Aditi
******
I could hear those pestiferous beep sounds of the medical electronic machines. It was all dark since my eyes were closed. The obscure, unrecognizable whispers were vexatious. There was no pain in my body and I knew I was alive. I was just hoping not to see unwanted faces.
When I opened my eyes I didn't find myself on a hospital bed. I was in a room familiar to me but the only difference was there was medical equipment too, unlike before. I was in the room I had found myself previously in, after the incident of the biker gang. I wouldn't have been alive if Aahir forcefully wouldn't have made me puke. I knew then only before losing my unconsciousness for the second time, that the alternative of death was eradicated from the list.
Once again, I was deprived of my rights and my will. But I didn't want that anymore. I wasn't aware of what would happen if I stepped out and how much damage was done but I had to leave.
I was to remove the intravenous cannula needle from my skin when the door to the room opened.
"Glad, you woke up." A smiling face of Aunt Lisa came into my view. I knew she was his aunt, the last time I had come to Aahir's place with Naisha. Before, I used to think she was a staff member.
"How are you feeling?" She asked and started inspecting me. It seemed by her actions that she was well versed in whatever she was doing.
'Is she a doctor?', I mused over. Still, I wasn't sure. I panicked when she pulled out an injection from the bedside cabinet.
"What are you doing?" I questioned, horrified. I could not let anyone do anything to me, now that I had got my consciousness back.
"Questions can wait, Aditi," she said and started filling up the injection with some liquid. I tried to move but felt weak. When she observed me being petrified she attempted to calm me by saying, "Don't worry, I am a doctor by profession." That's when I took a breath of relief.
Choosing death was my call and I wasn't in the favour of anyone picking that option for me, agin my will.
"How do you feel?" It was ironic that her nephew shattered me and there she was asking about my well-being and showing concern which I couldn't ascertain was even genuine or not.
"I didn't die when I intended to. How do you think I would be feeling?" I was bitter and I didn't like being rude to her but my instincts to recognize the real personality of everyone was rusted.
One can't expect a person to be normal and rational when all they have received in return are pain and betrayals.
She didn't reply to my rude remark, instead, smiled at me and injected me with something.
"Anything harmful is out of your system but you need a bit of rest."
"I need to leave," I said, sternly, determined to leave.
"No, you can't."
"Seems like I am a captive." She caressed my hair, lovingly leaving me astounded before she added, "You can leave after three days but not now. I might not know what you have been feeling but I am aware you aren't fit enough to fight your battles. Take a rest. You will be fine."
They were just a pile of sugar-coated words thrown at me. I didn't want to believe her. Even though I could picture honesty in her eyes, how could I have taken her words as gospel when the people I had thought were honest with me had hurt me the most.
Out of the blue, I started to feel drowsy.
"Trust me." were the last words I heard before I went into a deep slumber.
******
Aahir
******
"You are like your father, a monster, just like him."
Lisa's statement was running in a loop, inside my head. Every word of it was sonorous and clear that was making me despise myself. She had emotions full of odiousness in her eyes when she compared me with the one I detested with every cell in my body. She referred to me as a monster which didn't bother me, but the thing that made me question whether I was on the right track or not was when she compared me with the man responsible for my miseries and pain.
He was the one because of whom my mother died. Even though she killed herself but for me, it was a murder. Along with my so-called biological father, Kohlis were equally responsible, all of them.
I was staring at the ceiling, lying straight on the bed, reminiscing.
With my eyes closed, I could still picture the day he stepped into my life. If only I would have read the pain in my mother's eyes then, things would have been different, she would have been alive.
******
FLASHBACK
******
"Mom, why did you bring me here?" I had questioned her when all at once she had taken me to an amusement park. She never took me there before, even after my several pleas but that day she seemed different.
I was only eight then, didn't know who my father was, and would always feel a void.
Whenever I would see my friends with their fathers I would feel hurt and jealous. I tried asking my mother but she would always dodge. That day too she was circumventing my every question, even the reason to take me to a place she was not in the favour of taking me prior.
She wasn't herself that day but I couldn't figure out why she was divergent from her actual self. I was just a kid who was exhilarated with the fact that I was finally at my dream place. I didn't bother when she didn't answer me.
"Mom, take me there." I pointed to the huge Ferris wheel.
"I will," she said meekly. She informed me we were to meet someone there. After kicking heels for around fifteen minutes, a man five feet eleven inches tall arrived. He stood at a distance and smiled at me.
His eyes were just like me, deep black ones. Even his hair was gelled up like mine.
"Hi, Aahir." He said. I was instructed not to talk to strangers but something was familiar about him. I looked up at my mother, scooted closer to her, and asked, "Who is he, Mom?"
"I am your father." I heard him. I observed the man and the similarity made me think whether what he said was true. My heartbeat had expedited like anything. A big part of me wanted that news to be true. How silly of me that I couldn't picture the bastard masked by a pretence of a loving father.
Mom stayed numb, didn't say anything.
"Is he my father?" I asked her again. When she didn't reply I held her hand and pulled for her to take a gander at me, calling her, "Mom."
I caught her attention eventually and she replied, "Yes, he is."
I failed to decipher her painful, unsaid, and concealed words,' Do not go to him. He will hurt you.'
Excitedly, I turned to him. He had bent down on his knees, opening his arms for me and I ran to hug the beast. I thought my family was complete but that was the day when the ruination was entangled with our destiny.
*******
I opened my eyes, asphyxiating. It was still distressing for me, dealing with those harrowing memories. They were all abhorrent in which he was included. I took deep breaths before I walked out of my room. I had to check up on Aditi before attending the meetup with Arvik and Reyansh.
I was still on the way when I heard something breaking. I was alarmed because the source of the sound was my bedroom, in which Aditi was.
I ran to the room when I heard her yelling, "I said, I won't eat. Can't you guys listen?"
As I entered the room I found pieces of a vase lying near the bedside and so were the flowers. The staff who had a tray of food in her hand was terrified.
"What's going on?" She didn't reply.
"I need an answer." She lowered her eyes, irritating me but then finally answered, "She isn't willing to eat."
"Give it to me." I held the tray.
"But..." She seemed reluctant but my look had her give in.
"Now, leave." She nodded before she walked out of the room. Till then, I hadn't even looked at Aditi even once. I knew there would be pain and so many questions for me. Those things could wait though because, at that moment, all I needed for her was to get better.
Subsequent to placing the tray of food on the bedside cabinet, I picked up the shattered pieces, cleaned the area, otherwise she would have hurt herself. Meanwhile, I could feel her eyes on me.
After I was done, I turned to her. Her gaze was still on me and that's when I noticed, those hazel brown ones were desolate, void of every emotion, every feeling.
Neither there was hatred, nor pain, nor any other sentiment, I used to see before, that would always calm my heart.
She wasn't the Aditi I knew. The manner she was staring at me gave me the impression as if she was seeing a stranger. I walked to her, our eyes still at each other, and took a seat beside her. She was deathlike calm and I was awaiting her outburst.
Her emotions seemed shut to me. I had broken her way more than Vidyut. Before my psyche took me to the cage of guilt trip, I took a spoonful of soup and placed it near her mouth.
"Eat."
"I won't."
"You are weak, you need to get better, and...."
"Don't you get it? I said I will not," she shouted, perhaps trying to lead me on the warpath. She knew I never liked being yelled at, and was using it as her leverage.
"Do not test my patience, Aditi." I was done persuading, already, and the only resort I could see was to force her. It was food we were talking about and she was way too weak to go without it a day.
"Else what? Will you publish something again? Maybe you will leak my obscene pictures or videos." It hurt wondering if she thought that of me but I couldn't grasp whether it was her hurt self or was she just needed for me to take the bait.
Whatever it was, I didn't let it affect me.
"Do not compel me to tie you and then feed you forcefully." I took advantage of fake anger which was required.
"Oh, how could I ever forget. Force is the only technique you have learned." I stared deep into her orbs before I ominously said, "Yes, that's the only thing I know and I won't even flinch using that mechanism on you."
She blinked, I could tell she didn't expect that response. She wanted me to burst at her, that's why she wasn't leaving any chance to provoke me. She was endeavouring to find out something, which I presumed to be the truth behind my action.
"Why do you want me alive? Aren't you satisfied with the consequence? Let me tell you, Mr. Arya, Aditi will not break, not anymore." I listened to her and once again held out the spoon for her to eat from.
She swatted my hand away and screamed, "I will not eat anything. I want to leave." That was the final stroke that infuriated me. Still, I didn't lash out. I kept the plate on the tray on the bedside bureau and said calmly, "Fine then, if that's what you want."
She was startled.
"You will get no food or even water from now on." To make her believe, I called a staff member and instructed her to do the same. After she left I got up, ready to leave. She wanted everything the hard way and I wasn't going to show mercy.
"I should have known how heartless you are. A beast who only knows how to inflict pain on others." I had planned to feed her after a while later but listening to her I realized I had one more beastly way I could use.
"You are right, I am a beast. Thanks for reminding me." I brought the required stuff and tied her free hand to the headboard and legs with each other. She was alarmed, horror-stricken, and was struggling to be liberated but to no avail. I even had closed the door of the room to abstain her voices from leaving the room.
"You will have to eat if you do not want me to do the same with Naisha, I did with you."
"You won't. She is your sister and you..." I cut her off in mid before I reminded her, "Remember, I am a heartless monster and I won't give up. Who would know it better than you?"
I was playing her game. Previously it was her who wanted to decoy me, later on, it was me. There was one slight difference though, I wasn't going to give up soon.
I even dialled Damien's number for a show in front of her. She knew who Damien was. After the call was picked up, I put it on speaker.
"Hello, Sir. Do you need me to do anything?"
"Yes, Damien. Do you recall the article related to Naisha that I..." I wasn't even finished when she said, "I will eat." It could have been a lie so I didn't hang up the call. To convince me she nodded saying, "I swear, I will eat."
"Hello, Sir, you there" I heard Damien.
"I will talk to you later," I replied before I cut the call.
While I was feeding her, her tears leaped out, not able to believe it was me who was hurting her. For the time being it was better that way only. She was obstinate and solely my wily ways could make her do things.
Her tears kept falling out but she ate the food, all of it, scared I might do something to Naisha.
Although, I execrated her tears, her being unshielded and in pain, into the bargain, still, I became the cause of it, wantonly. She was soon done with the food and the medicines.
I picked up the tray, ready to leave when I heard her, "I will pray for you to suffer and cry. I will pray the one thing you adore the most gets snatched from you."
Her curses had the wrong timing because those curses did come true in the past. Without facing her I wished her good night, "Good Night, Prezioso," and left.