how he looked like a ripe tomato. After hurriedly apologising to everyone, he glared at me and left without another word. I did not really care at first but then remembered that he was my only ticket to the truth about Aasha and set off running.

 I mentally reprimanded myself and pursued him, hoping against hope that I could still find him and luckily, I did. He was talking to the stable boy who worked the stables of 'Fruitland'. Since I did not want to make him angrier, I just waited until he was done. I could not mess up anymore, I needed to know about Aasha and her supposed twin. That was the only thing that could give me some kind of closure.

Luckily for me the conversation did not take too long and as soon as he was done, he came my way seeming to have already noticed me. I did not wait for him to make his way to me and decided to meet him halfway. When I did meet him, he did not brush me off which was a good sign so I decided to go ahead with my apology. 

"There is no need for that, I should have been more understanding. From what Aasha told me and what I saw today you both clearly cared no care for each other. I will tell you everything but can we please go somewhere else?" I chuckled, "You are too embarrassed to go back in, aren't you?" he just nodded his head surprising me with his honesty.

I really wanted to trust him and foolishly agreed to follow him disregarding my safety but at this point I did not place much importance on living a life without Aasha. I thought I had lost the one person to truly understand me and to make matters worse that someone was a person who I now realised I might have never truly known.

I asked him, "Where are we going sir?" He replied, "to a restaurant that I love to frequent because of how delicious the food is." Curious I asked, "what is this place called?" "Fairy eats and it's run by my wife." I looked at him skeptically and asked,"don't you think you're being led by emotions this time sir." "Don't worry I'm not, you'll see how awesome the place is once we get there." I highly doubted his honesty but since I had no other choice I followed.

I was right, on entering the restaurant not only was his wife the nosiest person in the world but the food was also beyond terrible. He was very much blinded by his love for his wife. Her nosiness was obvious to me because of how often she came to clean the floor around us but he just couldn't see it.

 It was frustrating to see her hovering around us but I controlled myself because I wanted to know the truth about Aasha's death. We had delayed the conversation long enough so despite myself I forced myself to eat the spicy and sour chocolate cake he ordered for me and asked me to try before he told me everything and did my level best to ignore his wife who revolved around us much like the planets in the solar system do around the sun. The moment he started though all this became simpler because of how weird my best friend's story actually was.

################################

"Aasha like I said before had a twin but the kind of twin I am talking about is nothing like I am sure you are picturing. Her twin was inside her." The story was getting crazier by the minute and I stuttered "I- I don't understand." What he said next only further caused me disbelief "There was an organism in her heart that had a similar skeletal build." "How is this possible?!"

 "I don't know but it was that organism that caused her death. I discovered that organism in her when her mother brought her in for a check up since Aasha seemed to be getting tired quicker than earlier. I couldn't find anything wrong with her vitals and decided to take an X-ray." He paused and took a deep breath; it looked like he was still traumatised by what he saw. There was a long silence and he looked unwilling to continue, I felt bad but I needed to know and pressed, "You took the X-ray and saw?"

He closed his eyes and said distressed, "I took the X-ray and saw a skeleton in her heart. It was poised in such a way that it had access to the purified blood which should have been pumped to the rest of the body in it's entirety but this creature was absorbing a significant portion of it which was causing the weakness." 

He stopped to give me time to process everything and then continued, "When I told them about this they didn't believe me at first but when I showed them proof they were forced to accept it. Aasha was traumatised and started crying while her mother started yelling at me to do something but I had never seen anything like this and was stumped." I interrupted, "How old was she when she discovered this?" he sighed and looked even sadder, "She was just four and had only two years left to live if we did nothing about this parasitic twin." "Do you remember the date?"

I guessed my question was insensitive but I wanted to know if I was there after she was diagnosed because we became friends when we were four. "I can never forget the date and time, it was the 26th of February at 9am." I hadn't realised it but I had been holding my breath and now that I finally heard it I was overcome by emotion.

Yes, I was there after she got to know and I saw the signs. That picture my best friend was holding when she died was taken on the 26th of February at 10am. She was late that day; I didn't know then but it looks like this was why she was late. I got mad at her that day even though I noticed she was sad.

I GOT MAD AT HER AFTER SHE DISCOVERED THIS TERRIFYING FACT! All she wanted was comfort but I did not give that to her, she had to apologise TEN times before I started treating her like usual. How could I not have known that she was not ok?! Why was I not understanding?! I knew she had been sick the day before, that is why I cut our play date short. She hated pictures too but that day she asked for one. Why was I so oblivious?! Why was I so terrible to her?!

I needed time to myself so I excused myself, "Sir I need to go home. Please tell me the rest some other time." And he enquired, "Don't you want to know how she survived so long?" "Some other time. Thank You for your time." With that I exited the restaurant. He looked extremely worried but he did not pursue me for which I was grateful. I had a lot to think about but I was always watched back home so I did not feel comfortable to go back and instead decided to head to our picnic spot. I still had brought the last item Aasha gave me and that place seemed appropriate to finally open the envelope.