The flickering fluorescent light reminded Myra that her vision was fading. She tried really hard to move her hand but to no avail. As blood pooled around her, she could feel her whole body being held down by the weight of something heavy. 

Struggling to breathe, she looked up at the fading image of a man crouched by her side. He was clutching her body in his arms, wailing. “No, no this can’t be happening. Try to keep your eyes open Myra.”

She finally recognized him. Veer, the love of her life, shuffling through his trouser pockets took out his phone to call for an ambulance. 

“Hello, Myr… my girlfriend is injured hic.. hic.. and there’s blood hic.. everywhere. Please, send someone to the addre....”

As her body started to feel weightless, her inner chatter calmed. She was happy to know that Veer was beside her, that he was crying for her. She wanted to console him one last time. Her final breath was a sigh of relief as she thought to herself “He cares”. 

Myra’s eyes suddenly open to a view of a ceiling, a ceiling she is all too familiar with. It’s the apartment she shares with Veer. 

She sits up, resting her head against the bedrest and wiping the beads of sweat from her forehead. Her hand instinctively reaches her chest as she tries to soothe herself. “It’s getting worse.... I need to do something about these nightmares.”

She turns her head to the other side of the bed looking for Veer but he’s already gone. It was 9am already.

“It’s still early. Maybe I should sleep for half an hour more.” 

Before she could lie back down her phone rang. 

“Hello ma. Why are you calling so early in the morning today? I don’t hear from you until noon usually.”

“First things first. Happy birthday beta. Many many happy returns of the day.”

“Thankyou ma! Where’s my gift?”

“Well I have some good news for you, consider that as your gift. The Jyotishi (astrologer) gave us the dates for your wedding and we’ve also gotten your kundali (birth chart) matched. You both are really made for each other.”

Myra's world came to a halt, her face turning pale as she listened to her mom talk about her wedding plans. They have had this exact conversation before. 

Sudden memories flood her mind. It was the same conversation she had with her mother in the dream where she died. 

Myra is snapped back into reality as the doorbell rings.

“Hello, Myra??? Can you hear me?”

“Sorry ma, I am not feeling well. I will call you back.” 

Myra rushes to open the door. Veer stood at the door trying to shrug off the mud from his shirt. “Ugh, It just had to be one of those days….”

He looks up to find Myra standing in the doorway. His irritated grumble turning into a sweet smile as he looks at Myra. 

“I got spl….”

“You got splashed by a motorbike while you were getting off your car.”

Myra suddenly stops in her tracks thinking, “Did I hear him mention this before? No, It was just a lucky guess….”

Veer is taken aback. “How did you know that? Are you a psychic or something?” he slightly chuckles as he makes his way to the bedroom. 

“I need to change. I am already late for my meeting.”  

Myra keeps quiet as his voice disappears in the bedroom. Her ears start ringing, the house feels morphed and she doesn’t know what's going on anymore. The only sound that keeps her tethered to the present is the ticking clock.

She is jolted back to reality as Veer shuffles to wear his boots. “Sorry, I gotta head out in a hurry.”

He gently cups her face, placing a kiss on her forehead.

“Happy Birthday my love. Let’s celebrate as soon as I get off work today. I have everything planned. You just need to get ready and look pretty for me hmm?”

Myra slowly makes her way into their bedroom and plops on the bed in a daze. “Am I going crazy? This can’t be…”

She tightly squeezes the edge of bed in an attempt to calm herself down.

Myra sifts through her wardrobe to look for a dress that would fit the occasion. Her eyes land on the red slip dress she had been dying to wear. Her modeling days might be behind her but she could still rock a slip dress with ease. 

Her hand flinched as she touched the dress. A faint voice suddenly filling her head. “Red makes you look too sexy.”

She felt a sense of dread as she tried to take the dress out. Her hands started trembling, her head started to spin as a splitting headache took over. She desperately held onto the wardrobe door, trying to steady herself.

Another memory rushed in: A package in the study room. Myra dashed towards the study room to find a gift with a note: ‘Happy birthday my love. Wear this tonight.’

She opened the gift and found a black dress. There was another note that read, ‘Red makes you look too sexy. I don’t like seeing other people checking you out. Only look pretty for me.’