Do listen to the song I was listening to when I wrote this bit, it sets the pace nicely...
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIaiXmm1H0o[/YOUTUBE]
Khushi made her way through the snow, leaving behind her a trail of quick footprints marking her path.
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Arnav looked ahead at the few hundred metres of ascent left above him and Shyam , he could just make out the line of dense trees that bordered the road where they had parked their cars. He stopped where he was, not able to continue walking with Shyam next to him. They had moved quickly in silence for about 10 minutes both of them lost in their own angry thoughts.
"Leave" was the one word Arnav said to the man whose back was towards him, he was clear when he spoke.
Shyam stopped where he was and turned around to face Arnav, looking at the face of the man who was stealing away the girl that he loved, if it wasn't for him, he would have her already, he would have had her weeks ago, he bitterly thought as the image of Arnavs arms wrapped around his Khushi kept flashing through his mind.
Shyam knew what he meant by it, he could tell from the expression Arnavs face wore, but there was no way he was giving in so easily.
"What do you mean?" he said, unintentionally raising his hand to one of the small scars on his chin left over from their fight yesterday night.
"Stop playing this stupid little game of yours, you are not fooling anyone, I said leave, you know what I meant by it, don't make me repeat myself" Arnav scowled angrily.
"Sale saab, I really don't know what you mean, honestly, both you and Khushi ji always seem t..."
With the sound of her name from his lips Arnav took two furious steps towards Shyam, stopping a few feet short of him, controlling the urge to pounce on him. This was not the time for something like this, he reminded himself for what felt like the hundredth time, all he needed was for Shyam to leave.
He looked into the eyes of the man that was responsible for so much trouble in his life, for fear in Khushi's life and for so much grief in his sisters. He wanted to hurt him, show him what it felt like to play with people's feelings
"You don't have to worry about my wife" he said, emphasizing on the last two words "Khushi is more than happy with me, she is none of your concern, she doesn't seem to mind the thought of never seeing you again, so like I said, don't make me repeat myself" he warned.
The anger that Shyam was trying so very hard to control was bubbling close to the surface and he began to panic from the thought of losing it all, his brother in law seemed determined to see the end of him.
"Sale saab, you seem to be mistaken if you think she is happy with you" he shot out in panic, hoping to buy some time.
Arnav took a few steps forward, clenching his fists, standing right in front of Shyam as he looked him in the eyes and slowly said.
"She is happy" he paused "with me, not you, she is mine, not yours, she loves ME, never you" watching satisfactorily as Shyams face contoured into one of rage as he rapidly pulled out something silver from his pocket and lunged himself forward at Arnav.
He had not been expecting the force and so he felt as though the wind had been blown out of him as he went flying through the air to harshly hit the cold snow beneath him.
"What the..?" he exclaimed, making out the shape of a blade against the gray sky above them as it nicked him on the arm, scratching him lightly.
"Khushi isn't happy, she isn't happy, you need to stop lying to yourself, she doesn't understand, you don't understand, none of you get it! I loved her first! I don't care what you have to say, do you hear me? I said do you hear me!?" Shyam shouted at Arnav as he held on to his arms, fighting off the dagger he was holding.
He finally managed to get a strong enough hold of his wrist to flick it away, watching as it whipped through the air and landed a few feet away from them in the snow. They looked at eachother in surprise, Shyam pausing for only a second too long as Arnav heaved him off of himself. He scrambled up quickly, reaching out towards the direction where the dagger lay, only to have Shyam pull him down again, throwing a punch against his jaw. He retaliated by forcing one right back to the side of his head.
They continued to struggle against eachother against the cold snow.
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"Khushi ji ! Khushi ji! Where are you going? Khushi ji? Don't run all the way up there Khushi! We can just phone them" Anjali called after Khushi watching her retreating back. Something wasn't quite right, everyone had been acting so strange since last night.
She looked around her and the picnic sheet filled with all the food she had brought, not sure of what to do.
We can just phone them, we can just phone them.
Anjali's distant words echoed in Khushi's mind as she continued to run up the hill. Phone. Her mind clicked, Phone!
She almost stopped running for a second to clutch against the pockets in her jacket, feeling the sting of her tears rise up in her throat as she found them empty, she must have left her phone in the car. She felt nothing but frustration and worry as the tears began to make their way down her cheeks.
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Arnav growled in rage as he threw another angry punch against Shyam, watching him fall back against the snow, clutching at the deep cut he had managed to tear open just under his chin. He didn't waste a single second to look over at what Shyam was doing, he didn't have time, he looked around frantically, catching the blade glint in the snow against the sun now low in the sky, he scurried towards it cringing at the pain in his chest from all the tiring blows he had received.
He manged to nip his fingers across the base of the dagger but before he could hold on to it tightly he felt Shyam grab him by the neck and turn him around. He roughly pulled away the arms that were holding on to him only to have Shyam punch him against his head, the pain of the hit sending blood rushing to his head. He fell down from the force, hitting the blade in the process with his foot, sending it skidding across the snow far away from them down the hill.
His head collided with the ground first and he felt everything black out for a second, he could hear Shyam wheezing above him, casting a shadow over him and then he felt the brightness of the sky as the shadow disappeared and he heard Shyam starting to rush in the direction where he had kicked the dagger.
Arnav painfully turned to lie flat on his back staring up at the sky, everything in his vision was starting to blur, the pain was spread over everything so evenly, he almost felt completely numb. The sound of his phone ringing deep in his pocket hardly reached his ears as he looked up at the dull sky, the only thing he could feel was the tiny flakes of freezing snow that melted against his warm skin from the sky above him.
Anjali frowned up at the sky that had started to lightly shower tiny snowflakes over her and their picnic sheet, she sighed at the phone against her ear.
"Why is he not picking up? I bet he saw it was my number so he is ignoring it, I know he would pick up if it were a business call" she complained to no one but herself.
Looking up she realised that she could no longer see Khushi running in the distance, what was going on? The horrible feeling at the pit of her stomach was only getting worse and worse, she could not just ignore it anymore.
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Khushi, panting and gasping from the pain in her stomach dropped down into the snow as her knees gave away. She was close, she knew she was close, she had the same feeling she had always had whenever he stepped into a room but she had lost all her energy, she had been running in the cold for so long, she could hardly breathe let alone move.
"You can do this, come on Khushi get up" she said in motivation to herself as she pushed herself up against the snow. She tried to take a fast step forward, only to find she couldn't get past more than a few paces before collapsing again.
"I can't, I can't" she cried, tears gushing down her face as she shook from frustration.
Suddenly, she thought back to the dream she had had about Arnav, the one where she had been running and running, not getting any closer to him. He had been bleeding, so horribly, there had been so much of it just gushing out of his chest, and she had not been able to help, she had only run as she watched his breathing stop. It was going to be different this time, she thought, she was getting closer, she wasn't just running to no end. She was running to him.
With the image of a dying Arnav in front of her eyes, she picked herself up and began to sprint once again with her frozen feet.
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Arnav could hear her screaming his name, frantically and fearfully with a voice that sent shivers down his spine. He couldn't tell how close she was, he had lost that perception with the blood rushing between his ears, but he could tell that she was there.
Shyam was unaware. The pounding of adrenaline in his ears and the hunger of revenge had drowned out all of his surroundings as he walked up to where Arnav lay, holding the dagger so tightly in his hands that he could feel it cutting into his palm, his hands were completely numb from the cold and the force he was applying, which is why he flinched them open when he felt something collide with the back of his body.
"Leave him alone!" she screamed, as she shoved him as much as her small frame would let her, she was terrified of what he had done to her husband, he was lying with his eyes closed and a tiny trickle of blood running down his face. He was breathing heavily though, giving Khushi the confidence to know he was alive and not in any immediate danger.
Arnavs eyes flew open and his vision slowly began to sharpen, his head wasn't hurting as much anymore, either that, or he was too distracted by what was going on near him.
Shyam watched the dagger fall from his hands as he rounded up to face her, he was to angry to deal with this right now. He watched as Khushi ran up to Arnav, falling in the snow next to him and holding his head up in her lap.
"Arnav ji? Arnav ji? Get up, please?" she asked, terrified as she could make out Shyam start to walk towards them, why wasn't he getting up? He needed to get up, and now.
Arnav slowly blinked, coming out of his reverie as Khushi wiped away the small trace of blood against his skin with her fingers.
"Please? Please get up Arnav ji!" she frantically asked, looking up to see Shyam closing in on her.
Arnav turned his head towards her, burying his face in her clothes "Khushi" he slowly whispered against her as he started to remember what was going on.
Khushi felt Shyam hold on to her arm, grabbing her roughly and pulling her away from Arnav.
"Don't worry Khushi ji, I will take care of him" he gently said, pushing Khushi away as she started to protest.
Arnav saw her tumble down into the snow from the force. He blinked rapidly, casting away the daze that he had been in after he he had hit his head and he managed to grab Shyams hand before he lunged the dagger into his chest.
"What are you going to do?" he threatened Shyam "after all of this, what is your plan? Kill me and then what, what will you have achieved?"
"Khushi" Shyam replied.
Khushi looked up, more terrified than she had ever been as she saw them struggle in a game of powerplay against the dagger Shyam was holding.
She ran up to them grabbing a hold of Shyams shoulder and tugging at him with all her strength.
Arnav took advantage of that moment to punch Shyam square in the mouth, watching as blood began to gush out from his lip. In his daze, he loosened his grip on the dagger letting it drop to the ground beneath him as he followed its motion down into the snow.
Khushi let go of Shyam and stepped back, watching the angry glint in Arnavs eyes as he threw another punch at Shyam, knocking him out as he fell.
She was shaking from the cold and fear, running up to Arnav she pulled at him, taking him a few steps away from Shyam as she held him by the cheeks, trying to focus himself on her. She could tell he was angry, she needed to calm him down before he did something stupid.
"Look at me, look at me Arnav" she tried to be assertive, shaking his head as she did and blushing as she realised she had just said his name without adding a 'ji' at the end.
"It's okay, it's done, he can't do anything, he can't hurt us anymore"
Arnav looked over at her in a panic, running his hands along her to check she was allright.
"Im fine" she muttered, admiring him for his ability to be caring in even the most dire situations.
"Di?" he asked, in a slight daze.
"She is fine, she is still back near the lake" Khushi replied, watching as Arnav angrily looked back at Shyam lying unconscious in the snow.
"No, don't look at him, it's ok, he can't hurt anyone anymore" she whispered, in her attempt to control his rage.
Arnav rested his head on Khushi, closing his eyes from the pain that had snuck back into his head, he felt as though he would pass out at any moment.
It was done, the worst was over, well almost anyway. They just had to tell his sister, but that was it. They had managed to get through it, they had made a decision to let the truth out, and there were going to be consequences, because the truth wasn't always the easiest thing to deal with.
They stood in silence, Khushi holding on to his head, watching him breathe heavily against her.
His voice brought them both crashing back down to earth.
"If I can't have her..." he harshly whispered through the blood in his mouth. Grabbing onto Khushi's shoulder he roughly turned her around as Arnav stumbled from the loss of support to his head.
He slashed the blade he was holding in rage across her stomach, cutting her dress and skin open with a deep gash, leaving a train of blood droplets spraying against the purest snow beneath them.
"Then you can't either" he smugly finished, watching as Arnav looked on in horror at the blood that had begun to pour over Khushi's white dress, the colour clashing so terrifyingly with it.
He couldn't even speak, he felt as though his heart had just stopped in his chest which restricted around the dead mass, not allowing his lungs to expand. He couldn't take in the air around him, no, anything but this, anything in the world but this.
"Khushi" he said, with a breaking voice, holding onto her as her knees collapsed beneath her, dropping down into the snow with her in his arms. He was so scared he even forgot to be angry.
"Khushi, please, please no" he cried.
Shyam looked down at the pair of them, finally smiling in triumph as he slowly stepped away, he knew this was the best victory he would manage to get, it was enough for him, to know that no one else had her, as much as it had pained him to snatch her life away.
Before the smile had reached his eyes he felt something snatch from his hands and a second later a horrible pain near the middle of his back, he froze from the mind numbingly cruel sensation it sent through his body.
He turned around as he fell, catching a glimpse of his wife's tear stained face sprayed with blood all over her front. His blood, he realised, as he fell against the snow that sent the dagger deeper into his back.
