Tere Liye | ✔

Chapter Nineteen - Coursing Shock

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"Aahh..ahh.." 

She sputtered out a cry as her mind started coming into consciousness, making her aware of her still convulsing body - her muscles twitching every now and then.

"Sheetal?" A nearby voice laced with concern spoke to her and she slurred, unable to respond. With a sigh, she fell back on the pillow and tried to clear the drowsiness off herself before she fluttered her eyes open once again, this time seeing everything with a better vision. 

Soft sobs of her son registered in her mind as the vibration subsided and upon having a look on Aarav's blotched face, she traveled her eyes on the many faces staring at her.

"Sheetal, are you okay?" She recognized the source of the earlier voice and glanced to her side, to see a worried Arnav hovering over her. 

She squinted her eyes, trying to make sense of his words through the way his lips moved.

"Are you okay? What happened?"

She read when he spoke up for the third time and had to ask herself the same question so she could fish out the answer from her jumbled memory. Her head boomed as the image of her crumbling on the floor of her bedroom played in front of her eyes like a film, causing her to sit upright on the bed with a startled start.

"Electric shock."

Her slurring tongue made an attempt to articulate and she jerked her index finger in the air, pointing at the poolside that sat across her. 

"E-electric shock."

Confused glances with a tinge of oddness were shared, before they landed back on a seemingly distraught Sheetal. 

"Electric shock?" Arnav asked, not before looking at his Di who shrugged, conveying that she had no idea of what might have happened to his friend.

"Yes." Sheetal bobbed her head, turning to Arnav as her hair covered almost half of her face due to her vigorous movement.

"I was in the room. Then I heard a sound, and it continued so I went to see and, and as soon as I stepped outside, I felt an electric shock." She explained, her eyes wide as the words escaped. Words that seemed to be no less than an exaggerated wicked scene from a movie.

It sounded incredulous, yet, when she was given unwelcomed stares, she could help but blurt out in exasperation.

"Why are you all looking at me like this?"

Anjali looked at Arnav who was simply staring at Sheetal wide-mouthed. Sighing, she stepped forward to enlighten the guest of honor. 

"Maybe because we just heard the doctor say you fainted because of stress and weakness and now we are hearing you say it was because of an electric shock?" Her voice actually held a questioning edge which was, however, laced with sarcasm - sarcasm that Sheetal couldn't get in her fraught state.

She opened her mouth, ready to retort that the pain that heavied on her at this moment couldn't be solely from stress or weakness - then retreated the idea, knowing that she will seem crazy to be saying something like that again. 

Thus, with a suppressed simmering scream of aggravation, she leaned back against the headrest, her head hung low. 

There was a silence after this and after few murmurs, she heard someone telling her that she should rest and that they will look after Aarav for the night. Caring less, she simply nodded and waited for them to exit her room before she flung the blanket aside, shivering for a second as the cold air adhered to her skin.