Chapter 4

White... Everywhere she could look.. It was all white. Khushi felt so at peace.. Snow, it felt so nice under her feet. Strange, she was bare feet in snow... Why?

Who cared? Khushi felt like jumping, tracing different patterns, prattling around in the snow.. It was so rare that it snowed.. She wanted to enjoy it to the fullest..

She stretched out her hands to gather the falling snow into them... The hard, cold breeze striking her face felt really nice... Why? She didn't know.. The cold blistering storm technically should have hurt her cheeks, then why did it feel so good? Why did she feel so at ease in the cold?

She started walking aimlessly all around.. It was all white.. Endless.. Seamless.. White.. How pristinely beautiful, Khushi thought...

She was so busy dancing around, that it took her sometime to register something sliding the ground as she moved. She turned around, and found her own ebony tresses brushing the snow, forming amazing patterns of their own.. Strange.. When did her hair grow so long?

She had always loved growing out her hair, but training would have been difficult in them.. So she always had to trim them down.. How Arnav scowled every time she did that. She giggled, thinking of Arnav's reaction now.. He would be so happy, but dare he smile at her face! Naah.. It always seemed as Arnav had vowed to never smile... Couldn't he learn something from Khushi in all these years? How little it took for her to smile... Almost as little as it took for Arnav to get angry... She kicked the snow a little.. Making the white particles merge into more white...

Suddenly, she noticed a red splotch somewhere in the white. Huhhh.. It was such a tiny spot, yet, it was ruining all the white.. So typical! Arnav loved red, didn't he? But she didn't... Not even one bit... So she ran.. ran to the red spot.. Some really weird red that was... It wasn't even freezing in the snow, as if that tiny amount of liquid was retaining its form, even in the freezing temperature.. Now she was even more annoyed with that red spot... She bent down, scooped up a handful of snow and put it on that red.. covering it up.. She got so happy to restore her white.. All over again..

Finally she could enjoy the snow.. She bent down to pick up a handful more of snow, only to see that red again.. Had it grown in size? It seemed so.. Uggghh... So irritating.. She took more snow this time to cover it.. Yet it kept on growing... So, she kept on dumping more and more snow, until her hands got stained in that red color... Still the stupid red kept on growing... And somehow, her hands seemed to shrink with every try to bring the white back... Now it had somewhat started scaring Khushi.. The red just kept on pooling around her.. And the worst part was, it didn't seem to merge with the white snow, didn't fade out even a bit.. Just kept on increasing..

Khushi ran.. Why the hell did her feet seem to shrink as well.. Her feet were now soaked in that red, as she wandered around.. panting to get away from it... Her hair, now colored mahogany as they dripped in that red too, left a tracing line behind her as she tried to get away from it all... Searching for her white again... Her throat was parched and her breath was hitched.. Why was it all endless?

She ran and ran.. until she couldn't anymore.. She felt her tiny feet would give in any moment, and her eyes seemed to prick.. as if fighting back tears...

Finally, she saw a figure in the hail storm.. She sighed a breath of relief... At least somebody was here...

But the red kept on increasing... approaching.. intensifying...

As soon as she reached close to the figure she realized what it was... She couldn't think anymore.. No... Not this again... She saw the two corpses lying on the snow.. Blood drained.. And the figure, whom she had found so reassuring moments ago, was drenched in the blood... Eyes ruby red in color... She didn't need to see the face of the monster, those eyes were sight enough for her to freeze in place.. Her mind wanted her to scream.. but her throat felt just so parched... Her whole body as if kept on open fire, yet still frozen.. Those red eyes gazed into hers and she could make out that the monster just smiled at her..

She got up with a jolt... Whole of her body was shivering, and she was drenched in her own sweat... This horrible nightmare kept on repeating itself for quite some time now... She had managed to suppress it most of her life.. but for the past few days, she didn't know why, it had come back to haunt her.. Her throat still felt dry, but she felt too scared to even move her body even an inch..

*Creak*

Her bedroom door opened, and Arnav entered in..

She saw him enter with a blank face. Ohh how much he tried to keep emotions off of his face, he should get an award or something. Khushi felt relieved at seeing him standing near her bed. But then, why was he here? Had she been screaming out aloud?

She tried to smile, or whatever excuse of a smile she could manage to bring on her face.

"Did I disturb your sleep? Sorry for the screams..." Khushi said apologetically, still trying to get her face back to the normal chirpy self.

"You weren't screaming.." He said, blankly. And came forward to sit beside her.

So typical of him, when did he ever need her to call for help? He always had been there.. Everytime she had seen that nightmare.. Everytime she had screamed in the past years.. And everytime she hadn't screamed in the past few days, he would somehow know she needed him, and silently come to her..

She clutched on to his chest, burrowing her head there... Screamed, cried, bellowed in agony, dreading seeing that horrendous sight before her eyes again, fighting against sleep. Her body shook with the pain her heart felt. The pain of losing her parents, her world, her perfect world...

Not once did he move.. Not once did he comfort her..

It was impossible for him to pacify HER... Wasn't he in as much pain as she was? Moreover, his pain was actually doubled. His heart bled each time he saw Khushi like that. Even tonight, when he had ran towards her room like a deranged freak, just to confirm that she was sound asleep.. He had felt fire burn and seep in his soul at the sight she was in.. Her bleached face would have put those bloodsuckers to shame. Arnav never knew how to stop himself when it came to Khushi. The protective instinct could not be compared to anything in the world. And that was why, everytime he even remotely failed, he felt like deserving to be burned at stake..

Somehow, he thought, while she broke down in grief on his chest, it was the overwhelming need to protect her that kept him sane. Master knew that very well, didn't he? That's the reason he gave him the responsibility in the first place, right? So that Arnav remains tied up to her. So that Arnav doesn't go on a mad rampage to slaughter every leech in sight.

He felt her sobs slow down a bit, that soothed his insides a little. He didn't have the heart to stroke her head, calm her.. Why would that help in the first place? She would be in this state again, wouldn't she? The only way to rid her of this nightmare forever was to eradicate all of the bloodsuckers. Make her watch the last one die. make her feel safe forever.

By doing so, thus dissipating his need in her life.

Wait. That hurt. Why did the thought of she not needing him hurt so much?

Maybe because, Khushi had always been his to protect. All the time, as far as he could remember, he had centered his life around protecting her. Yes, that must be it.

He didn't realize when his hands had circled her petite form into themselves. She was sleeping peacefully now, in his embrace.

He froze as soon as he came back to senses. And in mere seconds, laid her down on her bed, walked out towards his room, cursing himself for the thoughts roaming freely in his head regarding Khushi.

Ugghh.. His whole body was burning again.. Maybe she not needing him someday was for the best afterall. Then, he would go kill himself somewhere in peace, before he himself became a threat to her.

Khushi gave herself one final look in the mirror. She couldn't help but smile. For a change, Arnav had been sweet to her last night... It was rare that he hugged her to calm her down. Sometimes, she thought he wasn't even capable of such emotions. But then, time and again, though once in a blue moon, he would surprise her..

So today, she thought of surprising him back by wearing red.

A gorgeous red saree, with sequins adoring the border like creepers climbing up a tree. She had left her hair open after a long time, extremely pleased by their length now. They ended just on her waist. She knew the time to trim them back would come soon and Arnav would sulk silently again. Well, atleast he would be happy today, whatever his definition of happy was.

She made her way to Master's room, and... ran into a shadowed black figure that was emitting the deadliest darkest aura possible..

She shrugged and smiled, tugged on to the figure's hand, leading him to the Master's room...

Arnav didn't like this one bit. Did she even realize what she was doing to him? One look at her and all his emotions had gone haywire. There he was, pleasantly sulking in a corner. Why did she have to come, looking like a goddess nonetheless, touch him so majestically and lead him some place he didn't quite remember at this time.

When had she started liking red?

When had she started wearing sarees?

When had she started looking so heartwrenchingly beautiful?

When had she started smelling so mouthwateringly delicious?

Wait What? He stopped his train of thoughts then and there. The burn in his throat was making him think atrocious things for sure. Rather he shut all his senses tonight.

They reached the Gala. Master had given Arnav a real sweet and easy list of Do's and Don'ts for the evening, which quite frankly, translated to tight leash.

He led both of them to the centre of the hall, somehow managing to look the most bewildered Arnav had seen him in all his life, introduced a certain someone to them.

"Arnav, Khushi, this is Lord Shyam, the ruler of Pureblood Vampires..." Vikram uttered, some unknown emotion playing on his face.