“Drive the fuck on!” She cut him.
Seething, he shifted the gear and raced it out of there.
Samar drove without destination. He drove and drove, out of the city and towards Shankracharya Reserve Forest, willing his mind to blank out enough to calm down. It didn’t. It wouldn’t. He was left. He was thrown out. This was it. The end. Where to go? What next? KDP President? He laughed. What a joke! A winning party’s CM ran the party, irrespective of who sat on the President’s chair. Atharva had not only taken his one big dream away from him but reduced him to a puppet. A public puppet who would be disgraced with every day that he ‘ran’ KDP.
“Park here.”
“What?”
“Park here.” Amaal pointed to the secluded turning of the reserve forest. The hill rose over them, hiding the sun. The sunlight was still brilliant, splitting and hitting him in the face.
“Why?”
“PARK!”
He parked the car, pulled the handbrake and tore out of the car, stalking towards the rugged hill, so done with everything. The wind slammed into him, and his mouth ripped open on its own accord.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
The wind slammed harder into his face, and his mouth shredded apart.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
A small hand touched his back.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
It rubbed circles, as if he was vomiting.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!” His throat gave up.
The hand patted.
“Aaaaaaaaah…” His voice broke. Samar dropped his face into his palms and closed the world from his eyes. “She is avenged, I am avenged, we all are avenged… why doesn’t this stop?! Why did this happen?”
The hand did not leave his back.
“Why doesn’t this fucking stop?!!!” He turned around to her. “What am I supposed to do for it to stop? Whatmoream I supposed to do? What do I do?”
She slammed his body into hers, and her arms were around him. Samar locked his arms around her. Her head pressed into his chest. He breathed. Panted. Whimpered.
“We were captured together, Sia, me and three other Mavericks. They killed two of them one by one and kept us all separate and used Sia to make us talk. I slept naked on a slab of ice until it melted every single day for god knows how many hours. I did not know if it was day or night but Sia was brought once a day while they whipped me, to make me talk, they would torture Sia without leaving marks on her body, sometimes pull her arms to the point of dislocating it, sometimes they made her sit there and watch as they disgraced me and I couldn’t even scream, she wouldn’t scream either, we just kept looking at each other, I don’t even remember most of what went on through my head when I was looking at her…” Tears fell from his eyes and into her hair. “I passed out from fever and had an opening to escape when they transferred me to the medical room. I got away but Sia couldn’t. She wouldn’t let me stay back for her and I ran, god knows why I ran! I was shot by one of our own snipers in cross firing while crossing over, I had no idea of my own name when I reached back, no water, no food, no sense of the world, just that I had to keep running until I saw my flag and tell them that Sia was alive and I told them and I told Atharva and I told Commander Ul Haq and I gave them proof and I gave them papers and I gave them Aamir Haider’s name and evidence and Aamir Haider stopped them from going after Sia and she died like that, she died, she died like that…”
A hand wove into the hair at the back of his head, pulling his head down tighter over hers.
“I did it, I avenged all of us, I leaked those tapes, I destroyed Aamir Haider and it still doesn’t stop, Aamir Haider has haunted me from his grave and now even if I bring him back and kill him all over again this doesn’t stop because my own party, my own people, Atharva turned against me, how can this ever be ok? I am discharged all over again from duty and how can it be ok? How can this be ok? How is this fair? How is this FAIR?!!!” He pulled out, yelling in front of her. “How can this be fair?!! All I did was for…” his voice cracked, his eyes breaking off from hers. His throat was so tight that it would spring out.
“Samar.”
Her voice was like a balm. And he realised that he had never spoken so much so quickly all at once in his entire life. He had spoken so much that all he held in his memory was his own voice. Hers was novel. His head turned until their eyes met.
“Say it again.”Remind me who I was in your voice.
“Samar.”
His throat began to loosen.
“Samar.”
