Nakusa by hima (epub e ink reader .TXT) 📕

He frowned.
I caught him staring at the torn fabric; I quickly covered it with the black cloak. He pulled over at his house.

“I don’t think mother would like late night walks. I’ll sneak you in…”he said. I nodded. He walked me to my room.

“Um…I think you owe me an explanation.” He said. “I’ll talk to you in morning. Take some rest and clean up those wounds…”he said eying the wounds.


I dreaded last night events very much; one thing that worried me most was if Andrew chose to say Mrs. Wilson about my escapade than what would happen? I found myself assuring saying that if he wanted to turn you in he would have done it so at that time instead of sneaking you in. May be he would have realized that he had a good chance to get me removed from his life after last night’s thoughts. After all that was what he wanted, right? I thought.

I was still brooding over my thoughts when I heard a knock. I had to be ready whatever he decided to do. I was strong in taking decisions but when it came to implementing them I lacked courage. There was another knock. I stood still staring unable to move, what if he told her and what if they decided to throw me away? My father would kill me and my sisters. Mother thought I was going to change my sister’s fate.

“Linda…Are you awake?” I didn’t even dare answer. There was another gentle knock maybe I should pretend sick, may be they would take sympathy in me and wouldn’t throw me out that way I would earn few more days and I could make a plan meanwhile not that I had any chance of staying here.

I slumped on to the bed as I felt giddy. “Linda…Are you okay?” Andrew budged through the door. “I’m sorry for entering without permission but I had to check whether you are okay.” He said coming in.

As soon as he saw me on the bed catching my head, he rushed to me. “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“You have fever…”he said after checking my vitals. “Wow! I thought I should pretend, turns out I don’t have to…” I mumbled. He looked at me as if I’m a freak.

“You should have cleaned your wounds properly…Trust a woman on this…”he said cleaning the wounds.
“It’ll hurt but you will feel better later…”he said and wrapped up my arm sleeves to clean them.

Andrew tentatively pulled her arm sleeves to find the wounds, he was shocked to see many scars on her hand, he looked keenly at her, her beautiful face has same scars around the end of cheeks too that were well covered by the loose hair strands. He wondered how she got all those scars.

He admired her will and strength; she didn’t even flinch when he cleaned the wounds with spirit. She’s not like others…He kept saying to himself.

He gave her a dose of medicines and left. He told that he would come back in evening to check on her, she just nodded closing her eyes. She looked so beautiful in her sleep, she smiled in her sleep like a small child, and it brought an involuntary smile to his lips.

I could feel all the weight on my head easing of little by little, I tried to stand up and my head felt heavy as if it was carrying something heavy on it, my legs staggered in response to the heavy weight.

“You have high fever…you need to take rest.” Andrew’s voice sounded distant but I knew he was near me because I felt his gentle touch.

“I’m okay…” I said trying to stand up once more. I staggered and fell down, I heard the shuffling of feet and then I was lifted up from the ground and placed on to my bed.

“You should listen when someone says something for your own good.” He said putting me to bed. I gave a weak smile.

“Linda…What are you doing in bed?” My father’s voice was crude. “I’m not feeling well, father…” I replied feebly.

“I know you’re just acting so that you can skip the work. Get up now…” He ordered. I willed my body to stand but I couldn’t; last night I was hit very badly by him. My body was sore and I couldn’t move sideways to sleep all the night, now it felt numb but I could feel myself as if I was inside a heater.

“Get up…”his voice was raging with fury. He gripped my wounded hand and jerked me off, I fell down stumbling from the bed with a thud, I shouted in pain but it came out as a croak. “Stop acting as if you are dying…” he shouted.

He lifted up my fragile body his bulky arms carrying me by shoulders, he shook me off, I slowly opened my eyes using every ounce of strength left in me, and his face was dangerously close to me.

“Get off to work…”he said dropping me on to the floor, I cried in pain. He loomed over as a death, I shrieked at him to stop when I found my voice back, I felt him jerking me heavily.

Andrew was frightened as he heard her sudden outburst, she was speaking incoherently in her sleep and when he tried to wake her, she closed her face as if she was protecting herself from someone.

“Linda…wake up…”he shouted. “Father…please…” Was all she kept mumbling in a childish voice. He couldn’t find any other way to get her out of the sleepy trance she was in. He slapped her hard against her face, she opened her eyes instantly, he couldn’t forget how much fear that cute eyes of her held. He thought he was responsible for that, he tried to move forward but in an instant her demeanor changed into calm. He wondered how she could change her emotions all of a sudden.

When I opened my eyes to see Andrew, I understood that I was dreaming about my past as a kid. Andrew’s face was pale with shock, I realized that he was shocked because of my behavior, I couldn’t let anyone see how I feared my past especially Andrew. I locked them all down and put the calm demeanor.

“What was all that shouting about?” Mrs. Wilson walked in. “She is just having a nightmare…” Andrew replied but by his voice I knew he suspected something else. I nodded.

“It’s common to have breakdowns in high fever…”He assured her mother. “I’m still not sure how she got the bruises…”she mumbled. “Let her take rest, mother…” he said.

“Yes…Yes…Linda take care sweetheart.” She replied walking away with a dubious look on her face.

“How are you feeling?”He asked checking on her avoiding eye contact. Linda studied him, he is worrying about something. What was it? The answer struck to her at once, he was worried about her. That brought a small smile to her face.
“Andrew…I’ll be okay. It’s not that first time I got sick and I heal fast…”I said. He nodded.

“I feel like walking…” I said. “No…you have to take rest…” I knew by his voice that it was an order. He gave some medicines and Anna brought milk. “Hi, Anna.” I said as soon as I saw her. She nodded and left giving wary looks at Andrew.

I slept this time carefully urging my mind not to bring up any painful memories.


Next morning I felt good, I woke up early in the morning and felt like stretching myself a bit, I grabbed the quilt around me and walked into the backyard. The early breezes were carrying a chill in them. The fresh wounds that I received during the accident began to prick my skin; I ignored them since it was very minute pain compared to all others I experienced.

“You shouldn’t be out in this cold weather. You’re wounds would hurt you more…” Andrew voice came out of nowhere.

I scanned the horizon; it was filled with fog revealing small parts of the misty leaves of the trees. Andrew appeared out of the snow. As he came near, I could hear my heart beat racing, he was breathtakingly beautiful, with the damp hair and translucent white shirt he put on, revealing his finely carved stomach muscles. His deep brown eyes had an unknown depth to them. His brown skin was an asset to his flawless beauty. Prince charming…Jenny’s voice popped into my mind. I shoved the thoughts aside and smiled at him.

“I couldn’t ignore this beautiful weather for some scratches…”I said smiling. Scratches? What a woman…? Andrew thought and smiled at her.

“How are you feeling?”He asked. “Very much alive…”I said. “Since you are not considering going back, would you like to walk with me?”

We walked for a while and he seemed to be considering what to ask, he sat me on a beach after a while.
“Um… where… did you go exactly that night?” he asked tentatively. “I told you I went to home…”I said indignantly.

“I saw the hem of your dress torn…” he mumbled this time. I thought of lying about it but something in his voice told me not to. He is obviously worried about something.

“I couldn’t get my family to open the door so I thought I should go by the open window on the roof, I climbed up but my dress wasn’t helping me much to climb so I tore it up to make an easy climb.”

Andrew had been having worse imaginations since he saw Linda behaving oddly last night, he thought she was…he shrugged his shoulders thinking to stop his weird imaginations. He left out a low chuckle as he imagined her climbing up the window.

“Do you do that a lot?”He asked. Linda was confused for a while and then understood that he was speaking about climbing up the roof tops. “Once in a while when it is needed.” I said smiling.

Whatever that had been troubling his mind must have been answered since he seemed normal again, I thought seeing him smile again.

“Where did you get those scars from?” He asked me looking at my hands as if he could see them through the fabric.

“I just had cuts by falling down…”I lied. He stared at me for a while and nodded. I knew he didn’t believe my lie.

“Are you thinking to say this to your mother?” I asked tentatively. “Why would I?” he asked shocked. “I thought since you don’t like me it would be a perfect reason for you to get me out of your life…” I mumbled.

He laughed that illuminated his face.
“I didn’t think about it that way, maybe that would be a great chance….” He said smiling. How stupid of me? I should have kept my mouth shut; he studied my awkwardness and quickly replied. “I am still not going to tell her…” I smiled.

We remained silent for a while, I took the chance to look at my surroundings, there was a pool right in front where we are sitting, and it’s filled with lotus. The fog seemed to clear off a bit because I could see the silhouettes of building and trees.

“Why did you cry on our… engagement… day?” He asked tentatively. How could I say that I was not sad about the engagement with him but I was sad about the curse part.

“I didn’t expect it