DRISHTI

"See for yourself-the guy you were always feeling alone and isolated over? He's the same damn guy who's about to get married. Tsk tsk, Drishti, I always knew you were a loser, but I didn't know you were this big of one. He was right there in front of you. You know everything now, and still, you ignored it and let him go-as if he didn't matter. As if that younger version of him meant nothing to you, ever."

My inner voice mocked, ruthless as ever. But tonight, it didn't just feel cruel-it felt hurt, too. Not because I had failed again, but maybe because it pitied me... pitied the wreck I had become.

Tears streamed down my cheeks, and my chest felt heavier with every breath. Each inhale was a goddamn task, an ache, as if even my chest didn't want me to breathe anymore... like even it wanted me to give up already.

Akaash betrayed me.

Aditya betrayed me.

How could I be this cursed?

My hands trembled as I clenched the fabric of my dress, tears dripping onto the backs of my fists. I shut my eyes tight, but the memories slammed into me like violent waves.

How could I be such a fool? How could I let myself fall in love again? How? Just... how?

The ache in my chest worsened, every breath becoming more of a struggle. I opened my eyes, my vision blurred, the railway station nearly deserted.

Me-the girl who used to fear being outside alone, who was terrified of harm, of darkness-was sitting in a desolate railway station at night.

And I wasn't scared anymore.

I wasn't feeling anything anymore.

Just pain. Brutal. Merciless. Stabbing. Pain.

I couldn't tell him. I couldn't say,

Akaash, see... I'm your Drishti.

The girl you waited for all these years.

The girl you searched for tirelessly for three damn years.

The girl whose photos covered every inch of your secret hall, hidden deep in your mansion.

The girl you fought for-against your family, your friends, even your own damn self.

Or was I wrong again?

Did you ever really love me?

Because if you had loved Damini, you would've never gotten engaged to Maya.

Because if you had loved Drishti... you still wouldn't have gotten engaged to Maya.

Was it just me? The only fool who kept drowning in guilt all these years-clinging to the past, only to fall in love with the same damn guy and get her heart shattered all over again?

Shame on me.

Mumma was right. I deserved to be alone.

I wish I had believed her sooner.

"I love you, Damini Sharma."

"Please don't ever leave me. I lost my first love, I can't bear to lose you. Not again."

"Please remind me of everything I said tonight if I forget it tomorrow. Promise me?"

I had promised. But guess what?

You made it look like you never meant a single damn word. Like you never loved Damini at all. And after everything... how the hell was I supposed to remind you of those words?

I sat frozen as a thunder cracked through the clouds above. I looked up to see the sky storming, wild and violent.

Tsk tsk.

Such an ominous soul I must be. Even the heavens started crying after watching me fall apart.

How can someone be so pitiful... yet so utterly unlovable?

I stood from my seat and let out a tired sigh, picking up my bag and hugging it close to my chest. The rain poured harder now, like the skies were mourning too.

"Drishti." A voice echoed through the storm-sharp, desperate, familiar. As if I'd imagined it.

My Akaash.

My Aditya.

I chuckled bitterly, brushing away my tears with the back of my hand. But I paused-because I heard it again.

"DRISHTI RAGHUVANSHI!!" The scream pierced the air like thunder, ripping straight through my soul.

I turned slowly, and there he was-standing there.

Aditya? Akaash?

What the hell should I call him now?

There he was-really standing there. In the middle of the heavy rain, soaked to the bone, his eyes locked onto mine like he'd found something he'd thought was gone forever. Again.

No... no, no, no... this couldn't be real.

Aditya couldn't be here.

It wasn't possible.

I hadn't even told Khushi where I was going. How the hell did he find me?

Wait.

He called me Drishti.

Did he... know everything now?

He ran toward me, entering the safety of the shelter, but the rain had already lashed against him, each drop like a scar against his skin-but he didn't stop.

He stood barely a foot away now. His eyes still locked onto mine.

And then I saw it.

His eyes mirrored mine.

So did his tears.

His cheeks were wet-not just from the rain but from the storm inside him.

"Drishti..." His voice trembled as he took one more step forward, his hand rising to cradle my face.

I stumbled back, my body instinctively retreating. Trembling with pain. With fear. With broken trust.

"Don't." My voice cracked as I stepped away again.

His hand dropped to his side. He nodded, as if respecting my boundary hurt more than the rain biting into his skin.

"Okay. I won't come closer. But just... listen to me. Please, Dri-"

"Leave." I cut him off sharply. My tears still fell, but my expression held steady now-firm, unyielding.

"No. I'm not leaving." His voice was solid. Stubborn. Like mine.

"Aditya, leave-"

"Akaash." He stepped forward, and this time, something in his gaze changed-darker, deeper.

"Call me Akaash, not Aditya." His voice cracked again, filled with longing. With ache. With everything.

But I couldn't. I wouldn't.

I couldn't survive a third heartbreak.

Because if it happened again... I wouldn't just break.

I'd be gone.

"Well, you said the same thing when this man broke your heart the first time. Or should I say... that little Akaash, living his life in peace while you drowned in guilt all these years." My inner voice interrupted, its words slicing through me with the same bitterness I'd once tried to bury.

"Mr.Aditya Sharma, kindly leave." I raised my voice, louder this time, but the tremble in it betrayed me.

"Drishti, please. I beg you... just listen to me once." He pleaded, his voice raw.

I let out a bitter laugh.

It burst from my chest like something wild, feral, broken.

His eyes widened in disbelief as I kept laughing-hollow and painful.

I ran a hand through my hair, shaking my head, then threw my bag to the floor like it held the weight of all my shattered pieces.

I stepped closer, arms crossed tightly over my chest. "You wanna talk? Go ahead. I'm all ears."

He blinked, like he hadn't expected me to actually let him speak. But he nodded, lips trembling.

He wiped his tears, cleared his throat, and then whispered. "I'm sorry."

A slow, venomous smirk curled my lips.

"Who exactly are you apologizing to?"

"To Drishti?" I took a step forward, voice low, biting. "The girl you left buried in guilt while you lived your peaceful life miles away? The little girl you abandoned with nothing but the weight of being heartless, just because she didn't recognize your so-called love?"

"No, Drishti-" he tried to interrupt.

But I raised a finger, pressing it against his lips.

My eyes burned.

Years of rage. Years of silence. Years of screaming inside.

"Or are you apologizing to the silly little girl who mistook a childhood attraction for love all these years? Or maybe to Damini-the woman whose heart you shattered beyond repair?"

A sob slipped out, uninvited, unstoppable.

"She told you everything, didn't she? Her past. Her fears. Her wounds. Her weaknesses." My voice cracked. "And even after knowing all of it... you still broke her."

Another sob escaped, this one heavier-like a piece of me falling apart all over again.

"You left her drowning in self-doubt... and got ready to marry someone else like none of it mattered."

I stepped back, dropping my hand from his lips, the tremble in my body refusing to calm.

"You know what, Aditya Sharma?" I whispered, my voice shaking but sharp. "You really did open my eyes. You proved it to me-twice-that I'm unlovable. So... thanks for that."

He flinched. "No, Drishti, that's not-"

I cut him off with a hollow laugh that sounded more like a cry for help. "Or what else, Mr. Aditya Sharma? Tell me. Actually, you know what?"

He let out a shaky hum, as if urging me to go on.

I stared at him, breath catching, and said what I never thought I would.

"I wish you had died. I wish you hadn't survived the operation."

His fists clenched at his sides, but he didn't speak.

His tears fell silently, but his gaze stayed locked on mine-refusing to waver.

"I wish I'd never met you. Not as Akaash. Not as Aditya. Not ever." I stepped closer, holding his jaw with trembling hands.

Tears spilled down my cheeks, meeting the storm in his eyes.

And for a second... my heart faltered.

Because I saw his pain. I felt it.

A part of me wanted to stop.

But how could I?

When the Drishti inside me-the one you broke-was still screaming. Still bleeding.

She was crying inside me, Akaash. I could hear her. The girl you left behind was still screaming.

"You made me believe... that everyone was right about me. My mother saying, I deserved to be alone. My fathertelling me, no one would ever love a girl like me. My teachers mocking me, for being too sensitive, too different. My classmates treating me, like I didn't exist."

I dug my fingers into his jaw painfully, my voice cracking.

"And you-Aditya Sharma-proved them all right. Not once. But twice."

He didn't flinch. Didn't blink.

Just stood there. Absorbing every word like he wanted them to scar him.

Like he wanted to carve them, deep on his heart.

I swallowed hard, the weight of it all crushing my chest.

"The boy I cherished in my memories... and the man I fell for all over again. Both of them played with me. And now I've got nothing left. Nothing to hope for. Nothing to fight for. Nothing to live for."

"I didn't have much after you left the first time...But now?"

I yanked my hand off his jaw and grabbed his fist, prying it open.

Then I placed it on my chest-right where my heart should've been beating.

"Now?" I whispered, my eyes locking onto his. "I don't even feel like it beats anymore. You've turned me into a goddamn living corpse. So... thank you. Thank. You. So. Much."

His eyes flicked down to his hand on my chest, then back up at me. Broken. Speechless.

I dropped his hand like it was poison.

"You know what the worst part is?"

"What?" he asked, his voice shattered, barely audible.

"I want to hate you."

I took a step back.

"But I can't." A sob choked out of me. Another step back.

"Because I love you." Another.

"And I will al... always." Another.

"No matter what time period we live in." Another.

"No matter what characters we become." Another.

"I will always fall for you."

I stopped, the edge of the railway station shelter brushing my back.

The rain hit me in full force. Cold. Merciless. Like him.

"And you..." I smiled bitterly, tears mingling with the downpour.

"You will always break my heart."

He flinched. But I didn't stop.

"Because the problem isn't you." I laughed hollowly, eyes burning. "It's me. It's always fucking me-who forgets her limits. Who dares to dream she could be loved."

"And then you show up...in one form or another...just to remind me that love was never meant for me."

I shook my head slowly. "Thank you for reminding me of my worth... again."

Then I turned, feet pounding into the wet concrete, slipping away from him, from everything.

I couldn't believe it.

I'd said it all.

And yet...

I could never hate him.

Not in this life. Not in the next.

My heart? It would always belong to him.

And it was destined to always be shattered by him.

"Drishti, stop!" he screamed behind me.

I heard his footsteps crashing into the puddles as he chased after me.

But I didn't stop.

Because for once...

I was running for me.

But no. Not this time. Not again.

I didn't want to live. I couldn't.

If there is really any God above, if I ever truly loved Shri Radha Krishna ji with all my heart, if I was ever soft-hearted, if I never intentionally hurt anyone, if I was ever even considered a human being... then oh, Universe, please take my life away.

I couldn't bear this anymore. I am not worthy-not to breathe, not to smile, not to eat, not to sleep, not to live.

"Drishti, for god's sake, stop right there. Please," he yelled again, his voice desperate, cracking.

But I didn't stop. I kept running.

Somehow, despite being so exhausted, I had this sudden energy, like my soul was forcing my body to escape-escape everything. Him. My past. My present. My future. My whole goddamn existence.

I reached the highway behind the railway station and didn't stop. I didn't look back. I just ran.

And the cruel twist?

The wish I'd begged for a thousand nights was finally about to be granted. When I wanted to die, pleaded with every god and force out there, no one listened. But now, when I didn't expect it, when some flicker inside me suddenly wanted to live, to fight, death appeared like it had been waiting quietly in the shadows.

I saw it flash in front of my eyes-the end. My wish being fulfilled, just when I realized I didn't want it anymore. But it was too late to take it back. Too late to change anything. And really, who could I blame?

It was my wish, after all.

The car's horn echoed through my ears, the thunderstorm flashed a white SUV coming straight toward me at a high speed.

My body turned cold as I stood there, unmoving. The headlights pierced through my blurry vision, and the heavy rain wrapped itself around me like a cruel embrace.

And then the car, slowly-so goddamn slowly, as if time had stretched out just to mock me-reached me, and the impact hit my stomach with a force so brutal, it made blood spill from my mouth. My upper body slammed against the engine, eyes filling with pain, and before I could even react, my legs flung into the air. My back crashed into the front glass, then flipped again, smashing against the car's roof, and then it disappeared from beneath me. My body fell hard onto the rough, sharp road, and the momentum dragged me across it-skin tearing, blood painting the street behind me like a trail of suffering. My side shredded open, my flesh grinding against gravel, and my head cracked down on the pavement. Stones embedded into my scalp, tangled with blood and soaked hair.

Blood trickled down my lips and everything around me spun. And yet, even then, only one thing consumed me-pain. But this time, it came in threes.

Firstly, the emotional pain.

Secondly, the physical pain.

And lastly, the guilt of never being enough to live.

"DRISHTI!!" Aditya's voice thundered behind me, but it sounded so far away. Like it was coming from another world.

The darkness crept in, slowly, possessively.

And yet, I whispered, one last time, a breath caught between hope and heartbreak. "I wish... I could ever be enough."

A tear slipped down my cheek.

And then the darkness devoured me.

The end.

I thought maybe-just maybe-I'd be worthy of living... maybe only a bit... just a bit before my last breath was stolen from my lungs.

But guess what?

Even death didn't pity me.

Haha.

Ha.