The Abyss- Ishqbaaz Fanfic by Aashi
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Chapter- 21
The clock struck three in the morning but sleep was far away from Om’s eyes.He paced,restless and frustrated,in the garden.He felt like breaking something but remembering the counseling session-he began to breath deeply,trying to neutralize his feelings.He could not comprehend Gauri’s strange behavior from the last evening.A stealthy form creeped inside from the gate-Om’s heart stilled;is it an enemy? Did anyone wanted to hurt them?He followed the person upstairs,keeping out of sight but freaked out when he found the person trying to sneak into Priyanka’s room.Springing into action,he went,caught the person and turned. “Bhaiyaa,what are you doing?”He was shocked to see the person was Priyanka herself.”Kaha se aa rhi ho into raat ko,Prinku?”Om asked in a surprised whisper.”Wo bhaiyaa,I wasn’t feeling sleepy,so I went out for a stroll”Priyanka half-lied,for it was true that she hardly ever felt sleepy before three due to her frequent meetings with Moonlight.
“Bhaiyaa, aap theek ho naa?”Even though being the youngest Oberoi kid,Prinku always understood everyone’s emotions around herself.Om contemplated whether to lie then decided against it,”No, I’m not okay Prinku, I’m scared,I’m very, very scared.”All his suppressed emotions came rushing back to him and he began to cry noisily before his sister,his brave facade falling away.Prinku gently took him inside her room and pulled his head on her lap while half sitting on the bed.Slowly,she patted his hair and caressed his crying face and began to sing a lullaby.It was a dear memory of her childhood,and also of Om bhaiyaa’s.Their mother used to sing it for Om when when he was a toddler and child and in turn Om had sung it to her while putting her to sleep as an infant.Om had been more of her ‘mother’ figure until he ‘grew up’ but today she found her Om bhaiyaa who had cried when she had scrapped a knee.Slowly,not quite afterward,both drifted off to sleep,huddled together.
Tej tossed alone in the bed.He was restless as Jhanvi didn’t come home.He had went to bed early but some time past midnight,he woke up to get a drink of water but was surprised not see Jhanvi in the room so he called her up.She responded but told him that she will be late and cut it instantly.He hadn’t realized that he had fallen asleep again until the clock stuck four and a low sound of ignition was heard.His sleepy brain hardly registered the both sounds separately when he understood Jhanvi must be coming home.He sat up on the bed,ready to start his enquiry but she didn’t come upstairs.Tej got up and went to the stairs but was taken aback to see her talking on her phone in hushed tones.Catching sight of him,she nodded her head in acknowledgement,and came up the stairs.”Where were you?”Tej asked in a concerned tone-he hadn’t known it was there.”Not now Tej,I’m too tired.We’ll talk in the morning,okay?”Jhanvi said as she walked past him into their room.
The next morning,the two brothers were surprised not to see Om at the breakfast table and were worried not to find him in own room but their hearts warmed at the sight of the brother-sister duo sleeping,cuddled together.They woke the two up and Shivaay instructed them to go down for breakfast before going to carry on his daily routine.
Around five in the evening,Shivaay came back from office.He saw Anika sitting quietly in their room,folding some clothes.The sunlight of the setting sun was hitting her hair giving it a brown hue,making her face glow.She looked angelic,the most splendid thing in the room and his life.As if he had no control over his own body,he moved in a trance towards her and hugged her from back.Anika gasped at the sudden grip,jerking out of thought.She had been much surprised to find herself in Shivaay’s embrace when she woke up that morning but brushed away the flutter in her stomach as she remembered his words.