RIVANs nightmare / battameez admi #5
Fragments flashed behind his eyes.
Broken memories.
Blood.
Screams.
A locked room.
Darkness.
A voice.
Pain.
The sensation hit him so hard he physically flinched.
His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
The bedroom blurred.
The walls felt closer.
The air felt heavier.
And suddenly he couldn't stay there anymore.
Without warning
He moved.
Fast.
Too fast.
One second he was sitting on the bed.
The next he was practically scrambling away.
The mattress shifted violently beneath him.
Sheets tangled around his legs.
He nearly lost his balance.
But he didn't care.
He just needed distance.
Needed air.
Needed to get away from the sight of that hand.
"Mr Thakur?"
Devyani frowned.
No response.
He was already on his feet.
Moving.
Almost running.
The panic in his movements was impossible to miss now.
Gone was the composed businessman.
Gone was the dangerous man who controlled every room he entered.
This looked different.
This looked desperate.
As if something was chasing him.
As if he was running from ghosts only he could see.
"RIVAN."
Concern replacing irritation.
But he didn't even seem to hear her.
His eyes remained fixed ahead.
His injured hand instinctively pressed against his chest.
Protecting it.
Hiding it.
His breathing growing faster by the second.
Then he disappeared into the changing area attached to the bedroom.
Practically fleeing.
The sound of a drawer being pulled open echoed through the room.
Then another.
Then another.
Like he was searching for something.
Anything.
Devyani stood frozen beside the bed.
Completely confused.
Moments ago they had been arguing.
Moments ago he had been laughing.
And now...
Now he looked terrified.
Genuinely terrified.
She slowly walked toward the changing room entrance.
Her heartbeat picking up again.
The closer she got, the more she could hear.
Drawers opening.
Closing.
Footsteps.
Uneven breathing.
Then silence.
A long silence.
The kind that made her uneasy.
Very uneasy.
"Mr Thakur?"
This time her voice was softer.
No answer.
The silence stretched.
Her stomach twisted.
Something wasn't right.
Something was very, very wrong.
And for the first time since seeing him break down earlier that morning
Devyani realized the injury wasn't what scared him.
It was whatever memory came attached to it.
Whatever happened during those missing years...
Whatever he had gone through...
The sight of that bandage had dragged him right back into it.
And judging by the fear she had just seen in his eyes
The memory was far worse than she could imagine.
Inside the changing room, RIVAN was losing the battle.
The moment the door closed behind him, whatever control he had regained during the night shattered completely.
He began pacing.
One corner.
Turn.
Another corner.
Turn again.
Back and forth.
Again and again.
The small space suddenly felt suffocating.
Too small.
Too confined.
Too familiar.
His breathing became uneven.
Each breath shorter than the last.
His injured hand trembled violently as he stared at it.
The white bandage seemed wrong.
Foreign.
Threatening.
His pulse hammered against his skull.
Fragments of memories flashed through his mind.
None complete.
None clear.
Just pieces.
Blood.
A locked metal door.
Darkness.
Someone screaming.
Chains.
The smell of rust.
His own voice.
A knife.
Then silence.
RIVAN squeezed his eyes shut immediately.
"No..."
The word left his mouth before he realized it.
His good hand moved to his forehead.
Pressing hard.
Trying to stop the memories.
Trying to silence them.
But they kept coming.
Relentless.
Cruel.
His chest tightened painfully.
He couldn't breathe.
Not properly.
The walls felt closer.
The ceiling lower.
The room smaller.
His heartbeat became deafening.
The same sensation.
The same helplessness.
The same feeling he had spent years trying to bury.
His hand slid down his face.
For the first time in years
RIVAN looked afraid.
The kind of fear that settles into a person's bones and never truly leaves.
He turned sharply.
Paced again.
Then again.
His thoughts refusing to slow.
How did this happen?
Why couldn't he remember everything?
Why did seeing blood make him feel like he was back there?
The questions collided inside his head relentlessly.
His breathing grew harsher.
More desperate.
Every inhale felt incomplete.
Every exhale felt painful.
He dragged both hands through his hair.
Pulling slightly.
Trying to anchor himself.
Trying to return to reality.
But reality felt distant.
Unreachable.
Outside the room, Devyani stood frozen.
Completely frozen.
She could hear every movement.
Every footstep.
Every uneven breath.
Every sign that something was terribly wrong.
And she didn't know what to do.
That terrified her.
But this?
This wasn't a physical wound.
This wasn't something she could clean and bandage.
She couldn't fight it.
Couldn't shoot it.
Couldn't solve it.
She could only listen.
And listening somehow felt worse.
The sound of his pacing continued.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Restless.
Agitated.
Lost.
Her stomach twisted painfully.
The image of him standing in the room flashed through her mind.
Blood dripping from his hand.
Eyes closed.
Whispering the same words over and over.
Don't leave me.
The memory made her chest tighten.
No matter how angry she was.
No matter how much she wanted to hate him.
Hearing him like this hurt.
Because this wasn't manipulation.
This wasn't one of his games.
This wasn't the arrogant man who had smirked at her and promised to arrive with a baraat.
This was something real.
Something broken.
Something he couldn't control.
And that realization frightened her more than she wanted to admit.
She slowly sat down on the edge of the bed.
Her hands clasped together tightly.
Trying to stop their trembling.
Trying to stop her own anxiety from spiraling.
The room felt impossibly quiet despite the sounds coming from behind the wall.
The distance between them was only a few feet.
Yet it felt like miles.
For two years she had imagined countless versions of their reunion.
Anger.
Arguments.
Closure.
Revenge.
Maybe even forgiveness.
But never this.
Never watching him fall apart.
Never hearing fear in his breathing.
Never seeing a man who looked so strong become so fragile.
The silence stretched.
Heavy.
Painful.
Neither of them knowing how to cross it.
On one side of the wall stood a man haunted by ghosts he refused to name.
On the other sat a woman carrying wounds he had given her.
And somewhere between them existed two lost years.
Two years filled with secrets.
Pain.
Loneliness.
And unanswered questions.
For the first time, Devyani realized something she had never considered before.
Maybe she wasn't the only one who had suffered during those missing years.
And that thought scared her almost as much as the sound of his panicked breathing behind the door.