Ephemera

Cadaver

Draupadi gasped as she saw her eldest husband struggling his breathe, on his knees at the floor as blood flew freely from his back. A sharp dagger was embedded deep in his back as he shut his eyes tight trying not to scream, his tolerance was renowned but this dagger was too deep as struggled to not show his pain but Draupadi knew better.

For a while, she tried to register what happened, it happened in a span less than a minute.

She went towards his bed as she leaned behind him and held the dagger tight.

She looked at him with love as his eyes watered but he still smiled as the dagger deep in his back reminded him of the multiple wars he had been in, as he remembered the specific words of one of the victims of his dagger had said, something he had pushed to the back of his mind, but he knew in all senses in wall utterly and completely true.

On that occasion when he had killed in the war, he later needed to see his victims' faces because, in some unlit corner of his heart, he half expected to find his own face looking up at him, ice-white and dead-eyed. "Deep down," the victim had said, "You know that you're already dead yourself, burnt out inside. You realize that you have far more in common with your victims after you've killed them than before.

He was pulled out of his trance as he felt Draupadi's mellifluous whisper "Brace yourself." And before he could understand it, he felt the dagger pulled from his back as a sharp surge out pain jolt through his body and his vision become blurry and teary due to pain.

That was when they heart a sharp scream from another side of the palace, nakula's blood curdling scream 'Bhrata Bheem' , as yudhishthira gestured Draupadi to leave him and run to nakula, panicked, and torn between her two husbands, she agreed and ran towards to source.

As soon she left the chamber, he endeavoured to stay deliberate, but he failed despondently. He heard some voice calling out in name in a baritone, laced with panic. Every second seemed hard to live, as he wished that this agony just ended, he could not tolerate the pain anymore.

He felt a set of pachydermous, satiny fingers with a warm palm hold his shivering hand. The tranquilizing breeze in his room felt like horrifying storms as he struggled to breathe, Stygian vision enveloped him along with phantasmagorical apparitions . As his face went paper white and his body went numb as a cadaver, hitting his head on the royal floor.

~~~~~~~'

Nakul was roaming in the palace with ease as he walked his spider, named webby as he cooed to it.

"Aww, webbie, come here." He called to his spider who was now on top of Bhrata bheem's plate of ladoos.

"No actually, stay there, it would be a nice surprise for him." Nakula said laughing evilly.

Webby hid behind a ladoo as if understanding what Nakula was saying, when they heard Bheem approaching with another plate of ladoos.

"Bharata Bheem! Here, you can have these ladoos." Nakula said sweetly as he handed the palte with webbie on it.

Bheem accepted it gladly as he crushed nakula in a bone crushing hug accidentally dropping the plate.

When they heard the thud of the plate as they both turned towards it, while Bheem's eyes widened due to the loss of his ladoos while Nakul's eyes widened due to a completely different reason. He bent down as he picked up a ladoo which immediately burnt his skin, and he threw it away. He saw a hole had been burnt on the royal carpet where the ladoo fell.

He saw bheem pick one and almost eat, as panic took over nakul as he lunged towards bheem and pushed the ladoo away from bheem's hand as blood curdling cream escaped his lips.