To everyone who are reading this update, i had a bit of struggle with this story that i kept it on hold for awhile, because of it there maybe some discrepancies in this new update. I am trying to remember the dates and timelines as such but since lot of time has passed since i last updated. I may make few errors as such , sorry about it .

Several Years Ago 

                    Swara Bose looked at the Cake before her and wondered why she had to share it with all of her classmates ,at the age of seven .She didnt like to share her food except with Sanskar .

      Her best friend, and she missed him tonight but understood that his parents needed to take him to the hospital. He had been sick for the last one year that he missed school as well but his parents always let her play with him because Swara missed him .

                    Sanskar had been her only friend, and even though she tried to make new friends in school. No one wanted to be friends with her , they called her chubby or fat when they think she didnt over hear but she heard those words and it hurt that she tried to stop eating too much but she loved cake and she hoped since it her birthday, it was okay to eat them and maybe it was because of that she didnt want to share the cake with others. Still she sliced a huge piece of the cake and asked her mom to keep it aside for Sanskar .

                The next day,she rushed to meet him after her mom told Swara that Sanskar was back home. She carried with herself every gift she got for her birthday to show it to him and also carried the cake .

        When Sanskar mom saw her, she smiled at her and asked her to play quietly because Sanskar was sleeping ,she nodded her head in answer and walked to his room. He had been sleeping a lot this last year and it was because of that she was accustomed to play in his room silently until he wakes up . She had been playing with her puzzles box when she heard him call her name that she rushed towards his bed to find him awake. 

          " Happy Birthday Shona. Sorry i am late " he spoke up and Swara eyes filled with tears as she saw him looking sad. She didnt like it when he was Sad and he had been sad for over a year, her father told her it was because he was in pain and Swara didnt like it when he was in pain either.

         " It okay Sanskar.. I know you will get better soon and then we can go on our adventures together " She answered back to him, he had been upset and angry when he had to stay in bed for a long time that she promised him that they will have adventures together after he got better and also promised him that she wont have any adventures on her own. We are a team ,she told him . 

    " Okay Robin.." he answered back with a smile, it was a nickname he given to her when she called him batman two years ago. He was dressed in the batman costume during his birthday and she had demanded her parents to buy her one too .

      And there had been no batman costume in the store that she reluctantly agreed to accept the Robin costume. Since she had seen the cartoon with Sanskar, she knew the two characters were friends just like her and Sanskar . From that day, he had taken to calling her robin at times. 

     " Promise " he asked her and she agreed with him because back then she never once assumed she would be ever apart from him . Her parents and his parents were best friend, and he was living next door to her and she knew him all her life that the thought there would come a time when they may not ever meet again never crossed her mind.

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2nd February 2019 

                    " Robin, Robin " his mind continued to scream her name. He cant believe that Pari had been his robin.  He looked at his cousin who had been silently glaring at him for the past one hour ,he was thankful that Ragini had stayed with Shona . Because right now, he was too occupied with his thoughts, he didnt know how he could tell her everything about them .

                " You said, you were in touch with her ?" Laksh asked him a bit later, yes after his first book was published ,he got lot of letters from the fans. He read each one of them because it made him feel better to find others who are invested in his works until he stumbled upon a single letter that changed his life. 

                Dear Sanskar, 

                                       You Promised me that we will adventures together and yet you decided to fly alone. I am happy for you but it still hurts your silence,even when you left i thought we would still stay in touch until i realized you never meant to keep that promise as well. 

                                     I wrote and wrote for over a year,every single day and yet you never replied back. I am sure you will not reply back to this one as well . I am angry with you, hurt by you.. Yet i wonder why you dedicated the book to me when you had never kept your promise  

                                                                                   -- ROBIN

                    He had been confused by her letter ,wondered how she assumed it was him who stopped writing to her .When he had written her letter every single day for two years until he was shipped off to the boarding school where he was denied access to communicate outside his immediate family. Laksh ,his cousin knew about his letter and after every letter that went unanswered he had hated her a little bit more. 

                   And he had been furious when he found out from his aunt later that day, that Swara had indeed sent letter to him and even called him countless time but his uncle had asked everyone in the house to keep it from him. Sanskar had a huge row with his uncle that day . " Why would you do that to me " he asked his uncle and the answer shocked him and made him wonder how he never seen it before that day

             " She was a bengali and you didnt need connection like that " his uncle tone held no remorse and Sanskar had been shocked by his words that he left his uncle room without any more word. 

   He wrote her back apologizing for his silence and blaming it on the distance because he couldnt find it in himself to tell her the entire truth and she forgave him, they talked through letter for over six months . And though he tried to ask her ,for her phone number .She refused to give it to him and she even refused to send him a picture of her . 

              Dear Sanskar, 

                           We missed out on all the adventures, this feels like an adventure in its own way. In this technological word, your letters make me happy and i dont want it to end atleast not yet. I am not in India at the moment as you would be aware from my address. So let wait till i get back to india after my graduation. When we see each other again, i want it to be face to face not through a picture.  

                                                          -----Yours Robin.

                   And so he relented and had planned for their first meet for so long, he didnt care if his uncle wouldnt like it because he was no longer a kid who had to listen to his uncle demands. He continued to anticipate the first time he would get to see her until everything fell apart and he didnt want to think about it right now because he had believe that he had moved on from them.

     The realization it still hurts bothered him, he was in love with her but she refused to give him another chance when he failed to meet her on their planned date, he cant blame her but only himself . 

            " You know we never get to meet each other before and i only knew her as Pari and Swara Gadodia not Swara bose"  Sanskar answered back ,since laksh had been the only who knew about his past, he didnt ask him any more questions until Ragini outside Swara room with a glare directed towards him .

       " Care to explain what is going on Sanskar ?" Ragini asked him but he had been relieved when laksh intercepted her and took her home . Because he wasnt in the mind frame to think of any answer. 

    As he walked inside her room,she was still holding on to the book in her hand ,he gently took it away from her hand and placed it by the bedside and wondered if his life would have been normal if he never wrote that book.

         " She killed someone else " Pradeep texted him with the picture of a couple murdered in their bed , and it made him wonder why she is escalating now and what suddenly changed in her life.  He got up from the couch in Swara room and went out to call Pradeep for more details.

     " We never released the picture of Swara parents crime scene, because i had been trying to keep the fact there was two death instead of three under wraps. But this crime scene is exact replica of her parents Sanskar. I dont know why she killed them, Swara Parents were innocents " Pradeep was still talking but Sanskar brain was stuck with the knowledge that Swara parents were no longer strangers to him, he knew them for almost one third of his life ,they were like second parents to him . The realization he caused their death was more of a blow as if he lost his parents all over again .
 

     He had never contemplated ending his life but now  he wondered if she will stop when she learns he was dead.  Will it stop her killing innocents ,he was tempted for a moment but then his daughter face flashed in his mind and he realized death wasn't the solution after all .

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        She stood in silence as everyone offered her condolences, she should have cried a little when the police informed her of their death but she couldn't make herself cry.

            Because even after stabbing them ,even after killing them. She didnt feel free . Their death were always supposed to be the last life she took and since everyone are aware of Sanskar identity now, she didnt feel the need to kill strangers.

     This was supposed to be her last and yet she didnt feel relieved even when her father eyes filled with fear at the sight of his murdered wife, even when her father life drained out of him.. She didnt feel better , it was supposed to be the end but somehow it felt like a beginning and it scared her ,because she needs to stop if she wanted a chance with him..

P.S :" That it for now ..Let me know your thoughts and feedbacks.. Hit the votes if you liked it "

Juanita Reid