Chapter 07: RED LOTUS Matured

Well Happy SUNDAY my friends, as many are coming across my story everyone is having the question when do I usually update? It's mostly Sundays and Thursdays. So keep an eye in those two days, else sometimes I rain with my mood swings too but these two days are the mostly ones I prefer if I am not facing any issues. Hope all of you have an extremely good time reading todays update.

CHAPTER-07:

Gurenge(LiSA) AnimeOst Language: Japanese

I've found a reason to become strong
Take me with you, and let's march forward

I chase a muddy lantern
A stiffened heart, my shivering hands
Have something they want to grab, that's all
In the scent of night (I'll spend all thirty nights)
Even if I stare at the sky (Staring into the sky)
The only thing that can change is myself

I've found a reason to become strong
Take me with you, and let's march forward

Unforsaken dreams and an unstoppable present
If I can become stronger for someonе
I'll be thankful to carry all the sadness
I graspеd what it meant to protect
While being beaten up by the world
A crimson flower, bloom proudly and illuminate my fate

The sound of lightning rings in my ears
A bewildered heart
With kindness alone, there will be things I cannot protect
I know that but good and evil entwined under the surface
I will cast divine punishment on hypocrisy
Tell me why, tell me why, tell me why, tell me, I don't need you
Rather than a brilliant flower, a lone enduring one is beautiful

Overwhelmed by violence, a thorny path
It only appears when I'm serious
I'll prove that I can overcome it
The dream that I couldn't protect was easily cast aside
Grow your roots in my crimson heart, and possess this land

Empty secrets, a crumbling conclusion
Cruelly torn apart, the breath of a scream
Someone's laughing shadow, someone's sobbing
Everybody desires happiness

Unforsaken dreams and an unstoppable present
If I can become stronger for someone
I'll be thankful to carry all the sadness
I grasped what it meant to protect
While being beaten up by the world
A crimson flower, bloom proudly and illuminate my fate

RED LOTUS

As Meethi made her way home after her work, she felt the roads being extremely empty. She was quite conscious of it and saw a lady coming from the opposite direction of the road. She stopped her as she couldn’t hold her curiosity back and asked, “Binita didi why does the village feel so empty today? Is today some kind of holiday?”

“Oh Meethi, no! Today is not a holiday but terrorists were seen in our village”

“What?”

“Yes, it was morning ten o’ clock. Harishji, the man who lives near the ‘Hanuman Temple’ was going to his field when the terrorists stopped him and asked some questions. But he couldn’t answer and he was shot. Now he is taken to the Chautaalgarh government hospital”

“My god! Is he out of danger?”

“I don't know about that but he was injured. Also he said he saw more than twenty people in that group before losing his consciousness. It’s better to be indoors”

“I agree. Okay see you later Binita didi even I am heading home for lunch”

“Meethi be careful and skip work for a few days.”

“Hmm Jay Sita Maiya”

“Jay Sita Maiya”

Meethi parted with the lady and moved towards the village square which falls in the middle of the village. To reach every house, people ought to pass the village square. As she was passing a grocery store which had already put it’s shutter down in the fear of terrorist attacks, she heard two men discussing something. The faces felt unfamiliar to Meethi hence she passed and hid in the corner of the grocery store as something picked her interest. She heard the men say, "Bhaiyya said our mission has changed. We will abduct a businessman. His name is Aryan Singh Rathore”

Meethi was dumbstruck, she never thought she would ever hear this name though Imlie had said to be conscious enough.

‘How do these people know about Aryan Singh Rathore?’ Meethi wondered.

As they made their way to somewhere Meethi followed them, hiding and keeping a fair amount of distance from them. She followed them inside the forest which is near the village, where she found more than thirty men in the base. She moved towards them, and heard two men discussing how they ended up with the mission of kidnapping Aryan Singh Rathore.

The first man exclaimed, “Though we failed the mission of grabbing that man, it was lucky for us that boss asked us to keep an eye on Satyakaam the separatist leader here. When Raghu was keeping an eye on him he heard a phone conversation of him with someone. That person proposed to abduct Aryan Singh Rathore who was about to go to Kanpur via his car and he rejected because he personally didn’t know whether the man was really bad or a good person. Talk about morals handling a gun”

“Yeah, Satyakaam is a strange man indeed. What's so high about it? He got money, he should have taken the offer else people like us would grab it without hesitation. After all, for Kanpur you need to pass through only one highway. I heard he would set his journey from Delhi and boss had told our hacker Damodar to hack the CCTVs of Delhi to find when his car was last seen on the roads to understand the exact moment he left his home. ”

“Had he already hacked?”

“Not yet he will do it soon.”

“But how would he know his car’s number or how he looks?”

“I heard he already did, he skimmed through all the newspapers and articles of his visits to Delhi to see the pictures of him and in some he found some pictures included his car too. That man will soon enter the Billionaire list in India”

“Oh Man! He is rich”

“Indeed”

Meethi was kind of taken aback with the fact that these terrorists were keeping an eye on Satyakaam. She felt like she shouldn’t stay any few more minutes there. As she backed off; her foot fell on some dried leaves and made a little noise. The two men got conscious and Meethi was forced to run with all she could. As she ran, five men followed her through the forest.

She was scared, sweating and was really clueless what to do next; except running with all the stamina she has.

She thought she shouldn’t get caught at any cost, these men won’t let her survive. They might rape her, beat her to a pulp or even kill her. Thinking about such things made her face go pale in fear and her legs felt heavy but she didn’t stop. Suddenly she saw a cliff and she moved down towards a cave which was below the cliff. It was kind of undetectable and only village people knew about it as its entrance was covered with vines that had thorns and leaves. She hid there and held her breath as she heard footsteps above her head.

“Who was that lady?” asked one of the men.

“Damn we should have shot her down”

“I thought we could catch her and have some fun, it’s been ages we had fun with women”

“Those villagers are a headache on our part, that man in the morning couldn’t even answer our boss Kedar about that man. And that reporter guy left in the morning by five o’ clock bus”

“Yeah, in city it’s hard to catch men or cause terror as everything is in check by the government. That city journalist is absolutely lucky to escape before we stepped here”

“Don’t worry he would be back soon, let’s find the lady first who came to know our exact base”

“Yes”

As the footsteps faded Meethi took a breath of relief. She understood one thing the real target of the terrorists was Aditya Kumar Tripathi and since he left and heard Aryan Singh Rathore has money, they changed their target.

‘But why do both of the choices not feel random but linked to each other?’ thought Meethi.

She came out of the cliff slowly and saw the men had left to find her in the opposite direction, she ran with all the might she had. She needs to reach home sooner and ask Satyakaam too about who asked him to abduct Aryan Singh Rathore, the man with the name she heard her daughter a million times utter in her sleep and even when she was awake. A name which has found an existence in her family.

Dulari felt quite conscious as Meethi had not arrived and the lunch hour seems to have passed already. Satyakaam sat on a stool, waiting for Meethi. He wouldn’t leave till he ensured her safety in this critical time.

Dulari noticed his stress and tried to console him by saying, “Don’t worry she might be late for her work but she would arrive soon”

“I hope so, but the things that are happening in our surroundings make me worry.”

“It’s not that we can live without worrying too”

“Yeah, Mousi from the word ‘worry’ I remembered a phone call came today with a proposal of abducting a rich man. He is on his way to Kanpur and if we could kidnap him we would have funds for helping the villagers. But the person who proposed me the offer made me confused”

“Whom were you supposed to kidnap?” asked Dulari.

“Some guy called Aryan Singh Rathore”

The shock was evident from the face of Dulari. She never thought she would hear this name from Satyakaam ever. Aryan, the guy who was supposed to be her grand-daughter’s husband.

‘Was Imlie saying the truth when she said she traveled back in time?’ wondered Dulari.

“And who asked you to abduct him?”

They heard Meethi’s voice from the gate. Both of them turned around and couldn’t believe their eyes. She was standing there panting, sweating with disheveled hair, her eyes streaked with redness like shots of blood, one of her feet bleeding and was barefoot, the other one had one of the flip flops. Her face emitted the blood rushing in her body making her whole body red as if in fire. Both of them ran towards her with panic as they exclaimed her name.

“Meethi!”

But she had no time to lose hence she repeated herself, “And who asked you to abduct him?”

As Dulari tried to calm her down and remove the thorns and leaves from her saree, Satyakaam took a deep breath and replied, “Aditya Kumar Tripathi”

Dulari’s hand stopped caressing Meethi and she looked at Satyakaam with utter shock along with Meethi.

“Amma” this time Meethi broke down in tears.

Dulari hugged her to calm her down.

“Amma, we can't waste time anymore. We need to inform Imaliya right now”

“But how would we contact her?” Dulari reciprocated.

“She gave her new number today to me. We can’t waste time, let’s go to the post office”

“Okay we are going now calm down”

Satyakaam who was watching the scene, baffled; asked this time, “Why to inform Gudia?”

“Satya, you shouldn’t be here. Go gather your men, the terrorists are keeping an eye on you. Though I don’t have time to explain you as I myself is unaware of what is exactly happening but I have heard the terrorists, they want to take the villagers as hostages too. Every woman, child and man are in danger. Also they are spying you, please be careful”

“How do you know so much?”

“Amma, let’s go. Satya, just do as I said we don’t have much time. Please hurry...” said Meethi and made her way to the post office with Dulari. Satyakaam also took his steps for his destination.

Aditya was confused with his own thoughts. When Imlie didn’t care and went back, he was angry. And in that anger he called Satyakaam with the proposal to abduct Aryan for money. He  asked not to harm him at any cost but to hold him captive for twelve hours so that he could understand whether Imlie remembers the past like him or not. If she remembered, she would definitely try to save him and he would have known the truth. But Satyakaam had rejected his offer and his own office team members had informed that Aryan hadn’t reached Kanpur. They said the staff there had informed them that the inauguration would take place tomorrow morning as Aryan decided to leave for Kanpur after lunch. This plan was destined to fail, sighed Aditya thinking.

He made his way to the drawers and took out a file from the folder called ‘Old Cases’. He looked into it; all the journalists keeps a hard copy of their work so that even if a softcopy gets misplaced, they could easily have the hardcopy. And this folder contains all his old cases. He skimmed through them and landed up on a three year old file. The file had the name ‘Arvind Shekhawat’ on it.

Arvind Shekhawat was none other than Aryan’s brother in law. Aditya studied his own published articles on him and the side notes he kept while working on this case. The police were also involved as Rathore pharmaceuticals were said to have a hand in making fraudulent drugs which ended up killing a few lives. This wouldn’t have been a big case if the owner of the Singhania group of companies hadn’t lost his life due to these medicines. Arvind the bad guy who had not just harassed the laborers but ended up killing humans too. This might have ruined the Rathore family but how did Aryan manage to gear up his way so soon that now he is about to be a billionaire. Is Aryan also a bad guy? Aditya was extremely confused with his thoughts. He had already managed to convince his brain that neither Arvind nor Aryan might be good people but his heart said something else. He felt like he had forgotten something important and he couldn’t retrieve that information from his memories at any cost even if he was trying his best to remember.

Aditya utters in confusion, “What am I forgetting?”

As he was drenched in his thoughts he received a call from an unknown number.

“Hello”

“Hello Aditya Kumar Tripathi”

“Yes, Aditya speaking”

“I am calling from Pagdandia. We will kidnap Aryan Singh Rathore, the man who is about to enter the Billionaire list”

“What?”

“Yes, and we are giving you and Bhaskar Times this tip as we want you, a national award winner journalist to cover this report”

“Why should I believe you? And why are you informing me?”

“You are Pagdandia’s son-in-law. Obviously the golden opportunity should be given to you. You would report, we would have money on behalf of that guy. Both of us will be on the gaining side. Reach Pagdandia by tomorrow’s dawn. We will be waiting for your team to convey our wishes”

And the call was cut from the other side.

“Hello, Hello” Aditya screamed. He was confused about what wishes the man was talking about.

If Aryan was kidnapped for money they could just call the Rathore’s for money. Why did they call him? Aditya sat on his bed, his hands on his head expressing his confusion and distress.

Imlie woke up from her nap at sharp four o’clock in the evening, she looked at her phone ringing. It was not the alarm but a call from Pagdandia’s post office. She picked up the call immediately.

“Gudia”, Meethi exclaimed.

“Amma what’s the matter? Your voice seems stressed” Imlie replied, hearing her mother’s tense voice.

“Gudia listen to me carefully beta”

“Yes Amma, I am listening”

“Our village is attacked by terrorists”

“What?”

“Gudia please let me finish first”

“Yes, please”

“A group of terrorists had arrived today at our village, they are from forty to fifty in numbers. Their main target was Aditya Kumar Tripathi but changed to Aryan Singh Rathore when they heard that Aryan is rich. And they were spying on your Dadda who rejected Aditya’s offer to kidnap Aryan, from that conversation they knew about Aryan. They are planning something big as they aim to take the villagers as hostage too”

“Amma, how do you know about these?”
“I followed their men. Also they were talking about hacking CCTVs in Delhi to find Aryan's car. I don’t know the meaning of these words but this might be an important information to you Gudia”

“Amma, do you know the risk you took?” Imlie ignored her statement as right now her mother’s safety matters the most.
“Yes Imlaiya, when I heard the name Aryan I couldn’t stop myself. So I followed them. They are in the east of Sita Maiyya’s…”

“There they are…” Imlie heard a man’s voice in the opposite line.

“Amma” Imlie screamed as she heard noises of Dulari’s screams and noises like someone forcefully capturing her.

“Gudia…Kedar” she heard Meethi as someone felt like dragging her on the opposite side.

“This was the woman who followed us, glad we tapped all the landlines of this village so that no one can inform anyone outside” Imlie heard a man saying on the other side.

“Gudia Kedar is their boss…” Meethi screamed again but Imlie heard a sound of beating and Meethi’s voice went silent.

She heard Dulari’s voice screaming Meethi’s name.

“Amma…” Imlie screamed.

“No no no no no, nothing can happen to Amma” Imlie felt like her heart has came to her mouth. Those people had definitely done something to Meethi, Imlie turned blue and black thinking about it.

“Hello” Imlie heard a man’s voice from the opposite line.

“Amma”, she yelled in panic.

“Not your Amma, listen girl Raghu here and we have captured your mother and grandmother. Don’t you dare to inform the police else we will bring you here and rape you from wherever you are and will kill your family too. And we don’t bluff”

The line was cut from the other side, Imlie sat on the floor from her bed and held her knees closely towards her chest. She was crying; crying for her family in pain and agony. She never thought things would escalate towards such a bad situation. In her last life there was no terrorists attack in Pagdandia during this time. ‘Why did the future change so much?’ This question made her feel nauseous. The maximum change she expected of Aditya asking a favor to Satyakam for kidnapping Aryan as he said he would favor him in his marriage. And she was clearly hoping Satyakaam would say a ‘No’ and things would sort out. But it got tangled in a more hazardous way. Imlie’s eyes were turning red for crying so much when she looked at her phone. Ten minutes had passed, she tried to call again in the post office only to not get connected to the line this time. She broke down again in a pool of tears thinking about the possibility that they had ripped the phone line. She clearly heard them saying that they had tapped all the lines in the village which meant no one could call for help, they were planning to capture villagers as hostages too and if Aryan reach that place somehow then his life was also in danger. She gulped all the saliva that accumulated in her mouth when she was crying and made her way to the bathroom area with her towel which was kept on her study chair. She saw the row of bathrooms in front of her, those bathroom belongs to the third floor hostel residents and went inside in one of them. She turned on the shower and stood like a zombie for five minutes and came out draping the towel over her wet clothes. As she walked back to her room, every single drop of water that sled down her body had given a goodbye to her emotions. As she reached her room she looked at the clothes and a few accessories she bought this afternoon as she felt salwars were not so apt for fighting. Her eye pupils had completely turned diluted and she emitted no emotions.

“Raghu was his name right?” She muttered under her breath.

Imlie had figured it out what actually went wrong this time. She remembered the name Kedar from her past life. She heard about him from her friend who caught him in a village near Pagdandia. She remembered that it was this time when both him and his group were caught. They were aiming for Aditya but at the first timeline Aditya was supposed to stay one more week delaying their arrival at Pagdandia which helped the police forces to catch them and today was the day when she was supposed to stay with him in that hut. But as things differ with Chavi he decided to leave for Delhi a week before which made the terrorists attack their village with the hope of capturing Aditya and now they changed their target for money as Aditya had already came to Delhi.

‘Would they really spare Aditya?’ thought Imlie twitching her eyebrow.

She exclaimed, “After all they want Aditya to be their voice towards the government to give them a clean sheet like Dadda got. Then why did they took the villagers as hostages? Questions still don't finish at the end of the day. Only they can answer.”

Imlie changed into a black hoodie and joggers, she wore a black cap too with a mask and a black plastic framed spectacles with no power. She packed her bag with a water bottle, some energy bars and the knives she brought from the fight club. She remembered something and made her way to Niti’s room.

Niti was lying around on her bed when she saw Imlie entering her room.

“Imlie are you going for a walk?” she asked.

“No. But Niti, were you a person who used to run marathons?”
“Yes but I never told you this. How did you know about it?”
“I noticed you are a very light footed person”
“Oh my you are such a good observer. I played in national level when I was in my high-school”
“Also do you fear risky places? I mean it’s a kind of life threatening area”
“Imlie if I would have been a person with fear I wouldn’t have decided to make journalism as my career”
“So would you like to see real life terrorists?”
“What? Are you joking?”
“Nope. At this very moment people are becoming hostages. We will go there, obviously with the special forces”
“But why would the special forces even take us with them?”
“They will but my question is for you. Will you like to come with me?”

Niti looked at Imlie’s face, she could feel that this girl was determined and she wasn’t lying.

“Imlie do you know why I was at my mousi’s place rather than my own home?”
“No”
“It’s because my family doesn’t value me, they have my younger brother sitting on the pedestal aka ‘Ghar ka chirag(The flame of the house)’. I as the girl have literally zero value and they always tried to suppress me. My mousi had a love marriage and my mother’s family cut all her ties with my mousi, even my mom. So last year I ran away from my house as they were planning my marriage with some stranger.”

Imlie looked at Niti, she could hear her voice trembling, “I ran away, thanks to my running skills I wasn't caught. When I visited my grandmother’s house with my parents before I found out about my mousi. I sneaked into the forbidden room of their house and found the old photo album. There I saw my mousi’s picture with her friends, maybe Devi maiyya wanted to help me I saw one of my mousi’s friend was my friend’s mother. She was always that chill mom anyone wished for, I contacted her and got to know about my mousi. She was still in contact and then she made me meet her on my friend’s birthday. I talked with her and she actually felt like my real mother which my biological mother could never be for me. We bonded and I decided to run to their place. The day I ran away my parents were clueless, I changed my school mid session and stayed low. I even skipped the national level marathon race because then I could have been easily spotted. My mousi made sure I go to a nice boarding school immediately as they feared that my parents would come and take me back as I was not eighteen. I just didn’t have any kind of power. But my determination was high, my mousi’s son the only brother I consider as my own made sure I safely reach the boarding school as that day my parents came to mousi’s house searching me, it was the day I was supposed to leave for Nainital. My brother and I rand from the back door. Luckily they didn’t get any evidence of me being there and left. Recently few days back they came to know I was at my mousi's place and came to take me home with police, also tried to show their rights as parents. But you know what Imlie, I am eighteen an adult and the biggest achievement is the teaching I got from my Mousa. Do the things you want to, never hesitate to listen to your heart ever.”

Imlie squeezed her left shoulder to show her support and Niti held Imlie’s hand as she was tearing up. She was thankful that Imlie had enough patience to sympathize and listen to her.

“Imlie let’s take the risk. I will go with you.”

Imlie smiled and said, “For your support thank you Niti, you don’t know how much of a burden you lifted.”

“No I should be the one thankful to you for listening my story”

“Niti, please wear joggers and comfortable clothes, we would have to run and protect ourselves. I am writing the application letter for leaving the hostel tonight”

“Okay, Imlie I don’t care for my parents a bit as they don’t care for me. If it would have been before I would have left to die there but now I will leave to return. My Mousi would wait for me so my Mousa and Sourav Bhaiyya”

“Definitely”

As Imlie wrote the application Niti changed her clothes and packed her bag with essential things which she thought she needed in this journey.

As Imlie finished writing the application she told Niti to take umbrellas or raincoats as today was the day when neither the air would not be aggressive nor the clouds would stop crying.

It was forty five past five when Imlie and Niti reached the Café. Imlie’s eyes went towards a guy in white shirt and sunglasses sitting at a table outside the Café. It was almost six and the sun had just started to set, Imlie said Niti to sit inside the Café’ and buy some instant protein shake powder which one can drink mixing with water and food for dinner. She said her that has a meeting with someone at six o’clock. Niti did exactly what she was told, Imlie sat at an empty table outside facing opposite to the guy she first noticed while entering the Café. She removed her mask, cap and spectacles and then started to surf something on her mobile. The guy kept drinking his lemonade but didn’t try to make any kind of acquaintance with her.

Imlie didn’t mind anything and kept on surfing something on her phone when at sharp six o’clock a man who looked like a goon came to her and claimed himself as Pikachu. All the people of the Café stared at them as the man was wearing a violet Satin Kurta with chains as if he was trying to imitate any villain from some Bollywood movie. Imlie without even glancing at him, replied, “I didn’t know my pokeball is malfunctioning. I called for Pikachu but some random pokemon came out. Stop wasting my time and call that guy sitting at the second table.”

The man was taken aback with her words and exclaimed, “But I am Pikachu”

Imlie this time looked at him with a cold stare and his blood went cold looking at her eyes.

“I said, call your boss who is sitting there. Please don’t make me repeat once again”

The man couldn’t hold his acting anymore and looked at the guy on the table who had just finished his lemonade.

The tall, fair handsome guy with sunglasses looked at her and his subordinate. Imlie indicated  him with her eyes to come and share the table with her. He made his way to her without speaking much and sat on the chair opposite to her. He exclaimed, “You even know my face Miss''

“I said this before to your subordinate that I know many things about you”

“Are you sure you are just a student Miss who is yet to start her College life?” he backfired.

“Bro chill… I am indeed a simple student as you also know there are zero records of me being any criminal”

“But you use sentences like you don’t stop till you pierce throats very irresponsibly then. You might have committed some crimes to be so well familiar with knives''

Imlie smiled and replied, “Mister I just entered my legal age this year, as a teen I can bluff a little. But you as someone in power, why would I endanger my life by meeting you if I had really committed any crime? You would be the last person on this earth that any criminal would want to meet Mr. Harshit Khurrana aka Pikachu. ”

“You know my name even,” he said with a serious voice.

“How many times should I repeat? By the way, since you are here even when the CCTVs of Delhi traffic had been hacked, it means I indeed caught your interest. Right bro?”

“How do you know about these highly confidential things?”

“Come closer” As Imlie indicated Harshit came a little closer and Imlie whispered, “I know where Terrorist Neon and his group is right now IPS Officer Harshit Khuranna. Also Neon is his codename, his actual name is Kedar”

Harshit looked at her dumbstruck. As he was sitting here, his whole team was busy trying to locate in which place Neon and his group took shelter. But a girl in her teens was saying she knows his place.

‘Is she a terrorist herself? What should I do? I left the gun in the car. Should I give hints to Akhilesh to point a gun at her?’ thought Harshit trying to calculate what he should do next.

“Don’t you dare to make a mess here bro… Your subordinate whom you are thinking of giving hints isn’t even here. He went back to the car because everyone was cautious of his tacky outfit. Also I know because that terrorist are in my village, Pagdandia.”

“But we never…”
“Never got calls from Pagdandia? How would you? All the landlines there is tapped and no one is daring to call even the police station which is in Chautaalgarh as the villagers are being taken as hostages”

“How do you know?”

“Tell your men to find the last number which was dialed from Pagdandia” Imlie said looking at the sky where she could see some lightning as the sun has went down completely.

Aryan was driving on the highway when suddenly the weather started deteriorating. He saw lightning and suddenly those soft lightning had provoked the air to be aggressive, it was not even fifteen minutes down the line when the whole weather was turned to full fledged thunderstorms.

“What the hell is wrong with the weather?” He uttered his words with frustration.

He tried to drive as safely as he could but he had to stop his car when he saw the trunk of a tree blocking the whole road. He freaked out and used his brakes to stop his car. He was confused about how a tree trunk had fallen in the middle of the road out of nowhere and there was no other car. He understood he was the only one who faced this huge problem, he might have felt a little safer if he was not alone here. He came out of his car and tried to remove the trunk by himself when he suddenly he felt a sharp pang behind his head and he fell down on the road. Before closing his eyes he saw four to five men accumulated behind him and as he was gradually losing his consciousness he felt four strong hands holding him from both sides of his torso and dragging him somewhere.

“Post office and the number you have messaged. Thank you”

As Harshit hung up his call Imlie kept staring at him, she was panicking inside as the clock was ticking but she knew best that she would fail to convince him to take them to Pagdandia if she showed any signs of stress or fear.

Harshit looked at the number sent to him and he clicked the number to call the number’s owner. Imlie’s cell rang immediately as he looked at her baffled. She took the cell, turned it around and showed him the unknown number that was flashing on her screen which was none other than his own number.

“The last phone call was from the post office” Harshit enquired.

“Yes” Imlie replied.

“So they are in Pagdandia?”

“Yes”

“But where?”

“I will only tell you if you bring me and my friend there with you”

“But it’s a risky place”

“It’s my village not a risky place”

“There are terrorists”

“And so my family and whole neighborhood are there with those pesky terrorists”

'Pesky' Harshit was amused by Imlie's choice of words.

“Both your and your friend’s life will be in danger”

“I am very much able to keep myself safe and be your asset, for my friend she won’t enter the danger zone immediately but after the Special Forces clears up the place. We are journalism students as you have found out already, we need the fresh stories from there”

“Just for a story you girls will go to such a length?”

“I am doing out of necessity but my friend has entrusted her life to me so she is doing everything because she wants”

“Oh Man! I don’t understand you teenagers”

“Being twenty six isn’t that old either brother”

"You even know my actual age"

"Yes"

Harshit was speechless, he looked at her. Her eyes were still diluted, no fear and no emotions. He had seen such eyes only of cold blooded murderers from some special cases. Being the head of the Special Forces was not just tough for Harshit, it was nerve wrecking but it was his duty and patriotism that never let him fall before anything. But today as a person who always takes calculated risks, he met two teenage girls who freely wanted to go to a lion’s den and take the risks which no civilian wishes to ever take on their shoulders.

He said yes to her determination. Imlie smiled and gestured to Niti to come out as they needed to leave with Harshit. Niti was doubtful at first but soon she saw the Mahindra Scorpio with the police tag outside the café. As she went near Imlie who was standing near the car's front side door, she saw a guy who's back was in front of her, Imlie gestured to her again to be fast. She heard the guy talking on the phone to send police forces to Pagdandia immediately and as she tried to pass him and walk towards her friend Imlie; he cut his call and turned around to see whom Imlie was calling, his elbow immediately hit Niti’s shoulder hard as they bumped into each other. She was about to fall as she had both Imlie’s and her own backpacks in her hands but Harshit held her right arm and stopped her from falling. He almost panicked and looked at Niti, he found her looking at him without blinking which made him give her a blank stare but he pulled her back immediately and made her stand straight again. Imlie came running and asked if Niti was okay to which Niti replied positively but her eyes kept on going towards Harshit.

Harshit sat on the driving seat and honked his horn twice to get the girls attention, Imlie ran and took the front seat and Niti took the seat behind Imlie which was opposite to Harshit. It was past seven when they started their journey towards Pagdandia.

Imlie kept on staring outside the window at the rough weather as Harshit kept driving. Niti’s eyes kept going on the rear-view mirror as she couldn’t stop glancing at Harshit. She only got conscious when her eyes met with Harshit’s as he looked at the rear-view mirror too and she immediately had to act of surfing something in her mobile.

Suddenly Harshit got a call and as he finished speaking on the call Imlie looked at him with questioning eyes.

“An empty car was found in the middle of the highway near Pagdandia, from the number we came to know the car belongs to the Business Tycoon Mr. Aryan Singh Rathore”,  said Harshit.

Imlie’s heart was sinking but she kept her stoic expression perfectly at its place. She wanted the terrorists to fail once but first her family and now her love was abducted by them. Sita Maiyya wasn't being on her side this time that's what she felt.

Harshit continued, “And twelve villagers have been abducted too, the Chautaalgrah Police had reached Pagdandia. The kidnapping started from the post office itself where two women and the postmaster was kidnapped”

“Those two women are my mother and grandmother” replied Imlie looking at the angry sky filled with thunders through the car’s window.

Both Harshit and Niti were shocked to their core hearing Imlie’s reply.

‘I need to be strong, strong enough even if the world corners me; strong enough that my name would be the reason to fear me. Strong enough for myself and my loved ones and strong enough to never fall in the path of despair’ thought Imlie looking at the sky as the weather deteriorated more.

“Tonight the night will be more dark and time will pass slowly as dark nights are long, especially for me” Imlie muttered under her breath as Harshit sped up and Niti kept her right hand from behind on Imlie’s shoulder to comfort her a little.

Songs Used:

~Gurenge(LiSA) [Kimetsu No Yaiba][Language: Japanese]

Well how was today's chapter? Do share your feelings...

Yours Mimi