CHAPTER ELEVEN: BREAKING AWAY
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My body hurts. Every cell in it cries out in pain. There's a thobbing pain at the back of my head which keeps tugging at the strings of my consciousness, trying to drown it into a lull of forgetfulness.

But something inside me resists the urge to sleep. To sleep is to succumb to death- it whispers in my ear. I struggle to put myself together. I struggle to hold on to who I am. 

And, just like that, I realize who I am. 

"Ruhan! Stay there with me! Don't you leave me alone again!"

Inside my half-awakened consciousness, someone cries out. Who is it crying?

I try to open my eyes. I can't. 

I try to grope my way in darkness. My hands touch a face; with cheeks flooded with tears. I hold the face in my palms and draw it near my own. My lips touch the wet cheeks and I taste salt. 

"Who are you? Why are you crying?" I ask inside my mind. Even though I don't expect an answer, something stirs within my soul. A warm body embraces me. My face is pressed against a heaving chest. The beats of the heart within it smash into my eardrums. 

He is crying, holding me in his chest, his face buried in my hair, his arms cradling my broken, mangled body.

'Mahoba!' 

A cold wind rushes into my heart like a breath blown into a flute hole. My heart plays out in its tune and sings his name.

'Mahoba! My love! How did you find me!'

My fingers feel sticky. Still, I try to touch his face with them. I try to bury my face deeper into his warm, broad chest.

An unknown face. An unfamiliar body. 'Mahoba? Isn't this you? Where are you, my love?'

My soul cries out. I can't hold out anymore. I sink deeper into oblivion.

When I wake up next, I find myself lying in a white bed in the hospital cabin. The room is dimly lit, with heavy curtains drawn on the glass window panes. I can't move my body. Below the white sheet that covers it, I see that it is bandaged completely. IV channels and monitors are attached with it.

Slowly, I  remember what had happened. How come that I'm still alive after that horrible fall? But then I remember something else and my heart freezes.

From across the bounds of the Twilight zone of human existence, he comes and stands before my eyes. I see Lina standing before me and I see the white flame glowing bright inside her. I gaze at it for a long time. Mahoba's face floats before my mind's eye. I close my eyes and bask in the warmth of those long forgotten memories. Once again my consciousness is lulled into sleep. 

Countless days go by. Slowly, I have come back to my normal self. I have started to go to school once again.

I haven't seen Ruy even once after that fateful night. I had asked Mahoba about him. Once everything was clear to me, I was afraid that he might have done something reckless there.

He had laughed. " Don't worry, Ruhan! I haven't forgotten the rules. I can't harm a human unless I'm provoked enough. But, to tell you the truth, I really wanted to smash his skull with my own hands. Just think about how he ran away and didn't even think about informing anyone about the accident. You would have died if you lay there for some more time." 

"I would have died anyway if you were not there to save me." I had said casually. I could still feel the surge of his life force within me and that had told me how he had saved my life. 

"I understand how Ruy had felt," I tell him as we sit at the old jetty side by side. "He must have been frightened there and thought that he would be blamed for the mishap. I have been around the humans for a much longer time and I know how they think." 

He nods. "Perhaps you are right. Still, I can't stand the idea that he just left another person to die!"

I steal a sideway glance at his face. It's Lina's face, known to me since I was a child. Her smooth skin, high cheekbones, amber coloured eyes - all are too familiar to me. 

Yet, they seem unknown to me today. Looking at her, another image floats up in my memory. Another face with its dark, captivating eyes under long eyelashes stares at me in amusement. 

My head throbs with pain. I can't relate to the person sitting by my side. This isn't Lina anymore, but this isn't the Mahoba I had known in that far away past! What am I to do now? Who's going to show me a way?

It's twilight again. The golds and reds of the setting sun illuminate our faces in a strange hue.  The last rays of the dying sun sparkle in our eyes and fade in our hair. 

We look at each other. Shadows thicken quickly around the corner where we sit. In those eyes I see a hunger; a hunger just too familiar to me.

I feel the hunger, too. The face comes closer to mine. I look into those eyes, heavy with pain and tenderness. For a second, I lose myself.

The touch of the lips on mine brings me back to reality. Nothing stirs inside the shell I'm living in. I feel empty and sad. Memory of my first kiss return to my mind and I long for Ruy's touch! In an impulse, I push Lina away from me.

She stares at me with wide eyes and I see Mahoba again. He understands me, I guess.

He gets up. "Let's go, Ruhan," says he. 

I get up, too. But, instead of returning to the alley, we walk up to the end of the jetty. 

It is low tide now. Far below our feet the murky river water flows towards the sea. 

We hold each other's hands. "Let's go back, Ruhan!" He says. "This time I won't be there to hold you back. They will cast the souls of both of us into the Eternal River."

Yes, going back seems to be a better option to me; better than living a half life here.

For a second, Nana's face flashes in my mind. Then I smile to myself.

She is a fragile mortal, too. I won't be able to hold her here for long anyway!

As we let ourselves go, the air and space bear us away. As our bodies hit the water, the barriers of flesh and bones crumble away. At last, we are free! 

I was never here in the first place!

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