Her Unreasonable Love (Completed)

chapter 22 - For better or worse

It was my nightmare right in front of my eyes. There was a square black wooden box on the floor open, which had nails all over the inside of it's ceiling. It had to be custom made, it didn’t seem like something that anyone would find in a store. It was the box that Ayaan had locked me in and just the plain sight of it was daunting and I was trapped in it, for God knows how long. Above the box, on one of the hooks was a whip which looked like it was used as it had dried blood on it, shivers ran down my spine thinking about the person who was suffered by it. On the other hook were chains, similar to the one still on my closet door.

There were two boxes on a rack and one was filled with syringes and small bottles, probably it was the one that Ayaan used to drug me a few times. The other box looked fancy and feminine it was covered with red velvet cloth. I opened it and on the top was a broken mirror with a crack through it’s center. Inside the box was a picture of a pretty girl in her mid twenties, it was a candid shot in black and white. She had her head bent low with a soft smile, she looked delicate and shy. There was another picture of that girl, with Ayaan where his hands were wrapped around her waist and she was kissing him on his cheek while he was red as a cherry. It ached my heart to see him with another girl, happy and  smiling. I didn’t know he was capable of smiling that way. It must be the wife that he had lightly mentioned about a few hours back. I put everything back just the way it was and made my way out of his room.

I paced as fast as I could to get away from it and sighed when I reached my bed. Images of the girl with Ayaan lingered in my head and I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to them. She was gorgeous as a fairy and explained why Ayaan didn’t like me. I was the complete opposite of the girl in that picture and wasn’t even close to her beauty standards.

I switched on my phone and there were so many texts and calls from Rayan. I opened his chat and it was overwhelming to see him concerned about me to the extent that he called more than twenty times.

I couldn’t take his help anymore. Ayaan needed me, he wasn’t well and I wanted to be with him through the tough phase. He wasn’t the bad person that I thought he was, it was his mental illness turning him into a monster. I wanted to forgo all the bad and see all the good things that he had done for me and be there for him. To help him heal. I had to shut Rayan out of my life and I had to do right then.

I immediately texted him, “I’m doing good now. Sorry for not getting in touch with you earlier.”

He called within seconds but his voice had an effect on me which prevented me from answering. Instead, I texted him, “I won’t be able to answer your call. I’m sorry that I scared you but I’m totally fine now.”

“What did your husband do to you? And why can’t you answer my call? I’m here for you, you don’t have to be scared of him.”

“I’m not scared of him. He’s my husband and I love him.”

It took several minutes to get a response from him and it read, “That explains why he locked you in a box?”

“I accidentally locked myself in the closet”

“Seriously? So you didn’t want my help and yet had the audacity to complain.”

I chose not to respond anymore. It was a big mistake texting him. Next time I had to be careful. Next time? There would be no next time. I wanted to be there for Ayaan and help him get better. No matter what it took, I was willing to risk it all.

I looked up for the meaning of bipolar and it was a whole new world. I had never heard of it before and it was a lot of information to process. Lot of it didn’t make sense to me but I still tried to re read every sentence to know exactly what it was. It was a mental disorder where people affected by it experienced extreme range of mood swings and it causes the brain to have unusual shifts in mood and energy. It wasn't curable but could be controlled with treatment.