Crossroads | ✓

t h i r t e e n

"Stop throwing yourself a pity party all the freaking time. Be glad that I'm actually trying to become friends with someone who's so dull, colourless and looks like a walking dead!"

Shit. Shit. Shit.

"I haven't seen your mother since I came back. Your ID has only one number. She never came to the hospital or anything. That means she isn't a part of your life anymore. Guess what? Your lifespan wouldn't decrease if you admit that she is dead—"

Slap.

Only my throbbing cheek and the way Kiranya clutched her hand, the palm looking red showed that she just slapped me. Unshed tears made her black eyes look almost unnatural and deadly. Her thin lips were trembling and her face was flushed. My hand lifted on it's own accord to touch my cheek but no signs of remorse spilled into her eyes when I winced. For a moment, everything seemed sluggish until the intensity of the words I had just blurted hit me.

What have I done?

I cursed. "Kiranya, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to tell those things. I don't know what came over me. Please, I'm sorr—"

"Shut up!" she hissed. A single tear ran down her cheek and I felt everything in me break. What have I done? "Just shut up. I thought you were different. But you showed that all men are the same."

"Kiranya—"

She yanked me up along with her as she stood up. Wiping away her tears, she started dragging me towards the hospital.

"Kiranya..." I started again but she paid me no attention as she walked down different corridors, pulling me along with her. In a different time, I would be grinning like an idiot to feel her hand on mine but today, I just felt a dead weight in my chest.

What have I done?

But you showed that all men are the same.

Wisely, I kept my mouth shut for the rest of the way. The more we got into the hospital, the serious the atmosphere got. I normally don't hate hospitals. It's true that people die here sometimes. But hospital is a place where there is always hope. But today, the calm, smell-less corridors weren't soothing. They didn't fill me with hope. Instead, it poured dread into me. Was this how people felt when their loved ones are about to die?

For a second, everything appeared in slow motion as I looked at Kiranya, taking all of her in. Her shoulder length hair. Her really bad taste in clothing. Her face devoid of makeup. Her corpse eyes. Her straightened back. The air of independence surrounding. And then I realised, that maybe, just maybe she was like this because they all had a story of their own to tell. That everything about her which was so different from when she was small all had a story to spare, as to why she had become like this.

And for the hundredth time, I internally groaned. What have I done?

"We're here."

Kiranya's announcement pulled me from my internal lamenting and I looked around to get a clue as to where we were.

The place was calmer and more silent than the usual hospital environment. There was a reception of sorts with an elderly woman clad in a white sari and a nameplate pinned above her chest. On both sides of the reception, a corridor opened. Potted plants and paintings decorated the reception. There was no sofas or chairs for people to wait. Everything looked clean and pristine and for a second, I was even scared to breath aloud and end up disturbing the pressing silence.

Kiranya walked forward, towards the woman who looked surprised to see her.

"You just left," she remarked and glanced at me. "A friend of yours..?"

Kiranya nodded and gave a small, curt smile. It was too dry and too emotionless but the older woman smiled back like she was used to those bone-chilling lip stretching. Maybe, she really was used to it.

"Can you let me in again? I won't take much time," Kiranya said and the now familiar sense of doom started spreading.

The older woman shook her head sadly. "Sorry, dearie. Can't do that. It's resting time."

Kiranya's eyes didn't falter. "We aren't here to visit." She pointed at me. "I just want to show this guy."

The nurse looked like she wanted to protest but I don't know what she saw in us, or Kiranya to be more specific, because the next moment, she heaved a sigh and nodded.

"Five minutes," she said, "that's all you've got."

Kiranya gave a single cutting nod. She walked down the corridor on the right side. I followed her and though I wanted to bombard her with something short of a millions questions, I kept quiet. Now was not the time or place to irritate her with my questions.

We passed room after room. All had solid doors but the windows were large and easily see through. The walls were painted a mild but bright and warm yellow. On the other side of the corridor, the windows opened into a small garden that had pavements crisscrossing it and benches littered here and there. The garden was well maintained and beautiful and suddenly, everything made sense.

Can someone kill me already?

"Here," I heard a whisper and turned to look at Kiranya who was standing behind a door, looking like a lost child. Her nose flared and I looked helplessly as tears pooled up in her eyes again. My arms moved towards her face to wipe them but dropped when she looked at me, distrust evident in those black eyes. She pointed at the window wordlessly and hesitantly I looked inside the clean, yet very sparsely furnished room.

"You wanted to meet my parents right?" Kiranya said and her voice broke, "well, here's one of them."

************************************

Really short chapter. More than a 1000 words shorter than the usual updates but I felt like it was best to end it here. Otherwise, it would've become insanely long.

Most of the mystery has been revealed. What do you think happened? The next chapter will have more answers. I wanted to actually drag a little, but then I didn't want to torture you guys more so I thought that thirteen chapters in, it was a good place to reveal things.

More theories? Comment it down! I love reading them :) 

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With love,
Kavya.