This was my entry for AmbassadorsPK  Monsoon Season Contest. I hope y'all will like this.

PROMPT: Whenever it rains, it aches.

Flashbacks in bold.

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INAAYAT

THE MIDNIGHT GLORY is shining above and the starry canvas is a view to behold, a soft zephyr plays with my auburn waves as they rustle sweet nothings to me. A drop of pearl touches the ground, the petrichor engulfs me in memory. A pain of decade, the grief of eternity.

Sitting on the wooden swing under the old bougainvillaea with petals covering the titled porch reminding me of the beautiful past I lived under them, here. But that was a decade ago, eons ago.

Unknowingly my brown eyes find their way towards the iron gate of my residence, the brown gates across the alley. The closed brown gates, a sign of a closed book that can never open again.

A gulp.

Pain sojourns, somehow, somewhere.

I let myself engulf in the arms of the past, let myself float upon the deep sea of memories, let myself walk through the lane of laughter, of pain. For when it rains, it pains. My heart aches and my eyes bleed.

A gust of wind passed me leaving a mist of pain, for a moment, even in the dark alley, I can see the past making a troll in front of the familiar brown gates. For once I see the lean tanned boy of nineteen summers, with untamed curls and a charming smile sitting on his bicycle waiting for the eighteen spring girl whose long auburn waves are tied in a long braid.

The faded memory of the first kiss that he stole standing right in the middle of the alley, the moment my breath halted and next I ran back to my place with a thugging heart and a shy smile. The clouds roar that night, I thought it to be a sign of love. Little did I know, love brings heartbreak too, destruction.

The memory of the first call is still there in my mind.

That summer I was sitting right under this tree when his call came.

"Hello," I asked.

"Turn around" Eyes furrowed at the known voice, turning my head a little towards the large iron gates, the house across the street and there he stands.

That summer evening the sky was tainted in hues of pink blue orange and purple, clouds strewed there as happiness and love spattered upon. For love had found a new residence in my heart, for him, only him.

I sighed as I remember the petrichor touching the ground, bring the pain along. He crossed the alley, pushed the iron gates. The winds danced crazily, the dance of love, the anthem of happiness. The clouds roar as the young lovers stands in front of each other.

By that time his black T-shirt was sticking to his lean body so did my white dress. He pulled me towards him, and the rain pours upon us, the rain of love.

His face came near me, my heartbeat rising to its peak.

His luscious lips kissed my earlobes as he whispered, "I missed you Inaayat."

And I swear I lost my breath then. He twirled me and I danced along.

That day for the first time in my eighteen summers, I had loved the rain, I had danced there, with him. For I had fallen in love for the first time in all these eighteen summers.

A gulp. Petrichor damped the parched lanes of my heart, filling them with love.

As the sky roars, I remember the call that ruined my life.

The phone call, for a second my heart fumbles a beat, I received the call and the next ten seconds was complete silence, a stillness that says the person on another side was not foreseeing me picking up the call. Ruhaan, my friend, said those words, and the latter thirty seconds was just blank for me.

Accident.

Blood

No more.

I didn't grasp what he talked about, all his words were just gibberish to me, then he asked, "Hey, you there?"

The only thing I told, "yeah, do I need to come?" He said I shouldn't. And I didn't. It's easy that way, not to feel anything.

Another hour later another phone call came to say I was not expecting this one would be a lie, I was, more like I knew this would come. Ruhaan was grieving for his loss, he lost his brother that day, an accident and his brother was gone. I was grieving for myself, an accident and I lost myself.

Finally, he said, "You know he loved you." And at moment one lone tear come down betraying me, bile reaches up to my mouth and I gulped it, my lips quivered but anyhow stifled my sob,

I just replied with "Yeah." Then he said something I never wanted to hear, "And he knew that you loved him more." That's it.

As the clouds permit the drops to touch the ground, so I did my tears, drop by drop, the cloudburst streams heavily, immersing me. The sky mourned that night as I stand in the rain, drenched in pain.

اس روز میں نے اس کو نہیں خودکو کھویا تھا

A gust of pass carrying the grief of past in them. A grief that was encaved in my heart, engulfed in my soul. A sigh left my lips as the soft drizzles fill the surround.

The storm has arrived with a gust of pain and grief, the wild hurricanes blasting as the realities clashes. The war has started as the realities of the present collides with reminiscences of the past. The conflict is rising outside and I was suffering inside as I stood under the shower.

The pain poured as love washed away from me all those years ago, a decade ago, as I close my eyes with agony filled in them. A love, no that was madness.

A madness that raised a war, a storm against the realities of the universe, and intoxication where I was too drunk to discern the truth, insanity I was engulfed in and he locked me there, for years, for an eternity.

That person with charcoal black eyes, tanned skin and a lean body was a part of my past, my present. It took me years to cross those lanes alone but a single glance and all my pieces shattered like broken glass, like broken trust. And rain brings them back.

Tragedies happen when you lost your love at a young age, tragedies of shattered souls and broken hearts. My eyes keep burning with those unshed tears as I stand under the rain still. My white dress sticks to my body like a second skin, and I am burning in the fire of rage. Anger of pain that he left behind.

Because when lover left on a stormy night while he had promised to stay for eternity, the pain of betrayal sojourned for an eon. A pain that won't let one sit under the poring sky ever again, that won't let one go back to their home ever again, for they had taken their home along.

I looked at the cloud-filled sky as I screamed tears betraying me, as my eyes found him amongst the mists, "All these years I had been looking for a home, and I had found it in yours, a home out of our scattered pieces. But that too was gone. Lost the moment you left."

جانے والے زِندگی بھر کا زخم دي گئیے

I blink my eyes and the lean figure faded.

Gone.

Faded.

Lost.

Him. My love. My Rehaan. My home shattered into pieces that pierced my heart and bleed my soul. And my pool breaks, I cried, in pain, in grief. A cry of agony, a plea to my love. A decade had passed but the pain stays, so does my love.

محبت اور درد کبھی ختم نہیں ہوتا ہے