One Shot - I Will Wait For You (Part 3 Up!)

So I thought of writing a story like this a while ago and never got round to it, so even though I have lost most of my inspiration, I thought I owed it to myself and you guys to at least attempt to write it down.

It might  have 2-3 parts, depending on whether you guys want more? Please leave comments and likes and lots of feedback to let me know what you think, it would really mean a lot.

To anyone who would like notifications when I update, please just email me at ccuteaangel@gmail.com with the email address you would like updates emailed to, to join my update list as I only email update people! 

OS : I Will Wait For You

 Song to listen to as you read, it really sets the stage right :)

Arnav watched as countless drops of rain pounded against the ground. He sat on the floor in his room, leaning against the recliner for fear of not being able to support himself. The sky outside the glass panels darkened as the sun fell below it, with its lightness out of reach. How appropriate.

The sun found itself replaced by the slim moon, just a new crescent, peaking through the grey clouds that poured down on the land below it. It was cold, almost howling at the dark night sky sending out fractured moonlight. Broken and hurt. How appropriate.

He tore his eyes away from the window, bringing them down to his hands, marked by dried blood. Her blood, he thought. It was his last thought before he switched his mind off, replacing it by numbness. Nothing more, and nothing less. He tried to forget. He had sat there trying to forget how wrong he had been, how much he had hurt her, how much he needed to make it all right, but he found he couldn’t bear it anymore. Anything other than numbness brought the thought of it all rushing back.

He couldn’t deal with those thoughts, with those haunting memories that he knew would never leave him, even when he died. They were etched in him now, something he would never be able to forget, something that he would never be able to forgive himself for.

Seconds, minutes, hours. He had no inkling as to how long he sat there, mind numb, void of all emotions and feelings, in an attempt to make it through the night. Still alive and breathing, not that that is what he wanted to be.

But the rain eventually died out, leaving behind only moist remnants of the attack now a part of the past, and exhaustion soon took over him, leading him falling into a deep sleep where he was no longer able to watch over his mind.

***

24 hours earlier

“Get out” he whispered, shaking from rage.

She looked up, her eyes shocked, her cheeks a flush from all the words she had been spewing just minutes before. The result of her silence for a few days had been an outbreak of anger she did not even know she possessed. Her encounter with Shyam earlier that evening had her fuming with anger, and she could not hold it in anymore.

She stared up at him silently as he held the steering wheel with his steel hard grip, looking straight ahead.

“I said get out” he spat, louder this time, harsher.

“Whh...what?” she stammered, looking around her at the forest and rapidly darkening sky. He wouldn’t...

She realised that she had underestimated him far too many times when he opened the door for her, pulling her out by her upper arm, not looking her in the eyes as he circled back to his seat.

She had always known she was proud too, and that she would never give in to anyone like this, even if it was the man she loved, or had once loved, she didn’t know which one of those two it was right now. But Shyams threats had not left her, and she was scared, so she ran behind him.

“No, I’m sorry okay, I shouldn’t have said what I did” she closed her eyes, finding that it was easier to say these things to the darkness she was so afraid of, than to his back.

“Should have thought of that before” he said, and she jumped out, placing her hand on his shoulder before he took another step.

“How will I get home?” she tried, hoping that he would let her get back in, but he only shrugged her hand off.

“You’ve done it before, find a way, I don’t care” he said nonchalantly.

As he stepped away, Khushi’s heart shuddered in fear as it suddenly dawned on her that he would leave her in the middle of no where in the dark. He had done it before, but she had not seen as much of the worlds evil then. She had felt braver back then. She didn’t know of Shyam and terrors like him back then. The world had been a much less scarier place.

She didn’t like the eerie way the wind whistled, masking the silent woods that watched her.

She reached out, clutching his hand before he got too far away, and he stopped dead in his tracks at the contact. Her small soft palm clung onto his rough hands and in that moment he let what should have been the reality of everything settle in. All he felt was the warm loving girl that lived behind those bright eyes. Something so innocent, and harmless. So very fragile.

But he snatched his hand away with the thought of all the things he knew lay behind the exterior. He didn’t know whether he imagined the low cry that escaped her lips when he pulled away, but he sat stubbornly in his car, not taking another look at her as he revved up the engine and drove along the long road, leaving her behind.

Leaving her behind for the world to tear down.

***

It was like a drum. A roaring, thundering drum that she could hear loudly as it beat against her chest, it matched the sound of her bare feet that thudded against the slick forest floor. She had never been so terrified in her life. She thought of all the people that had ever been in the same situation as her and her heart cried out, tears escaping at their pain along with her own.

Branches and twigs cut away at her skin as she flew past them, splitting open her skin mercilessly to send blood rushing out.

Her lungs screamed, unable to feed her body fast enough, but she did not slow down. She ran, as fast as her feet would allow her, the sound of incessant, fast approaching footsteps, keeping her going.

She was quick, but not quick enough.

She cried in horror as she was tackled to the ground, dread overcoming her as she refused to give in easily. Her life flashed before her in the darkness.

Thoughts of her family, thoughts of him as she was violently pinned down to the ground beneath her. She realised that she really did still love him, she decided that no matter how much she had wanted it to not be true, she could not help thinking that way, she thought of that feeling as the blade ravaged through her, cutting away at her already mutilated skin.

She could feel the damp cold mud under her, clinging to her skin, in a contrast to the warm pool of blood that had formed from the endless trickles that ran down her wounds.

She wouldn’t look at him, she refused to look at the monster that drained her life away.
Shyam would surely pay the price for his sins one day, that was not her concern.

Her only concern in that very moment was making sure that his face was not the last image she would ever lay her eyes on, so she looked up, beyond the thinning foliage and branches, towards the midnight blue sky. The two points of brightness still existed, as they always had. They were the brightest in the sky with the absent moon. What a shame, she thought, she would not get to see the moon one last time.

But she concentrated on the two points, ignoring her body being ripped apart.

Those two brilliant stars had offered her their support for her whole life, never failing her when she needed them, she knew they would never abandon her, and they were with her today, when she needed them the most.

They gave her the strength to shed not a single tear.

I Will Wait For You - Part 2

The metallic frame slipped from his sweaty fingers, gliding over in a frictionless run, to find itself hurtling towards the cold marble floor a few feet away. It sent a splitting crack running though the air around him that had suddenly turned unimaginably thick. All the noise he had heard so loudly, just seconds ago seemed to become secondary, like his surroundings were just something in the background, something in the deeply intangible background that he cared not for.

He had destroyed everything.

She had been so delicate and caring. Above all, she had been innocent.

He tried to not let the guilt of his past actions consume him as he ran out of the door to find her. Bring her home after he had so pitilessly abandoned her on a lonely road.

The door behind him shut close even before the broken pieces of the shattered screen had come to rest against the unmoving ground.

***

He ran his hand obsessively through his hair, trying his best not to pull it all out at the thought of everything he had believed for the past few weeks being a lie. How easily he had fallen into the trap that was Shyam’s lies. How quickly he had turned his back on her, betrayed her for all the trust she had put in him, just because he felt she was too good to be true.

He kept imagining it, the feeling of her small clammy hand in his own. The way she had held on to him for support, a lost and scared soul, before he had abandoned her. The thought of the way he had pulled away from her caused him to slam his fist against the steering wheel as he found her absent from the point at which he had last seen her.

“Khushi!” he called.

He glanced at the clock on the dashboard, which read near midnight, before stepping out under the night sky that was sending the lightest fall of raindrops.

“Khushi!” he yelled into the forest, which responded with but a few droplets of rain and a strong breeze. He searched for his phone to call her, only to remember that it lay shattered against the floor of his home.

He walked a quarter of a mile down the road from his car, trying to imitate the way she must have gone, before he turned into forest. Something about the foreboding way it looked at him made him want to turn in. He followed the tree’s downhill, towards the beginning of what looked like a valley.

His footsteps loud on the damp forest ground accompanied by a slight trickle of water from leaves high in the forest canopy, made him feel incredibly alone. He looked up as the sky wailed, its colour had turned a deep shade of bluish grey, a premonition of a strong storm that was soon to hit. He knew the clouds wouldn’t hold it in for much longer.

“Khushi!” he called again, to heed no response.

He panicked a few more minutes in, when he found a broken bangle. Gold, like the ones she had been wearing with her deep blue dress earlier in the evening. He calmed himself down, reminding himself of the many times he had found the same sign, each of them, resulting in Khushi being perfectly fine.

She was a strong girl. She had pulled through everything he had made her suffer through. She would pull though this as well. She had to.

She would be okay, she would be perfectly fine. And when he found her, probably on a road on the other side of the forest, sweet talking a bus driver with her charming smile and wilful words, he would tell her everything. He would tell her how he had been wrong, and how he owed her a whole lot of happiness in exchange for all the grief. How he would beg her for forgiveness for the unforgivable things he had done to her, for not trusting her when she had never given him a reason not to.

He walked through the tree’s, following the most obvious path down the slight decline, wondering about how absurd it was that he was practically trekking into the forest. He had been walking for a while now, becoming increasingly anxious with every step he took.

It seemed so stupid, to search through this endless forest, the logical part of his brain kept telling him to get to a phone, call her.

Every second told him that he should stop wasting time, turn back now and search for her elsewhere, but something kept him going. Something told him she had walked this very path.

He broke out into a run after what seemed like a long time, ignoring the forest that tried to stop him. The waning branches and thick forest foliage worked away, they warned him of what was to come. They told him to turn back now, but he kept resolute, making his way through the humid air that chilled him to the bone.

Just when he was about to turn on his heel, cursing himself for all the time he had lost, he saw it.

Within a tiny clearing, where the light from even the dark sky seemed to pool in mourning through a gap in the trees, lay her tangled body, in a mess of blood and dirt.

He screamed aloud, thinking that he must have said her name, because that is what it vaguely sounded like. He hadn’t even noticed until that point that every sound around him had sounded foggy, haze like in the distance. It was as though his mind couldn’t take everything around him in at once.

He wished and prayed with all his might that it wasn’t real. That the limp body lying at the foot of the large willow wasn’t hers. He took a cold step towards her, sifting the flowing branches of the deathly tree aside with his fingers, terrified that it would hurt her if he moved too rapidly.

Despite the identical dark blue that she had worn earlier, and the unmistakable pom pom hanging by a few threads from her sleeve, despite the indistinguishable flow of brown tresses framing her body, he refused to believe it was her

He didn’t believe it until he broke out into a desperate run and dropped into the deep red pool enveloping her, and turned her towards him to see her eyes.

The eyes that he loved with all his heart.

They were wide open, wide open staring out at the sky above them.

Staring, not seeing.

A choken sound escaped his throat as he pulled her body towards him with trembling fingers, unable to take it all in. He crushed her against his chest, feeling her cold skin, as the first ray of light from the sun escaping its hours of captivity shone across the horizon. 

I Will Wait For You - Part 3 

Okay so this song is one of the reasons I even started to write this One Shot and I always imagined the last part being written to this, so it would really mean a lot if you listen to it as you read. It makes a really big difference, and I think the music is so so perfect for Arnav and Khushi and their story in this, so please please do listen to it when you read!

Silence.

Everything was suddenly too silent, bringing him out of his slumber. The raindrops that had been pounding against the concrete ground through the night had died out, wisped away with the wind, carried away from giving him shelter.

The silence was overbearing, it reminded him of the moment he had found her. A moment he never wanted to remember, but yet, a moment that he would never be able to forget. The silent ringing in his ears as he had held her limp body to his.

The room around him still smelt of her. He ran his bloodied hand across the soft carpet, where she had once walked. Somehow, he drifted back away into sleep, exhaustion from his memories sending him back to where they couldn’t plague his mind.

 ***

It was an orchard. Large and far and unreaching, spreading out into distance hills coated with a fine layer of petals. Foliage of the lightest pink petals covered the sky, only letting through filtered layers of sunlight.

He didn’t know what he was doing there, but he felt the warmth and let his muscles slacken, stretching his fingers out towards motes of dust alight with fire. He walked, for so long, but he did not tire. Somehow, this place was different than the one he had left. There was no hurt here.

After a while, when he stopped, letting the loneliness sink in, he felt her.

She secretly slipped her hand into his, feeding her small palm into the space between his fingers.

Arnav closed his eyes, not wanting to ruin the feeling.

“Khushi?” he asked, scared to open his eyes for the fear of finding everything empty.

She squeezed his hand gently to let him know it was safe.

When he opened his eyes, he saw her. She looked up at him with her ever bright eyes, her innocence wrapped in those shells that poured her heart out to the world. She wore a dress, the faintest of pinks, matching the fallen petals beneath her bare feet. It fell along her skin perfectly, matching its simplicity.

He had never seen such beauty. She wore no make up, only a laced fabric dress that ran until her knees, with her long brown hair falling down her back. Her hand felt so small and soft in his, and dread overtook him as the horribly familiar sensation sent him back to what he knew was reality.

The reality where he had snatched his hand away from hers, leaving her alone in the darkness.

This was not that reality.

He watched her unreadable face and felt the urge to crush her into his arms, hold on to her and never let go, but something made him feel that he couldn’t do that. Not now anyway, it was much too late. Too much had been said and done.

She circled around him, stopping a foot away, her hand still entwined with his.

“Hi” she whispered.

He almost didn’t hear her voice, it felt so quiet, but he wasn’t paying attention to anything but her, so it was hard to miss.

“Khus...” he stared again, only to be stopped by her taking a step towards him. She bore into his eyes for just a moment, before taking another step towards him and wrapping her arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug.

He felt her warm cheek press against his neck as she buried her face into him, letting the feel of her beneath his arms consume him, and then, then it was gone. She tore herself away from him, stepping back to reveal glistening eyes full of tears.

She smiled them away, and Arnavs heart sank at the image of her. He told himself to remember it, the way she looked when she smiled, because it was lost for him now.

He remembered the way she had felt the last time he had held her, as she silently wrapped her hands around his again. Limp and cold and dead. She had stopped breathing by the time he had found her in the woods, He didn’t have to check her pulse to know. The way her eyes had looked, had told him everything in that moment. Everything that he dreaded. Everything that killed him.

“I’m sorry” he said, feeling beyond pathetic that he could offer no more.

“Shhh” she said quietly, lifting their enclosed hands higher between them. Just then, Arnav noticed that her skin was all red and bruised. Cuts and gashes lining her perfect skin, but they were fading, restoring her to flawlessness.

They watched wordlessly as her skin healed.

“You didn’t know, you couldn’t have known” she said, after what seemed like a lifetime.

He shook his head, hot tears streaming down his face “It doesn’t matter, I shouldn’t have left you, I shouldn’t  have ...” he broke off, unable to speak.

“It does matter” she said firmly, but softly.

He only shook with guilt and sadness, gripping her hands, unable to bear the pain.

“No, No you can’t go, this is my fault, this is all my fault, I can’t go back, not without you Khushi” he raised his teary eyes to her sad ones.

“It’s not your fault” she whispered “Hey, listen to me” she ordered weakly “don’t say that, it’s not your fault, it’s not” she said again.

“But I...”

“You didn’t mean for it to happen, neither of us did. But it’s done now. It’s in the past, you can start afresh...” she began.

“I don’t want to” he replied stubbornly.

“Come back with me” he pleaded.

She smiled sadly and reached up towards him, pressing her lips lightly against his, leaving his heart fluttering maddeningly in his chest with the feeling of what was to be lost.

“Don’t leave, please don’t, you can’t go Khushi, you can’t” he started breathless as she slowly began to step away from him.

“Why are you leaving” he cried, as she turned away from him and let go of his hand so he was now the only one holding on.

She twisted in her place, raising her eyes to meet his, before whispering the words that broke his heart all over again.

“You never asked me to stay” she said simply.

His hand twitched at her words, and hers fell out of his grasp. He didn’t reach up for it again. He only watched frozen in place, as he realised that this wasn’t a dream, this really was her, this was his Khushi and she was leaving, and once she left, she wouldn’t be coming back.

Her feet scuffed against the floor of petals as she made her way down the lined path of trees. The slight breeze sent a willow of flowers rushing through the space between and around them, flying away as the wind carried them to better places. He watched her raise her delicate fingers, letting the petals caress her skin as they fluttered away, and she turned back to him one last time.

“I will wait for you” she whispered, so quietly, that Arnav had to wait for the wind to bring her words to his ears, and by the time he heard her, he looked up to find nothing but flowers, and tree’s and endless rays of light.

Just like that, she was gone. 

Thank you so much for reading everyone, I really hope you liked it, please do let me know what your thoughts were, your words mean a lot more than you think!! And Liking only takes a click, so if you appreciated the One Shot, please do let me know!

I’ve been so so horrible because I promised an update for this, and then I kind of abandoned writing and I just realised today that I had left you all hanging on! Please accept my sincere apologies.

Oh, and sorry about the slightly depressing end, I just felt it was more appropriate for her to pass away than anything else, I hope you’re not too disappointed.

Love, Hayley xx

Also, for those of  you that don't know, we have Fanfic awards at India Forums, nominations were a while ago, and now they are up in the voting round, so please do go and vote for your favourite writers and stories! Lets make IPKKND win as many as we can !! Click here to check it out!