~* Faith *~ An Astha - Shlok SS - updated Chapter 9 pg. 51 - Page 18

Originally posted by: SAnonymous

Nice FF

Originally posted by: AnjuRish

hey dear

beautiful start i must say

interesting storyline

i like the smart sassy strong astha

i want shlok to fall in love first not astha yaaar

i have sent u a buddy request pls add me yaar to u r list

Originally posted by: ssafdar

I love the fact that Astha is giving Shlok the cold shoulder and that its starting to effect him...go girl

As Shlok finally took his seat at the dining table, Niranjan folded away his newspaper and gestured for his wife and daughter-in-laws to start serving breakfast.

"Beta Shlok, I have a very important matter to discuss with you."

"Ji, baba?" Shlok asked attentively.

"Tomorrow we are holding a very special puja in our house and I want you to take the day off from work to be a part of it," his father told him.

Shlok lowered his eyes to his plate.

"Baba you know I don't believe in these things."

"I know beta, but do you think I would ask you unless it was important? Tomorrow is the first puja after your wedding which you and Astha will be doing together."

Astha looked up at her father-in-law as he said those words, then quickly looked down again at the bowl of daal in her hand which she was silently serving to her husband. Both of them, always acting as if the other was invisible.

Niranjan continued, "Apne vivahit jeevan ki achi shuruwat ke liye aur iss ghar ki sukh shanti ke liye, tumhara iss puja mai hisa lena bohat zaroori hai."

"Teek hai Baba. I'll be a part of it, but only for you...I have to go now, I'm getting late for work," Shlok replied and got up from the table.

He had only taken a few steps before he abruptly froze in his tracks, as he nearly collided with Astha who was about to walk towards the kitchen at the same time. Astha looked up at him in surprise, then quickly looked away, while Shlok continued to stare at her. After a few seconds, they both tried to move around each other but ended up taking a step forward at the same time and nearly bumped into each other again. Feeling highly awkward, Astha took a big step to the left, leaving the path clear for Shlok to walk.

He muttered something vaguely sounding like a Thanks and finally managed to walk away.

Meanwhile, Niranjan who had been the only family member to notice the small scene, went deep in thought at sensing the lack of warmth between his son and daughter-in-law.

***

The Same Evening

"Thank you, Astha," Niranjan said as he took the cup of tea from her. Astha just nodded obediently and took a step back to stand behind the couch.

"Where are you going at this time of day, Shlok?" Niranjan asked his son who was walking towards the front door. Shlok paused.

"Baba, I forgot a very important file at the office and I really needed to study it tonight, since I am not going to office tomorrow. So I was just going to go get it," Shlok explained.

"Shlok beta, if you are going out, why don't you take Astha with you for company?" Niranjan suggested.

The tray nearly slipped from Astha's hands. Wide-eyed she frantically tried to balance it before it landed on her father-in-law's bald head. Thankfully she managed it and breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, Niranjan didn't seem to have noticed. But Shlok had and was highly amused by what he saw.

"Sure baba. Jaise aap teek samjhe. Chale, Astha?"

Shlok's mouth spread out into a crooked smile. Meanwhile Astha looked at him like she was ready to dump the whole tray of hot tea on his head. However, she had no option but to pass the tray to the kaam-wali as she didn't dare object to Shlok in front of her father-in-law.

"Jao, Astha beta," Niranjan smiled at her and a hesitant Astha followed Shlok out the door.

The drive to his office was spent in silence as Astha just rested her head on the windowsill and stared outside. Shlok stole occasional glances at her but also didn't say anything. One good thing about spending majority of their time together without words was that silence was no longer awkward.

Neither had a problem with it being the only thing between them. Without the verbal spats and displays of anger, attraction, and passion (characteristic of their pre-marriage encounters), life was unexciting, but at least it didn't hurt.

The cold dark silence was always Shlok's way of life, his best friend, and it was slowly becoming Astha's, as more and more pieces of her soul became repressed and lost.

The car came to a screeching halt as they reached their destination and Shlok unfastened his seat-belt.

"Astha, stay in the car. I'll be back in ten minutes," he told her and after giving his expressionless wife a quick glance, he stepped out of the car.

Two uneventful minutes passed and a bored Astha decided to turn the radio on. She had barely touched the button, when the sound of an auto-rickshaw caused her to look out her window. Astha's scream got stuck in her throat as she saw the familiar face of a man she knew only too well, pressed to her window. The same man who had tried to force himself on her the day she had left work late.

Her arms reached frantically to lock her door, but the rakshas was prepared and yanked open her door, making Astha scream. He leered at her through the open door and Astha's forehead started to sweat. She was trapped!

As he leaned inside the car, Astha frantically scrambled back as fast as she could and tried to escape from the other door but he was too quick and she was too accessible in the cramped space of the car. Within a matter of seconds, her attempts of escape were foiled as he grabbed her wrist and dragged her outside the car.

"Leave me!!" Astha screamed at him and managed to release her wrist, using all her strength. She started running away, but this only made him laugh.

"Kahan bhaago gi aur kitni dehr bhaago gi?" He yelled as he chased after her.

Not knowing where else to escape, Astha pushed open the glass door of the entrance to the Agnihotri Institution and ran inside.

Call for help! Call for Shlok! Her brain screamed at her. But for some reason, her body was unwilling to comply. Something was holding her tongue back. Then, Shlok's cruel words rang in her brain.

"You women are so weak! You always need a man to protect and take care of you. Without men you couldn't survive a day in this world!"

Astha stopped running and took a deep breath to clear her mind. She noticed her predator about to enter through the same glass door, but this time she was ready. She saw a heavy glass paperweight on the desk at the front reception and quickly grabbed it and aimed it at the man as he opened the door, throwing it as hard as she could.

Astha was horrified as she missed her target by an inch and instead of hitting the man's head, she hit the glass door, making it shatter into pieces.

"YOU B****!" the man screamed at her, enraged at nearly getting hit. Immediately, he lunged forward and grabbed her by the arms before she could escape again. Astha's body went flying to the ground as he gave her a resounding slap on her face.

She landed on the floor and screamed as she felt pieces of glass penetrate the flesh of her right arm. Panting in pain, she rolled over on her back only to see the monster slowly approaching her with evil determination. She forced herself to sit up and tried to get on her feet, but the pain in her arm was so blinding that she could only drag her body across the floor as the man advanced towards her slowly, purposely taking his time.

Bappa, please! Her mind was pleading and screaming as tears of desperation slid down her cheeks. Her back bumped against another desk and Astha's eyes looked behind her frantically. She spotted a glass flower vase.

The man smiled with satisfaction as she was finally trapped and leered towards her while checking her out from top to bottom. Astha took advantage of his moment of distraction to grab the glass vase in her uninjured arm and hit it with all her might, square in his head.

The man's eyes popped out with shock and Astha stared in disgust as she saw a bloody wound starting to appear on his head, before he finally fainted and collapsed to the ground in front of her.

***

The broken end of the vase fell from Astha's hand and she moaned in pain, clutching her bloody arm as heart-wrenching sobs consumed her.

The sight wouldn't leave Shlok Agnihotri's head and would stay there, to haunt him for eternity.

***

I'm sorry this chapter had to be so disturbing. But it was required. So what do you guys think?

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Originally posted by: ShlokAstha

Thank you so much!!

🤣 You guys are so much into him, aren't you!?

No one's saying anything about Astha, it's all about SHLOK! 😆