Rising Like A Phoenix

Chapter 2

Maya’s P. O. V

I was still breathing.

My bones were broken, my flesh was ripped off from my body, and my skin was already scalded by the vicious fire which kept burning everywhere around me for how long even I did not know but I was still alive.

As if it was all happening according to what fate had planned for me a long ago. As if it wanted me to feel this deadly pain to the very extent, so that I could never forget what I had to endure in this life, if I ever get to born once again.

So, I kept my eyes closed and just prayed for all these sufferings to end as soon as possible, along with my last breath but I guess even dying is not that easy as I thought it would be.

At this moment, I really wanted to die but as if time was holding me back to stay alive for some reason which I was still unaware of, at least for now.

It was just that I had no idea that only when I was already standing on the verge of dying, the other side of the coin which always stayed hidden was going to reveal soon.

Only if I knew about it a bit earlier, my life would have been something different from what it is now.

My breaths had gotten shallow.

My body fell numb as I could feel no more pain even when I was badly injured. Was it just the drugs or is it how people feel before dying? I did not know yet.

The vicious fire of the arson kept damaging each and every single thing which came in its way. Even the villa had already started to fall apart now, ever so miserably and I know that there is no more time left in my hands now.

And I was ready.

I was ready to die.

“Maya!!!!”

I heard a voice.

Just when I thought that this is the end of my life now, I heard a man’s deep voice shouting my name out, ever so desperately, when I was not at all expecting someone to come looking for me, even when it caused him to jump right into the burning villa, caring the least about the risks of his own life.

No, I was not at all ready for this, neither I was aware that I even have someone in my life who would do this kind of sacrifice for my sake, when all those whom I trusted and considered as my own did not budge from stabbing my back from behind ever so treacherously.

At first, I thought I might have been imagining things as I had already started to lose all my sanity, but soon I realised that it was nothing but the reality when I figured out that the man had never stopped screaming my name as if he was trying his hard to find me out from the middle of this disastrous fire.

“Mayaaaa!!!!!”

Again.

I heard him again.

But his voice was what made me impatient as hell to know what was going on.

Cause, his voice was very familiar to me but no matter how hard I tried I just could not recognise the man to whom it belonged.

May be we were never that much close to remember him. If it is so, then why of all the people only he was trying to save me, ignoring his own life and that too when it was of no use cause I knew it very well that it will be more than impossible for me to stay alive now.

My breathing hitched all of a sudden, but the drug which I was injected by my own husband whom I used to love and trust more than anyone, did not allow me to move even for the slightest bit, preventing me of all the ways to know who he was, at least before I let go of my last breath tonight.

Suddenly I heard a loud crash from somewhere near me, as if someone broke open the door, at last, only to get into the room where I was locked in the whole time.

But I guess it was too late already.

The darkness had already started to come down to my eyes, while all the sounds started to fade away bit by bit, declaring the fact that I had no more time left now.

Even though I was losing all my senses and sanity, I felt that a sturdy hand held my body tightly and lifted me up in his arms in no time and tried to get us out of here.

But how?

“Maya, please stay alive. I will take you out of here, I promise. Keep breathing. For me. Please.” The voice kept saying as if he was not at all ready to see me dying.

I did not know who he was, neither I know why he wanted to save me.

Though I wanted to see his face at least for once before I die, but everything started to become blur already before my eyes.

I could feel how badly his arms kept trembling as if he too was badly injured but he did not stop trying. He fell on the floor miserably while trying to budge the flames, but did not let it touch me even it burned his skin brutally.

Yes, even when he was not ready to believe, I knew that, he was never going to make it alive if he tries to take me with him.

I wanted him to leave me and save his own life, but I had no strength to form a single word.

“I am sorry Maya.”

That was what I heard the last before the darkness consumed me, freeing me from all the pains of this world which I had to endure in this life.

No, he could not fulfil his promise in the end.

But tonight, I did not die alone, cause a hand which I might have never held in my past, did not leave me at all even when it cost his own life to end along with mine.

.

.

.

“Miss, wake up, or else you will be late for your class.”

A sudden knock on the door and another familiar voice caused me to shut open my eyes in an instant, only to find myself waking up from my sleep, but my breaths were still uneasy as if I could not get enough air to breathe, no matter how hard I tried.

What was that?

Was it all just a nightmare?

It must be.

Or else how am I still alive and waking up on my own bed?

But…

But, this is not actually my bed. I mean it was, when I was young, but I have shifted years ago after my marriage. Then how could I wake up in this bed all of a sudden?

Wait a minute….

Who was that behind the door, just now?

Was that Maria?

And what class she was talking about?

How is this even possible?