Snapping out of the emotional state he was in, Sanskar immediately rushed to Ragini. Carefully picking her up, he protectively held his Angel in his arms cocooned to his chest as if she is a fragile porcelain doll which will disintegrate any second now.
“Your Cupy is here now Angel. Don’t you worry.” He whispered gently in her ear holding her frail figure as close as physically possible.
******//////***////*
The news spread like a fire in the college and everyone were left gobsmacked by the terrible happening. Mr. Raichand felts so ashamed of the heinous act of his daughter that he didn’t have the courage to look at someone in eyes. Shanaya and her friends were confident that they would not be caught due to restriction of CCTV cameras in college’s washroom but to their bad luck the camera attached to wall near the washroom was angled in such a position that every single second of their crime was recorded.
Mr. Raichand always felt proud claiming his college as an ‘anti-ragging’ institution but his own daughter thwarted all his claims.
******////////**///
Both Mr. Raghuvendra Suryavanshi, Ragini’s Dad and Arjun rushed to the city hospital after being informed about the incident.
Sanskar kept holding Ragini’s hand much to the doctor’s displeasure. Nurses requested him to leave the ICU and so did the doctors but he wouldn’t budge afraid something may happen to his Angel in his absence.
“We already have patched up her cuts. Thankfully they were not too deep ” began the health care professional. “But our major concern is patient’s other medical condition. We have to run few tests on the patient to know the extent of the damage. Our head cardiac surgeon will handle the case from here. Now excuse me.”
****//////**///
Arjun kept a hand on his father’s shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry Dad. Our princess is a fighter.” Mr. Suryavanshi nodded his head and gave a smile but it didn’t quite reached his eyes.
“What medical condition?” asked Sanskar.
The cardio surgeon strictly told him to leave the patient for the time being since the medical tests to be performed need no one else’s indulgence.
“Princess was three years old when she was diagnosed with congnenital heart defect.” said Ragini’s father sighing.
“And what is that? “. He had a feeling that he is not going to like his next words.
“Congenital Heart defect – a defect known to disrupt the normal flow of blood in heart due to a hole and in this case the patient has two.” Sanskar turned behind to see the doctor.
The doctor continued, “A surgery needs to be performed but since Ms. Suryavanshi is still not medically fit we have to wait. Apart from that, for now, we have to keep the patient under observation for next 48 hours.”
****////****////////
“”It’s all his fault Dad.” said Arjun seething pointing at Sanskar.
“What do you mean? Say clearly.” ordered Ragini’s Dad.
“You know what the girl who bullied our princess said when confronted?” Mr. Suryavanshi looked at him confused.
“She wanted to get back at our Ragu because according to her our princess snatched her Sanskar from that bi**h.”
“All because of him.” He was about to punch Sanskar but Mr. Suryavanshi intervened in between.
“You are clearly not in your senses at the moment. Don’t come back until you calm down.” He said sternly reprimanding him.
“Don’t mind him Sanskar.” He said sitting beside him while Sanskar continued staring blankly at the white wall across him.
“My wife died when princess was a few months born. After knowing about her health condition we became over protective of her, specially Arjun. It’s hard for him to see her in this condition. He said all that in his anger. I know no one can take care of princess better than you. I have seen that myself.”
*****/////***/////
Ragini was finally brought back after an hour.
******/////////
Somewhere he was holding himself responsible for her state. His Angel was bulied cruelly baceause of him. Because that girl had a crush on him. Arjun was right. It was all his fault.
Seeing her lying lifelessly on the hospital bed several wires attached to her pale body his guilt only worsened. The beeping of the monitor and the rise and fall of her chest the only indicators that the fragile Angel before him was breathing.
Only one person was allowed at night and it took a lot of efforts from Mr. Suryavanshi’s side to persuade his son to let Sanskar stay.
*******/////////
“You really are a curse. Aren’t You?” mocked a voice in his head.
“Every person that you hold dear always ends up hurting” came another voice.
“See what have you done to her.”
“You don’t deserve her.”
“She is better without you.”
“You can’t even protect her.”
“You are a bad omen.” chanted the voices over and over.
“Stop it. Leave me alone. Just stop ii.” But the voices didn’t cease. They screamed at him rising in a symphony that crashed against his mind.
He shouted clutching his head in a fierce grip. His nails digging into his scalp painfully but the onslaught continued.
On and on the voices clawed, mocking him, taunting him. The repurcussion rendering him immobile to suffer. For what felt like eternity the voices picked at him.
“Will you detain me now Angel? Will you balme me like others?” he asked looking at her painfully as a drop of tear skipped his eyes. The strong wall that he built around himself finally crumbling
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