Hi fam! Just a little something:
While I can't take the pandemic away, if any of you are going through a hard time... not just emotionally, but also financially, please text in. I'd do whatever I can to help you.
To those who are fortunately safe financially, please promote small businesses, and please help whoever you can. A little help can go a long way.
I know a few NGOs who are also willing to help. So please, please don't hesitate to text if you need help financially.
Happy Reading! Inline comments are love.
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name:- The Nightmare They Lived
word count: 4000 words
published on: 24th April, 2020
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C A B I R
[ continued flashback ]
It had been a brief moment since the phone call ended but we remained absolutely silent and numb.
I could see how Aryamman's hand encircled Aliya's but neither of them spoke a word. They always had a thing for each other, right from high school days. No, they never said it aloud, but they knew.
And I couldn't even begin to comprehend what was going through his head. They way he held her, I knew he was convincing himself that she was there and he'd protect her, atleast try his best to, until his last breath.
He wouldn't let her go. I knew I wouldn't have let Navya gone.
But she was, and it burnt my heart every second to think that she was with a psychopath serial killer who wanted nothing more than all of us dead. She was alone, with him, and there was nothing I could do to bring her back.
My hands were tied.
But Aliya was here, as was Aryamman. Harshad wanted them too, and while I couldn't save Navya, I still had a shot at saving them.
"You should leave," I was the first one to speak up.
"What?" Aliya asked, confused.
"Leave the country. That man cannot reach you there. That's our only shot... we have to run international," I repeated.
"I don't think that's very practical, Cabir. Applying for VISA, it'll be days if not weeks before we can even think of flying," Aliya counteracted.
"Yes," I agreed, "But your Aunt-Uncle live in Paris. You have a European VISA from when you visited a year ago. You can fly there, and when everything clears up, we get you back. That's the best shot we have at protecting you both."
"And what about you Cabir?" Aryamman argued.
"Navya... I can't leave her man. She... she's my life. If anything happens to her, I'd die. So it's for the best that I stay here, find her, and if Harshad gets his hand on me, die with her. But you two... you don't have to be here. We have to protect you both," I reasoned.
"What happened to our motto, Cabir? All for one, and one for all?" Aliya looked up with tears in her eyes.
"That's not very practical. We don't have to jump in the well and drown together. Navya has already jumped and I will follow her lead, no matter what. Either I get her out, or I drown with her, that's on me. But you two have to run, save your goddamn life and live to tell the tale. We have to deal with this, together, and we can only be together if we stay apart," I replied.
"I don't want to leave," Aliya said, her voice emotionless, "If I drown with you, then so it be. But I will not leave you when you need me. I will stay and I will fight, and I'm sure between the three of us, we can come up with something to protect each other and get Navya back."
"I don't think you get it. He's a fucking serial killer. We're not talking about a-villainy-person-we-hate here whom we can talk to and sort this out. He killed a young boy with no harm of his just because he was on the train too... probably because he had seen Harshad's face or heard his name. He will not hesitate to kill you and me or anyone who comes in his path. So you're doing everyone a favour by keeping yourself safe," I almost shouted.
Aliya flinched, looking down, silent tears pooling her eyes. After a brief moment of silence, she looked up at Aryamman, "You're uncharacteristically silent."
"That's because he's already made his decision," I snorted.
Aryamman, who had really been silent for too long, finally looked up, trying to give me a half smile, "You know me too well." It was then when I noticed he was trying to drink away his tears, "Cabir is right, you have to go."
"You're not serious," Aliya argues but Aryamman cut him off.
"I am," he said, "And we're not talking more about this anymore."
"It's my decision to make, not yours," Aliya argued again.
"You're being incredibly selfish–," Aryamman started but she cut him off.
"And you're not?" She shouted, "You're staying here, and asking me to go. How is that any sense?"
"No! No!" I stopped them, "I'm asking both of you to go."
"He won't," Aliya said, anger clear in her voice.
"You're the one he's after first," Aryamman shouted back.
"Doesn't mean he can't harm you too," She reasoned, "What if... if I'm gone, Harshad gets angry and hurts Navya? Or tries to get back by chasing both of you?"
"Then that'll be on me... my responsibility," I said, "Aliya, I know you want to stay darling, and I... I want you to be here too. But it'll only be more troublesome when we'll spend our time in protecting you instead of finding Navya, right? This way, atleast you and Nandini are safe. And we know Mukti isn't with Harshad orelse he'd be rubbing that in our faces too. With three of you safe, we can take care of ourselves and get Navya back. Please."
Aliya sighed in defeat, and then cried for a few minutes while I and Aryamman held her close.
It was five hours later that we were able to book her to Paris, explain her Uncle what was going on, pack a few essentials– everything that we could get our hands on, and stood in front of the airport. We were a minimum time ahead of the flight to prevent her spending much time alone out there.
As we stood in front of Terminal Two, I held Aliya's baggage and Aryamman held her. I wanted to leave them alone for a while but I knew I couldn't. I did that to Navya and I was paying for it, heavily.
Aliya hugged me first. I held her close, trying to keep my tears in.
"Why us, Cabir?" She sobbed.
"I wish I knew," I pulled her closer, "I wish God could let us be happy for once. Just once."
She pulled away, wiping her tears and trying to force a smile. "We will be okay. We've fought through the years, and we will fight this too. We'll be okay," she chanted and I nodded, keeping the tears inside.
She then hugged Aryamman and I looked away. He had been holding his tears back for the hours but they finally flew away.
"I think we're cursed," he mumbled, "You and me. We could never be together."
"I didn't want to believe in that, but I'm starting to think it's true," she sobbed again and her voice muffled.
"It's alright. I'd say we're star-crossed-lovers," he tried pulling up a smile but he couldn't.
Star Crossed Lovers– two people who are born over and over again just to fall in love with each other but never be together. They live, they love each other, they die– but never together.
She chuckled, "Then the next time we're born, we'll make sure it's only when our stars align," and then she cried again, "I want to be with you."
"Me too," he nodded, "More than ever. But I have to let you go. You have to let me let you go."
"Come with me?" She begged, "Let's run away."
His lips quivered as he placed a long kiss by her forehead, "Goodbye Aliya."
"Goodbye," she promised, her eyes looking at the two us for the last time before she turned away and walked inside.
She didn't turn back. She didn't wave at us.
Because we knew that if she did, she'd never be able to leave.
That feeling... it was quite unexplainable. I don't think there was any word in any language I knew to explain the hollowness in my heart, or in hers.
You know, they say you never really know when you might see a loved one for the last time.
But we knew this could be the last time we saw her, and she knew this could be the last time she saw either of us.
It was a risk we took, a gamble we played, walking on a thin line, hoping we'd see each other again someday.
That was the moment we finally hit rock bottom. We had already lost everything we had, I don't think there was anything to lose except our own lives now.
I and Aryamman, we purchased a new number to text Smaran, pretending to be Harshad.
'I will kill Manik, and that unborn child of his along with the lady carrying it. He made my life hell, and he'd pay for it.'
That's all the text to Smaran said. With that, we disactivated the number and disposed it to make sure it wouldn't be tracked to us.
Hurting Manik hurt... it broke a part of our soul as we stood in the dark that night, watching Manik make the announcement at Musicana. But with that text sent, atleast we were assured that the police would protect Manik and Inaaya.
Aliya texted that night. She had left India safely and had haulted before taking the flight to Paris.
I and Aryamman slept at my house. It was crazy how despite not have slept for more than a day, I couldn't bring myself to sleep. All I could think of was Navya, if she would have eaten anything, if she would have got any sleep or if she would just be alright.
There was nothing I could do but wait.
The next morning, we got a call again. But this time, it wasn't Harshad. It was Navya.
She was drugged, crying, a mess, but she had somehow escaped. She was weak, and she could barely speak properly but she did describe what she saw around her.
It was a highway. The Mumbai-Mangalore highway. The phone from which Navya had called was switched off shortly.
We were there twenty hours later, searching every corner of the Mumbai-Mangalore highway as we could.
From the location that Navya had called, there was only one small café, it was apparently run by an old lady. And much to my fear, we found her dead body behind the café, stabbed the same way that kid was.
Harshad was there. And he had found Navya.
My heart broke in that moment and fear had enveloped me. I was so close to finding her... what if he had shifted her somewhere else?
Ten days of covering every inch of the Mumbai-Mangalore highway and the areas around it, I found Navya.
She was tied in a warehouse a few kilometers from Mangalore. Nobody was there.. not Harshad or anyone.
It felt like he left days ago. Navya was unconscious, barely breathing by the time we rushed her to the hospital. Irony being, it was the same hospital in which we lost Abhimanyu and Amms two weeks ago.
I was superstitious to even keep foot in that hospital again but I was desperate, desperate to save my fiancé who was struggling for life.
Navya was critical, and we almost lost her... but we didn't. God finally decided to have mercy on me, us, and gave me my love back.
Turned out, the text message we had sent Smaran stirred by he police to take actions. They had somehow tracked Harshad, which is why fled six days ago, leaving Navya tied right there. She survived on water and left over food for the remaining days, but couldn't manage to escape because she was weak and drugged.
When Navya woke up, she was in shock. She was weak, pale, couldn't eat, and was suffering from a drug overdose that very nearly took away her life. She barely spoke, even touching her made her scream. She was shocked, psychologically and physically. Harshad has hit her, shocked, tortured her until she'd last.
Me, Aryamman and Navya stayed in Mangalore, in Abhimanyu's house... because we thought it would be the safest hide out place, and made it easy to visit the hospital every day. I had almost lost Navya, so we made a new world in Mangalore for the next few weeks. The three of us along with Abhimanyu, Nandini and Mukti's memories in Mangalore, we lived in this bubble for about eight weeks before a call shook us up.
Inaaya was dead.
She had 'accidentally' been hit by a truck outside Manik's house, in front of his eyes.
We were being called by the detectives and police for statements, which is when we realised, Harshad was still on the lose, and as dangerous as ever.
Navya shook up again and I couldn't risk putting her life on the line again. So we did what we best could. Spoke to the police, didn't say a word.
I planned upon telling Manik the truth though. But the question was, was it a risk we should be willing to take, to put one of our lives at stake again just for him to know the truth?
This question was sidetracked when Manik flew away to London the next day, to take over his Dad's company.
Guilt resurfaced again, but it was best that way. Everyone would be safe as long as we stayed out of the country. Harshad's elder brother was in the Mafia, and he had a lot of underworld connections, which explained how he did everything he did so cleanly.
Aliya wanted to come back, but with Harshad still free and dangerous, it was best not to. So she she did the best she could, she advanced the fashion designing course she had taken up in Mumbai, making it her career.
It had been three months, and life couldn't stop. I had to step up and work in my Dad's company (which was being handled by my Uncle) and learn to take it over someday.
Navya took an online course to be an RJ.
I offered Aryamman for us to work together, but he said he wanted to go out on his own and figure out what he best wants.
He could have gone to Paris to be with Aliya. But then what? What would he do? How would they make a living? We weren't children anymore. We couldn't make short sighted decisions.
So when he wanted to wander to find his path, we let him, after making him know that he'd always have a home with me and Navya.
But he never came back. He struggled, and he found his own way in the world. We used to keep in touch, atleast the four of us, but we were all struggling and trying our best to make a name in this world from the scratch, and so, we began losing touch, especially with Aryamman.
It was a hard reminder of what we used to have and what we were left with.
Living like that was tough– you always had to look behind your shoulder, always had to make sure the house was double locked, always had to drive and pick Navya from wherever she went— it was months before I even let her go alone.
But when it was almost a month, I walked into the police station and told Smaran the truth– the entire truth. He apologised he couldn't do much and promised to put undercover security around me and Navya, and even Aryamman.
I asked him if we could contact Manik and tell him the truth, but he told us it is best we leave it this way. Atleast we were all safe, and I could only hope, happy; but again, being alive was better than being dead.
He said this was a case similar to a 'witness protection' yet different in a lot of aspects, but we had to follow the legal procedure.
And we did.
I went into the station every second day for a follow up for Mukti's case but it was as if she vanished.
Two years later, I dropped it when I found out that Abhimanyu's death was infact a planned murder–by Harshad and was covered up by the lie of 'landslide' to protect the poor protection given by the laws of our country.
Our life was messed up. Years ago, it broke into a hundred pieces, some of them being lost forever, and the best we could do was assemble the remaining pieces and move on.
And so we did.
We started over, with a lot of guilt, much more love, and a small hope that someday we'd all be able to meet again, tell the truth, apologise and then celebrate for maybe that day, every hardship would be over and after fighting all our lives, we'd deserve to be happy again.
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M A N I K
It was almost late afternoon when Cabir finished his side of the story. I think I had been still for the past two hours, not moving an inch, as had Nandini.
Even Aliya and Navya, who were there and lived the story unfold in front of their eyes had goosebumps.
Over the years, I victimised myself, thinking it was me who was left alone. But the truth being said, we had all suffered in our own ways.
Life had really decided to test us in the most miserable way possible.
"Why... Why didn't you tell me?" Nandini looked at Aliya, "When we met.. in the café at Paris."
"Honestly Nandini, you were already blaming yourself for a lot of things. And, you didn't keep touch with even Cabir. I... I didn't know if telling you was the correct idea. So I called up Cabir as soon as you left. And Cabir asked me to wait, because you had taken his number from me, he wanted to wait till your ready to reconnect instead of forcing it upon you. And you called him the next day, so we thought it'll be best if we do this in person. And here we are," Aliya justified and Nandini nodded.
"You guys... y'll have been through a lot. I.. I don't know what to say, I'm sorry," I said.
"No," Cabir disagreed, "We put you through a lot. And not to forget, Inaaya and the baby... they... I'm sorry we weren't there for you when you needed us and I'm sorry we couldn't do more."
I nodded firmly, "That child... Harshad had raped Inaaya. It.. It wasn't mine."
Aliya and Navya gasped. Cabir just stared at me in horror.
"We've been through a lot of shit," Nandini said softly and everyone silently agreed.
"I think we deserve some fucking happiness," Aliya added.
"We do," Navya chuckled, wiping off a lone tear.
"What now?" I asked.
"I don't want to think about what happens ahead. Let's... let's just go out or something.. take a small holiday," Cabir suggested.
"I've taken a leave from my office already, so why not?" Aliya chuckled.
"I.. I can't," Nandini retaliated, "I've just started working and I don't want to already take leaves."
"I'm your boss," I rolled my eyes at her.
"Zubin is," she corrected, "And just because I know both of you personally doesn't mean I should keep taking advantage of that."
"Okay... let's do this thing," I suggest, "You see that folder?" I point to the one that Jeff got. She nods.
"That's a folder of male model portfolios like Jeff said, and we have to select one for the shoot in Milan, next week. So you find one, and while we're at Milan for the shoot, you guys accompany us. The weekend is usually free for everyone, and we can have our fun, Nandini doesn't have to take a leave, and we enjoy a good trip, sponsored by my company. What say?" I complete.
"Free food for days? I'm in!" Cabir grinned and Navya shook her head in annoyance.
"Sounds okay... I guess," Nandini nods hesitantly.
"Perfect!" I grin, "Now take that portfolio and find whoever you like for the new collection."
"You don't want to have a look?" She asked, confused.
"You can shortlist," I assure her, "I and Zubin will take the final call baba."
"Alright," she smiles as she took the huge file, excuses herself and left to her room.
As soon as she left, I called up Jeff.
"Jeff, I know you're on a date and it's weekend but this is important," I say in a single breath as soon as the phone was picked up.
"You have ten seconds, Malhotra. What. Do. You. Want." She huffed.
"The shoot that was supposed to be in Milan next month? Prepone it to next week and make the arrangements. I'll mail you the details of the models in the next fifteen minutes."
"Manik, that's fucking impossible–," she cribbed.
"Do it." I order and cut the call before she could annoy me more.
I look up to see three faces grinning at me.
"What?" I huff.
"Did you just prepone an entire shoot so that Nandini could come with us?" Navya teased.
"I'd do the same if it was for any of you," I retaliate.
"Yeah but it wasn't just any of us. It was for your college sweetheart," Cabir smirked.
"Shut it, man," I glare at him.
"Man, someone get me a Manik Malhotra," Aliya shouted in the air, laughing to herself. I roll my eyes at her.
"No, but seriously, what is going on between you two?" Cabir asked and I rolled my eyes, again, before telling them everything that's happened in the last few weeks, from how I and Nandini met to how we decided to take things slow to the Abhimanyu mishap.
"I think you should just get on your knee and ask her to be your wife," Cabir laughed in the end.
I coughed in surprise when Nandini walked out of the room and glared at them to shut up.
"Who's getting on one knee?" She yawned lazily.
"Cab... Cabir," Aliya covered up, "We we're saying they should also do a pre-wedding photoshoot in Milan."
"Y-Yeah," Navya smiled suspiciously.
Nandini sighed, before handing me a bunch of profiles with their pictures attached. "I like these three," she said and I nodded, going through them but one of them caught my attention as I flipped the image behind and read the name a little loud, but only for myself to hear and believe.
Name: Aryamman Khurrana
Age: 24
Location: India.
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Is it weird that I want to write a spin-off of Stars with Aliya and Aryamman's story??!
I mean, come on, they're my babies 🥺🥺🥺
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Please stay home and stay safe.
Love,
Heer.