New neighbor (2)

"Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin 

Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in 

Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove 

Dance me to the end of love 

Dance me to the end of love 

Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone 

Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon 

Show me slowly what I only know the limits of 

Dance me to the end of love 

Dance me to the end of love... "

Lina woke up to the soothing eternal love song. She found herself lying on the sofa entangled with the wires. She mentally slapped herself for falling asleep on the sofa. Again.

The song was making her uncomfortable. Lina was way too familiar with the lyrics.

It was THE song.

It was her song.

It was their song.

Old memories began to resurface in her mind. Her heart was bleeding in pain. Lina reassembled herself before breaking down in Cold sweat. It was long she was having these nightmares again.

Lina tried to make herself sober. She slapped herself from falling into nightmaes again.

No the song was still there. It was not a mistake. It was still in her head.

It was not a nightmare.

It was a harsh reality she had been avoiding for years.

The room was dark.

Lina tried to look for the laptop to shut it down.

She searched for her phone to turn off the song. But the sound was not coming from her phone.

It was coming from outside. The sound was coming from the balcony next door.

"How ironic." Lina tried to control herself from making scenes "It's gonna be a long night again."

The balcony door was open. Lina walked towards it. She had left open it again.

Gentle summer night breeze and sleepless Citylights welcomed her.

The love song by Leonard Cohen was still lingering in the air.

Lina stood there folding hands close to her chest and inhaled the soothing fragrance of night life. As if she was in a different world.

She embraced herself standing in the balcony corner.

Lina didn't know why but always found the silence of the night helping her to cope up with all her grievance.

Lina didn't know how long she was standing in that position.

The old wall clock inside her room suddenly announced it was 2 in the morning.

Lina came to her senses by that sound. She frowned. She came here at around past midnight. It's been 2 hours till then.

The cold breeze outside was making her shiver. It reminded her that she was standing there in her thin nightdress only.

There was some rhythm still coming from the next balcony.

Lina thought of something and turned over to leave the balcony hurriedly. It had been long since she was in this stage.

Lina was scared to see the symptoms making a comeback. Again. It seemed that she needed medicines again.

All these years she tried hard to forget everything. But it needed only one song to make her this measurable.

Lina started panicking.

She turned over to go back inside. But abruptly stopped at the door noticing an unfamiliar figure sleeping on a armchair in the next balcony. Some of her favorite love songs were playing on the speaker.

The balcony was devoid of light. Lina was unable to see the face.

It seemed like the person had fallen asleep while listening to the songs. Lina thought of waking him up to make him stop the music. But hesitated to do so. The music was still playing on the speaker.

In that panicked state, Lina waited for sometime for any response from the person but couldn't stand the sight further. She decided to let it go.

Lina locked the door tightly and lighted up the room. She wandered around the drawers after drawers in search of medicines. Her breathing was getting slow. Her eyes were becoming heavy.

She hurriedly took the medicine and tried to calm down herself.

A sleepless night was waiting for her and she was well aware of it. The pain was too intense.

Lina could not bear it anymore.She managed to enter the bedroom and took sleeping pills from her bedside table.

Gradually she drifted off to sleep. The room remain lighted up the whole night.

Meanwhile the person sleeping in the arm-chair abruptly sat up. He had not fallen asleep at all. He was well aware of Lina's presence the moment she stepped in but choose to remain silent and quietly watchex her every movement throughout the entire time.

The certain person was in deep thought. He noticed her coming to the balcony in a daze. The thin silk nightdress did little work to hide her fabulous features. He watched the women standing there with her open hair, her hands were embracing herself. Her eyes were fixed at a distance.

She was looking like a lost goddess under the soothing light of full moon . She didn't utter a word. Just stood there ignoring the chilly summer breeze.

He watched her remain in the same position without blinking or moving a finger for over two hours. If he had not known her in real life, he would have mistaken her for a statue of an goddess.

After nearly two hours he noticed her coming back to senses and her trials to suppress the panicked movements. He saw her running to her room.

The whole scenario left a deep mark to him. He couldn't find any explanation to any of her actions. He just remained mum.

The person ran a hand through his hair in frustration. None of the scenes made any sense to him.

He turned off the speaker and closed the door behind him.

"Time to sleep buddy!"