2 He suddenly changed

Muna was quiet. Aastha looked at her waiting for the answer but when she didn't speak a word, she looked at her dad. Pratik just shrugged and again she turned her eyes towards her mom.

Muna blew a deep breath....she started to go back in time and then all everything came at once. She barely controlled herself. That time was the most difficult time in her life cause that was the time she lost her family, her brother.

"I don't know if she is the one but..." she stopped. It was too painful for her to think about the past. She slowly closed her eyes and then she slowly opened it.

"30 years ago, he fell in love with a human." she looked at her daughter then at the wall behind her.

30 years? Hearing this, Aastha was quite shocked.

"When he started to go to college, he told me that he had made a human friend and always talked about her when he visited me. He had just turned 19 then. He always seemed happy whenever he called me and one day, he confessed that he was in love with her. I wanted to meet this girl and he promised too but suddenly after college graduation, he stopped calling me. I was so worried that I went to visit him and found him different. His condition was worst and when I asked about her. He said, it was over and that was the last time he talked about her with me. He started to distance himself from everything. I tried to do everything to help him, to make him say where did it get wrong that he totally changed but he wouldn't speak a word. Feeling defeated, I stopped asking him about her or the thing that changed him. I left the old house in Pokhara and brought a house in Kathmandu with your father so I could be beside him but he started to live alone and rarely talked to me." she said trying to control her tears.

Her dad went near his wife and hugged her. He recalled all the time she has slept while crying because of prayas. She did her best to save him and be there for him but he didn't let her. Pratik never let that affect their relationship. He always was there for her no matter how hard the time was.

"I did my best, you know. I even tried to find that girl but later, I found out that she left the town and shortly after that he left too."

Muna began to sob.

"He started to live up in the hills in Palpa. To be near him, I thought of living there too but he didn't let me. we brought house without letting him know and started to live here in Butwal so I would be near him. I left Pokhara then I left Kathmandu for him but he wouldn't let me anywhere near him. He cut everyone including me, his sister. He even told me to go back to Pokhara. I guess, she was the reason he left KTM and came here. He started to live in the hills away from us and rarely came down." she said tears in her eyes and pain in her heart, thinking how much she wanted to help him and be there for him but she couldn't do anything. All he did was push her away, time and again. She had to see her only brother dying daily and all she could do was nothing.

"I used to go up in the hills without his knowledge and used to found him in......." She sobbed again. Pratik pulled her more close and shushed her.

"I found him in the condition that still haunts me. He used to be lying on the floor, blood everywhere. It was different then because he was a vampire. I can't even imagine the situation if he was human." Muna looked at her daughter.

"After college, he lived a life of the dead. The only difference was that he was breathing. Every single day, I waited to just hear his voice but he wouldn't speak a word." She then hugged her husband tightly and cried in his arms. She had seen the worst times in her life. The times when she had to lock him up in the room because he would try to harm himself. She begged him time and again to tell her what was hurting him and the reason he was dying every second but he wouldn't speak a word. She was tired asking him all the questions and so she stopped. She even tried to find the girl but every time she would start the search but he would stop her saying that it will change nothing.

So many questions came on Aastha's mind and she guessed some answers. she tried to figure out why he was the way he was and why he always had a cigarette in his hand whenever he was alone. She thought maybe people only drink or smoke to forget something or someone even though they say it's not. His amazing tattoos came on her mind. He stayed in her mind like always. She loved his looks, those big black stud earrings, and his dreads. She had so much respect and love for him.

She wanted to ask him about everything but to this day he hadn't spoken a word with her. She somehow understood he was hurt and may be due to that he wouldn't speak. She hugged her parents and went to the room but couldn't sleep so she got out of the bed and without letting her parents know she went back to that woman's place. As she had thought, he was still there. She watched them for some time. He was holding her like she would disappear if he let her go and she saw something in his eyes, fear? love?

She came out and sat in the garden and thought for some time." I can't go directly in front of him and ask everything. Like mom said, he won't talk and we have never spoken a word. I should start to make a small conversation, maybe one day he will open up and I will be able to help him. But I have no idea how to start a conversation. Only one person can help me" she stood up and called her best friend, Denisha.

"Aastha," she said at one ring.

"How's the party going on?"

"Boring as I had thought," Aastha said in a boring tone.

"I can understand, family gathering and birthday with family can be so boring," she said rolling her eyes.

"You know my mom, How she is. She is so careful when it comes to mama. She didn't call anybody in this party cause my mama was coming and even I was unknown about it."

(Mama means mother's brother in Nepali. it's not mama which means mother )

"Hmm. I understand. How is he? Did he talk to you?"

"No, I mean, he wished me and even gave blessing while putting Tika on my forehead," she said smiling. He meant a lot to her even though they rarely talked.

"That's nice," Denisha grinned on the phone.

"I know and I am so happy too but..." Aastha stopped.

"But?" Denisha asked.

"I wanted to tell you something that I found out about him,"

"Yes, tell me. I am listening," she said eagerly.

Aastha was quiet for some time thinking about where should she start.

She then told everything to her best friend from the time she saw him enter the house to the time she found how why he is the way he is and her best friend listened to it with great interest and shock.

And here was Prayas, lying on the bed holding her. After all these years, he still had so much love for her. After he calmed her down, he planted a kiss on her forehead and slowly stepped out of the house. He stood in front of her house, his back facing the house and sighed. Slowly tears rolled down his cheeks. He turned to look at the house for one last time and the only thing that came on his mind was, he was so close yet so far from her. He shook his head thinking how life played a dirty game with him but the fault was all his. He then in a second was gone like a wind.