PART 14-b
It doesn't take even a few seconds for Roli to attend Sid's call as she has been waiting for it impatiently. Though Akhil and Shreya are really warm and caring, she still feels choked, all thanks to the worrying circumstances. Now there is only a person who can serve as a real comfort for her and that's Siddhant. She really wishes if he was with her, but she too knows that's kind of impossible and moreover dangerous to Siddhant as well. So she had chained up her emotions inside her with great difficulty and in that situation a call from Siddhant serves as a quick remedy for her worries.
"Siddhant.' Roli answers as soon as she picks up the phone, her voice suppressing her desire to breakdown with great difficulty. "Roli tell me this,' Sid begins but pauses as he hears her controlling her sobs from the other side. "Roli you okay?' he questions, his voice beaming in concern. "Hmm.' Roli manages to hum amongst her sobs. Siddhant feels really touched; he wishes if he could go to her right then and console her pulling her to his warm hug. "Roli, don't cry! Are you there? In Akhil's place?' he questions. "haan.' Roli mumbles swallowing the lump in her throat. "Then what happened yaar? Any problem? Are you not comfortable there? Tell me?' Sid enquires tensed. Roli still keeps quiet fidgeting with the phone. "Roli, I have told you right, whatever happen, I will stay by you. You understand? Now come on, tell me why are you crying. ' Sid asks softly giving her the confidence that he's there for her. "I'm afraid.' Roli finally manages to come out with it. Now Sid gets it. No wonders about it; after seeing the contents of the memory card, he can understand that her fears are obvious. "Roli, I know what your fears are about. And now, I want you to help me in connecting the missing links.' says Sid. "You got the memory card?' Roli enquires; her voice curious. "ya Roli. And you may know that I have a hell of questions in my head now.' says Sid. "Quite obvious.' mumbles Roli. "Roli, tell me now. What happened exactly? What got you trapped in to this? And how you ran over to those visuals in the memory card?' questions Sid curiously. "I will tell you Siddhant. I will tell you.' Roli says rewinding her memories to that day which changed her peaceful life in to a disruptive tale.
3 days back.
It's close to 9 at night and Roli is driving to Mumbai. It has been a very long day for her but she's busy dialing up Siddhant who hasn't even called her once during the day. She knows he's hell busy with a lot of official things but the lover in her doesn't seem to care. She wants to hear his voice at least once and so is in continues attempt to reach him via a call, but his number is unreachable. Nevertheless, she doesn't give up and continues her attempts and that's when she notices that she is about to run in to a cat at the road. She quickly steps hard on the brake, making the car screech to a sudden halt. She sighs in relief as she finds the cat running away in to dark bushes. She leans on her seat relieved and taking the bottle in the car cabinet, gulps it down to calm herself. That is when she looks around; she's on a road amidst the woods. She is a bit startled looking in to the eerie darkness that's spread all over. Don't know why, the first flashes that she get on the sight of this dark lonely night is some concocted horror stories that Siddhant used to fill in her ears to scare and tease her, during her cozy nights at her place. She has always shoved them off then, slapping him playfully or making some other concocted story. But today, when she's left in this extreme darkness in sheer isolation, those fears are consuming her strangely. She takes her phone and stares at Siddhant's smiling picture on it. "Your silly jokes scare me now yaar!' she says as she continues to look at him. Those mischievous eyes and mesmerizing smile is something she can never resist; not even being in the middle of forest at late night. "My Mr. handsome!' says her as she kisses on his pic leaning on the seat.
Just then she hears a digging sound out of nowhere. For a moment, she wonders if it's just her imagination. She listens more carefully and finds that it's there; for real. What it could be, she wonders. Definitely, it's something rare and abnormal to hear such a sound from the woods. Though the normal girl inside resists, the adventurous journalist inside her wakes up. It might be some lawbreakers having come to cut off the trees in the woods illegally, she guesses. I must not leave them so, I will bring their wrong deeds to light, she promises to herself and gets out of the car taking her mobile and car keys. She just lets the dim light of the phone screen to remain, so as to see what's around and walks towards the source of the sound.
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