Yakshini

Even the melody played by the wind brings a chill. And when the darkness joins, it takes the strength of a wild elephant. He unfolded his sleeves and pulled his fingers inside while kept walking through the dark. His breaths overflew with dense brume.

It was the same view ahead of him for a very long time, the black lane piercing the darkness that grew deep on either side. Abruptly he saw her standing in front of him. Her existence seems to have faded the darkness of the lane. She stood there as a water cowped inky painting.

"Someone there?" His voice jumped out into the cold and ran for her.

The extreme courage he expressed in his voice brought a smile on her face, a smile that can melt even the heart of any colossus. Being nothing of a monster, but just a human, he stood there all drifted away in her smile. Women with the scent of a devil tree's blossom. Her mystical smile unveiled a spring on him, he felt.

As a response to his astonished look, she said, "Are you scared of me? "

"Fear? That's for humans", he said with mirth.

He was unable to ask even a single thing though his mind was crowded with a million questions and also with a compelling heart. " What a killer smile", he told himself.

The wind brought his ears a distant stream's music. He doubted if it's her smile that is singing the mellow strain! He was walking faster than her, At times of monotony, he does that more often.

She mumbled in an indignant tone "Do you still remember that someone is walking with you?" He slowed down without saying anything.

After a pause, he said, "I am someone who walks a bit faster". She shook her head and continued to walk. It was the silence that packed them together not dialogues. He was dying to ask her things, many of them in fact., He was cooking things he wants to ask her in his head and the heat made him forget the cold outside.

To put an end to the stream of silence that was flowing between them, she said "you are a good human".

"People tagged many things along with my name but this is really a surprising one. You don't know me. You can't even see my face properly. Then why are giving me these fake compliments! Well, It's not completely true that am a good human, but I am sure that I am not someone to be scared of. So don't worry", He said in a restrained way.

Her response was nothing but her mystical smile once again. He could feel the moonlight fading the darkness away. It was getting clearer and clearer, her curly hairs dancing in the wind with all the freedom it deserves and that exquisite smile on her face.

"Your smile is shattering the wrath of darkness and touching my deepness. You are truly beautiful", He couldn't resist saying that.

Her response was a louder laugh this time. And said, "You just saw me in the moonlight. I am not that pretty". He had his lessons earlier so he didn't want to respond to that.

They walked silently through the lane lit by the moonlight. "Where are you heading to, in this late hour?, people say, the nights are never meant for women", He asked.

"People also say that women are not meant for anything other than to satisfy men" she replied.

"If it's true, then I am not one of those people you know of", he said.

"I knew that you would say this", she muttered. "Don't tell me that you are a mind reader", he gave her back a smile this time.

"Yes, I am, how do you think I know that you are a good human?" Her smiles spoke again.

"Then tell me, what else do you know about me?", He asked in a sarcastic way.

"I know everything, including the fact that you are a thief", she whispered.

He went frozen with amusement on realizing that she knows his well-kept secret that is worth his life. Dawn was approaching faster than he thought and that dark blanket between them was getting narrowed gradually.

"You need not feel bad about that, in one way or another, each one of us is a thief, the only difference is just the choice of things we steal."

After a long pause, he asked, " You didn't say anything about yourself?"

"I am a Yakshini, Yakshini who drinks the blood of inhuman humans", she laughed out loud.

"What", He asked in a panic.

She looked at him with that same dashing smile of hers and said, "don't worry, I don't drink the blood of humans with a heart, instead I love them". He joined her smile. The smiles took them closer than ever. He couldn't take his eyes off her. He never felt anything so beautiful as she is. He felt her as the most divine thing he ever came across. Thoughts took him far away, an alluring world.

He wondered how he reached so proximate to her poetic lips. Her lips felt prettier than a tender rose petal to him. He drank the honey from those petals so carefully and delicately. He tenaciously did it until the frozen blood in his veins started to boil. She stood relented as a tender leaf to the wind. He pushed her away from him on some realization. Her vibrant breaths kept hugging his face.

" Who are you, what you did to me? I am sorry", He blasted out.

She kept smiling and that took him to that magical world again. "Will you come with me? I will feed and care for you until the day my blood and bones weigh.", he asked.

She just stood there watching him with her cryptic smile.

"Why are you silent?", he asked. "I will come", She replied.

His eyes got filled with tears. She whipped those droplets off his cheeks, hugged him tightly, and woke his frozen lips with hers. It wasn't just the lips, she woke but his long-dead heart too.

They stood there and watched the sun unveiling its spirits from the gigantic mountains far away. She started to melt away into the wind gradually as the sun came up and dissolved completely into the beautiful morning like a cloud raining off its vapor. His heart lived more vibrant than ever and was filled with dreams weaved with her, only he could see her after that and forever.