DARD MUBARAK

Ashrit x Rua

"Promise me... you'll live." She held my hand tightly, her fingers digging into my skin like she was trying hard to hold herself-while my own hands were trembling so hard that I could barely return to the grip.

"You'll marry someone.. build a lovely, happy family so that when you go home you find a wife waiting for you. Not the usual silence. Not an empty room full of letters. Little kids running to the door, shouting 'Papa!' when they hear your voice." She smiled through a sob which broke my already dead heart into a million jagged pieces. And I knew I'd never be able to put them back together without her.

"You'll move on," she whispered. She couldn't breathe. Her chest rose in shallow, uneven gasps. I could see the war happening in her eyes-between wanting me to stay and needing me to survive. I knew those words tasted like poison in her mouth, but she said them anyway, for me.
Because she loved me more than she wanted to keep me.

I lost the count of how many tears slipped down my face. I was crying, not because of her words, but because she was already dying while whispering each and every syllable of those words.

"Please don't leave me...please..I'll die this time."

Shashank x Iksha

"Someone said right, the stars and the moon look pretty together-always near, always shining. But never meant to touch. Never meant to be together." I shook my head uncontrollably.

"Remember when I told you? You and me, just one night...under a sky full of hopes. My head in your lap, your soft hands cupping my face, my heart finally being with its home.." he stared into my eyes, and slowly-very slowly raised his trembling fingers and wiped off the tear reaching down my cheek. "It's happening. Every single thing. But the only difference is... there are tears in your eyes, instead of the usual smile."

I swallowed hard and looked down at my hands.

Blood.

Dark, sticky and warm, pooling around my fingers.

His blood stained my hand.. red.. real.

"Sitara..."