T H E   S I L E N T   W A T E R S

S H A T T E R E D

R E V E L A T I O N S   B E G I N S

repentance is never easy

Kalyani sat on the chair of her room. The house was burnt. Along with the memories it contained, memories, dreams, hopes, expectations, her eyes closed as she let out a sigh. This wasn't meant to happen, how was this family reduced to ashes like this?

When did her husband's dream shatter like this? This family——her children how did they fall apart?

After all these years things have gone right, all her three children were together. But at what cost? The bond which was termed unbreakable was severed. Reason? She failed to read the true intentions.

If only——the company and the mansion would have been saved from such a cruel fate.

<>

Shivaay looked at the ceiling of his room.

"Only one will walk out of this warehouse, Shivaay. Only one."

He flinched away from the memory. He was alive. His hands reached out to his scar, that's where he had gotten this. A choked sob escaped him. He could feel the numbing pain as he remembered that, this was what that had been tormenting this. He was conscious through it all, because there is no way he could remember all this.

He vaguely remembered him falling as Veer's hold on him loosened. He remembered his own skin burning.

Second degree burns around his clavicle and third degree around some regions of his torso, his clothes must have caught fire that is why his skin remained in contact with them longer, damaging them further.

He remembered doctors monotonous voice listing off his injuries. And Aradhya's promising tone as she tended to him. She was the only one he could trust, reason, because Priyanka did. He was surprised and relieved when he saw Priyanka, it had been a month to his consciousness that he started recognising people once again.

He had been in severe pain for a whole five months, after he had gained consciousness. Even after all the pain killers, medicines, shots, he could still feel the pain. Until they had to finally take him off the pain killers, because his body was getting dependent on them and that was then his real pain began. He remembered screaming straight for hours because of them. The major reason his vocal cords were damaged further.

He closed his eyes but the tears didn't stop. He couldn't remember more, he tried to.

Fire. Fire. There has to be something more. The memory cannot stop there. Remember Shivaay! Think! Think!

There was nothing, just blank and voices.

Who is it?

Who is it?

He turned, grabbing his pillow; he pressed it to his mouth and let out a frustrated scream which turned into a wrenching sob. The pillow did manage to subdue the painful sound but his cries echoed in his otherwise quiet room.

No more. He is tired now. He cannot keep with this anymore.

He wanted to ask what happened all these years ago, what happened that his family turned away from him. But he had no one, Priyanka didn't know what happened. And besides her he had no one to turn to. The doctors didn't know.

They had found him dying on the hospital entrance. They told that they tried to look around, a wardboy had gone around to look if there was someone with him——hid family perhaps, but there was no one.

His family——

He had dedicated his life to them.

He LIVED for them.

There was nothing more to his life than his family, ever since his early childhood he was raised to be the pillar in the time of need. And he did exactly that. He became that wall.

He was raised to fulfill the dreams of the man he barely remembered. But he did. He replaced his own dreams with the expectations of his parents and dadi.

He was raised to look after his brothers and Priyanka. And he did that!! He held them when they had nightmares, he held them when they cried, he was there to catch them when they fall——he——raised them as his own. They were his kids!

Om was his best friend, the one who understood him like no other. They always had each other's backs. What changed?

You had understood me better than anyone else. I had done something wrong, you should have fought me. Berated me. But why did you chose the worst punishment for your brother? You just turned me into a stranger.

Rudra was his child. No question about that. His baby brother. He had raised them. He took pride in that, that he had raised him.

Why didn't you believe your superhero, Rudy?

He let out another sob at that.

He didn't know what living meant truly, until she came into his life. He never expected that the girl that made him wrench his hair in frustration would turn into the one he would breathe for.

He became hers way before she became his. He might not have known at that time but it happened.

I broke your trust again, didn't I? But why didn't you fight like you used to? Why didn't you challenge me like you used to.

But the question was still there, what had he done?

He cannot take it anymore. All the sudden events had him overwhelmed. He was a mere human, there is a limit that one could take.

"Are you..... alright?"

"Shivaay..."

He could feel her fingers in his hair, when he had collapsed in the office, when she carded her fingers along the strands, thinking that he hadn't noticed.

He felt the emotion, she had masked.

He sat up straight, his hands wiped his face harshly. There is only one person he could go now to seek his answers.

Annika.

She was the only one he could turn to. He had seen the same care and.....love in her eyes. And he knew, her eyes could never lie to him.

They would never——

He needed his answers.

He got up from his bed and grabbed the keys that were lying on the table besides his untouched medicine and food.

He walked towards the gates, the guards getting alert as he motioned them to open the gates. He got into his car and drove towards the address she had told him.

He remembered it clearly.

The engine roared in power and he drove away in the middle of the night.

<>

House number 304.

He drove forward slightly.

301.

302.

303.

304.

His breath hitched. The neighborhood was quiet and was more peaceful than the previous one she had lived in. He got out of his car.

Trudging towards the door of the house. He rang the doorbell.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

She must be sleeping.

He was about to ring the doorbell again when the door opened.

"Shivaay?"

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw him standing outside his door looking disheveled and overwhelmed. She looked him head to toe, her hands reaching out to see if he's really there or she hallucinating?

"A-an-annika" her eyes widened when his hands reached out but they retracted before they could even reach her.

"C-c-a-ca-nn I?" He stammered as he looked at her, his gaze was hopeful and who was she to say no?

"Your hands—" they were trembling, she looked past his shoulder to see a car parked outside her door. Had he driven all the way here in this condition, by himself?

She pulled him inside and made him sit on the couch as she went to close the door. "Shivaay——why are you here? At this time and like this?" She asked hurriedly as she passed him a glass of water so he could calm down first.

"What happened——what happened six years ago?" He asked declining the water with a shake of his head. He didn't want it. He wanted answers.

She froze at that.

"What?" She asked. Why was he asking this? She suddenly remembered how Aradhya had suggested that night that he might have remembered something from the past.

So, it was true, he didn't remember what happened. But he remembers that he was——

"Please tell me what had I done——what happened!?" He asked, or more like pleaded to her.

"Shivaay, calm down will you. Take deep breaths first." She instructed.

He tried to argue——but did whatever she asked him to do anyway. "Better?" She asked but he shook his head. He won't be until he hears or remembers what happened.

"No. J-jus-st answer my question." He asked. She stiffened, she didn't want to remember that moment, and narrate the very same to him.

"Annika——I only me remember bits and pieces. What happened I have no idea." He panted slightly as he tried to force himself to remember.

"Only those..." He trailed off. The ones of him drowning. The threats. The fire. And the words and voices. He didn't even have the clear picture of it.

"Please..." He tried again but she didn't budge.

"No, Shivaay. I—"

"You are only one I could ask——Priyanka doesn't know what happened, Khanna doesn't know the whole thing, he just tells me what I already know, I had asked Mishra——he didn't say anything, instead he refused that he didn't what I was talking about." Shivaay rambled.

Annika frowned, she couldn't make sense of half a things that Shivaay said. Only few of it. Mishra? What has he have anything to do with all this ordeal?

Like him she was lost as well.

She froze when she felt his hand against her cheek, instinctively she leaned into the touch.

"Annika, I know I don't have any rights to question you anymore——I had already troubled you enough by coming here unannounced, but I could go to no one else. You are the only one I could turn to, please."

Her lips parted but she backed away. He is not in his senses, as much she wanted to tell him what he wanted to know, she knew she didn't have answers to his questions.

He looked stricken when she backed away from his touch, his hands lingered in the air for a moment before he backed away as well.

"I-i thought—" he said, "I-i- shouldn't have come here." He spoke looking at the ground. "I wasn't thinking straight." He whispered.

He stood up and walked over to the door. "I am sorry—" he inhaled sharply, "for the trouble—" he stopped for a moment.

"Wait!" She called. She couldn't let him go when he was in this condition——he could end up hurting himself—he already drove himself here, she doubted that Priyanka or Dr. Aradhya even knew that he was here.

"I will tell you..." She spoke and she watched as the hope rose in his voice, and her heart broke further. She was lying, to him. For his sake.

She watched as his hands dropped from the door handle and he turned back. "R-really?" He asked. His speech slurred slightly as his eyes fluttered closed momentarily before he walked over to her.

She gazed at him worriedly, she shouldn't if he didn't remember she doubted she should pressurize him more by telling the things of the past that had brought them to this road.

"S-sit." She ushered him towards the couch. And took a seat beside him.

"What happ...en....e..en..ed?" His voice turned slurry and his eyelids dropped and he leaned forward nearly falling, had it not been her to catch him.

Her heart dropped in fear.

He had fainted.

This girl had actually written a 3.4k long chapter and deleted it yesterday and wrote this instead and decided to post this one, the reason? It felt more natural to her(me) somehow, but don't ask how, it just did.
Maybe because I need to work on their relationship as well alongside the plot?