Aradhya ||Indian historical fiction||

10| VOID OF RELATIONSHIPS.

Vihaan ran with Aradhya in his arms. His hands were drenched by her blood and it dripped the whole way along the path he carried Aradhya to get her to the infirmary.

He looked down at her and found her breathing short, quick and raspy. She had already closed her eyes but wasn't unconscious. Vihaan walked at a surreal pace as Nandini and Sadhana walked behind him after seeing him so tense.

Vihaan set Aradhya down on the cot of the infirmary as the royal doctors immediately got to work. It was a scene that, even with closed eyes, Aradhya felt deeply. Only the doctors were the ones who didn't care who she was. Who she was born to. Who she belonged to. They did nothing but tend to her because she was not a concubine's daughter to them. She was a patient who they needed to tend to.

Vihaan let his arms fall to his side, breathing heavily and gasping for breath. He looked almost terror struck. He beat himself up for the fact that he had to keep his wife safe and he failed. Nandini assisted the doctors, light in her feet and quick while Sadhana sat beside Aradhya.

It had been a while since Sadhana had seen Vihaan look so tense and maybe even scared. He sweated crazily while watching over the scene. The blood did not stop flowing. Every passing second the situation git worse as Aradhya eventually coughed up blood.

Vihaan hurried over to her weak self and stood angrily at her side. Sadhana held Aradhya's hand noting the pulse and occasionally rubbing it to get the blood flowing.

Vihaan stared at Aradhya and spoke in a commanding tone.

"You better not die. If you made me run all the way here just to die I swear to god, I don't know what I'll do," he knelt to reach Aradhya's level, "do you hear me. You better not die."

.   .   .   .

"I'm trying Vihaan. I scanned the entire surrounding of the temple and even the neighbourhood but I couldn't find them." Rihit spoke as Vihaan let out a grunt, rubbing his temple.

"It may happen that we won't find them but I need to know who ordered them to attack. I won't to how who did that to her." Vihaan shot a look to Aradhya who lay unconsciously on the bed with clean cloth dressing her gushing wound. Her breathing was still erratic. She still seemed like the wound hurt like hell and probably it would have.

Rihit clapped Vihaan's back, "I'll find out who it was. I promise." Saying that Rihit started walking off but Vihaan called out to him again.

"Why do you care about her?" Vihaan asked sensing the surge of confidence Rihut had as he saw Aradhya's state.

"Why do you?" Rihit asked back, leaving Vihaan speechless and indecisive. He threw a small smile at Vihaan and continued on his way.

.   .   .   .

The night was on its way and Aradhya, though awake, was not a tad bit emotional. Literally. She had no emotion in his eyes that was other than hurt and disbelief. Sadhana and Nandini tried to get her to tell what the matter was but failed. The two left.

Aradhya stared into the void of nothing. She was more disgusted than hurt. Almost as if she never imagined the attacker to be that person.

Vihaan walked into the room and anger was evident even in his strut. Though he walked in with a straight face, he stopped and chicken out for a second seeing Aradhya laying on the bed, her back against the backrest and her eyes looking at nothing but the air in the room. Just when he thought he should be a little polite, Aradhya's screams from the other night blazed in his mind.  His brows drew together again and he walked in and stood before Aradhya.

"We found who attacked you?" Vihaan uttered, angrily.

Aradhya did not say a thing but just nodded and returned to her actual state. Vihaan raised his brow and walked closer to her.

"You don't even want to know who it was?" Vihaan asked, annoyance dancing its way through each of his words.

Aradhya again did not say a word but looked Vihaan right in the eye. She knew who it was. She knew it infuriated him and she knew all the reasons Vihaan was acting the way he did now.

"Fine if you don't want to know. But I want to get it out of my mouth. Okay?"

"Bhairavi Ma."
"Bhairavi"

Both Aradhya and Vihaan let the name slip out of their tongues. At the same time. At that, something dwelled in Aradhya that made her tears flow. Uninterrupted.

Her mother was the one who attacked her. Her mother was the one who tried to kill her.

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