Freezing Flames

Saanvi was an intelligent girl and Rishyak was a happy-go-lucky type of a person. They studied in the same college. Rishyak and Saanvi faced each other in a debate.

 Acquaintance grew into friendship, friendship to love and then marriage. She conceived after an year of their blissful marriage.

Saanvi was very happy when she woke up. She looked at Rishi; he looked like a sleeping child. She smiled, moved towards him, kissed him on his forehead and was getting off the cot; he held her hand and said, “Happy Birthday Saanu”. He gave her a nice warm hug before she got on with her daily chores.

Rishyak dropped Saanvi at office everyday. He asked her to sit in the car while he would lock the main door of the house. She was thrilled to see a gift box on the car seat.

 She saw a note which said “A small gift to the biggest gift of God”. She had tears in her eyes, she opened the wrapper. It was an MP3 player. “Wow! That’s choo cute! Thanks a looooott Rishi!” she exclaimed. 

He dropped her off at her office. Bid bye for the day. As she stepped into the office, she greeted everyone with a wave of hand and smile on her lips.Her smile was a mood lifter for many. She went to her work place. Switched on her desktop. She had some mails to check and some documents to share. She checked task allocation register, she had finished all tasks for the day and it was just 12 noon.

She minimized the windows on the desktop, she saw Rishi’s photo, which was set as the wallpaper. She remembered the gift. She put on the ear phones and set the volume high.

She went to her favorite place in the office - The Terrace Garden.

She sat on the lawn, behind the (bonsai) miniature woody tree, closed her eyes, got lost in the world of music . 

 

And there was a sudden fire outbreak in at office. The fire alarm started buzzing. She could not hear. Her ear phones were on. She was sitting behind bonsai plants over the lawn. Emergency Rescue Team of her office could not spot her when they came to the terrace. The entry was made in the log. "0 Found 0 Rescued".

She smelt something burning. She took off the ear phones.She looked down; she saw flames were shooting out of 1^st floor windows. She was horrified. She had left her cell phone on her desk in 1^st floor. She ran to the lift lobby. She hit the lift buttons hard. Mains were switched off. She sobbed. She shouted for help. Amidst all the noise, none could hear her cries.

She wanted her child to be safe. She prayed God to save her child. Rishyak loved children. And she remembered how lovingly he had said that he wanted a kid which resembled her.

She decided to use stairs. She had to descend 5 floors to reach to the nearest exit. Flames were all around her. The smoke was suffocating. She held her duppatta on to her nose. She could hardly get oxygen. Her vision was blurring. She was losing balance of her body. Intense heat was draining her out.

She thought “I don’t want to die. I have to live somehow, I have to live for my child, I have to live for Rishi”. She remembered reading somewhere that burning to death was the reported to be the most painful death. The flames from the door of 1^st floor, swelled to a raging inferno .She were reacted very quickly. She fell on her stomach to save herself.

The pain was unbearable. She knew the fall had done harm to her child. She could sense that she was bleeding. She howled with all her might “Someone help me, I don’t want to die”.

She was losing a lot of blood. She saw that she had almost reached ground floor. She wanted to reach the exit which was just a few steps away. She had burns and bruises all over her body.

She had hopes left that she would be rescued. She heard someone screaming in the ground floor. She wanted to tell them that she was there. She could not make any sound. Her voice box had given up. She did not have strength to stand on her feet. She wanted to be alive at the least till she spoke to Rishyak. She didn’t want her birth day to be her death day.  

Her closing eyes saw a fireman spotting her. She thanked God as the images blurred.

 

When she opened her eyes, she didn’t have any pain; she put her hand on her tummy. Baby was not there. She was scared stiff. She yelled at Rishyak whose eyes were welled up with tears. He did not hear. The doctors came in and said, "I am sorry, I tried my best to save your wife "