The defeat.

The familiarity of the landscape scared her. All around her she saw familiar faces trying to protect her. The fear of losing them yet again to his attacks made her paranoid. She wasn’t afraid of being beaten up by him, again, but the horror of losing all the warriors who had stood by her during the golden days was something she couldn’t afford to accept.

As she saw him advance gradually her worst nightmares started to haunt her. The way he moved, holding his head high and the pride in his each movement reflected a challenge in itself. She had tried hard to understand his motives, all through these years, but still felt that she had been unable to decipher his thoughts. Numerous times she had been beaten up by him, and each time the horror and shame had been worse than before and here he was ready to put her through the humiliation yet again. She cursed her stars that each time she had let herself to be deceived by his smile, his perfect ease which made her so comfortable that she had let her guard down, only to be exposed to the harsh cruelty.

Before she had the chance to recover he broke through her defences and stood before her, smiling, challenging her to fight back. She looked around to see that the she had already lost so many soldiers, yet she wasn’t ready to give up. She was determined to defeat him in this war. It was a matter of moments before he overpowered her. She was angry, humiliated, yet decided not to give up. She had won all her wars before she met him. It seemed he was always a step ahead of her.

This time it didn’t hurt that much.

She got up slowly and put the chess board away, determined to beat him, the next time at the game he had beautifully mastered. 

Sriparna

13th July 2015.