Chapter- 36

Sunrays filtered through the cracked curtains, casting long shadows into the dark room. Ekta held onto the window sill tightly, letting the heat of the sun burn into her skin, grounding herself.

She had decided to stop running from her past, but it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Her heart pounded in her chest, her limbs going numb, her brain screaming at her to stay silent and bury everything again, each memory clawing its way back to the surface with ruthless clarity. The sensations she felt from within weren’t just of fear but also shame, self-loathing, but she had to do that, if not to save herself from the prison she had built around her own heart, then at least save her saviour.

Taking a deep breath, she gathered her courage. Ekansh stood right behind her, waiting patiently, giving her space and time to step out of her own shell at her own pace, and that was the biggest support she needed in that moment.

“Main ek chote se gaon mein rehti thi apne maa, baba aur bhai ke saath.” Her voice trembled slightly. “Gaon mein sab kuch tha... khula aasmaan, khelne ke liye dost, maa ke haath ke daal-chawal, laddoo aur meri favourite gud-roti. Maa roz shaam ko mere liye woh banati thi.”

She chuckled sadly. “Aur doodh. Jo mujhe bilkul pasand nahi. Par koi option nahi tha. Agar nahi peeti toh maa naraz ho jaati aur main apni maa ko kabhi naraz nhi karna chahti thi. Meri apni ek choti si duniya thi maa ke saath. Bas uss duniya mein baba aur bhai kabhi nhi sama paye. Unke liye main sirf ek bojh thi. Maa kehti thi baba mujhse pyaar karte hain, thik wase he jasie meri dost baba usse krte the. Bss mere baba pyaar jatana nhi jaante the.”

Her gaze met the sun’s sharp glaze, “Prr phir unke pyaar mein woh thandak nhi bss gussa aur ek anjaani si nafrat mehsoos hoti thi. Kyunki jo pyaar mere liye garam koyle jaisa tha, wahi pyaar bhai ke liye phoolon se bhi naram. Pr maine kabhi zyada nahi socha. Maa kehti thi aisa hi hota hai... aur maa toh kabhi jhooth nahi bolti na?”

“Lekin jis tarah aaina aapka asli sach, asli chehra bina kisi dhundh ke dikha deta hai, ussi tarah mujhe bhi ek sach uss din pata chala jab baba ne apne bete ko chuna aur mujhe ek janwar ke hawale kar diya. Woh pyaar nhi tha. Woh sirf faisla tha. Unki nafrat, unki majboori nahi... unki choice. Ek sauda. Aur main kuch nhi kar payi. Paanch saal ki thi main... bas... Madhupur mein tanashahi chalti thi. Bas ek aadmi ki... Tej Sinha ki...”

With tumbling words she recited everything, how the village worked under Tej’s dominance, how people paid wages for even breathing peacefully, how authorities never questioned anything, and how people were killed whenever they tried to raise their voices.

Her voice cracked repeatedly under the weight of those memories, but she continued with details of how her father traded her away in exchange for his son’s life and how her mother lost her life trying to save her.

Ekansh’s fists clenched. The rage rose inside him like a volcano ready to erupt. The emotions in Ekta’s voice ripped through him. The innocence he could still hear beneath layers of unimaginable trauma shattered him further. Even the thought of what he might hear next shook him to the core.

“Jis din hosh aaya...” Ekta whispered brokenly, “Uss din khud ko ek nayi duniya mein dekha maine. Maine bahut koshish ki bhaagne ki. Unn logon ke haath pair bhi jode, par dono ne meri ek nhi suni. Jab bhai milne aaye toh usne kaha meri wajah se usne maa ko kho diya. Ab woh baba ko nahi khona chahta. Isliye maine khud ko uss pinjre mein dhalne diya.”

A sad smile graced her lips, “Lekin ek chidhiya ko kaid mein rehne ke liye keemat chukani padti hai. Maine bhi chukai... Roz mujhe kisi aadmi ke saath ek naye kamre mein phek diya jaata tha. Kabhi ek se zyada bhi hote the. Agar main awaaz karti toh woh mera muh band kar dete. Agar main bhaagne ki koshish karti toh injection dekar mujhe immobilize kar dete.”

“Aur main kuch nahi kar paati... sirf dekh sakti thi, ro sakti thi. Har ek haath mere shareer par saanp ki tarah rengta tha. Pehle kabhi samajh nhi aaya ki mere saath ho kya raha hai. Mujhe unn logon ki... Ki hui ek bhi cheez acchi nhi lagti thi, prr sehne ke alawa main kuch nahi kar paati thi... kuch saalon baad pata chala ki unn logon ne mere saath kya kya kiya.”

She turned toward Ekansh, noticing the tears in his eyes mirroring hers. “Aur jab tak pata chala, samajh mein aaya... tab tak bahut der ho chuki thi. Saalon tak yeh sab chalta raha. Phir ek din main wahan se bhaag nikli... Bhaagne ke baad jis insaan se madad maangi usne mujhe ek bacchi ki tarah nhi, ek khilone ki tarah dekha. Meri taraf madad ka haath toh badhaya, par doosre hi haath se mere saath wahi kiya jo pehle ho chuka tha.”

“Police ne bhi meri madad nhi ki. Unn logon ne toh Malik ko call bhi kar liya tha. Lekin main wahan se bhi bhaag nikli. Kahan thi aur kahan se kaise kahan pahunchi, nau saal ki main kuch nhi samajh payi. Jo pehli train patri prr dekhi uss par chadh gayi. Darte, ghabraate aakhir mein Shimla pahunchi... aur wahan doosre din aapse mili...”

She took a stumbling step toward Ekansh, holding his hand in hers. “Yeh hai mera sach. Mera past jisse mein bhaag rahi hoon. Jise main bhool jaana chahti hoon lekin nhi bhool sakti. Ab aap batayiye bhaiya... kya aap ek keechad mein uge phool ko apnaoge? Kya aap ek aisi bhen ko apna keh sakte ho jo khud se nafrat karti hai? Will you look at me as the sister you knew... or the disgust that I feel towards myself with every breath I take?”

She chuckled bitterly, “Kyuki mar toh mujhe bahut pehle hi jaana chaiye tha unn baaki ladkiyon ki tarah. Ya phir jaise unn logon mai se kuch ne apni zindagi ko accept krr liya, mujhe bhi kr lena chaiye tha. Par main nhi kar payi. And I faced what I deserved... Meri wajah se meri maa aaj iss duniya mein nhi hai. I am the one because of whom she di...”

Before she could complete the sentence, Ekansh pulled her into his embrace. His arms wrapped around her shoulders protectively.

He didn’t let her finish. He didn’t let those words exist between them. One hand held the back of her head while the other tightened around her as if he could shield her from every memory trying to tear her apart. His grip trembled, not from disgust, or pity, but from the unbearable pain of imagining a little girl carrying all of that alone.

His heart shattered under the weight of her truth. His mind screamed with rage at every person who had failed her, her father, her brother, the men who had hurt her, the authorities who had ignored her cries, and the world that had looked away.

But not once, not for a single second, did he look at her differently. All he saw was his sister. A bond that connected them by heart. A terrified little girl who had survived hell and somehow still found the courage to stand before him and tell the truth. And for the first time since he had met her, Ekansh understood why there was always sadness hidden behind her eyes.

“Teri wajah se kuch nhi hua hai Ekta.” His voice was thick with emotions. “You didn’t deserve anything that happened to you. You didn’t deserve that pain. You didn’t deserve the cruelty or betrayal. You didn’t deserve to live with guilt that was never yours to carry. Your father and brother failed to protect you when they should have stood in front of every storm for you. Your mother didn’t want to hurt her daughter’s feelings... she wanted to protect you from a monster disguised as family, but in the end she forgot that silence can wound just as deeply as truth. Still, you didn’t deserve any of it.”

His tone softened “Your mother didn’t die because of you baacha. She died protecting you. Your mother did what every mother would have done for her child. Koi maa apni beti ka sauda hote hue chup-chaap nhi dekh sakti. If she died, then it was because of your father, a man who didn’t even acknowledge his wife, respect her enough to stand beside her when she needed him the most.”

Ekta stood motionless, her hands hanging loosely by her sides, her body feeling too heavy to support itself. Ekansh’s words collided with the thick metal walls around her heart, leaving cracks behind, but it was still hard to accept them so easily, hard to believe them completely. Letting go of years of self-hatred and blame was not so easy. Some wounds became a part of a person’s identity, and separating yourself from them felt impossible.

Ekansh pulled back slightly. The tears shimmering in her eyes refused to spill over, as if frozen in time, trapped between grief and acceptance, suspended in uncertainty.

Gently, he raised her chin, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Mere liye tu aaj bhi wahi Ekta hai jisse main saat saal pehle mila tha. Wahi ek choti si masoom se baachi jisne jaane anjaane main meri jaan baachyi. Mujhe jeene ka maksad diya. Wahi Ekta jisne mujhe hichkichate hue pheli baar Bhaiya kaha tha, wahi jise mere haath ki pehli jali hui roti bhi acchi lagi thi. Tera ateet tere aaj ke mujhse jude rishte ko nhi tod sakta. Kabhi nahi. Apne bhaiya par bharosa hai na tujhe?” He asked softly.

Ekta nodded without missing a beat.

Ekansh kept his hand on her head. “Toh meri baat dhyan se sun... Jis jisne tere saath galat kiya... har woh ek insaan ko main tere saamne saza dunga. Har woh ek insaan jisne tujhe galat nazar se dekha. Jo tere asuso ka karan baana.... tere saath galat kiya... they will pay for their sin. Yeh ek bhai ka apni bhen se wada hai!”

Ekta buried her face in his chest, tears remained trapped in her eyes, still refusing to fall. She wanted to deny it, to tell him he shouldn’t mess with Malik, but the words failed her. She was too exhausted to fight him anymore. The conviction in Ekansh’s voice, the vow to ruin every monster hidden behind her nightmares, made her feel something she hadn’t felt in years...safe. Even if only for a moment.

✨✨✨

Flowers of every shade, yellow marigolds, red roses, white lilies, and fragrant mogra, were scattered around. Their fresh fragrance wafted through the house, usually soothing enough to calm even the most restless heart.

Eshita sat in the middle of the flower baskets in front of the temple house. Her fingers trembled uncontrollably as she tried to thread the flowers together. No matter how many deep breaths she took, no matter how many times she forced herself to focus on the task before her, her thoughts refused to settle.

She felt sick. Not the kind of sickness that medicines could cure, but the kind that crawled beneath the skin and settled deep inside the bones. A sickness that made her chest feel heavy and her stomach twist painfully. It felt as if invisible hands were gripping her from within, squeezing tighter with every passing second.

The flower slipped from her hand all over again as she tried to push it through the needle and thread. She was trying to make a flower garland for the evening prayers, but for the first time in years, her heart wasn’t in the right place.

Revulsion and anguish clung to her like shadows. Her skin felt unbearably sensitive, as though something filthy had brushed against it and refused to leave. Whatever she had heard collided inside her head, leaving behind a suffocating feeling she couldn’t explain.

Hurriedly she picked up another flower, desperate to distract herself, to lose herself in the familiar rhythm of weaving petals together. But It didn’t work. The more she tried to focus on the garland, the more her mind wandered.

The thread slipped again, and the needle pierced her skin. A sharp hiss escaped her lips. Before she could react, a pair of gentle hands took the needle and thread away from her trembling fingers and set them aside.

Eshita kept her head lowered, trying to hide her face behind the curtain of hair framing it. She didn’t need to look up to know who it was. Her body stiffened as warm arms wrapped around her and pulled her close, shielding her from her own echoing thoughts.

“You heard everything?” Ekansh asked quietly. Earlier, while putting Ekta to sleep, he had noticed Eshita’s shadow out of his room and rushed downstairs, only to find her sitting alone here.

Eshita nodded against his chest, tears fogging her eyes. “I-I was so wrong about her. I can’t believe I behaved like she doesn’t exist. I-I should have treated her nicely. Maine uske saath kitna galat kiya, bhaiya. She is just sixteen and...” Her voice choked. She couldn’t even dare to repeat Ekta’s trauma aloud.

“I always thought my pain was bigger than hers... bigger than anyone’s. But what she went through...” She trailed off, shaking her head helplessly. “She suffered more than any child ever should. More than anyone deserves to. How can someone be so cruel, bhaiya? Koi kisi bacche ke saath aisi haiwaniyat kaise kar sakta hai?”

Ekansh held her tightly as her body wracked with sobs in his embrace. He let her empty the storm raging inside her because words failed him. There was no explanation to offer. No justification. No excuse. The people who assault children are beyond redemption. Even monsters felt like a small word in front of the horrors they inflict upon innocent lives.

Eshita cried and cried until her tears ran dry. For the first time in her life, she wasn’t hurting for herself. She was hurting for someone else. And somehow, that pain felt even worse. Her eyes felt like she was weeping not only for the little girl who had lost everything she ever called home, but also for the girl who had refused to let those tears fall because she had no one to wipe them away.

Her grip tightened on Ekansh’s kurta as her thoughts spiraled. How much pain had Ekta endured? How many times had she cried for help that never came? How many nights had she spent terrified and alone? How many times had she thought of giving up before forcing herself to survive another day? How did she survive the cruelty of the world without breaking beyond repair? The questions clawed at her mind relentlessly.

Ekansh ran his fingers through her hair soothingly. “Kisi ka dard kisi ke dard se chota ya bada nhi hota, Eshu.” His voice was gentle yet firm. “What you suffered matters as much as what Ekta went through. And you both were wronged.”

Gently, he pulled back, making her look at him while wiping away the tear trails from her cheeks. “Don’t cry for her like this. She is brave enough to survive her past, to tell her story, to face it and still keep moving forward. She doesn’t need our pity, baccha. Nor our tears. She needs our strength, our support, and our faith in her.”

He sighed softly. “Jitna main Ekta ko jaanta hu, uthne ke baad she will pretend to be normal like she always did. No matter how much she broke alone in the darkness, she thinks her battles are hers to fight. Because switching off our emotions is sometimes the only thing we know how to do to survive what should never have happened to us...”

“She is hurting,” Eshita murmured.

Ekansh nodded. “She will be hurting. Suffering. Trapped in fear. For a long time. But not until the day the one who wronged her gets what they deserve. Not until we teach her that we are her family. That she is not an obligation on us but our little sister. We will teach her how to fight back when her past tries to break her. We will teach her to lean on us when she feels overwhelmed. Right?”

Eshita nodded immediately.

She would do everything in her power to help Ekta heal. The girl would live the life she was supposed to live, a life where she could love herself, where she could laugh without fear, trust without hesitation, and look into the mirror without seeing the shadows of her past staring back at her. Maybe Ekta needed time to accept her, but Eshita was willing to wait for as long as it took. The friendship she had offered wasn’t fake or born out of sympathy. It was genuine, and she would make sure Ekta knew that one day.

The sound of a sudden crash got their attention. Rising to their feet, they rushed toward Ekansh’s room from where the noise had come, worry instantly settling in their hearts.

The door banged open, revealing the darkness of the room and the shadow of Ekta gasping on the floor, trying to pick up the glass shards with her trembling hands.

Ekansh rushed to her side, pulling her to her feet. “Kya kar rahi hai, Ekta? Lag jayegi tujhe...”

Ekta breathed unevenly, pulling back from Ekansh. “Mere... mere haath se gir gaya. I-I will pick it up...”

“Don’t.” Ekansh pulled her away as she tried to reach for the broken glass again. It seemed she had just woken up from a nightmare and didn’t want anyone bothering her.

Carefully, he stepped back only after making her sit on the bed, away from the broken pieces.

Eshita came running with a broom. “I will clean it...”

“Idhar de.” Ekansh took away the broom from her hands. “Dono baitho chup chaap. I will do it.”

Eshita shrugged, launching herself onto the bed and pulling Ekta back with her, who seemed slightly better than before.

Ekta gasped at the sudden pull. Lying beside Eshita, she looked at the arm, startled, that wrapped around her from behind as the girl casually back-hugged her.

“Vo bhaiya, waha bhi thoda reh gaya hai...” Eshita commented, pointing toward the corner.

Ekansh glared at her. “Kar raha hu na. Dikhta nahi hai?”

Eshita shrugged. “Main toh karne wali thi. Ab aapko hi shauk chadha tha. Toh karo ab acche se. Dekho, waha bhi thoda ganda hai...” she pointed toward another corner.

Ekansh shook his head in disbelief before sweeping where she pointed just for her sake. He understood what she was trying to do, and that was the most normal thing they could do without spooking Ekta.

He glanced at the girl, who was already drifting back into her dreamland. The medicines from the doctor were doing their job. He needed to bring up many topics, but before all of them, he would find each and every person responsible and make them pay. He will kill them. That was the vow he had taken for the people who were behind the ruins of his sister’s life.

Eshita took out her phone as Ekta rolled unconsciously toward Ekansh’s warmth, as he returned settling beside them. Even in sleep, the girl was trying to hide herself, curling up within her own invisible walls as if shielding herself from a world she no longer trusted.

Now that Eshita sat with her own thoughts in the dimly lit room, she could feel the uneasiness creeping back into her mind.

Ekta suffered because of her family, then because of that bastard, whoever he was. But what tugged at the deepest chords of her heart was the fact that she had asked for help from strangers and yet no one had truly stepped forward to save her. The cruelty of the world, its ever-crossing limits, and the way people chose silence over humanity shook her to the core.

She had been brought up in luxury, surrounded and protected by her family, but even then there were days when she stepped outside carefully of her surroundings yet she still couldn’t fathom the darkness Ekta carried within herself.

Just a month ago, she had witnessed the riots for the first time in her life, but Ekta, didn’t just see a group of men wanting to hurt others; she saw the greed and the lust in their eyes, something Eshita took time to notice.

Her heart went out for the little girl, not in pity but wondering why a child had to witness such horrors at an age meant for innocence and dreams. The family was supposed to be a safe haven. The world was supposed to be a place worth exploring. But it was slowly turning into a battlefield where the innocent paid the price for sins they never committed.

Her fingers flew across the keypad, typing down her raw, conflicted, and painfully honest thoughts in the form of questions no one would ever be able to answer...

Har din darr mein jeena kise kehte hai?

Kisi ki aahat se dil kyun ghabra jaata hai?

Kisi anjaan chere mein bhi khatra sa kyun nazar aata hai?

Kabhi khud ke saaye par bhi vishwas karna mushkil ho jaata hai...

Har din darr mein jeena kise kehte hai?

Khud ko chaand ki roshni mein chhupa lena,

Ya suraj ke ujale mein bhi sambhal kar chalna?

Har din darr mein jeena kise kehte hai?

Har mod par peeche mudkar dekhna,

Ya bina wajah dil ki dhadkan ka thehar jaana?

Kehne ko aaj badal raha hai,

Aur aane wala kal bhi.

Par kya sach mein sach badal raha hai?

Ya bas tareeke naye ho gaye hain,

Aur wajah wahi purani reh gayi hai...

Sawal aaj bhi wahi hai...

Har din darr mein jeena kise kehte hai?

Eshita stared at the words she had typed down. The questions danced before her eyes. Silence screamed louder than any answer ever could.

Who was actually to blame, the society that taught people to judge before they understood? The power and money that gave people the entitlement to do whatever they wanted? The system that questioned women first and then the crime committed against them? The people who chose convenience over justice and silence over truth?

Or the women who twisted and turned the laws made for women’s safety to their own benefit, so that when the real victim needed help, people looked at them with doubtful eyes instead of compassion?

Or the families that found silence more comfortable than confrontation, teaching their children to endure rather than speak?

The question remained unanswered, tangled in countless shades of grey, and Eshita was no longer sure whether there was a single villain in the story or merely a world that had failed too many people at once.

 ✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

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