Remaining shadows
Remaining shadows.
They said one life was not enough to rejoice the love , they asked for seven lives and god granted them…..But here one moment was enough to feel the love they craved for.
All the five years they were together, they never knew they were for each other. she was the wife of his brother and he felt guilt shaking him every time he found her arms with red scratches, every time when he walked the corridor in the lonely nights and found her silent sobs.
It was no secret she was in an abusive relationship and it was his own brother. From always he knew they were no match, actually his brother no right for any girl but his mother didn’t hear any of his plea and make them married …..Hiding the anger issues of his brother (well, anger issues aren’t a disease, She had brushed him.)
He left for another city because he felt himself a criminal to stand pretending it was all so serene, he was enjoying and maybe his mum was happy about that: one less thing to worry about. Why she never understood what he tried her too. This marriage was not right.
He came after a few months of their marriage and he felt he was wrong maybe, she seemed happy and actually his brother too looked changed. Perhaps the old Indian saying worked that guys come on right track after marriage. But he was so wrong.
One day her mother called him to rush back home as his brother was seriously injured and after reaching home 24 hours later he found her injured ,badly. His brother had hit the car to another because he got angry when found someone talking with her. To say he was nonchalant would be right if it didn’t was about her too.
After a few months when he shifted back to his home because his mother pleaded him, it felt alien to him living there. Maybe in the past few months they treated him as a guest and things kept hidden in a big veil but now there was no way and no intention to hide anything. Every other morning she looked too exhausted or too broken and she had brushed him away when he found one big red mark adorning her wrist.
Three years and eight months back she was beaming that day and he got to know she was pregnant. He felt happy about the coming member but again suspicions surrounded him, what if …
Only twelve weeks it took for his bother to ruin everything, he had found her on the outside of her room door, shaking and crying, and the door was banging from inside with a few apologies. He knew it was better to stop it here before things took a drastic turn. He had nearly shouted on her mother when she said it was better if she stays with her husband…it was nothing big to create a drama.
But he always knew this was the worst decision ever. she kept thinning, her charm going until one day she collapsed before him …too late to hold the loose string, that day her fetus died and though she looked pale afterwards he heard her saying she was happy it did. He felt more of a criminal.
He found her eyes deprived of sleep, black rings a permanent to her almond shaped eyes but his mother still have faith everything will be fine one day. He started rejecting any offer she came with to him for his wedding, he was afraid of becoming the same, hurting someone the same.
As days passed she kept changing into a corpse….a living shell who was too shallow to feel anything. And those so called Good News came a few more times until they finally stopped coming. Her body too exhausted to hold anything. Say it feelings or a living.
Exactly seven months back, his brother looked enthusiastic about something; he wanted her to take somewhere, maybe on the beach or to some lake. And they went eventually and then she came home in the middle of night with no slippers saying he never turned up on the local train after he went to washroom when they were entering the local.
Two whole months passed waiting for him but his brother never turned up, her mother was going crazy with each passing day and here she was becoming silent with each passing moment. and one day he asked to her was she waiting for him and she answered she knew he wasn’t coming cause he had planned to go away long ago.
To say he was surprised would be wrong, she was an epitome of strength he would never know wholly and this secret remained safe between them. Cause anyway nothing was going to happen If it was disclosed.
He found she was coming to life gradually, she would laugh more often which he never found in past and he felt his heart swelling with relief finding him this way, a little less guilt weighed him.
It was exactly 25 days back when his mother came to him in night saying she needed to talk something, with trembling palms she showed him the text which was from an unknown no. “I am in some better place and I don’t want you to remember me. She is a great human if you could anything for her I would live the rest of my life in peace.”
Seven days back his mother asked him to book the tickets of the city he previously lived because she didn’t want to live here with the horrible guilt which was eating her that she made someone’s life hell and he didn’t know what he felt in those moments.
How easy it was to leave everything behind and leave the place for a new start, he wanted to say some rude things to her but what was the deal, everything was messed already, ruined already.
Four days back they settled everything to leave the city forever, no never come back. How ironic it was they were leaving from the place to forget the deeds to someone who will live with them in the new air they were going to breath.
A few hours back she came to him and placed an envelope on his table and after reading the content he got to know, due to multiple miscarriages her uterus no longer in a position to make any pregnancy prolong to nine months and that justified the absence of those good news. He again knew something about her that night: she was no coward.
A few minutes back they signed the marriage certificate and he filled her hair partition with the vermillion because his mum wanted otherwise he was only content with the signatures only; the pains she had endured all these years could never go back with a pinch of red.
Here as they stood close to each other he took a breath inhaling her scent, they looked into each other’s eyes for the silence to be the answer of all those questions, suspicions and all those wordless promises. And well, it played the best matchmaker say it today or all this time.
“Sorry to admit but I was always in love with you I don’t know when it happened but as time passed I knew I wanted to take away your pains, I wanted to wipe your tears. i wanted to smile on every mistake you made, I wanted to feel you when you were aloof, I wanted to make face when you were sad and finally I wanted to laugh with you in this life.” The words were still echoing in her ears of that days back afternoon, it was one warm humid day, days like those she never liked but who said things would change asking you day and time.
Here in this moment it felt a lifetime, it felt a whole birth, he was content with the life …..finally.
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“God made a prince and a princess and forgot to give their hands in another’s, they kept looking for each other and at the end finally found themselves and lived happily ever after but god also made two souls: one broken and one healing who had to meet each other when the time decided them to meet.”
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Hey guys ,this is something which how came I myself am surprised, I swear it took me a few minutes to type this and post (plus the proof reading minutes I did before posting it and before choosing the category).
Anger issues are one big issue. Parents, friends and family brush it away saying it is not something to worry about but it is something to be worried about before it takes someone’ s life or make someone’s life hell….many of domestic victims were victims cause their husbands have anger issues. This is something to be worried about.
I maybe made it a short story based on fiction but intention was same, to enlighten you about this issue.
Hope you like it ,will be waiting for your response. With love Morusya.