Broken But Beautiful

44. Right Before the Zero Hour

Nandini

I was running.

Running, running, and running.

And laughing. Giggling like a small girl.

It felt like a small girl.

Running up to the green hill. In a white frock. My glasses kept loosening from my nose. I didn't care. I just ran.

So did my Rishu. He was running.

Running, running and running.

And laughing. He was right behind me, trying to catch me. He kept getting hold on my flying skirt and he kept loosing it. But the laughter didn't stop.

It didn't last, either.

Because after a while, I realized - it was only my laughter now. Rishu wasn't laughing anymore.

I stopped laughing. I couldn't hear Rishu's footsteps.

Fear crippled me. I stopped running.

I didn't like that silence. That silence that only had air, and nothing else. I didn't want to know what was wrong - because I already knew. I didn't want to face it. But then, as if it had a mind of its own, my body slowly turned around.

Rishu wasn't there. Instead, there was a huge mirror. Double my height. But my width. And all I could see what red....

I opened my eyes, feeling the sudden jolt somewhere inside my body. I closed my eyes back. Then I repeated blinking for a few seconds.

Of course, there was no hill. No mirror. No...Rishabh Murthy.

I looked around. Nor there was Manik.

"Manik?" I called out, heading towards the kitchen. Then the bedroom. The entire apartment - and he wasn't here. My heart sank. Why did he leave without saying goodbye?

But then, another horrible reality checked in, and I forgot about Manik and the mirror for a moment. I forgot about everything.

Today's the day. The engagement.

Just I was about to begin fixating on that thought, the door rang. I numbly walked up to the door.

"Hey," Alya murmured. A faint smile appeared in her lips that couldn't wait to vanish. Beside her, Mukti almost had the same expression, except the smile. I let them in.

I sat on the couch, suddenly feeling extremely alone despite these two, closest people sitting right here with me. Today was the day I officially get bounded with Madhav Mehta.

And then, the wedding-

"Nandini?"

I jolted up as I felt Alya's hand on my shoulder. Her eyebrows has ceased a little, "What's wrong?"

A part or me wanted to jerk up from there, laugh like a maniac and announce to the whole society what was wrong-

Everything. Every single thing about me was wrong. I did nothing of that. I just sat there, shook my head, trying to find the place to return her sympathetic smile.

I knew what she was trying to show me wasn't sympathy. I knew she was hurting for me, on a level she must've been forgetting that today's her own engagement. I sighed, trying to shake myself out of the eerie numbness and start thinking.

"What time is it?" my voice hardly came out, all raspy and dry, "What are you guys doing here?"

"It's 9," Mukti said, grabbing on my one hand, "We're here to take you, Nandini,"