|| Tumse meri lagan lagi ||SS Pt 17 updated pg 66 - Page 31

After a moment Uday understood. There was no client and this was no business deal. May be this was someone's ploy to get him alone so that they could finish what they couldn't in last few weeks. Uday was just a second away from seeing the attackers face.

"Haath upar karo, aur hilna nahi, koi hoshiyari ki toh bheja udadunga" He told Uday.

Uday slowly raised his hands and turned to see Agastya holding the gun. Uday was not at all surprised seeing him there. "Agastya, you know what kayar (coward) ho tum, 'COWARD' in capitals" Uday said.

"rassi jal gayi par bal nahi gaya, mujhe kayar kehne ki tumhari himmat kaise hui" Agastya roared. Three mean, scary looking men appeared with guns in hand. Just then Agastya's phone rung, distracting him.

A moment's distraction was enough for Uday and he turned on the goons. Soon they were rolling on the floor beating up each other. Agastya finished his phone call and joined the fight. It was a four to one fight and it was bound to turn bloody. Uday kicked one of the men so hard that he fell on a boulder nearby hurting his head. Uday hadn't had a serious fight with anyone in years. The last time he fought like this was at the combat training he had undergone while in college. But this was more fun and Uday seemed to be an expert in smashing heads and breaking teeth.after half an hour of the fight Agastya's cronies understood they couldn't win and disappeared from the place one by one. Now it was only Agastya and Uday. Agastya came forward with his hands raised to punch Uday. Uday gave a hard kick on his stomache. Agastya fell face down in the mud. Uday thrashed him mercilessly till he was unconscious. Uday too was hurt in the fight and just wanted to get home now. He still hadn't found out who was behind those attacks. And why did they stop now? Uday kicked Agastya once again with his feet and went to his own car.

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Daima was ill past the two days and Manyata was taking care of her. Her fever was not subsiding with tablets so Manyata rung up the local lady doctor to come home. Manyata was descending the stairs to come down for something when the door bell rung. The doctor stood there with her paraphernalia in hand.

'She looks too young to be a doctor, and she's applied so much make-up, hmm what is to me, let her be' thought Manyata and invited her in. she was about to show her the patients room, the doctor asked for a glass of water. Manyata brought it and gave it to her. The doctor seemed to be hiding something the way she fidgeted in her place. Looked like she was searching for someone. "aap kya dhoond rahi hai? Patient? Unka karma upar hai; chaliye main aap ko le chalti hoon" Manyata said. Manyata had moved just a few steps forward, there was a sound of breaking glass and seconds later she felt a shooting pain in her right arm.

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Uday looked at his reflection in the mirror while parking the car. There were cuts and scratches on his face. And where was his shirt? Oh ya Agastya had torn it while fighting. his bulging biceps and enviable eight pack showed. Uday blushed when he thought about going infront of Manyata like this. He looked in the glow compartment and found of a piece of cloth enough to cover him for the moment.

When he approached the door he found it unlocked. He pushed the door and went in calling out "Pari'Pari?" but his Pari didn't come out to receive him. The sight infront of him was ghastly. There was blood splattered all over the place with shards of broken glass. Things were scattered everywhere. His heart skipped a beat' looked like the victim had put up a great level of resistance before getting hurt. He was getting odd thoughts in his head. Who was hurt? God forbid did someone hurt Manyata? And where are the others??

He went a bit forward and saw a person lying on the floor near kitchen. "Baba!!" Uday screamed. Giriraj's hand was bleeding heavily. Uday checked his pulse, he wasn't dead, thank god, only unconscious. Uday let out the breath he was holding. He had to find the others now and also the SOB who did this. He carried his Baba to the sofa and laid him there. Then went upstairs to have a check. He looked into Daima's room and she was in the same condition as Giriraj. Seemed like who ever it was had come with a lot of preparation and done their work with lots of precision. They had chosen a day and time when there would be very less people both at ranch and the house. Except a piece of cloth doused with chloroform, Uday could find nothing in the entire house which belonged to the intruder. When he came down to call the police his eyes fell on the side table. Seemed like a note. It was ruffling in the wind. Uday took the paper weight off it and saw someone had written a poem in chaste Hindi.

"Suraj ke chote se ashiyane me band hai apsara,

Ghadi ke doh(2) kaanton ke milne ke poorv, agar

Nahi mila kiran ko suraj ka sahaara,

Bahegi lahu ki dhara,

Palke moonde aasman me sammilit ho jaayegi apsara"

The impudence of the crook! First he ravages the entire house and then leaves a clue; like this was some kind of a 3^rd grade reality show! Uday felt murderously angry. He gnashed his teeth. Whoever it was he would make sure the boor wouldn't live in peace ever again. A particular word 'Kiran' kept coming infront of Uday's eyes. Suddenly a stray thought came to his mind. A faint memory'some years ago, may be in college a classmate had told him that she wanted to change her name to 'Kiran' to match his name 'Uday' which meant 'Sun'.

"Stop it Uday, this is not the time for useless memories, you have to find Manyata first, you have to crack this stupid clue for heavens sake" he said to himself.

Uday went through the note again and again and couldn't make head or tail of it. Half an hour later their ranch was teeming with police. Police had searched every nook and cranny of the house and they couldn't find anything either.

Uday was getting restless by the second. Where could his Pari be? Why would any one want to harm her? Was the blood on the floor hers? He hoped not. Could this be Agastya? It could be. Oh my god! But no Agastya couldn't have kidnapped her because he was at the cliff when all this was happening. Then who the hell was it? Maybe calling Uday out of the house and this incident were connected. Agastya could have sent anyone of his low life friends. Hell there were too many may be's. Uday grappled with his mind. And wait a second where was Mona maasi? Was she hand in hand with Agastya? Too many questions.

'Think Uday think' he forced his mind. He again took out the note from his pocket and went through it. He read every word carefully, every line with caution. After a second he caught in on the word 'Apsara', and everything fell into place..'Apsara' meant 'fairy' in Hindi. The synonym of the name all of them called Manyata. Oh the thug had used synonyms then. When he saw it this way somethings became clear. Dang! Which meant'.was his Pari tied up in his own cottage? Holy crow! Why couldn't he realize it till now?

'Suraj ka chota sa ashiyana' Uday's little cottage'ghadi ke doh kaanton ka Milan..OMG before 12 in the afternoon! He didn't understand why would Agastya write it as 'Kiran ko Suraj ka sahara' oh no was Agastya even straight! Did he..did he lust after Uday?? Big question mark. And alas! 'lahu ki dhara' which roughly means 'blood bath'!

Uday looked at the clock and the time was five minutes to eleven. He threw the note and stood up. He had very less time and the psycho couldn't be trusted. He had to save his Pari before anyone harmed a single hair of her head. Uday went to his room, opened the drawer and took out the licenced revolver he seldom used. He checked it for bullets and saw it was loaded. He came down stairs, hastily explained the situation to the inspector. Giriraj and Daima were still unconscious and that was good. Atleast they both were saved from witnessing this abomination. The inspector wanted to come along but Uday was afraid if the abductor saw the police, he might try to do some thing.

Then he ran'ran like never before. Ran for his life. Ran for the life of his beloved. He had never thought a day like this would come. He would save his love even if it cost him his life. He wouldn't go down without taking revenge if that was the last thing he would do. How dare they hurt his family? What was his Baba's and Daima's fault in this? The way to cottage seemed too faraway today. His legs seem to have lost their strength. Damn He should have taken the horse...it was too late now for that. Looked like even the birds in woods were quite today. Everything seemed to grieving with him. Uday touched his face and found he was crying. Everything that happened in last 15 odd days came to his mind like a flash back in a movie. 'No Uday, you wouldn't weep like a helpless idiot, run faster!' he thought to himself.

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ok this is it...and let me tell you i am not ending this here. there's gonna be 2 parts more 😃

if you managed to read it till the end, Thank you so much 😃 now please give me your opinions, im ready for brickbats 😉

Thank you to all who liked n commented in previous part 🤗