Something Borrowed, Something Blue
The tiny window tucked up high in one corner of the dingy room he was locked in, displayed a scrap of cloudless blue sky. The cheerful blue was so incongruous with the rest of the room, that it drew his eyes continuously. It wasn't so much the thought of the open sky as it was the colour-- a blue so bright that it hurt his eyes. The sky in Chandangarh was the same colour. If he ignored the room and focused very hard on that patch of blue, he could almost imagine that he was back home. Almost.
His head throbbed, his ribs screamed, and his left leg was in agony. He ached all over, his throat burned, and his eyes felt as though they'd been doused with sand.
Over the last couple of days-- or was it weeks, he'd swung in and out of consciousness. Today was the first day he had been able to fight the overwhelming urge to close his eyes and let numb darkness overcome his senses. And it f**king hurt.
He had no idea how long he'd been in captivity. He only remembered their operation going very wrong. Their endeavour to smoke out the remaining men in Tejawat's network had backfired spectacularly. The men had known about their operation and had been lying in wait. He'd walked right into a trap. Tejawat's men had been privy to the sort of information only an insider would have been able to supply.
He closed his eyes as gut-wrenching guilt and remorse tinged with fury swept through him. Where did this damned circle end and where did it begin? Was there no end to the betrayal and duplicity?
He'd failed the men under him again. He had no idea how many were alive, if any, and where they were.
What was the point anymore? He didn't even know how large Tejawat's nexus was. He had no hope of destroying all of it. And the institution he'd placed all his faith in had left him shattered and disillusioned in a way he hadn't thought possible.
It would be so easy to embrace that darkness that he fought to keep away. There, he had the promise of Nothing. Not pain, not betrayal, not guilt, not even anger.
Yet that little piece of blue wouldn't let him. It whispered to him to hold on a little bit longer. Unbidden, a thought flashed into his fevered mind.
Parvati had a mirrored skirt of that very colour.
Parvati.
He'd asked her to leave before he returned. Had she left already? She must have. Although she often rebelled in small ways, she was obedient to a fault.
But what if she hadn't?
Had she?
And it was then that Major Rudra Pratap Ranawat-- broken and bloodied, lying on the cold, hard floor of an alien prison that was miles away from home-- realized that he wouldn't have any peace until he returned and found out for himself.
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