Eight Months Ago.

Swara was hiding in an unfamiliar restroom. She wondered how her circumstances changed in under a month. She was no longer the brave and confident sister Ragini looked up to instead she was the sister who went into hiding to escape.

Swara blamed him for everything that was wrong today. If she wasn't so heart broken over his abandonment then Ragini wouldn't have tried to set her up with a blind date.

One month ago, her best friend and man she was in love with left her with out a word. The same day her sister found out that her love was reciprocated by Laksh and so she tried to valiantly see the bright side of Sanskar and kept giving excuses after excuse for his abandonment.

Even Laksh was very supportive of his cousin and kept telling Swara to wait little bit more and that his cousin would return soon. Everyone around her kept giving excuses for Sanskar that even she began to believe there might be a reason for his abandonment.

So she waited for the first week, which turned into two and now a month. 30 days with zero contact from him and maybe it had been the reason she broke down yesterday when she assumed she was alone in the confines of her home and her sister was supposed to be on her date with Laksh.

Instead her sister walked out of her room and witnessed Swara's tears be cause Laksh cancelled their plan due to business emergency.  Her tears brought out this stupid plan of Ragini, blind date with her colleague.

"Why should you spend your night lonely crying because he left without a word. You need to start dating again, live your life, If you found someone else then it is Sanskar's loss" Ragini spoke up and in a fit of anger at Sanskar, Swara agreed to the date but now she was hiding away in the restaurant restroom.

If Swara was alone she would have probably ditched her date and ran away after an apology. But her sister had to make it a double date and Swara didn't think her sister would let her leave before giving him a chance. So she was hiding as she tries to settle her nerves.

Swara knew this wasn't a betrayal to Sanskar since there was never a relationship to begin with but she still remember the last date she had with him and how Mark persistence and her response made it seem like she was interested in Mark and she often spent countless night after that wondering if it was the reason Sanskar walked away.

So going to this date felt like the final blow to the dreams and hope her heart held for him. She couldn't do it in the end, it was why she sent her sister a text that she was leaving and called for an uber to pick her up.

Swara tried to rush out before her sister finds her but halted when she spotted Laksh entering the restaurant with her supposed date. In Panic she entered the nearest room which was a coat closet and locked herself inside.

Swara knew she was making one bad choice after another but her mind wasn't in the right frame to deal with Laksh or her supposed date. She decided to wait a few minutes before leaving just in case she didn't collide with them again.

Swara felt a flicker of guilt for the unknown stranger with Laksh, she didn't even look at him in her panic and had no idea if he would take this rejection hard or wouldn't care at all.

All she knew was that she had bungled the day in the worst possible way, she decided she had enough of Sanskar's silence and she knew he was still in contact with his mother and everyone else except her.

So tomorrow she would find a way to ask his mother to help her talk with him. Because she needs to have her closure if she didn't understand his reason, she very well might go mad soon.

Swara waited for five more minutes and was about to leave when she heard screams and shouts coming out of the door. She heard the word fire and the alarm sound that she tried to leave quickly but she was stuck and the door wouldn't budge.

She kept knocking at the door but no one responded as she would later learn  the closet door was locked from outside as well. In the midst of chaos no one heard her scream for help.

She tried calling her sister who didn't pick up, she tried calling Laksh hoping they were still near enough to help her but no one answered her and she was beginning to panic when the room began to fill with smoke.

When Swara began to realize she probable wouldn't have a tomorrow to call Sanskar, she found the courage to call him as if he would be able to save her because she needed to hear his voice just one her.

She didn't expect him to answer her call because he didn't answer her call for the past one month. She didn't expect anything would change today and it wasn't as if he knew Swara was at the moment trapped and dying.

But her heart flickered with hope when she heard him saying her name from the other end of the phone. "Swara" that was all he said and she began to feel desperate enough to not give up yet. She tried to talk to him but her phone dropped from her hands at the surprise of hearing his voice. 

Swara couldn't find her phone in the dark and with the smoke blurring her vision. So she began to bang the door again with much force all the while screaming she was stuck in the closet room. At that moment it might be the smoke inhalation or the the strength she gained from hearing his voice that she kept knocking the door with more desperation because she didn't want the last time she talked with Sanskar to be today, she wanted forever with him and she wasn't going to give up with a fight.

That was the last thing she remembered before the world fading to black as she fainted from the smoke inhalation.

When she woke up few hours later with a sore throat, cuts and bruises and oxygen mask. She was glad to be alive that she was content with the knowledge a fire fighter rescued her.

Swara never questioned her family about it more. She wanted to personally thank the one who saved her, but her family claimed to have no knowledge of him. She would have felt skeptical since the Maheshwari name does carry its weight and it would have been easy to find the truth.

But Swara didn't because why would they lie to her, she didn't question anything except one. She asked if Sanskar knew about the incident. Her sister said yes and broke down in tears, Swara assumed those tears were because of Sanskar absence in spite of her near death experience. She never assumed it was because of his very own experience that night.

Swara had dreams about that night. Sanskar had always been the one who rescued her that night in those dreams, in her dreams he would break open the door and catch her, in her dreams he would lift her up and push her out of the small window in the closet all the while assuring her, that she would be fine.

She always believed it to be a dream, her subconscious need for him conjured up because she couldn't accept his total silence or abandonment of her. Also because in those dreams he was still trapped in the closet room once he pushed her outside.

Swara remember those flames that consumed the small room and she didn't want him trapped in that room. So she thought it was a dream conjured up by her brain. She suppressed those memories believing it to be a dream.

                         *****************

Present day

Sanskar lied in his bed and the ignored the sharp pain that continue to accompany him every single day for the past eight months.

Sanskar had been a fool when he walked away from his Swara, but he needed some time away from her. Sanskar wasn't sure if his half heart would be enough for her.

Sanskar had heard enough about moving on, he knew grieving Kavita doesn't mean he couldn't fall in love again. He knew all of the wisdom in word,s but when faced with the truth of taking the first step again. He faltered a little because when he got back home that day, he remembered a past memory with someone else on this very day.

Sanskar forgot all about it because he was too busy planning his date with Swara. But  he remembered that night, when he took Kavita to a similar date and they both talked about their future. It was their first date as engaged couple.

Sanskar had proposed just few days ago amidst the Christmastime celebration in her Children's home. She grew up in that place and he felt it was perfect place to ask her to be his wife. It was a magical night, she said yes and now he has her as his fiancée and was free to dream about their future together.

They made so much plans together for the next year after they got married. When her life got cut short that year, her plans with him fell away with her. Until now, that night he kept remembering about all the places she wanted to go visit with him.

Sanskar had hoped visiting those places alone would give him the clarity he needed to move on with his heart wholesome to give to Swara. He didn't want her to ever feel like he was holding back from her even the smallest part of his heart kept reserved would make him feel like he didn't deserve her.

So he went away to heal his heart. He felt like the trip would help him to gain perspective, help him overcome his hesitations and give him the courage to be the man who can ask Swara Bose out on a date.

Sanskar choice to have zero contact with Swara was a move made because he wasn't sure of ever being able to stay away if he heard her voice once more. He wanted to truly knew his heart first before letting Swara hope for more.

Thirty days was all it took for Sanskar to accept the truth. He didn't find the answer he searched for when he went on a trip alone visiting places he meant to visit with Kavitha, he didn't find those answers at the time away from the one person who haunted his thoughts.

No, he realized the truth when he got a call from Ragini one night. He worried something was wrong with Swara because there had been no other reason for the call and when he heard the wrenching sobs his heart stilled. Ragini didn't speak a word to him on the call, but she let him hear Swara heart wrenching cries and he knew the mistake he made by leaving her.

His heart splintered open at the sound of her pain, his all rational logical agreements he made with his mind fell away. Until the only knowledge remained had been was that he was a fool to walk away from her.

So he came back home without a plan on how to make it all right. He just wanted to see her and he just wanted to tell her that he loves her. Laksh and Ragini insisted that they meet at a public place, he never should have agreed to the double date.

His cousin and her sister were just trying to ensure they were present to mediate between them in case Sanskar couldn't salvage the hurt he caused Swara. But everything went wrong that night.

When Sanskar walked onside the restaurant Swara wasn't there and Ragini told him, she left home. He wanted to go after her, but once again he let his cousin and Ragini stop him, so they can come up with another plan.

"You broke her heart Sanskar with your indecision. I am sorry if I sound rude and not really understanding, but my sister didn't deserve your silence and I won't let you back into her life until you have a plan that won't break her heart yet again. " Ragini spoke up and thus he spent the next few minutes listening to their suggestion one after another until the fire alarm.

Then everything went little hazy, the rush to get out first and help others kept all three of them occupied that no one gave a thought about Swara, all three of them assumed she was back home.

Until his phone vibrated, he would have never forgiven himself if he failed to answer that call that night. He saw her name and maybe it was the fire or the near death experience he answered her call forgetting all the carefully constructed plan of Ragini and Laksh to get them back together.

Just an hello, then he heard a thud sound followed by words that stopped his heart. She was in the closet and stuck inside, so he ran inside screaming her name. Pushing aside anyone who tried to stop him and when he reached her she was already losing conscious.

Carrying her the way he entered didn't seem possible as the fire consumed everything on its way. So he pushed her out of the window and screamed Laksh name. So that he would reach her.

When he tried to leave the same way, he needed a stool to stand on but in trying to find one, he accidentally knocked everything and the coat racks all fell on him. He tried to move but his leg was already crushed by a weight that he couldn't move.

As he lay there in the room with fire consuming everything, he knew he won't likely make it and the last thought in his mind was the fact he would break Swara's heart again when she finds out about him.

It was the thought that haunted him when his clothes began to catch fire, his death seemed near until it didn't as few brave men entered the room to save him. They saved his life, but at a great cost to his body. The fire caused its damage, his leg crushed and burnt, bore the most of his injuries.

When Sanskar realised he lived in spite of the loss, he was thankful, but he didn't want Swara to know about his injuries until he was better enough to tell her in person.

Back then Sanskar didn't realize the recovery time would take that long. He just wanted to be able to walk on how own when he meet his Swara, but it took him 8 months to get back to her.

He should have told her today, that was the promise he made Ragini when she agreed to invite him to the wedding. No one on his family agreed with keeping Swara in blind but he had been adamant on his demand.

As he lay on his bed, Sanskar knew his reason had been to protect Swara from guilt or heartbreak. He didn't want her to blame herself for his injuries. So he pushed himself to the limit to get well, even when the doctors advised to take it slow and that his skin needs to heal. He was relentless and kept pushing to get better.

Every day had been a nightmare filled with pain, medicines that are so bitter, physiotherapy that burned every one of his muscle as if he was still caught in the fire, he endured it all just to be able to walk in front of her today.

Now his leg was reminding that even after all this time, he will never be fully without  pain. But for Sanskar, the pain was all worth to see Swara today, so he will continue to endure it and see her tomorrow and day after tomorrow until she eventually forgive  him. Because losing her was not an option.

Sanskar didn't expect to hear the knock on his door way past midnight. He assumed his mother was checking on him, so he answered in affirmative so she can enter but the silhouette was all wrong. It was a very familiar shadow that entered his room, one that haunted him every single night for the past nine months.

"Sanskar.. " just one word from her mouth and he was up trying valiantly to hide the scars in his legs. He didn't want her to see him like that not until he told her everything, but from the tears on her face and the gasp of shock. He knew it was too late.

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

Juanita Reid