Eye of the Storm (Swaragini FF)

Prologue

Have you heard of the eye of the storm? Every storm at its core, has an eye that powers it and spreads its reach and helps it swallow everything that comes in its path. To a distant observer, the eye is the calmest path of the storm, but in reality it is the most hazardous one. It is the one where pressures drop and cross winds wreaks everything that it touches. Nothing is spared here, not even the creator. And that is preciously where Sanskar stood held captive by the storm that he had helped start 5 years back.

To the distant observer, he too seemed calm despite the havoc and destruction surrounding him, but just like the eye, that was nothing but a mirage. Five years back, Sanskar was caught in a torrent of pain after he lost the one person who had become the center of his existence, the one person who he was willing to give up all his relations for. When Kavita died, or rather was brutally killed, there had been a time when even the ever cognizant Sanskar had lost his ability to think. His pain had driven his thinking on a path which held more heartbreak from him, this time because of betrayal of those he had once loved and held in such high regard – his beloved younger brother Lucky and his Bade Papa. He has embarked on a journey to not seek justice for his Kavita, but to avenge her – to make the pay and to make their heart bleed the way his was.

So much pain was enough to numb him to feelings of others, but strangely, it has a completely different effect on him. He was now more attuned to the feelings and psyche of people around him. And he used it in his favour, making pawns out of them in his personal battle. He wasn't in-humane though, neither was he delusional. He knew that he wasn't right in destroying the lives of those that he had made into his pawns. He felt enormous guilt for it, but his logical mind would step in at these times and help him justify these as collateral damage of his war of payback. It never completely appeased him, but he had learned to live with the guilt.

But then things had change or more preciously Swara had changed the entire plot on which his game was based. He had woken him up to the possibility of fighting the wrong battle but more importantly, what had really woken him up was seeing Swara standing where he and Kavita once did and him standing where his supposed perpetrators did. This role reversal had shaken him to the core and stopped him from creating another Sanskar and killing another Kavita in its wake. But by then, it was look late, it had inadvertently powered another storm that brewed much more violently and without conscience.

Ragini, his one-time dupatte wali friend who later became a pawn in his game, had now taken over the game. She has bene brutal and shrewd and had hurt those closest to his heart – she had hurt his Swara. He felt a pang in his heart at the that thought – his Swara. Did he even have the right to call her that? He was nothing more than her friend afterall and that too in a friendship that was forged by situations rather than by choice of the one who was occupying his thoughts now. For the longest time, he felt guilty about the path that he had shown that vulnerable and innocent Ragini and truth be told, even today, when the overriding emotion that he felt towards Ragini was caution and distrust, that guilt still existed in the subliminal layers of his conscience.

The havoc that Ragini ragged had many victims in its wake, the latest was his own brother Lucky who she was now using to power another storm of his own. Laksh had become more and more obsessive about Swara in the past few days. Swept by his emotions he had joined hands with Ragini, despite knowing her truth, and even worse had sliced his wrist today to coerce Swara into accepting his love.

A part of him had wanted to punch Lucky and then knock some sense into him. But Swara's reactions had held him back. He had seen the concern in her eyes as she mended Lucky's wounds. He knew she was a caring person and would have been worried for anyone, but he couldn't help this niggling feeling that he had asking him if there was more to it. He has seen the tears in her eyes, just a few days back when they were forced to get married, as she looked at Lucky. He knew she valued her Maa, Baba and Ragini's happiness more. She had said that she only saw Lucky as Ragini's husband and didn't want to return back to him after his lack of trust in her. But Sanskar knew that her reasons for not wanting to be with Lucky didn't imply she hadn't fallen out of love with him. There was a part of him that was worried that she was once again sacrificing her happiness for Ragini's. After everything she had given up and been through, he didn't want her to give up her chance at happiness.

He loved her, more than he ever loved Kavita and more than words could describe, wasn't delusional. In his heart, Sanskar knew that Swara would never reciprocate his feelings and think of his as more than a friend. He had made his peace with that reality despite how much it hurt him. It wasn't easy to reconcile the fact that the person who had become the reason for your happiness, the core of your existence, would one day walk out of your life leaving a gaping hole that would bleed love and that you would only try to mend with bandages of friendship. But he was learning to live with it.

And with this desire of seeing her happy, he had done something that would carve at his heart for a long time to come. He had spoke to her about re-thinking what she wanted, about prioritizing her happiness for once and about giving Lucky a chance if he meant her happiness. It has been the hardest talk he ever had with her and it had been tough to keep his emotions at check, but he had done it or he hoped it had, for her sake. His heart had broken into pieces when she had agreed to give Lucky one last chance, even now as he thought about it, it brought a stream of tears in his eyes. But there wasn't anything in this world that he would not do for her, for her happiness.

He also knew that once everything was sorted, he wouldn't be able to see her with Lucky. He knew he would once again exile himself from his family, voluntarily, and this time for good. As he looked out of his window, into the darkness of the night, he knew fully well that sleep wouldn't come to him now for many days. Yet what worried most was surviving this storm of emotions enough to support her while she needed him, before he destroyed this storm that continued to threaten her happiness – knowing well that the dying storm could and most likely would also take with it everything that stood at its eye. 

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