Arjun
The curse of remembering everything from your previous life is a rare one. I happened to be one of those. I considered it a punishment. So when I got to meet her for the first time in this mansion the air left my lungs. I was so hopeful to never see her, I was so hopeful that the history will never repeat again even though he was already a part of this birth too. I was somewhat confident that this man was different from the Aditya I've been witnessing from the beginning of my journey. He proved himself to be a different person many a times.
But ones exterior can change when the interior can't. The day he choked me I understood I am dealing with the same inhuman being who needed to be corrected.
I avoided everything, I avoided her, the girl who used to be a part of my heart, the girl who has been the only source of positivity amongst the impenetrable darkness back in my previous life. I thought it would be good for her if she stayed away from me, stayed unaware of her pathetic past. Fate might get a little kinder to her this time.
But sitting inside the Shiv temple that I have been observing from outside for the last few years broke my daydreaming into pieces. I vowed not to enter into the same loop again and I failed.
Her memories had been triggered. Something I've always feared. She was going through the same pain again.
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From my peripheral vision I could see him standing at the entrance. Looking at us in utter shock and anger. Which made it clear that he didn't remember me. The point was did he remember her? Or was he attracted to her without even realizing who she was?
He fisted both of his hands and kept on exhaling his anger. For the first time I was not worried about his anger. I was occupied being concerned about my sister, my long lost sister, who seemed to have recollected a lot of the bad things.
"I think you know what you're doing Dr. Hembram?!" Dev's voice echoed through the stone made abandoned temple walls.
But before I could utter a single word she raised her head from my chest and looked back at him. I slowly turned my face towards her to search her eyes and what I found there destroyed my confidence totally.
Her eyes were filled with many emotions two of which prominently being hatred and fear.
She looked straight at him and started panting heavily. Her forehead kept bleeding. Her whole body was shaking, out of fear or weakness that's hard to pinpoint. Tears kept trailing down her cheeks.
Dev's face displayed the expected worry.
"What have you done to yourself?!" His eyes started forming tears and he instinctively started moving towards her. And the whole temple echoed the heartwrenching cry of Triss.
"No! Don't come any closer!" Her panting increased. She started taking her steps back.
But what surprised me was not her but Dev's facial expression. Standing there like a wall he shook his head slowly. His eyes expressed that he expected something like this, as if he was caught red-handed. The guilt, the pain they portrayed was impossible for me to watch. This confused me. How come he couldn't recognize me but his eyes were displaying that he knew, that he knew what he had done. This was way too complicated.
"Please.." He said with pleading eyes.
"Please give me one chance. A-at least let me take you back to the mansion Teressa." He pleaded again.
"Never!.. I am not going back there ever again. I-I am leaving right now. Just give me one answer, did you know this? D-did you know what you've done to him and to me?" By this time she was sobbing breathlessly.
"I-If you mean my nightmares, then yes. I was seeing you from my very childhood. But I never knew about that particular incident until I got into that car accident. T-trust me Teressa, I tried, I tried really hard to stay away from you but I couldn't. You're like the air I breathe. When I don't see you around it makes me insane. I doubt I would survive even a week without seeing you. Please baby.. please don't do this." He begged with folded hands. His husky voice became broken and even huskier.
"You knew.. you knew..!" She sobbed and looked at me suddenly.
"Did you know too dada?" She said making a shiver run down my spine. I knew I had nothing to answer so I automatically hung my head in shame and said,
"I thought it would be better if I could keep you out of everything Triss." Yes I was ashamed. I blame myself for throwing her into this situation. She furrowed her eyebrows as if she couldn't believe her own ears. But someone else was surprised even more by my revelation.
Dev slowly moved towards me.
"W-who are you?" He asked.
I turned my face towards him. I was contemplating whether or not I should open up about the truth. But something told me he deserved to know it too.
"Right now I am Dr. Arjun Hembram, b-but back then I was this little girl's brother, and...... and your bestfriend." I knew how complicated the whole thing was becoming but before I could untie the knots we both heard a small "No!" and the retreating footsteps. She was running out of temple. I knew it would be too much for her to handle.
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Dev
She was running like insane but I knew I could never let her go. She needed to know how much she meant to me. She could not judge me for something I had done in my previous life.
It started raining again. I knew she won't be able to run too far, she was weak, too weak for her own good.
My grey hoodie was wet, which made me shiver like hell. My dark track pant started sticking to my skin due to the water. I was calling her name every now and then, but she was nowhere to be found.
"Teressa.." I shouted again. She was hiding for sure. But what hurt me more was that she was scared of me. I saw that in her eyes, the fear.
"Please come out baby, I know you can hear me. I will listen to everything you say. There is nothing to be scared about. I'll do anything you ask me to do, but don't do this. It's dangerous, you'll fall sick!" I shouted but there was no response from her end.
I kept running and crisscrossing the trees I kept searching everywhere for her until my eyes fell on the few wet curls that could be seen from behind an oak tree. I started tiptoeing. I never wanted to do this. I never wanted to hurt her but she was hurt.
I was close, close enough to grab her shoulder but I failed. Her husky eyes saw me coming first and she started running again.
But this time I ran behind her, fortunately I was faster than her. I grabbed her from behind. Both of my hands tightly wrapped around her torso.
"Let me go Dev! You have no right to keep me here forcefully." She sobbed.
"No..!I can't." I pleaded. Bringing her close to my chest I buried my head on the left side of her neck while she kept struggling to get free. How I craved her touch, her smell. I could never let her go even if I died. She was all I ever wanted. She was all I ever had.