🚨 Trigger warning 🚨

Following chapter contains mention of DID and depression. Proceed with caution.

⚠️ Very long chapter ahead ⚠️

Yuvaan's POV

Reyna. Where is she? Why can't I find her yet? Where could she have gone without informing me or any of us?

"Yuvaan, I talked to Arman, but he said that Reyna isn't at their relatives' place too. Keerti said that Reyna doesn't have many friends, and all the people she knows don't know her location. Are you sure she didn't tell you something?" Shaurya asked.

"She didn't say anything... She looked so happy that day, bro. I don't know what's happening! Why would she leave suddenly?" I pondered.

Shaurya sighed and sat down beside me. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and consoled me; he assured that Advait would find Reyna this time. Just as his name was spoken, Adi entered my room and handed me the new medicines prescribed by my psychiatrist.

I stared at his face as he told me that my doctor would be visiting today to check up on me. I looked like I would get a panic attack any time and it might be really bad if I didn't get some medical help.

"Did you get any clue?" I asked him.

He scratched his beard. "Still no trace on her."

Shaurya rubbed my back, and Advait looked at me apologetically. It had been over 24 hours since Reyna disappeared, and there was no sign of her. No matter how I tried, I couldn't detect anything odd from the last few weeks which could have made her to leave.

"Yuvi, you don't worry, okay? Take your medicines, and I will see what we are missing," Shaurya said. "We have to find her at all cost; the way she left means something bad. We have to get her back considering her personality disorder."

I nodded absentmindedly but snapped my eyes on him when he mentioned the personality disorder.

"What disorder? Are you talking about Reyna?" I asked in disbelief.

My friend thought for a minute and tilted his head downwards an inch. "I doubt that Reyna has DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). Recently, I didn't see that much extreme change in her moods, but I can't rule out that possibility just on that basis. Didn't you guys observe her?"

I knew she acted differently sometimes and had mood swings, but I never thought she could be suffering from a medical condition. But what Shaurya said didn't seem like alien language either. I glanced at Adi, who was staring at his shoes for a long time.

"What do you think, Adi?"

"I... I don't know much about DID," he mumbled.

"Leave it. Can you tell me how much more time it would take your team to track down my wife?"

He let out a huge sigh and twisted his lips. After checking his watch, he flattened his tie on his stomach. He darted his eyes on my face before turning his face all serious.

"I don't know, Yuvaan. I seriously don't know. My team is doing its best, but we are talking about Reyna here. She is a smart woman; she knows everything about security and stuff. Who knows she might be hiding on purpose? She herself wrote that we should not search for her. Why don't we wait for some time and she might return herself?" Adi reasoned.

"Are you serious, Adi? You are telling us to sit back and do nothing. I just said she most probably has DID! We need to work extra to find her. Can't you see Yuvaan's condition? What will you do if something happens to Reyna or him?" Shaurya argued.

Adi put up his hands in surrender. "I know, I know. I am not trying to take this matter lightly, but I am trying to show you a different angle. What if Reyna has some surprise on her mind and would return soon? I am sure she must be safe; she knows self-defense."

"I know that, dude, but we got to know where she is at least. It is for her own safety only. No one, I repeat, no one knows where she is!"

As my friends argued over whether we were overthinking and Reyna would come back or not, I felt my vision misted over with darkness. I heard my friends' voices, but the voices in my head had begun to rise in volume. I clutched the medicine pouch in my hand tightly, reminding myself of my wife.

I need to take the medicinal drugs. I feel like I will faint any minute. And the air is thinning around too.

I started opening up the pouch, but a shrill sound passed through my mind - my body froze.

Tu tu, du du, tu tu, du du... Hello! Long time no see, Yuvaan. Missed me? Wow, what are those in your hands? Medicines? Hmmm... Are you sick, Yuvi? Don't worry, I am here, no? And see, I have brought your friends too.

Slowly, my head was filled with hundreds of different voices, which gripped me tightly. I realised that I was falling into depression, so I bit my tongue and punched my head. It was not the method suggested by my psychiatrist, but it worked sometimes.

I punched my skull to numb out the irritating voices that made me feel worthless and repeated my Mom's words to myself.

Yuvaan is a good boy. His mom loves him. Yuvaan has a lot of friends... Yuv-Yuvaan is a nice boy... Mom loves me... Mom... I am-

"Yuvaan!"

"Bro, stop hitting yourself!"

As the sensation of my friends' touch registered with me, I came out of my trance. When my gaze became stable, I saw Shaurya holding a glass of water, while Adi held my hand in a tight grip.

"Eat your medicines first," Advait ordered.

I opened my mouth instantly and put two pills in it. After gulping down the water, I felt my head cooling down, but Advait still didn't leave my hand.

"I am okay, now," I said.

He slowly let go of my hand and ran a hand through his hair impatiently. After cursing to himself, he paced around the room and kept checking his watch multiple times. We let him be, but he suddenly stopped and grabbed my shoulders.

"You are making this difficult for me, Yuvaan," he grumbled.

"What?"

He closed his eyes for a minute and seemed to be in an inner conversation with himself. While I looked at him in confusion, Shaurya stared at him with narrowed eyes. The moment Adi opened his eyes, Shaurya grabbed his collar and shook him violently.

"You know something, don't you?" Shaurya yelled.

Advait opened his mouth to reply, but our lawyer friend didn't let him to.

"Adi, what are you hiding? You know where Reyna is, don't you? Why did you do it? Can't you see Yuvaan's condition? And what were you planning to do by hiding the information from us? What's wrong with you, asshole? How can you keep your friends in dark? Say something! I am asking-"

Advait punched Shaurya across the face and straightened his clothes. "Bastard, I was going to say that only. Stop interrogating, and for fuck's sake, let me speak!"

"You know where Reyna is?" I asked, hoping I didn't hear them wrong.

Advait shot a warning glare at Shaurya and nodded. "Yes, I know where Reyna is."

I jumped out of the bed and threw on the t-shirt hanging from my study chair. I rushed out of my room and told Advait to take me to my wife that instant. Adi followed behind with Shaurya hot on his heels.

As we got inside my car, I messaged Arman that we were going to get his sister; he told me that he was coming to my home, so he would join us on the way.

"You have a lot of questions to answer, Mr. Advait Rana," Shaurya said and put on his seatbelt, staring daggers at Adi.

Advait rolled his eyes. "We can do that later, bro. Let's get our sis-in-law, okay?"

I ignored their arguments and took Advait's cellphone. He had Reyna's location on track, and the time log showed that it hadn't changed in the last 24 hours, a few fluctuations within the range of 100-200 meters. I glanced at Adi over my shoulder, and he pursed his lips.

I felt like beating him up for hiding that he knew Reyna's location all this time, but my first priority was to reach Reyna; also, if Advait didn't tell us about it, there could have been serious reason behind it. Maybe, Reyna herself asked him to do so or something like that.

Just like Arman had said, he joined us on the way with his mother in the car; she looked like a mess. Two jarring hours later, we reached an abandoned road, which had thick jungle on both sides. We hopped out of our cars and followed Advait, who led us without using the tracker.

I put a palm over his shoulder. "Adi, you better tell me everything later."

He blinked rapidly and gave me a small thumbs up. "Of course, Yuvi."

Through the dense green cover, it took us another half an hour to reach our destination. Advait removed some bushes and thorns, revealing a strongly built piece of architecture. As I observed the small cell like room, some intricate diagrams flashed in front of my eyes.

It was one of Reyna's designs!

Advait did some stuff, and we heard the door opening without any noise. We entered the room one by one, keeping ourselves silent on Adi's instructions. We heard nothing other than our footsteps, but the moment my eyes landed on my wife behind a glass window, holding a baseball bat with thorns in her hands, I felt both elated and horrified.

"Reyna!"

I yelled and banged myself into the door in a hurry. On hearing the sound, Reyna turned in our direction in a snap; the baseball bat slipped out of her hands, and she clenched her fists.

"What are you doing here?" she shouted, her voice sounding lower due to the glass partition.

"Didi!"

Arman banged his fists on the door, making Reyna's face contort in anger and confusion. She glanced at the two men beside her, one of whom looked familiar, and both of them looked back at her and shook their heads while mumbling something. While she argued with the two men, I glanced at the three guys strapped to the chairs, covered in blood.

"Dinesh!" Reyna's mother sobbed.

"Didi! Open the door. Why is Dad there? What's going on?" Arman shouted, tears flowing down his cheeks like waterfall.

Reyna's father was there and the other two men were Lokesh Dayanand and Himesh Virani. My mind build up a lot of doubts, but for answers, I had to get to Reyna. I told Advait to open the door, and he gave a quick glance to my wife and opened the door.

As soon as I got an opening, I rushed inside and hugged my wife. She didn't move, her body feeling cold. I broke the hug and checked if she got hurt somewhere.

"Are you okay, Kitten?" I asked and cupped her face.

"How did you get here?" she questioned.

"Didi!"

Reyna was engulfed in a hug by her brother, but her mother slowly moved towards Dinesh Bakshi and broke down crying. Shaurya shook his head when he saw the condition of the three men bound to the chairs. He asked the two men named Sudeep and Sudhir for their names and the details of what was going on. They refused to tell him anything.

"Why did you leave, Di?" Arman asked. "You know how worried we were. And what happened to Dad?"

Reyna broke the hug and told Arman to leave. She looked at her mother, who was trying to make Reyna's father speak. Reyna gritted her teeth and asked us how we got to the place.

"We tracked you," I said.

"How?" she raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"I have installed a tracker in your gun," Advait confessed.

"You did what?" Reyna charged at him, but I held her back.

"Kitten, what's going on? Why are you here, and what are these men doing here too? Please, tell me, Reyna. Did they do something to you?"

Reyna didn't look at me and stared at her parents. Arman saw that and gulped nervously.

"Did our parents do something, Di?" he managed to speak as he observed his father's battered state.

I was surprised that he hadn't yet fainted at the sight. I understood that Reyna was the one who had butchered her father, Lokesh, and Himesh. And there was a serious reason behind her actions. I knew I wouldn't be able to get the answers in the chaos, so I told Advait and Shaurya to handle the situation and take Mrs. Bakshi out.

"Reyu..." her mom cried.

Reyna had no emotion on her face as she saw her mother exiting the place with Shaurya's help. Advait guided Sudeep and Sudhir, while I stood with my wife; her face had turned red with fury.

Just as Advait ordered the hostages to be transferred, Reyna snapped and told everyone to get out of her territory.

"Leave the fuck right now!" she shouted. "How dare you enter without my permission? And who told you touch my prey?"

She pushed Advait back and stood in front of the three men. She announced that she wasn't done yet, and she won't be leaving before she completed her plan. Her body shook in anger as she glared at us.

"Reyna, please come with us. We will deal with this together," I said.

She directed her gaze at me. For a minute, her eyes didn't move, but for the first time, I didn't see my wife - she looked like a stranger.

"I said get the fuck out! I am not coming anywhere. All of you better leave, or I won't spare anyone of you for messing around with me!"

I glanced at Arman, who tried to go closer to his sister, but she took out her gun.

"Di, please...." Arman cried.

Reyna shook her head and motioned for us to leave; she was in mood to be convinced. I told Arman to stay back and moved forward. Reyna moved the gun at me and gave a warning, but I didn't stop. Her hands shook, but she kept her finger on trigger. Her expressions changed drastically, and Shaurya warned me to be careful. I could literally get shot.

Still, I kept moving, locking eyes with my wife. When only a small distance was left between us, I increased my pace and grabbed the gun from her. She punched me on the chest, and I locked her hands in mine. I kept her in my grasp, while my friends did their work. Sudhir and Sudeep followed Advait's orders and apologized to Reyna because her plan got ruined.

"She is going into panic mode!" Shaurya yelled.

Reyna struggled to get out of my hold, and when she wasn't able to do so, she cried and thrashed her limbs around. She didn't listen even when I told her that she was safe. She stared at me in accusation, and I could no longer see her in that state.

"Kitten, don't cry. I am here, no? Let's go to our home, okay? You are safe," I consoled.

She clutched my hands tightly, her nails digging in my skin. "No! I don't want to go! Why did you come?! I told you not to search for me... I... I don't have a home. I never had a home..."

"Didi..." Arman came to hug her, but she pushed him back.

"Stay away from me! You are their favourite son, so why are you crying?" she said, glaring at her brother.

Arman looked at her in shock, but Shaurya told him not to take it to his heart. Reyna was behaving like that due to trauma, so we had to make sure not to trigger her. Arman understood and went out crying. When he left, Reyna called his name and blamed herself for everything. Soon, Advait arrived, and Reyna gave him murderous glares.

"You helped them, didn't you?" she asked.

"I am sorry, Reyna, I had to do it," he replied.

"Why did you do it...?"

Advait pursed his lips and told me that we needed to leave asap. Reyna's condition was worsening, and she was dehydrated too. She had clawed my arms and was hurting herself too. No matter how much I tried to make her understand, she seemed to be drifting away more. When I caressed her hair, she head-butted me so strongly that my lower lip burst.

"I am sorry," she said, but soon, her anger rose up.

"Leave me!" she yelled.

"Reyna, we are going home," Shaurya said politely, as if talking to a kid.

Reyna twisted her lips at him. "You think you can manipulate the kid? I won't let you succeed."

It was confirmed; Reyna needed immediate treatment. Shaurya was right - she was triggered, and her actions were extreme. Seeing her struggle, I loosened my grip but caught her again before she escaped.

"Reyna..." I felt tears pricking my eyes.

As I saw her disheveled state and tried to figure out how to gain her trust, Advait didn't waste any time and knocked her out. Her body went limp and head hit my chest.

"Sorry for hitting her, but we need to get her some medical help soon," Advait said.

I nodded and picked her up. I got inside my car after putting her in the backseat. I announced that no one was going to leave and had to follow me to my home. I glanced at Reyna, her head in my lap as Shaurya drove.

"Everything will be fine, Yuvi," he assured.

"Hope so too."

What did you go through, Kitten?