The Strangers - Across the Silent Heartbeat-Chapter 12: The Unseen Strom

Now, with this sense of expectation—a new feeling to him—the thought of planning the first meeting with Ayesha sent an adrenaline rush of sorts through the humdrum routine of Arjun. Every other conversation, every message that he used to exchange with her now seemed a step closer to finally filling up the distance that kept them apart, perhaps for long.

He was eagerly counting the days when he would be able to take her hand in his and see her smile in person. I remember she had told me that some big competition was about to happen and that she would give all her focus to it. To me completely. All her time was required for practice for the same, she explained to me.

Though disappointment's darkness settled on the fact that he could not speak to her as frequently as he used to, Arjun understood. Merry hope of a meeting with her also kept him high. He got involved with all their plans, daydreaming in his free time about that moment he could finally have her in person. It is through his speeches that bits of the things they were to do or the place to meet or the places they wanted to go and the activities they took were like tasting a drop of nectar and gave him a feeling of occupying a kind of structure appointed to purpose and a sense of well being.

It was going to be then, almost as if to really test his resolve, that the world started draining Ayesha out of his life. The next day, just after getting a very moved message from Arjun, there were no replies from Ayesha's end. Then, telling himself that she must just be busy preparing for her competitions, he messaged all of them, crying neediness, and not a single one brought a reply. He went online there after in search of Ayesha but could find nil the very next day, and silence could kill.

In trying to console him, it was a passing concern; maybe she was having early pre-wedding jitters or maybe wanted to be left alone. Still, the days melted to weeks, and the growing emptiness in his heart turned harder to ignore. Arjun's days had changed now altogether. He now waited more by his phone, and the corners of his eyes flickered towards it after every message indication, only to be denied once again.

He is concerned and confused, and he cannot get rid of it. Now more than ever, he found himself growing careless as his gaze strayed across to the computer screen, barely calculating any work; his mind wandering back to the last few things she had written to him—both of them searching for some kind of clue, if there was any, which would explain her sudden vanishing act. All this was doubled up at night; he lay barely sleeping, the ceilings and thoughts were such a gushing turmoil of doubt and fear in bed.

He kept playing the conversations again and again in his head to find out if there was any hint to see and notice, which reminded him of her and sorely hurt. Little things. Weeks turned to months, and slowly, hope faded away. It was only her memories, those conversations alone, that kept him a bit sane: to hear again the sound of her laughter, feel some of that warmth from her words. But this gnawing uncertainty would brutally gnaw at him, dragging him down a little more. He may even seem a bit different to his friends a few days ago— a bit not so bright and a bit too raw.

It was from this that some fuzziness followed: his nice observation or not, Vikram got in touch. How it was that he had come to throw off the belief, he couldn't explain any more than he could tell how he still clung to it. Had he made some stupid mistake in dealing with the thing, or was that doom impending which faintly gleamed through every reprieve? He only felt the doubt settle on him, a weight immense in its crushing way, under loads of accessory quiet, weigh still more heavy while days, dismal, dropped one by one out of ever so.

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Nights punctuated—kept vivid—by this un-resting, questing glance over a future sliding away. One day, the emotional baggage in his room became more than he could bear. He opened his diary—again something he rarely did—to jot stuff down, ever since the feeling had struck back a few days ago. Frustration, longing, hope that one day he may understand why Ayesha was missing in his life—such feelings rushed out in his journal. His room had already darkened; long shadows in the dusk, there he sat beside the window, clutching that phone, willing it to light up with that name: Ayesha.

It was his last statement for the day, spoken from his empty room: "Please come back, Ayesha. I don't know what has happened, but I need you to tell me otherwise. I need to know that you are okay". You sweep the audience into this ride amidst the turmoil of Arjun's powerful emotions, a depth of longing, a heavy hanging silence now blanketing his life. You feel like "what next?"—that emotional heaviness, the pain just hanging very heavily—making you probably want to know what will happen with the next twist in the story. Well, that's exactly what would all of a sudden happen to Ayesha and how Arjun is going to take it.