The golden light shifted through the branches, dipped against the window and peeped into his royal blue painted room, letting the flicks of sun rays enlighten the dark room. The coffee mug laid unfinished by his side and the young man dropped the fountain pen back on the table as he sat still away from the sunlight's reach in the cold shade of shadows. Sighing heavily, he let his slender fingers run through his lushious hair in exhaustion.

It was another failed attempt of getting his words out for the upcoming chapters of his new book. Dev walked to the window and let his features be bathed in the inviting warmth of the morning sun. Yet, the warmth that traced his smooth features couldn't seep into his cold bones and blood and warm him. Every day looked gloomy, every day was sombre for him- without her.

Dev turned around and took a good look of his room yet again with the sense of longing. His eyes still searched for her- HEER, draped ever so gracefully in the seven yard clothing with variety of colours every morning to lighten up his days brighter than an summer dawns. He missed that melodious symphony she would voice out as she wear her ornaments with a beam of smile and twinkle in those hazel orbs of hers that would be his first sight as he wake up from his sleep.

Heer- the name was engraved in his heart that always keeps her remembrance, still very much alive in his heart. In his memories, Heer remained like a fresh breeze of the spring mornings in his stormy life. He could still remember how those beautiful fingers of hers would trace against his rugged jaw and let it run against his heart and paint him in hues of vibrant colours of joy, peace and warmth.

His journal sang songs of flowers that slowly yet aesthetically withered away despite of how safely it was kept and loved. No, it was not because of the autumn that let the leaves dry crisply and the fall becomes the shower of the mo(u)rning hearts. It was the brilliant, dew- moistened summer day and the softest lady slowly slipped away, maybe the light was too bright to glow that it withered and lost the colour, entirely.

Dev detached himself from the window and slowly took steps back until he found himself much away from the sun beams reach. Heer, his dearest wife had her ways to reach his raw, bleeding dark heart despite his shady life. For Dev, Heer was a magician who had magic to fill the deepest void of his soul, bandage the bleed of his heart and inside cracks with her golden beams of love and hope she emitted naturally.

The silver jumkha she fought to buy laid untouched on the dresser, waiting for it's owner to be worn so it would dance in her ears as she wears them. The unfinished painting of the twilight sky remained still in her favourite corner of the room, waiting for the artist to make it a masterpiece. The Guzhal poetry book she would read every night like her favorite prayer remained on the corner of the couch, waiting for the adrent reader to flip the next page. But, who would make these unliving things believe-- she would not come back?

Days and nights have passed in a blink an eye yet Dev could not register her absence in his mind. He would still call out her name, waiting for her to receive him with her warm arms wounding around his neck and her head placed against his heart. His heart would speak the language only she would acknowledge in a blink of an eye. It still beat to the rhyme of hers but Heer had faded away like how the radiant moon fades away into vile darkness every night.

The room still echoed her sweet mumbles and her soft lilac fragrance still lingered in mild touch that he tried to feel her in every breathe he took of what she had left behind for him. She made him crave home between the deadly walls of eerie silence which was once his castle of grief before her in his life. Mirrors reflected the emptiness of his life, him - the livelihood lost, the bubbly happiness astray and sunshine faded.

The blue ink he held on his hands could not manage to find the letters he had in his mind, neither the love he have or the despire that she's no more and neither the loud battles nor the silent screams of his heart and soul. Dev who finds the unsung trauma even in the tiniest thing of the world in jiffy now stood like a soulless person who could not voice out his own agony as he lost himself in the cruel world of never- happening hope and never - pleasing excuses.

His hodded eyes found a card underneath the bookshelf and that immediately made his lips fight to curl up in her remembrance. Heer and her love for books were like the combination of rain and the pleasent perfume of petrichor, both of them together are a treat to soul. Dev recognised the card to be the one she had hid from him few days ago with a playfully wink telling, "You'd find when you are supposed to."

Dev pulled the pristine card and dusted it carefully. It was another piece of card- probably the last one she might have wrote for him and he hopped to smile for her words one last time against the stabbing ache that was eating his heart nastily.

Heer always had the habit of write her favourite piece of musings or quotes on colourful cards and hide them in their room and let him find one of them on the days he comes back home after a bad day. Her hazel eyes would instantly sparkle when he finds a card and she would wait for him to recite her words by him with curiosity. Now, as he shifted his gaze beside, the lady was no more by his side. Dev pressed his eyelids down painfully.

There were nights he had sat in the dark and wondered how he managed to function without giving up, holding to a illusion of thread called 'Hope' in his trembling fingers. How long was he going to hold on? Dev shook his head, displeased by his own actions.

He tenderly opened the card only to find a very refined slender handwriting written with ink. Yet, he could spot certain places boltted with the very ink by the writer and few places written irregularly as if her hands had shook a little while penning it.

The moment his eyes fell on the words she had written, at last- the man who stood like a rock unaffected and emotionaless at his wife's funeral now let out a strangled heavy sob. His body shook vigorously in anguish as he fell down on his kness, clutching the shirt's over his chest. The pain in his chest almost felt like a physical ache, as if his heart was ripped apart brutally.

Those words in the card were flashing in his mind and broke him into million shreds of glasses. Dev did almost everything in his reach and beyond for Heer to breathe another more day and survive the night. Dev thought Heer always believed everytime he told she would be the winner of that disastrous battle she fought against the disease no matter what. But no, Heer knew she would not survive the battle and knew what he would do- without her.

She knew with her decease, the sunshine she had set upon him would vanish along in thin air. He would again embrace the dark and live in the shadows of gloom and shades of darker grey's. At last, Dev had let out all the bottled agony come out in form of screams, muffles and endless tears as her beautiful petite frame came to his mind followed by the fragments of memories Dev had with Heer.

The sunshine he had been running away from now cascaded its golden beam on him, as if trying to give him silent comfort through the golden rays and bring the lost warmth back to the cold man while the card now laid flat on the cold tiles, shining in the sunlight.

Dev (It said)

You are here to stay; I can't watch you
Fall apart like fallen leaves
Of Autumn
Because of you,
the garden of my heart
is blooming
and I only
crave your presence

I need you more
Than you need me
so i beg your
spring love to just stay
A little longer
until this stubborn flower
accepts it's defeat

And then,
the love spring I love
will make it's move
and spread the love,
find it's destination
Not in the walls of blue
But in the beams of sunshine.

- Move on
Heer's spring

~

Word count: 1500

A/N: No slippers, tomatoes, eggs thrown against me for you leaving you all devastated yet again.

Spread some good words for the book to your friends if you think the book deserves it🤧

See you in the next shot you'll 👋🏻

Love,
Diya❤️