Where did you go?

"Vansh! Vansh! Vansh!", screamed Ansh as he shook his body, trying to force the blinding rage out of Vansh's system.

"What?", growled he, clenching down hard on his teeth while his grey-blue eyes glared in his brothers' similar ones.

Using a soft yet firm voice, Ansh tried, "Calm down! Control yourself"

"Calm down?... Calm down? Are you out of your mind? You want me to bloody calm down when this piece of shit broadcasted the video? You want me to control myself when this douchebag humiliated my girlfrien.. wife publically? I am going kill that man", shouted Vansh in a booming voice - his voice raising as he neared the end and launched himself on that man again.

Standing in between the two, Ansh pushed Vansh backwards while two others caught him from behind.

"I'm not asking you to forgive him", corrected Ansh as he stepped towards him. "I - we'll hold him down, and drag his ass to the police station but right now, that is not important. She is", he pointed towards Shreya who still had a blank look on her face but was slowly creeping back,

"She needs you - go to her and leave that man to me"

Vansh stared at his wife as if only now realizing that she was there and she needed him. His rage instantly evaporated and dread-filled instead. He wanted to hold her, tell her everything would be alright, remind her that he loved her and they'd get through this together, that he would do everything to remove any trace of this video online. But...

He was afraid.

He was afraid of going to her. He was afraid of how she would react.

Because after all, it was his fault. It was he who peeked inside. It was him who recorded her. He was the only one who had the video. He should have been the only one to ever see this video, and now, it was on the internet for the whole world to watch.

He didn't know how his private video leaked, he really did not know. He had watched it just once and deleted it when Shreya asked, he even forgot about its existence - until now, that is.

His heart was beating wildly and his belly was clenching and doing summersaults. His throat was dry, getting drier by the second and he kept gulping for no other reason than to prevent his heart from jumping out of his throat.

He was so bloody afraid.


What if she blamed him? What if she didn't believe him when he said that he never showed this video to anyone? What if she didn't believe him when he said he didn't have any copy it? That he had deleted it the moment she asked?

What.. What if she... she left him?

He loved her, and he couldn't imagine living without her.

The grey-blue eyes that were filled with fire and anger were now filled with dread and helplessness. He looked utterly lost - like a kid lost on a dangerous street.

"No, no, not right now!", said Ansh, "Don't do this, not now when she needs you so much"

"What?", interrupted Vansh in a confused stutter.

"You know what, I can see it in your eyes. You are afraid. I don't know why, I don't care, but you gotta go to her. Listen to me! You need her and she needs you, so go"

With his eyes on his brother, Vansh gave an unsure nod and taking a deep breath turned around to face his love. His eyes scanned the place where he last saw her, searching the place to find her but alas, he failed.

Shreya was nowhere to be seen.

He ran towards the mantap and searched around, calling her name and asking randoms from the crowd. No one saw her. No one knew where she was.

Pulling out his phone, he dialled her number, his heart beating rampantly in both fear and worry. He dialled again and again, only to try again. He asked everyone and everyone asked everyone, but no one had seen her and no one had any idea of where she could go.

The next two hours were spent worrying and searching with only close relatives remaining. The police officers arrested the man and would come back later for more information when the atmosphere was a little stable and more suitable for questioning.

Shreya's parents sat on the steps leading to the mantap, holding onto each other as tears shined in their eyes and fell down on their cheeks. Vansh sat on the steps with his head ruffled, his eyes red and his teeth and fists tightly clenched, trying hard not to explode.
"Wherever she is, she will come back soon. She has to", he kept repeating to himself, the only anchor that kept him from drowning.

Heavy, depressing silence blanketed over them as each of them fought their own battles in their head. But their heads' snapped up when they heard the sound of heels clicking and jewellery ringing.

Shreya was standing at the entrance of the hall, in her pink wedding lehenga with a giddy smile on her face.

Vansh shot out of his seat and ran towards her, urgency clear in his steps. Stopping right in front of her, all his worry and tension transformed into immediate happiness and relief. A full smile bloomed on his face. He was happy. The problem was still not solved, but at least Shreya was safe and with him, they'd tackle it together. He was confident of it.

Spreading his arms wide, he reached for her - wanting to hold her and know that she was alright, to soothe the worry that was still nagging in the back of his mind, to simply hold her- but she flinched.

She flinched.

It was just a short, a millisecond flinch after which she hugged him, but it was enough for him to know that she was not alright. Something was wrong, more than what has happened.

The smile dropped from his lips. Holding her at an arms distance, with a penetrative gaze, he stared at her face. Only then did he notice, the fleeting eyes and glazed look in them, the giddy smile behind which hid a sad frown and the tensed muscles as if to protect herself from harm.

He was afraid, more than he had ever been.

She had always been closed off and it would have been hard to open her up on this topic, but the way... the way she was looking at him right now was worrying.

Very very worrying.

It wasn't that she was hiding behind something, she wasn't!

It was much more serious because it looked as if she had cut off pieces of herself and presented only some of them.
Only the ones she thought were good enough to get her full marks.

So though he wanted to say a lot of things, comfort her, apologize to her, tell her he would make everything alright, he didn't. Instead, he asked that one question, four words that stilled her, froze her body in place and triggered panic in her.

"Where did you go?"

She looked down at the floor and stood, while Vansh waited for her to answer.

"Where did you go?", he asked again - her reaction giving him another reason to worry.
She simply stood there without answering, her hands holding onto each other.

"Where did you go?", he asked again - a little louder this time and added, "Look at me"

She flinched but raised her head. Her beautiful grey eyes still held the glazed look and she looked close to tears. Her little nose was turning pink and her big, grey, watery eyes looked into his.

Vansh, taking a long, deep breath, asked again - a little softly, getting increasing worried at her reactions.
"Where did you go, Shreya? Tell me, please"

This time, she answered.
And her answer was enough to slide the floor right off his feet.

Never, never in his life had he been as tensed, afraid, shocked and angry, as he was now.

He understood her glazed look, the fleeting eyes, the flinch. He understood how she was in a very vulnerable position, with no one around to rely on. He was sorry that he wasn't with her, giving her a shoulder to cry on instead of fighting with that piece of shit and yet, yet, he couldn't help but be angry and disappointed in her.

He couldn't help but be angry at her for compromising her own safety.
He couldn't help but be angry at himself, for not being there to keep her safe.

On unsteady feet, he asked again - just to make sure he had heard her right the first time.

In a soft voice, she nodded and gulped as she repeated, "At my Uncle's place"