"Hi... how are you doing?"
Ankhush's voice, soft and hesitant, sliced through the air, breaking the suffocating silence that hung between them. The words were simple, but the sound of them--his voice, his presence--shattered something deep inside Mansh. For a brief moment, he couldn't quite process them, couldn't quite feel the reality of what was happening. His mind scrambled to catch up with his body, which was already trembling, already overwhelmed.
Mansh's breath caught sharply in his throat. His vision blurred, and a cold wave of panic washed over him. His heart pounded in his chest, erratic and violent, as if it were trying to escape. He blinked rapidly, but it didn't help. The tears--too sudden, too raw--began to spill down his cheeks, warm against his skin. His throat tightened painfully, and before he could stop himself, he was sobbing, the hot tears rushing down his face, staining his cheeks in a silent, uncontrollable cascade.
Ankhush, standing before him, took an instinctive step back, clearly startled by the sudden breakdown. He blinked, eyes wide with confusion, unsure of what to make of this emotional unraveling. "Uh... hi? Are you okay, Mansh?" His voice trembled slightly, uncertainty creeping into his tone as he took another hesitant step back, his brows furrowing deeply in concern.
Mansh didn't answer right away. His breath came in shuddering gasps, each inhale shaky, too shallow, too frantic. He couldn't stop it. The emotions he had kept buried deep inside--the anxiety, the confusion, the raw panic of the previous day--rushed out of him all at once, like a dam breaking open. His chest constricted with the weight of it all.
Ankhush... he was standing right there. Alive. Real.
For a moment, Mansh couldn't make sense of it. His mind raced, trying to stitch together the pieces that didn't fit. He had been at the hospital. He had seen the empty bed. The empty room. Had he imagined it all?
'Was this a dream? Was it possible--?'
'No. No, it couldn't be.'
Mansh's voice broke through his chaotic thoughts in a broken sob. "Where… did… where did you go yesterday?" His words were choked, ragged, as though they had to fight their way out of him, each syllable sharp and painful.
Ankhush blinked, his expression growing more perplexed, as though Mansh's distress was something he couldn't fully grasp. "What do you mean?" he asked, his voice still soft but now edged with confusion. "First of all... stop crying," he added firmly, though there was an undeniable tremor in his voice now. His eyes softened in concern, but the command still hung in the air, a desperate attempt to make sense of Mansh's reaction.
Mansh, still overcome with emotion, wiped his face with the back of his hand. He could barely see through the blur of tears, but the effort was futile. They kept coming, unbidden. His breath caught in his throat again as he tried to steady himself. His chest rose and fell in uneven bursts, but no matter how hard he tried, the tears wouldn't stop.
Ankhush's confusion was evident. Mansh could see it in the crease of his brows, the way his lips pressed together in a line of concern. He looked like he wanted to say something, but the words seemed stuck. Instead, he took a hesitant step forward, lowering his voice, as though trying to soothe the frantic energy around them.
"Mansh..." Ankhush began softly, reaching out a hand, but stopped himself midway, uncertain. "Please… what happened? I was in the hospital. I'm fine. What's going on?"
Mansh shook his head, the sobs coming in violent, jagged gasps now. "No... no, Ankhush, you weren't. You--you were gone. You weren't there. The room was empty. You weren't anywhere." His words broke again, too caught up in the emotions spilling out of him.
Ankhush's face tightened, as though trying to piece together the fragments of this strange conversation. He stood still for a long moment, clearly unsure of how to respond, unsure of what Mansh was seeing or feeling.
"Stop crying, please," Ankhush repeated, his voice gentler now, though still carrying that undertone of confusion. "I'm here, okay? I'm here. I'm not gone. I was... I was in the hospital. You saw me there." His voice faltered slightly as he reached out again, this time brushing his hand against Mansh's shoulder, attempting to offer a sense of comfort--but it felt so alien. So out of place.
Mansh wiped his eyes again, this time with more force, trying to control the sobs that shook his body. He wanted to speak, to explain what had happened in his mind, but the words felt too scattered, too tangled to make sense of. He only managed a weak, ragged breath as he looked at Ankhush, his chest still aching, his heart still racing.
"I--I don't understand," Mansh whispered hoarsely, voice trembling with exhaustion. "I thought you were gone. I thought I had lost you."
The silence stretched between them, a thick, uncertain barrier neither of them seemed able to cross. Mansh's breath was uneven, and as he stood there, trembling under the weight of everything he hadn't said, he realized how completely shattered he had become in the space of just a few hours.
Ankhush remained where he was, his presence solid and real, but the distance between them had grown, unspoken and heavy. Mansh's shaky breath was the only thing that filled the space now, his soul laid bare in that fragile moment.
***
A/N: now we can know what happend to ankhush.
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