Divya was confused about Darshan's reaction on his encounter with the Death Lord, she thought that he would have been pushed to the edge of his sanity, but it seemed like that was never going to happen. Darshan was not only quite sane, he was strangely happy too and the cause of his happiness was weird enough to make Divya more worried.

When the call with his mother was abruptly cut off because of his sudden joyous outburst, Darshan did not even think about his mother being worried neither he thought of the consequences of meeting the Death Lord, he looked like he had finally met with the lost yet most important person of his life however that expression did not last long as Divya watched him breaking into muffled sobs. Scared out of her wits, she could only console him and wait for the boy to talk about it.

It had been half an hour since Darshan had gone to have a bath and Divya was moving all around his messy room, making it bearable to see. When Darshan finally could calm down from his stupor and they made their way to his dormitory room, it was already dusk. Darshan had spoken only few necessary words about freshening and having dinner together and did not even bother to ask Divya by what mean she could enter a boys' dormitory. Though Divya was relieved that she did not have to come up with a believable lie or how could she face Darshan's mother if she ever had to reveal anything about the truth. The truth that she was in fact his cousin sister, that they shared the same bloodline.

She still could not forget the sudden meeting with Darshan's mother which happened exactly six months ago.

FLASHBACK:

Divya was as usual having lunch in her favourite restaurant and suddenly this beautiful, ethereal looking lady approached her with a mild smile.

"Divya, how have you been?"

As for Divya, she was surprised, automatically she answered with another question "you know me?"

"Yeah I more than know you Divya. My name is Shweta Dev Sinha. Your late father, Dheeraj and my late husband, Dheeyan were siblings. So that makes us family."

Divya got overwhelmed by the fact that she actually had a family member alive and at the same time she felt disappointed; if she was really a family then why she never showed up in her struggle full growing up days in the orphan home where she got only elderly people and orphan children to call her family.

Though she felt sad, she just could not pour out her frustration on the lady. Apologising, she said "I'm really sorry. But I really can't recognise you."

"Of course you won't recognise me. I don't blame you though. You were so little when I left you in the care of your tribe peoples. And I regret my decision of that time till this day. Will you forgive me for not being a good family to you? If you don't want to then it's okay too, I understand you."

Though Divya tried to conceal her true emotions, this woman still could catch her like an opened book. Then it clicked to her embarrassed mind did she just say tribe peoples? What tribe peoples? The peoples from the home are some tribesmen? But they don't seem like any of them, right?

Wait! I am really thinking about the same 'tribe peoples' thing that she is talking about?

"Yes. You got it right Divya." Mrs Sinha's or her aunt's confirmation made her grasp on the fact that she said the last part out loud. 

Giving a soft chuckle to Divya's stupidly adorable look her aunt continued "since you're studying that subject, I guess I don't need to elaborate what does the tribesmen term mean."

Excitement took over Divya as she exclaimed "I knew it. So the myths about the shapeshifters' clans are actually true!"

Nodding her head yes, Mrs. Sinha said "it was my request to them to not let you know anything about this until you grow up enough. I again apologize for that. But I did it to only protect you and also you were growing up in the human world so we needed to make it as humanely as possible. Hope you understand."

Looking at her aunt's apologetic caramel brown eyes, Divya knew that she was sincere. Agreeing with her, she nodded and asked further "so what tribe we belong to?" Now she was curious and wanted to know so many things about her new found identity.

Again giving a low chuckle, Mrs. Sinha coo at her "aren't you a little thirsty for knowledge?" 

And Divya gave her a sheepish smile. Mrs Sinha continued
"Okay okay. I'll tell you the truth now. You and all the people back at the Sinha's ancestral manor actually belong to the Dove tribe. Your mom, Navyaa, was the tribe chief's daughter at that time and the next queen in line for the whole Tribe nation."

"You knew my mom?!" Divya literally squealed in excitement.

"Hmm. You know what I knew your mom better than your dad. After all we grew up in the same space and environment. We were close in age and me being the daughter of the Swan Tribe's chief really was helpful. She was a very sweet woman, a really good friend, an outstanding lover and I must admit that she was a loving mother too. You just got everything from her, your face, your hair, your personality everything screams of her. Not the eyes though, you got that from your dad."

"Yeah, I've seen an old photo of her and dad." Divya's eyes were glistening with unshed tears, still she managed to control them as she exclaimed with a chuckle "so mom was actually selected as the next queen, then I guess she was a brave woman."

"Ohh of course she was. Trust me it takes a lot of courage to go against your own people, your own kind and leave everything behind just to be with the man you love. And that's what she did to be with your dad." 

Divya looked confused as she really did not understand why would the tribesmen go against her parents' relationship and Mrs. Sinha knew the meaning of that look as she explained further. 

"Your dad's side of family belongs to the Owl tribe. And you know what made it more complicated? Your grandfather. Inspite of being a purebred owl he married a normal human woman and moved to the human world to live with her; love surely does work in a mysterious way. As you can guess, their children inherited them in very difficult way; Dheeyan was a half owl and half human, restraining him from shapeshifting, however your dad was fully a normal human except for his eyes, he had an excellent eyesight for the..... You know the otherworldly things."

Divya was astonished by the revelation of the superpowers of her family and she muttered "oh! That explains my powers. It runs through my blood."

Her aunt, however seemed a little stressed as she asked, "your power? Your eyes can see things like your dad?"

"No. I don't see things or whatever you meant. But I see colours."

Mrs. Sinha looked a bit relaxed, with pure curiosity she asked "what kind of colours?"

"Well, I call it Colours of Love. As I see them around lovers, or precisely around soulmates."

"Wow! That's new. Since when do you see this?"

"As long as my memory can go backwards. At first I couldn't understand what I was seeing as I never had anyone to explain the things and I was too scared to reveal anything. I was insecure about them leaving me alone or calling me things, you know what I mean. Then when I turned into a hyper hormonal teenager, I realised that was actually the colours of love and that perspective also changed as I watched people being all lovey-dovey even when there isn't any colour involved. I actually questioned my ability until recently, now I watch couples more attentively when there is a colour involved and when there isn't, and I finally can see the huge differences between them. Hence I got my whole idea over the soulmate....." Suddenly she gasped as she realised that she actually revealed her biggest secret to someone. Looking at her aunt, searching for any kind of funny or mocking reaction, she nervously asked "you think, I'm a freak, right?"

"No. Absolutely not. Why would you say that? Divya, you've got an amazing superpower and you don't know what you're capable of with that!"

Divya was relieved yet surprised too! why would this aunt of her acknowledge her with all of her weird conditions! 

As if Mrs. Sinha could read her mind, she added "I know what you're thinking. But a mother can't call her child a freak no matter how weird he or she is. And I know that feeling very well as I have a son who is also capable of seeing things, his name is Darshan. He is about two and half years older than you. He is a very sweet child, very matured, collected, brave and understanding". 

Divya was more than happy to know that as she exclaimed "I've got a cousin brother! Wow! Where is he now? I want to meet him so badly."

"Of course you'll meet him everyday from now on. He is at the university right now, taking an entrance exam to get admitted there to complete his leftover postgraduate course. And I know very well that he would be successful in that."

"Leftover?"

"Yeah. When he turned your age, an accident happened and he went into coma for more than one year. After waking up and healing well he wished for this and I had no other option but to agree."

Divya noticed that her aunt had a melancholic expression, might be because of the fear she had for almost loosing her only son. Thus she did not push the matter further.

After that they talked about this and that for a while and Divya came to know that her uncle passed away due to a heart attack before Darshan was born. As Divya finished her food and they exchanged their numbers, Mrs. Sinha took her leave.

END OF FLASHBACK 

Divya still remembered the day very vividly, she met Darshan for the first time. Of course it was her who approached the antisocial young man first and it still amazed her how fast Darshan actually could let her feel relaxed, accepted and at ease with no judgement. She too tried her best to make him feel the same and it actually worked; in just six months of time span they inevitably became each other's safe zone.

But today's incidents did not seemed normal at all in their supernormal life, first the lost ghost in the male washroom, then Darshan's unreasonable chase behind the murderer, then his death and the ghost chasing after Darshan, the Death Lord's direct interference, her aunt's suspicious behaviours and then the young man who exactly looked like Darshan. Divya just could not unsee all the happenings joining in one point and that definitely was that young man.

"Just exactly who is he?" Groaning, she ventured loudly and just then Darshan entered the room, all freshen.

Confused, he inquired "who?"

And as always, Divya knew better to suppress the matter "ohh nothing. I was thinking about a person whom I got mixed up in my today's paper. And I still can't remember who is the correct answer!" Then they just burst into laughter. 

After a good time after Darshan noticed that his room was cleaned up too, he just could not find any right word to gratify Divya. He was not like that usually but his whole brain system was malfunctioning and he was not the best mechanic yet, he needed more time to adjust; maybe he just should have listened to his mom.

"Darshan! Darshan!!" Divya snapped him out "let's go for an early dinner."

Vigorously nodding, Darshan replied "sure. At The V's, right?"

Adjusting her hair a bit, Divya exclaimed "of course! Com'on I'm starving!"

Darshan hastily fixed his half-wet messy hair, grabbed his phone and wallet as Divya pushed him out of the room. He suddenly remembered that neither of them had lunch and most importantly Divya could not go home to attend the funeral. Guiltily he asked "Divya will it be okay for you to accompany me? I mean you had to attend the...."

"Darshan, everything is fine. I've called the elderly grandma, informing that I'll be with you and return home after dinner. Now, let's go!"

Divya could never blame Darshan for his situations, after all he was born like that and what she knew from her aunty that after his birth they never settled in one place. Darshan's whole academic life had been spent through school after another schools, only his college life was the steady one, however that also seemed to be wrong with the unfortunate accident happening. Her aunt's overprotective behaviour was not unreasonable, she did not disclose the exact reason though. But Divya had this crazy haunch that these mother-son duo had been hiding from someone, as if they got a hold on them, specially Darshan, disaster would happen.

Darshan noticed that Divya was lost in her thoughts, he did not disturb her little space as he knew that he had ruined enough of this one day for her, so he decided to check his phone quickly and as expected, there was no calls or messages from his mom. He decided to try calling his mom's number and obviously it turned into out of service. After twice, he stopped trying, as he knew his mom changed her handset number for 'security reasons' again. All these years they lived their lives just like that; isolating themselves from most of the society, changing addresses, schools and hospitals for his mom's work. The only reason he got from his mom was for his safety, and he was pretty sure that they were someone's target because of his seeing ability. Who were they? What they wanted? Or how they were always able to find out them? All these questions were eating up his mind yet he had no one to seek answer because his mom would never disclose these things to him.

Darshan was assured that he would get all the answers at the right time, and all he could do was to wait and surprisingly he had endless patience. Sighing in defeat, he kept the phone back in his pocket, he knew his mom would contact him as soon as her new number would be in service and then he also would have to change his number too.

Walking in a comfortable silence, when they finally reached the First Corner Point he noticed that the accident scene already had been cleared up hours ago. He shook all the earlier scenes off his mind and entered his regular restaurant, The V's. It was his favourite one which always provided his all favourite foods whether it's normal time or festive season and of course it was Divya who brought him there for the first time when he started living in Utkalgarh. They took their usual seat in the dim corner which surprisingly was empty inspite of all the hustle happening in the surroundings.

The waiter as usual took their order which he pretty much had guessed beforehand and went to the kitchen merrily. Darshan never saw who the cook was but the food always had been delicious and healthy for him.

Divya seemed to be lost in her thoughts again and this time he became worried about her, so he decided to interfere "ground to Divya."

Giving a sheepish smile, Divya apologised "I'm really sorry Darshan. I was just wondering about my way home. It's getting late to get any bus to the old town so I guess I'll have to take a cab to go back."

"How about I go with you to drop off and then I'll be back in that cab." Immediately Darshan offered.

"Have you seen the time? It'll be over the curfew time when you'll be back." Divya argued back.

"But...."

"No. And that's final!" She literally glared at him and Darshan immediately surrendered, sometimes she acted like his mom even scarier.

A few more moments passed, Darshan was staring blankly toward the door, hearing the peoples around him. But when he found out they were talking about the murder at Brinda Avenue and the accident too, he ignored all the buzzing, he had had enough for a day. Nearby someone's whisper caught his attention: "do you know those two sitting on the first table are officers, that tall one is rude, he didn't give any details but the other one said that the murderer was the one who died in that accident ..........." hearing this Darshan looked forward.

His eyes fell upon a man on the first table whose back was turned to him and that man's figure blocked his view of the 'tall one'. He remembered the look of that tall officer from the memory of the spirit; tall, handsome, well built physique, fair skin with a yellowish tint on it, the ear-length coal black hair was neatly combed. His voice was fierce, cold, filled with authority, and even though Darshan heard it in a memory, still he realised that the exceptionally calm looking person had a fierce personality too.

But after that accident, when he was even afraid to breathe, that man's concerned voice was totally opposite of that cold one. It was soothing to his ears and even to his heart. The voice was the only thing that brought him out to his senses and gave him cue to run. In a corner of his heart he was doubting, if running away from there at that time was really a good choice or not.

Remembering the only admirable thing from that cursed afternoon, Darshan could not help himself from thinking
Woah! Wait! Since when did I start to admire a man like that?!

Darshan's eyes were about to down when suddenly the tall man came out of the other man's cover and looked straight at him. His warm brown eyes met with that man's golden brown ones, it seemed like forever to Darshan as he was caught up with that stare too much. 

As that man gave him a mild, charming smile, Darshan felt that urge again inside of his chest, the feeling of sudden suffocation but thankfully it did not make him cry again. This time it felt more relaxed yet active, comfortable and surprisingly exciting. His heart beats increased and the sudden unknown adrenaline rush in his stomach got him awestruck with the fact that he had a crush on that person from the very beginning.

Thankfully, Divya's gasp and her whisper-shriek diverted his attention.

"Oh My Lords! I wasn't hallucinating! You're doing it again!" Bewildered, she exclaimed.

Confused out of his wits, Darshan asked "I'm doing what?!"

"Radiating your Soulmate Colour!" Divya said it in such a manner as if it was the most obvious thing, leaving Darshan perplexed.

*****************
Hey readers ,
So the heroes are going to be face to face now.
What awaits for Darshan? Will Yash listen to him? Or something else going to happen?
So many questions......
Let's wait for the next chapter........
If you liked it please Vote , Comment and Share . 👍👍😊😊😊😊😊😊
Till then stay home, stay safe and enjoy reading 🙏🙏🙏

              ................Anasuya Raj

11th May, 2020

Republished : 21st June, 2024

Word Count - 3222