Chapter 3

HE stood stunned, his eyes refusing to believe the scene in front of them. Failing miserably at every attempt of forcing his feet to move forward, he cried out of helplessness. Anger radiated off of him as his eyes flashed red in danger. He willed his muscles to shift, but they disobeyed his every command. And if that wasn't enough to agitate him, a high-pitched, spine chilling, creepy laughter rung in his ears.

Slightly shifting his gaze to the shadow adjacent to the still figure of his wife, something shone in his eyes. His breath was stuck in his throat as he realized that the silver object was none other than a sharp knife which was inches away from the soft skin of his better-half. He opened his mouth to scream in horror, but his voice never came out. In an attempt to stop the crime from happening, his eyes fell on his own fallen bloodied body on the ground.

His body had his hand stretched out in the direction of his wife and her assailant. The tear tracks were visible on his face, hiding behind the blood present there. It seemed that he was trying to fight against the draining energy as the red liquid was gushing out of his wounds. Before him and his body could blink, the shadow drove the sharp edge of the knife into his wife, tearing open the skin and effectively drawing blood. She fell to the ground like a sac, her hand reaching out to touch his for the last time.

His body and he screamed simultaneously. The only difference was that no voice escaped his throat while his body yelled out her name. His veins throbbed in fury and he struggled harder against his immobile limbs, frustration growing by the second as it all failed. His body, however, stood up with a roar and charged at the shadow. A battle began between the two. The fight was a tough one and the attacker refused to back down. His body was successful in injuring the shadow, causing a scar to occur on its lower neck on the back and also revealing a tattoo adjacent to it. His body moved forward to uncover the face of the shadow.

However, something hit the back of his head and his body crumpled to the ground. All fight left his body as he stared at the lifeless body of his wife. Before he could comprehend anything, the shadow stepped forward and gifted his body an unerasable mark; the scar of crossing his wife's name on his arm. His body had grown immune to the physical pain as the ache of loss in his heart was more prominent. Due to the loss of blood, his body fell unconscious on the floor.

The invisible hold was lifted off him and he managed to finally scream, "Roshni!"

Almost instantly, his eyes opened with a jerk. His body was sitting upright, his hand out in the air. It took him a couple of seconds to adapt to the surrounding darkness. Observing his surroundings, he realized that he was in the same lodge room that has become his home for the past 2 years. Beads of sweat marred his forehead while he took deep breaths to calm his racing heart.

His gaze fell on the clock which was showing the shorter hand on 5 and the longer one on 12. Sighing tiredly, he wiped his frowning brown and drank a glass of cold water. Every night, he relived the traumatic nightmare of his life; the incident that brutally snatched his wife from him. And these horrible dreams refused to leave his conscious and subconscious minds.

The bandage on his arm caught his attention. Caressing it slowly, a tear escaped his eye. He was trying to feel the warmth of his wife through his fingers but instead he felt a sharp pain that ran deep under his skin. He closed his eyes to imagine her face but just the dark face of the shadow appeared in his head. His eyes jerked open and anger throbbed in his veins.

He stood in front of the mirror and saw a broken man, a ruthless cop staring back at him. He was a man searching for the murderer of his wife. He was a police officer whose name was enough to instill fear in officers and criminals alike. He was the son of the soil, known as ACP Arjun Suryakant Rawte. Knowing that the sleep was impossible to envelop him for the remaining of the night, he sat in his chair and drowned himself in the memories of his once-happy world.

The morning arrived and brought along a new beginning for him. He was doing his duty, punishing the minister for his misbehaviour, unaware of the life-changing event knocking on his doorstep. His phone rang loudly in the silent room, alerting him and he received it, without bothering to glance at the caller ID.

"Hello.", he spoke.

The response from the other end stunned him. Not wasting another second, he ran to the police headquarters. The daughter of his ex-senior, Raghu, was kidnapped and he was assigned on the case on special request. It didn't matter to him that he was working with ACP Sameer Damsingh Rathore, his once-friend and now a stranger. His main focus was finding the kidnapped girl because of his respect for Raghu.

Inside Raghu's house, a girl was nervous for her first mission as she was inexperienced in field-jobs. The worry of not being good enough was nerve-wrecking for her and it was visible on her face. Even though she was dedicated towards her job, performing her duty to the best of her abilities, she was scared for an unknown reason.

"Ri, tum theek ho?", asked the tech expert and her best friend, Shree.

Riya Mukherjee, the newly appointed research specialist of ETF, smiled half-heartedly and shared her fears with him. The assurance from him lifted a burden off her shoulders as she sighed in relief. However, it was short-lived because her eyes fell on a man tampering with the evidence, or so she thought. Clutching her service revolver firmly, she snuck up behind the man.

Arjun was inspecting the car outside Raghu's house when his eyes caught the reflection of a girl holding a gun in the mirror. Instinctively, he spun around and knocked the gun out of her hands. A fight followed. She tried punching him as he ducked to avoid her. Her stance remained offensive while he adopted a defensive one. He twirled her around, locked her arms with his and hoping to restrict her from moving. However, she twisted his arm to gain a upper hand but he quickly turned, causing the two to come face-to-face.

She was glaring at him, her eyes focusing on his, and he merely studied her. They didn't bother carefully noticing each other's face. He wasn't quite sure why, but he found her oddly familiar. And it puzzled him that he felt as if they had met before; puzzled because his memory wasn't exactly a weak one. The two were about to go again at each other when a voice distracted them.

"Enough!", came the stern voice of Sameer.

Arjun and Riya twirled around and saw a furious Sameer, followed by Chotu, standing there. "Sir yeh aadmi car se-", Riya began justifying before she was rudely cut off by her boss.

"ACP Arjun Suryakant Rawte naam hai iss aadmi ka.", his remaining words fell on deaf ears as she zoned him out.

Her eyes widened as soon as she heard the name and she turned to look at him. Momentarily, she forgot to breathe. Her mind was still in denial at what her eyes were witnessing and her ears were hearing. No...it can't be. He can't be here. I'm dreaming. This is one bad dream and you're going to wake up soon Riya, she thought in a desperate attempt to console herself. However, even after a couple of blinks, he refused to disappear from her sight. Her heart stopped beating in the realization that he was real.