<No prologue.>

This story is an original idea and holds copyrights.

Any similarities with any other story is highly coincidental.

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The world saw him as a hero, a rock star, and praised him like he was the brightest star in the dark sky of a wild storm. But he was not any hero, he was a villain, a devil, a monster. He had long conquered his demons and he wore his scars like the wings of a devil, the wings that can cut a person right from existence.

He was no saint, he was the destruction people feared. You could love him from outside, but his inside was made of unlovable darkness. His outside was like an attractive and beautiful flame that will burn you if you try touching him from the inside.

He had no heart, and I believe no one could know this better than me.

"Manik Malhotraaa!" I barged into his cabin with tear stained cheeks, my nose flaring and my hair disheveled as my right hand tightly clutched the bunch of messily arranged papers. He spinned around his chair, his dark eyes amusingly looking into mine, and his face expressions told me how he was already waiting for me.

"Welcome aboard, Nandini!" He smirked getting up and blocking the source of light behind him as I gritted my teeth. In all the anger, all the pain, I couldn't still help noticing how sinfully hot he looked, with that devilish smirk not leaving his perfectly carved lips for even a minute. Everyone had warned me to stay away from him, but the more they asked me to hate him, the more I fell in love with him.

"You can't do this to me!" I whispered, as if begging for air around me. All the anger, all the pain, everything inside me vanished the moment his eyes met mine. They were dark and cold unlike always, sending an unknown fear down my spine.

"Guess what, I've already done it!" He laughed dryly and I felt an unsettling fear down my heart which told me I had to face the monster alone in this world. His smile scared me more then his looks ever could. Not that his smile was ugly, but because his smile was the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. And I knew I wouldn't see it quite often. I was scared to fall in love with his smile just the way I fell in love with him the first time I heard his magical voice.

"You cheated my dead father, Manik Malhotra. Don't you have any consciousness? Would you sleep at peace knowing the wealth and property you proudly conquered today belong to a dead person whom you cheated?" I snapped back, the anger rising again in my voice and he stood there calm and quiet, as if I was talking to the deaf walls. He lit the cigar once again placing it between his parted lips and I stared at him as if he was my only ray of hope.

"Who cares?" He mocked back and I sighed. "The unchangable fact remains that your father is dead and every penny of his belongs to me!", he smiled as if he got some unknown pleasure and relief in cheating my father, stealing and changing his will and owning his wealth and his property. Yet, I stared at him as if he was the most beautiful piece of art in his world, as if he was the first rays of the sun rising over the horizon and as if he was a hero, and not a villain.

"I thought we were friends, Manik!" I barely whispered. Neither would the tears come out anymore, nor would my voice. For once, I wish he would leave his hatred aside and look at me, look at all the love my eyes pour at him every time I look into his eyes.

"We were friends!" He smirked, focusing on the word were and I felt disgusted at him. I wanted to shout, scream, curse at him but I could do nothing. He betrayed me, my father. He took my fan girl love for him on granted, my trust, my innocence, my everything. He stabbed me right in reverse, and the worst part about it is that I don't feel anything anymore. I don't feel sad, I feel numb and I know that feeling numb is somehow worse.

Keeping the papers right on his desk, I moved outside his huge company, trying to assemble my own self. Crossing the road like a lifeless person, I sat on the stones, staring at the beautiful beach in front of my eyes. The waters crashed against the shore, making a satisfying sound. The sun nearly dipped down the horizon, while the sky shaded itself into purple and blue blushes, small stars shining over, the reflections falling in the water, making it shine too.

But I stared aimlessly. I wish I had never heard Manik's voice in the first place, I had never started fan girling over him. I would have never fallen in love with his minutest details and I would have never cribbed to my father to sponsor one of his concerts just because I wanted to meet him. But all of it happened, and that's how Manik Malhotra, pretending to be a saint, met and me and my father. We became friends, and that had to be the best phase of my life until I got to know that my father had brain tumor, with just a month in his hand. And today, one month later, all his property and wealth turns out to go to Manik Malhotra, and not his own daughter.

Unknowingly, a few tears had already left my eyes thinking about the first time he spoke to me, the first time his hand touched mine. I wish I could go back in time and erase everything, or probably re live that phase of my life forever. I fell in love with the saint Malhotra, not knowing that his kindness was just an illusion and behind the deceiving veil lies a monster unknown to me, a monster that destroyed me with all the love I offered him.

"Aww, is the princess crying?" The same old husky and cold voice made its way to me and I gritted my teeth. Princess. He knew exactly how much this word irritated me, and yet he called me exactly that. "What is it, Manik Malhotra? Wasn't what you did already enough? I have nothing left now, what do you want to take away this time?", I snapped back, wiping away the tears as I got up to face him.

He looked amused and the smirk never left his sinfully hot face for a fraction of second. "Calm down, Nandini! Don't act as if I have put fire to the entire world," he replied casually rolling his eyes as he sat down besides me. Little did he know, he had done that. He took my living as well as my source of living and both at the same time, suddenly leaving me so abandoned and helpless. After Dad left, I never felt so lonely until today, when I actually realise I have to face the world alone.

"Manik!," I took a deep breath, but the voice didn't come out again. I wanted to ask him why me, why us? What he took away, everything belonged to my father and me, it was his hard work, it was what he constructed over the years. And he stole it all in days. Does he even have a heart? "It belonged to my dad!" I said slowly, as if giving it all one last try.

"And now it belongs to me!" He smiled wider with the tint of happiness glowing in his eyes and I looked away from him. There was no use telling him the same things, again and again, every time. He'd never understand what love is, what are feelings, emotions, attachments. Because ultimately, he was an unlovable monster.

"You'd never understand, because you don't have a father, you don't have a family!" I smiled sadly, getting up to leave but I didn't miss how his eyes darkened, and he fisted his hand. His rough hands wrapped around my wrist, holding it tight as I felt a ceasing pain down my left arm and I was pulled down, back to the sand besides him. Pulling him away, I tried wriggling under his grip but all in vain.

"You're right, I don't have a father. I don't understand anything, because I have no feelings. My heart is a stone, and I am not the perfect hero you look at in movies. I play the role of a monster, a villain, no hero!" He said slowly and clearly, his voice suddenly sounded cold and distant, his eyes pierced into mine and I stopped wriggling in his grip as a result of the sudden intensity between us.

"I'm sorry to break your bubble Manik, but the villain is just a victim who's story went untold...," I whispered with the same valour and coldness in my voice. He seemed shocked, he definitely didn't expect a come back from me. His fingers left my wrist and his eyes softened as he looked away and I held my wrist as a reflex, pulling myself away from him.

I stared at him blankly until he looked back at me and our eyes met, again. Everything about him was so perfect, but his eyes held a different spark in them. And every time I looked into his dark eyes, I felt as if I could read through, as if I could look beyond the walls he had created, as if I could see the beautiful human inside him in the body of a sinfully hot devil.

But no matter what his side of the story is, it doesn't pardon the fact that he was a criminal. Cheating is a crime, and he had trapped my father to transfer his everything to him, bringing his own daughter to be at streets.

Yet, I loved him. I didn't love him like a fan girl loves the rock star, I loved him like the sun loves the moon and the sky loves the ground. Just like the two would never meet, he would never see my love. My love for him was an abyss that I would happily throw myself into again and again, that would keep increasing like a spiral and that would rise like the sun after every dark night.

"Nandini!" He whispered in a low tone and I stopped right in my tracks. He didn't call me that sick girly name to irritate me, neither was his voice cold and distant. He sounded like the Manik I had known, the Manik I had loved. Slowly, I turned behind. It might sound foolish to still stop even after everything he has done, but that's probably my love for him that I keep crawling back to him, keeping the hope that maybe what he's behaving is just an illusion, he'd be the kind and loving Manik again, and once again we'd be friends, everything would be normal~ once again.

"Since you have nothing to do, I can offer you a job, as an employee in my company!" He smirked slowly and the last straw of hope in my heart also died and vanished. Taking a cold breath, I turned back from him. "I mean come on, I can do this favour on you. Your father gifted me so much of wealth and property, I can atleast offer you a petty job, can't I?" He laughed.

And I, for once thought he'd be the same Manik again.

"You've already done a lot for me, Manik. Thank you for everything!" I whispered in a tired voice. "I wish I never cross your paths again, Manik. I wish you the best for your future!", I weakly smiled before finally walking away.

Alone with the cold breeze, reality hit me as I walked back home slowly. I had nothing left with me, I had to start right from the scratch; I had no one left with me. I had to start right from zero, nothing to help me, no one to help me. I was alone against this cruel world and that's exactly when the loneliness started striking me.

But despite all of this, I wish I run away from here, leaving all the miseries back here, leaving Manik and my happy dreams right here. I wish I could start new, I wish I could go to Dad. I wanted to hide in his embrace and I wanted to hear his voice, I wanted to hear him tell me he'd make everything alright for me once again.

But amongst all the vain wishes, I had one important wish. I wished I never see Manik Malhotra's beautiful face again, I never talk to him again, I never cross paths with him again. I wish I could start hating him for everything he did to me.

But that was just a wish, because I could never hate him. Instead, I started hating myself for loving him.

The night was dark, but my life seemed darker. And all I had done was fall in love with a devil. Is this what my love cost me, Manik Malhotra?

forever and humesha are just a lie,
all we had was a bitter goodbye.

~•~

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