C – CHAINED

Kajal gazed deeply into the mirror. Her eyes stayed transfixed on her reflection in the mirror. Her kohl-rimmed eyes left her spellbound. The soft curves of her high cheekbones added a diva-like aura to her angelic face. Her sharp and slightly upturned nose made her look like a fairy. Her lips were full and seductive. Her skin was almost flawless now, barring a few eruptions here and there. Her shoulder-length hair was well-oiled and brushed back on one side.

Kajal liked what she saw. Everything was seemingly perfect. Yet, something was missing. Everything was missing.

She went back to her bed and lay herself down to rest. Her eyes darted towards the wall-clock – it was 8 pm already. Parth would usually come home from work by 7 everyday; he was very particular about his priorities. She had been his priority, ever since they had begun seeing each other at the workplace five years ago. She remembered how he’d promised her that if they’d ever get married, he’d keep her in his well-furnished house, that he’d let her groom herself like a princess, that he’d let her lie all day in bed and not need to as much as even lift a finger, and that he’d spent most of their life in each other’s company; there’d be no one else between them.

She nodded to herself. Indeed, he had kept his promise for all for years of their married life. She shouldn’t be having any complaints.

She had almost fallen asleep when she heard the keys making their way into the key hole. It took only a couple of seconds for the door to swing open, and her handsome husband to walk in. She quickly sat up in her bed.

“Hey Sweety”, he smiled, “Are you feeling sleepy already?”

She merely nodded her head. She could only muster half a smile.

“Here’s something I got you. I’m pretty sure you’ll love it.”

He pulled out a velvet box from his bag and placed it gently in her outstretched hands. She opened it and saw beautiful anklets.

“Silver”, he continued, “They’ll make your beautiful feet look even more heavenly.”

She nodded in agreement and proceeded to put them on. He was right, they added grace to her feet.

“Beautiful”, he said as he got up.

“Paaarthhh…” she blurted out in a whimper, “Can I go visit my mom once? She….”

He turned to look at her, the calm smile now having made way for a snarl, “We’ve had this conversation before!”, he took two quick steps towards her bed and raised his finger, “I’ve told you a million times now, it’s just you and me from here on…NOBODY ELSE!”

He then turned back and walked out of the room in anger.

Kajal put her head down, almost as if she had submitted to her fate…again.

She looked at her anklets and thought to herself, ‘What beautiful chains for a prisoner.’

Please feel free to leave comments, whether or not you liked what you read. It's a great way to start a conversation or a dialogue. I might be pretty boring in real life, but I promise I'm a lot more fun in this avatar.

A special word of thanks to Ashwini Sharma for the image. I have been following her on Instagram since a couple of months now. She is an IT Engineer based in Bangalore. As she would like to describe herself, she likes to take a little interest in everything under the sun. She believes in enjoying the simple things in life, loves travelling and loves experimenting with her looks. As her Instagram handle suggests, her everyday inspiration is the L'il girl living inside her! Her Instagram URL is https://www.instagram.com/ashlilgurlatheart/

Previous posts in the A to Z Challenge - April 2017:-

A - All Apologies

B - Baptism