Prologue.

Prologue.

He was a strange man, indeed. Our eyes met in silent gestures. 

"Shall we?" Leaning slightly downwards, he held out his open palm for me to take his. "You need to change that bandage too." And, his indolent grin was back on his face. Leaving no trace of depression on his face which he was showing plainly not a long moment ago. 

Blinking, I found myself placing my hand in his as we started to head back into the house.

At that very moment, I realised six things of my own which were surreal:

1: Uzair was a very unexpected male with a very deep inside-concealed benevolent nature. (Which he didn't like to show at all to anyone.)

2: The world we were living in was very dangerous, maybe that was what got my parents killed.

(Or perhaps it was actually a planned accident of which I wasn't still aware.)

3: I still did not know; how perilous a person Uzair was! (Or maybe he exactly wasn't what he liked to show himself to be to everyone else.

4: Everyone has a monster or a demon inside of them, no doubt; however: tamed. But, his unrelenting demons- weren't. Which I surely was afraid of. (Or maybe he had demons inside of him which were not even tamable to tame.)

5: Uzair was no ordinary man. Not at all. (Which I was certain of.)

And, last, but not least:

6: I had, somewhat, started to trust Uzair. (I somehow.) 

•

•

•

"I am terribly sorry," he apologised for the nth time of the day, after a very long pause, sounding so small. 

"Hm?" My straying eyes darted to his. It was so strange to see someone like him sound so meek, so small at that moment. If it weren't for my own eyes watching him, I would have definitely thought my ears were to be playing tricks with me.

He looked so remorseful, so defeated with his broad shoulders slumped. His once eyes which used to have cold glaciers in those orbicular pools, had a certain type of glint tonight; something unknown, a certain kind of vulnerability tonight. There was something in his eyes which held akin to an exposed personality. 

I've seen many, many shades of Uzair, some were from his dark side; some were from his light: totally different and uncanny from any other mortal I had known in my entire life. However, he wasn't sounding like the one, I had known him to be in the past five months- almost, which he was plainly showing to me, now, directly:

A completely new shade of him.

A shade of:

vulnerability. 

I never knew that he even had- one.

The desolation in his eyes was all so obviously visible in his remorseful visage. Which was even too much for me. I had to force my eyes to blink the fog of emotions from them which was making my senses vague as something close to compassion in my heart began to form, for him.

I waited for a moment for the pounding of my heart to ease a bit. Gazing up at him, I realised something that was; it wasn't just me who was feeling unrelenting emotions, but him as well. And, the intensity of his vulnerability was overpowering all the other emotions on his face.

”You're going to stay, right?” It was a helpless tone in his sentence which dumbfounded me the most. 

His face wasn't stoic nor impassive like I always used to see on him. Albeit, his face was relenting his emotions freely. Not holding back any longer. Anything. Because for once I saw fear— unadulterated fear. However, I couldn't come to realise the fear was for what exactly.  

Feeling curiously discontented and a little bit astounded by his strained tone, I commenced asking when he spoke in a small voice again. 

"I know I don't even deserve your forgiveness for what I've done back down there just a couple of hours ago. Or whatever I already caused in the past. I know, it is not forgivable as easily as I make it seem to be but whatsoever and whatever I did- maybe the way of my doing was improper. But, not my intentions were. They were simply impulsive instincts of my mind. It was for your own good which I had to do the hard way." 

I heard him sigh sharply. 

"Even so, I need your answers, Radhika," he said softly. “Your answers are what I look forward to.”

My heart pounded at an unrelenting pace.

“What if I chose to leave?” my voice held a quiver in fear of his answer. “Would you let me leave?”

He turned his face away. “You know it isn't even an option. Leaving this place where you are protected is out of the question. Leaving isn't even a choice nor an option.” 

“B-but this is the only thing I want from you.” There was a desperation in me when I disclosed my notion.

He didn't meet my eyes when he empathised, “Ask me anything more than that.”

“I feel trapped.” There was a lone tear which strolled down the length of my cheek.

He sharply inhaled. “Am I that bad?”

At that instant, I didn't know what to say. I kept my mouth shut. I choose silence over words.

“I'll take the silence as your answer.” At that sentence, his tone got hard. “Leaving here,” he took a glance at me. “Leaving me is not an option,” he repeated his words, slower this time. “Even if I want to, I cannot let you go. I just can't.” 

My already welled-up eyes closed themselves as fears took place. With millions of rotating questions in mind, I chose to go with a “why?”

He kept quiet. 

My hands started to tremble.

“Please tell me why?”

He wouldn't meet my searching eyes.

“Why can't you let us go?”

With so many surfacing questions to which I needed the answers, I repeated one by one to him in search and hoped that he could provide me with any of them but no. He chose to keep quiet. 

“Ask me anything but that.”

“My freedom.”

He exhaled. 

“That is something I cannot afford to give you.”

“Why not?” Eyes glistening with fresh tears, I asked with no hope.