His Madness

AUTHOR

Her tears were not stopping no matter how hard she was trying to control them. Her dad was lying unconscious on the hospital bed with a pale face. Her eyes couldn't leave the sight of his face even though her mind wanted to.

It felt like someone had squeezed her heart painfully.

How did this happen?

Few hours ago

"Why isn't she opening the door?" Dhriti mumbled and rang the doorbell for the fourth time.

Reeva never takes this much time to open the door especially during this time of the day when her daughter usually returns from the hospital.

"MAA.." She shouted banging on the door but got no response. Her heart started thudding loudly as she banged on the door continuosly.

Something was not right, she could feel it. She took out her phone from the bag and dialled Reeva's number but before she could call her, the door opened and her body froze seeing her mother in front of her. Her eyes were red and she was trembling badly.

"Dh-hriti, yo-our pa-apa..." she was stuttering, she couldn't utter a word properly but Dhriti's mind got alerted when she mentioned about her father.

"Maa, wh-hat hap-ppened? Te-ell me" she asked holding her arms as her mother was crying uncontrollably.

She was not saying anything she was just sobbing. Dhriti quickly ran inside and found her father lying on the sofa unconsciously.

"PAPA" She shouted running towards him and started patting his cheeks, her heartbeat dropped in fear as he was not responding.

She checked his veins and sighed in relief. She held her phone and dialled called the ambulance with shaky hands, her mind was clouded with fear.

Meanwhile, she tried sprinkling water drops on his face but he still didn't respond.

"Maa, calm down!" Reeva was visibly shaking standing in a corner.

She was cooking the lunch when she called her husband to help her getting down some jars. When he didn't answer, she went to the hall and to her utter shock, found her husband unconscious on the sofa.

Her mind had stopped working completely. She became numb. Faintly, she could still hear the doorbell but her cold feet were not able to take her anywhere.

Finally, after sometime she realised what she was doing and quickly ran to open the door.

The siren of the ambulance declared it's arrival soon.

She made her mother sit on the chair and gave her a glass of water which she took with a shaky hand. The doctor was checking John inside the room while Dhriti and her mother were waiting outside.

Dhriti knew something was wrong with her father. It was not the first time. The first time it happened, Dheeraj got his consciousness back after few minutes. She has told him so many times to have a full body check up but he denied saying that he is fit and fine.

She herself gulped the water and took few deep breaths, her tears were threatening to fall from her eyes but somehow she was controlling them. She couldn't cry in front of her mother, not when her mother was looking so miserable and weak.

"I..I wa-as..i-in the ki-itc-chen..when I called hi-im.." suddenly Reeva spoke and took few more deep breaths. Dhriti rubbed her back to calm her down.

"Wh-hen I ca-ame i-in th-he ha-all...I...I sa-aw y-your papa..." Dhriti hugged her tightly before she could finish her sentence.