T H E   S I L E N T   W A T E R S

L I V I N G   A   N I G H T M A R E
T H E   T R U T H   U N R A V E L S   I T S E L F

h e e d   t h e   w a r n i n g.

He was home.

Away from all the troubles. And in that reality which contained nothing but him.

The water filled his pharynx, the epithelium lining stung, as the liquid forced it's way inside blocking the airway and he choked. His movements halted.

The waters turned stilled. Until he felt himself being pulled up to the surface. And he was laid on the ground.

"Bring the kit." He heard someone speak.

He coughed, the water spilling out from his lips as he winced at the pain that he felt over his chest.

He was saved?!

No.

He looked around to see the worried faces. Who were they? He blinked slowly, his eyes refocusing...he looked around once again as the recognition washed over and he let his eyes drop close once again.

<>

He spat out the water, as Aradhya pressed on his chest with the heel of her hand. Keeping the compression rhythmic. He coughed and choked. Wincing. He blearily gazed at the audience that his unconscious self managed to gather.

He could feel her hands cradling his head. Pressing his elbows on the ground, he pushed himself up.

He coughed out the remaining water. And sighed as Priyanka pushed him up slightly, he sighed in relief as his airways opened again, he could breathe on his own.

"Hold still." She spoke and he felt something poke his arm. He turned to glare at Aradhya, he frowned when he felt his eyes getting heavier soon enough. "I-I d-do-o-n't wa-an-tt-t t-to sh-leep..." He breathed as his speech turned slurred and he let out a sigh, his gaze lowering.

"I-I——" he tried again, the exhaustion crept in slowly, from the back of his mind, his arms getting heavier as his vision blurred into a haze, before taking over him completely as he let himself be carried away by the induced slumber.

She turned to Khanna who nodded.

<>

"I thought I had already said that the pool should remain empty." Priyanka snapped at the bowed head of the caretaker of the house.

"But Mr. Oberoi said otherwise——" Priyanka sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. Of course he did. She looked at his sleeping figure, and turned to look at Aradhya.

"Empty the pool!" She ordered. The guard nodded immediately and rushed to follow the man out.

"Was there any need to sedate him?" She asked warily, Aradhya looked up from her watch humming lowly at the words. "Yes, there was. Wouldn't risk a hemorrhage." She spoke, the nonchalant tone in her voice irked Annika.

She wasn't the only one, she realised, when Priyanka turned to glare at the one who was standing near the cabinet with her arms crossed.

"Must you always list out the extremities?" She asked through gritted teeth, Aradhya matched her glare, "As if you both listen to me otherwise. And that is not an extremity" she stopped to look at their expressions before sighing, "that was a possibility." She spoke slowly.

"Do you have any idea what pressure he was putting himself through" She paused, "Third time! This was the third time he jumped into the pool. I had thought we were past that phase." I should have encouraged him to take the counselling sessions.

She looked at the two and sighed, "don't worry, the dose wasn't usual, he would be up in an hour or so, if his exhaustion doesn't weigh over. He needs to give his body ample rest and his mind as well." Which he is never getting here, they were well of in Bangalore. She thought to herself.

She sighed looking at the watch before walking over with the first aid kit she brought out of his cabinet. She sprayed the antiseptic on his neck where he had scratched his skin.

Once done, she grabbed her phone before dialling a familiar number, she pressed it to her ears to hear the ring going on.

"Who are you calling so late at night?" Priyanka frowned.

"Dr. Bhalla." She replied shortly, the call was picked up and she exited the room.

Annika frowned at that, "his neurologist." Priyanka added after a while. You have absolutely no idea what he was out through because of the family we called ours.

Annika's eyes widened slightly, exactly how much she had missed out. In these six years?

Priyanka looked at Annika, as if realising something suddenly, tilting her head in confusion, "What were you doing there?" She asked suddenly. If she was there then why did he——

Annika's throat dried up at the accusing gaze, "I..." She paused. She recalled the events. "We were talking."

"About what?" She didn't care anymore if she was over stepping the boundaries, till now she was respecting them, and this where this had landed them, she was regretting giving in already. Her eyes narrowed as she listened to Annika's words.

"You told him!?" She asked aghast. Priyanka couldn't help but let out an incredulous chuckle. "Why else do you think, we all here, are keeping things away from him?" She asked as she wildly gestured around.

"We are trying to keep himself from harming him. But no—" she chuckled, she ran a hand through her hair as she tried to calm herself. This——this was unbelievable.

Annika recoiled at that, frowning she faced her. "You should go." She heard Priyanka say. "The guard will drop you home."

Annika frowned at the words, she is not going anywhere, when he is there lying, as pale as those sheets that he was sleeping on. "I am not going." Priyanka looked at her, "this is between us." She answered.

"If it was between you and bhaiya, you would have believed him all these years ago." She snapped. Annika's eyes widened.

"You think I didn't try to?" She asked. "Try? You should have!" Priyanka chuckled humourlessly.

Annika's glare deepened, "you have no idea what you are saying! You didn't know—"

"And I don't even want to know! The only thing I know, unless Bhaiya himself said that he had done that, I wouldn't believe anything else." She scathed.

"That's how it should have been with you all! That's how it should have been with you! You had looked through him every single time, then why? Why did you decide that he was responsible?" She asked her and Annika was stunned. Why indeed.

"At first, I agreed with Om, but when I was away from the Mansion on my own, I could understand why he made such decisions. And I understand him now, I wouldn't take his word second to anything."

She closed her eyes before speaking out in a controlled voice. "Annika you need to leave."

"Not unless he says that" Priyanka chuckled at that, "do you think he would refuse you? He wouldn't. He was still ready to forgive you for hiding the fact that you never submitted your divorce papers that you had asked him to sign?"

"Didn't he ask to get them prepared in the first place?" Annika asked before she could stop herself, she saw Priyanka's eyes widening for a fraction of a second before she shook her head.

"I don't care. You signed the papers, the marriage ended. Just not legally." She knew how relationships worked, hers might have failed but she was not a stranger to the concepts.

"You have absolutely no idea in the slightest over what happened there. With him. He was in a place worse than hell."

"I don't! I admit that I don't know what happened, but how am I to know when nobody fills me in with what happened?" She argued back. Her voice was getting feeble. She could hear the silent accusations in Priyanka's voice, as if it's her fault. Maybe it was?

"You want to know what happened?" Priyanka asked. "Then let me you tell you the story, when I had seen him for the first time, he was barely recognisable, with all those wires and machines hanging around him." She spoke as she pushed her hair back, "burns, broken bones, ruptures, internal bleeding." Priyanka murmured out in daze as she remembered the doctor listing the severity of the condition.

"Where do you think he got that scar?" She asked suddenly, and Annika's eyes widened, she knew this was going somewhere that was not good. "And how?"

"Do you know his skin was nearly destroyed, the scaring is the result of that only. The scarring that still haunts him to this day forth! He can't look into mirror because of that! And do you what's even more painful? The disgust, that he holds for himself." Her voice dripped venom.

Annika shuddered visibly. She had no idea that this was to end so horribly. Her eyes turned to the sleeping figure and she felt the guilt taking over her. If she had stopped him for a moment and have asked if that was true? Would have all this been avoided? Would have he been spared from such a cruel fate?

"I-I had no idea..." She couldn't voice out anything else. She was to shaken to comprehend anything more, her mind was numb. Would she have survived all this?

Bile rose up in her throat and her stomach churned uncomfortably at that, she had to grab the sheets around to wait for the lightheadedness to subside. Priyanka chuckled when she paled in response, "you can't even hear those. I couldn't even see those. But he—" she pointed at him, "he suffered all that in silence. Because—"

"—because there wasn't anyone who would listen to his plight. There wasn't anyone when he was in those countless surgeries." She snapped. "Not his family. Not his brothers who claim to love him more than anyone."

She looked at her, her eyes bloodshot. "Not even you! The person whom he loved more than himself, you! His wife!"

Annika's hands curled around the sheets. It was the truth. Horror dawned upon her as Priyanka worded out everything slowly and each felt like a jab.

"he was hanging on that loose thread of life, the doctors——they had said, that he was in ICU for weeks! Lost him t-twice on the operating table." She informed.

"What if they couldn't have saved him?" She asked. "He—"

"Guys enough!" Aradhya snapped suddenly, she was standing at the doorway glaring at them both. She glared at them both, "have you both lost it? Priyanka you, especially should know better. He is not in his best condition and the least you both can do is be quiet and be there for him, and if you want to continue, then sort this out, but not here." She snapped.

They both grew quiet.

"What did he say?" Priyanka asked after a while as she stared at the phone in Aradhya's hands.

"He has surgeries scheduled, but he will be here by tomorrow night. If things go well, there are few scans and imaging needs to be done, according to him." She muttered as she pulled a chair from the corner of her room and sat on it.

She looked at Priyanka and sighed.

<>

"Third time. Oberoi." She muttered as she checked his pulse. That was the first thing that he had heard when his eyes bleared open. Not again. He thought. His eyes were itchy because of the chlorine. He pressed the heel of his hand over his eyes, sighing.

"Third time." She said again. He turned around to see three identical anxious faces.

He sat up slightly, leaning over the pillows he asked.

"What happened?" He asked, "one of your suicidal tendencies." Priyanka snapped back.

He sighed, they have gone through this a thousand times already, "I'm not." He muttered.

"You are no better" Aradhya remarked as she took her previous seat. "Not caring for one's life, isn't any better. If not worse." She continued with the roll of her eyes.

"No sane person go out of their ways to risk their lives. It happened not once, not twice, but thrice. And I am only speaking about present. Don't make me remind you about the past ones." Priyanka glowered. He winced.

"Dr. Bhalla will be here" Aradhya interjected softly as she turned to look at the clock, four fifty in the morning, "tonight."

He frowned at that. "Who called him?" He asked. He turned away to look at the doctor who was seated on the chair away from the bed.

"I did. And for that I don't need your permission. Anymore. You will sit through the examination and if necessary you will consult Dr. Kulkarni as well." She emphasized on the 'will's.

"And you don't have a choice." Priyanka rolled her eyes, she knew what was coming, another plethora of how he was doing just fine and he wouldn't be needing those sessions.

Annika lingered for a moment, his eyes turned to her, but he didn't say anything. He was just looking at her, in his gaze, she could just see the endless pools of void that had tormented him the years she had missed out.

He noticed the tense atmosphere of the room and sighed. "I-I-d-didn't mean w-wh-hatt- t happened a few..." he looked around for help. His voice was hoarse probably because of him choking and coughing.

"Hours." Aradhya supplied with a sigh.

"...hours." He continued.

"I d-do-o-n't know" he frowned when his speech shook.

"Shivaay, you need to calm down. Nobody is demanding an explanation for you. We understand. But rest first." Aradhya interrupted.

"You should sleep..." Annika spoke with a slow nod as she backed away a step. He looked at her, she looked at him blankly for a moment, before walking out of the door hastily.

He was about to ask what was the matter when Priyanka pushed him back slightly, "she will be here when you wake up. You can talk later." She pacified, his gaze remained still at the vacant doorway. Priyanka's heart broke, he was still holding on to the broken relationship, why? She couldn't fathom.

<>

Annika sat on the bottom of the stairs outside the mansion, the ones that face the backyard. She furiously wiped the tears that escaped her eyes.

"The doctors said that they lost him on the operating table twice. Can you fathom what could have gone wrong?"

No, she can't.

"Burns."

"Internal bleeding."

"Scar."

The words echoed in her mind. A hand was placed on her shoulders. Aradhya was looking ahead.

"Don't worry about Priyanka, she was worried for Shivaay. That's all. She wasn't accusing you." She assured. She stared ahead at the rising sun.

"We both know that's a lie." She chuckled humourlessly.

"I shouldn't have told him." Aradhya turned to look at her.

"You couldn't have known that, but yeah, distraction was a better option. That's why we had asked him to play cards with us, he was wearing himself out with those memories without him knowing. That was the easiest way to distract him without him realising it." She explained.

"Nobody knows the battle the other is going." She added when she saw her berating herself.

"Had it been always like this?" She asked as she turned around to look at the doctor. Aradhya's face grew somber, "I would've wished I could say that he has seen better days, these years, but no, it wasn't even a fraction of the earlier episodes."

Her blood ran cold.

Aradhya turned to look at her, "I know I am intruding your personal space with this question. But why didn't you submit the divorce papers if you both signed them already?" She asked.

Annika fidgeted slightly, "I-I- don't know how to explain it."

The doctor shook her head, "You don't have to explain it to me, explain it yourself why you did and trust me half of your conflict will be erased in an instant." She smiled.

"Faith is a beautiful thing, Annika. Faith and Hope both are. And as a doctor, I had seen live examples of those. They can bring the dead back. I had seen patients recovering who we had thought would never, just because they had faith on themselves."

Annika didn't know why she was telling her all this.

"I don't know what you and Oberois saw that day. But whatever it was, overpowered the faith that you held on the relationship. Faith and trust are as important as the love." She turned serious at that.

"I can see that you love him" Annika's eyes teared up at that. "More than myself."

"Same could be said for him." She turned to look at the doctor, "Priyanka and I both know that."

"Why are you here?" She asked. Annika looked at the doctor, she couldn't understand why she was trying to coax her.

"Why are you here?" Aradhya repeated the same question to her.

To.....Annika's eyes narrowed in realisation.

Aradhya chuckled by her side, "so don't give up until you have succeeded. He needs you. He needed you that time as well. You can now."

And I wasn't there. She thought with a wry chuckle. She was here now. Might not have been there in the past but here she was. The past can't be changed nor the future can be controlled, all she had in her hands was the present and she will make up for it. Her expression turned determined.

She turned to look at the doctor.

"Thank you." She whispered. Aradhya just winked at her.

"Do what your heart tells you to." She spoke. "And the advice is coming from a cardiologist." She whispered a second later, eliciting a small laugh from her.

The longest chapter so far till now, also, I am going to add a few chapters in the middle of the book later on, as I had said that I will be adding the therapy ones, but to be honest, I have a very faint idea of how they work. So the laryngeal therapies and the scenes with Dr. Rana, Shivaay's otolaryngologist were very few, and they were kind of outside my curriculum and will be so for a couple of years, so I have to research those, through libraries and to discuss them with professors takes time.

And as much as I love researching these things, that time I had been busy with my prelims (though they went well and I got third rank in my batch 🎉🎉) I couldn't do the vocal problem the justice it deserves, I might even add a vocal coach. I guess. And more chapters from Annika's pov as well and more for their relationship development. So the book is going to be stretched out a little more. Forgive me and I hope you don't get bored by the end of it 😭😭

Also, I should have made this more detailed! 😭😭 But it's not late to edit a few parts, I will inform you the bits I have edited out :D <33