Sanely Yours

{“Kisi ki muskurahaton pe ho nisar, kisi ka dard mil sake to le udhar” – Anari}
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AUTHOR'S POV

The air in the courtyard was thick with the scent of jasmine and marigolds, a stark contrast to the desolation that choked Vidhyukta's heart. She sat before the small, intricately carved mandir, its brass idols gleaming under the relentless gaze of the afternoon sun. But Vidhyukta saw nothing, felt nothing, except the crushing weight of her loss. Her usually vibrant eyes were now hollow pools reflecting the emptiness within.

Rudra, her life, her love, her anchor, was gone. A freak accident, they said.
Days had bled into each other since the news arrived, each one a fresh wave of agony washing over her. She hadn't eaten, hadn't slept, hadn't even registered the concern etched on the faces of her family. Food was tasteless, sleep a cruel mockery, and comfort, an alien concept. Her world had been meticulously constructed around Rudra, every brick a shared memory, every window a shared dream. Now, that world lay in ruins, and she was buried beneath the rubble.

"Why?" she whispered, her voice hoarse and barely audible, the sound swallowed by the vast indifference of the universe. "Why him? Why us? What was my fault, God? What did I do to deserve this?"

Tears streamed down her face, a silent, unending river of grief. She felt like a child lost in a dark forest, desperately calling out for a parent who would never come. The gods, whom she had worshipped with unwavering faith, remained silent, their golden faces impassive. The injustice of it all burned within her, a white-hot rage simmering beneath the suffocating despair.

Her hair was dishevelled, falling across her face in tangled strands. Her clothes, usually impeccably chosen, were rumpled and stained with tears. She was a shadow of her former self, a broken doll left discarded in the dust.

Suddenly, a figure appeared at the edge of her vision. A hesitant presence that disturbed the suffocating solitude she had unknowingly sought. It was Tript, Rudra's twin brother.

He held a plate in his hands, a simple offering of sustenance, but to Vidhyukta, it felt like a cruel taunt. She hadn't seen much of Tript in the past week. He had been strangely reserved, distant, almost…Rudra-like. She had attributed it to his own grief, oblivious to the charade he had been forced to play.

The charade, she now knew, Rudra had made Tript promise to keep the truth from her, to pretend to be him, to shield her from the unbearable pain for as long as possible.

The betrayal stung more than the grief itself. They had treated her like a child, incapable of handling the truth. They had dared to decide what was best for her, to rob her of the chance to say goodbye, to hold him one last time.

Tript approached cautiously, his face etched with concern. He knelt beside her, his presence radiating a gentle warmth that only amplified her anger.

"Vidhyukta," he said softly, his voice a near-perfect replica of Rudra's, a cruel reminder of what she had lost. He reached out and gently tapped her shoulder.

She recoiled as if burned, her head snapping up, her eyes blazing with a mixture of anguish and hatred. The tears still flowed, but now they were laced with venom.

"Don't touch me," she spat, her voice raw and trembling.

She scrambled to her feet, putting as much distance as possible between herself and him. The sudden movement made her head spin, but she ignored the dizziness, focusing all her energy on the figure before her.

"Don't you dare come near me," she repeated, her voice rising in pitch. "You… you are not him."

Tript's face crumpled, his eyes filled with a pain that mirrored her own. He understood her anger, he knew he deserved it. But he couldn't bear to see her destroy herself.

"Vidhyukta, please," he pleaded, holding out the plate. "You need to eat something. You haven't had anything in days."

She stared at the food as if it were poison, her stomach churning at the mere thought of swallowing anything. Food felt like a betrayal, a denial of the grief that consumed her.

"How can you even think of food?" she screamed, her voice cracking with emotion. "Rudra is gone! Do you understand? Gone! And you… you stand there offering me food as if everything is normal!"

She lunged forward, grabbing the collar of his kurta, her fingers digging into his skin. Her body trembled with rage and exhaustion.

"I hate you," she hissed, her face inches from his. "I hate you for lying to me. I hate you for pretending to be him. I hate you for robbing me of my last moments with him!"

Her voice, raw and broken, reverberated off the bare walls.

"How could you, Tript? How COULD you do this to me?" she screamed, her hands clenching into tight fists. Tears streamed down her face, blurring her vision.

Tript stood before her, shoulders slumped, his face etched with a weariness that aged him beyond his years. He didn't meet her gaze, his eyes fixed on a worn patch of carpet near the door. The silence hung heavy between them,

"Say something, Tript! Anything! Don't just stand there like a statue!" Vidhyukta’s voice cracked, the venom replaced with a desperate plea.

He finally looked up, his eyes red-rimmed and filled with a sorrow that mirrored her own. "I... I didn't want to, Vidhyukta. You have to believe me."

"Didn't want to?" she scoffed, the sound bitter and hollow.

"Vidhyukta, please. Calm down," he said, his voice low and controlled, an attempt to defuse the situation.

"Calm down?" Vidhyukta's bitter laugh echoed in the room. "You ask me to calm down? After what you’ve done?"

The words hung in the air, thick with accusation and hurt. She saw the truth reflected in Tript's averted gaze, the confirmation that her fears, long simmering beneath the surface, were now devastatingly real.

"You snatched the last moments that I was supposed to have with him, i wanted to say I wouldn't be able to live without him, to tell him that you have made me head over heels for you, I don't want you to leave. Don't leave me Rudra. Please don't leave me." Vidhyukta cried her heart out.

The force of her outburst, combined with days of starvation and emotional turmoil, finally took its toll. The world around her began to blur, the colours fading into a swirling grey. Her grip on Tript's collar loosened, her knees buckled, and she collapsed, unconscious, into his arms.