“For your own blindness you are dying.” A voice, serene like water speaks up.

The grassy ground is damp and pink droplets of water are covering the long grasses with blurred background.

“As for your punishment, you’ll lose your memory, your identity. I can’t take back what I've given you but I can numb your powers for some time. And that some time will be for 200 decades.” The same voice speaks but this time with a tinge of sadness as she continues, “For 200 decades love will forget love and can only remember, when love falls in love with hate, again.”

With a thud someone hits the ground. Her silvery locks are lying on the ground like still waves. She is struggling to keep her eyes open. Through the fluttering of her eyelashes, her pink eyeballs glisten. She tries to look at the source of the voice but the pool in her eyes is making it difficult for her. All she can see is a hazy image of a white bird fluttering her wings rapidly. Pink glowing water emerges from the corner of her eyes. As it starts trailing, the pink glow fades turning them into colourless drops of tears.

She clutches the left side of her chest feeling a throbbing pain. But instead of searching the source of her pain, she stands up and starts walking straight, paying no heed to her blurry surroundings. She looks straight towards someone holding an intense gaze in her now brown eyes.

Parting her chapped lips, she whispers, “Wake up.”

“Huh!” A girl jerks her eyes open.

Wearing an expressionless face, her eyes scan the surroundings. With each passing second, her dark brown eyes dilate as her mind starts registering that she is standing on the edge of the terrace of the three-storied building where she stays.

She hurries down while mumbling, “This is... this is new!”

Beads of sweat can be seen lurking behind her side bangs. Silvery light of the moon is gracing her dusky face and frenzied dark brown hair. Taking a deep breath, she looks up at the moon. Cawing of a lone crow echoes throughout the midnight sky.

“Pari. Pari.” The girl looks behind.

“Pari! What are you doing at the terrace?” A woman rushes towards her.

“Pari, I’m asking you something. Did you sleepwalk again? Pari! Answer me, please. Don’t scare me.” The woman grips Pari's shoulders and looks into her eyes.

“I saw something.” Pari parts her lips, voicing out in a low tone.

Curious, the woman's grip on Pari’s shoulders tightens. Hanging onto every word of Pari's, she waits.

“I saw something Reyna. I think... it’s a dream.” Pari looks at the woman. Her eyes are reflecting an unknown fear along with vulnerability.

“Do you... do you remember what you saw?” A cloud of nervousness covers Reyna's face as she asks.

Lowering her eyes, Pari stares at her clamped sweaty palms. “Not exactly... only someone lying on the ground. She was crying... but her tears were pink... or no... a white bird maybe... I don’t remember exactly, but...”

Pari’s eyes flash a certainty as she looks straight into Reyna's black eyes, “Someone whispered wake up and I woke up just after that.”

Unnerved, Rayna’s grip on Pari's shoulders loosens and she staggers back a bit.

“What happened Rey? Why are you so shocked?” Pari asks while fiddling with her sweaty fingers.

“No... nothing. It’s nothing beta. It’s just a simple dream and that voice is... voice is... hallucination. Yeah, I think it’s your hallucination. Let’s go back to sleep, okay?”
Reyna puts her arm around Pari's shoulder and gently nudges her to walk.

“But the voice sounded...”

“Let’s go Pari. It’s your sleepy mind playing tricks with you. Okay? Don’t worry my child.” Reyna stops Pari from speaking.

“I guess so. I'm also feeling tired.” Pari says as her dusky pink lips curve into a small smile.

◇◇◇

The illuminating glow of the full moon caresses Reyna’s pale face as her eyes linger on the moon while standing by her room’s window.

“Are you approaching her?”

“Who is approaching whom?” A gush of wind enters into the room along with a feminine voice.

“Quenched your thirst for tonight?” With no change in her state, Reyna asks as a shadow emerges from behind her.

Contradicting the confident shadow, the droopy pale face of the woman comes into the vicinity of the moonlight. She hugs Reyna from behind keeping her chin on Reyna’s bare shoulder.

“Horrific one?” Reyna asks.

“Hm... I had to kill her.” The woman says closing her light green eyes.

“That bad? It must have drained you.” Reyna says turning around.

Breaking the embrace, the woman stands beside Reyna facing the moon.

“Yeah, it has... let’s forget it. It’s my fault that I'm still not used to it. But what were you talking about while looking at her when I came in?” The woman asks wearing a small smile on her face.

Reyna looks at the moon once again without saying anything.

“Rey, what is it? Anything happened? Is Raj...”

“Pari dreamt while sleepwalking.” Reyna cuts the woman in between.

“No. This is not happening.” The woman clutches Reyna’s arms and makes her look at her.

“It is happening Serein. She is approaching her.” Reyna states locking her black eyes with Serein's pale green ones.

“Then what about us? And Raj? What will he do?” Serein's clutch gets tighter as the pitch of her voice rises.

“I don’t know what will happen to either of us but I know that her approaching Pari... is inevitable and none of us can stop it.” Reyna says placing her palms over Serein's clutch.

With slugged shoulders, Serein frees her grip leaving red marks on Reyna's arms. Reyna grabs Serein's palms and says, “Rein... don’t lose hope like this. Pari loves us and I believe in her.”

“Rein... look at me love.” Reyna keeps her palm on Serein's left cheek. Serein looks up with a blank expression.

Reyna moves closer, closing the gap between them. She leans forward and places her lips on Serein’s forehead letting her lips linger there for a few seconds. She caresses Serein's light brown hair while saying, “We should sleep now. You are tired already. Everything’s going to be okay.”

They move away from each other and hold hands. With a smile on both of their faces, they start walking towards the white quilted bed in the room as the moonlight falls on the crystal ball kept on the bedside table.

◇◇◇

Words in this chapter: 1089
Total words: 1697