Return – part 3

 

Part 1 “Piyu, your dada will pick you up” Her mother had said. The words kept growling in her mind with different monstrous effects. “Dada? Step-brother? Nikhil?” she babbled in her sleep. She was having a nightmare. Part 2

The train stopped and she got down with her luggage. She was happy and nervous at the same time “Nikhil” the name knocked in her mind. She couldn't recall when did she had called him dada, a big brother. Her eyes searched frantically on the station, still hoping that he doesn't turn up. But she saw him standing, relaxed, leaning at the wall, at the exit. She had never seen him in person in few years, just some family pics that her mother had shown. He was staring at her. As soon as their eyes met, he started towards her. She dropped her gaze, her heart pounding. “Nikhil” the fear again knocked her.

He was wearing a rugged jeans and T-shirt. There was a light smile on his face. He hugged her but she stood straight and rigid.

“How are you, Priyanka ?” she noticed that his voice was now solid. She remembered his childhood wicked laugh, the brittle voice then, yet a damaging one. “Huh ?” he snapped. “Huh…ya…fine”, she managed to whisper. He smiled again, just lightly. He picked her bag and started walking towards the exit. She followed him.

His chubby face was now grown into a lean manly face, she noticed. The stubble made him fairly attractive. But there was a sadness on his face. The dark circles under his eyes talked about something. She wasn’t sure if it was sadness or something else, the darkness, the cruelty. He knew she was studying him in quick glances from the corner of her eyes. He smiled and she shuddered. It was his The peculiar cruel smile, lips curled from his right reaching his ears…

He hasn’t changed, her heart started beating faster.

***

To be continued...