#3 Ashlok Dark FF - My Ransacked Heart/UPDATED/ Chapter 38 /(Pg-135) - Page 25

Chapter 28

Fallen Gravity

I find myself free falling
pulled by gravity
watching the ground slowly sneak up on me
and if I knew a way to slow my fall
maybe it would be your arms
that caught my all
but you seem disinterested
distracted by the sky
I'm just another speck of dust
something that's in abundance to find

From birth, man carries the weight of gravity on his shoulders ~He is bolted to earth ~But man has only to sink beneath the surface and he is free ~

Jacques Yves Cousteau

The torment, the misery does it ever stop, or does the cycle goes on and on like the world forever circling around it's orbit. You think and you hope that all will be well in the end, and you wait for that end, but what happens in the truth. Your wait ends...

And you no longer need that all will be well that ends well hope because hope truly kills...

Astha ate as if she had never eaten before. Her appetite had been raised after the kidnap. Kidnap? She thought, she had quite forgotten that she was a prisoner here? And why was that? Why she had forgotten that?, she thought, mentally admonishing herself. She raised her head to watch her captor, who had his head leaning against the headrest of his chair, his eyes closed. He was no longer watching her, infact it looked as if he had gone to sleep...

Astha looked at the closed door, then at him and then slowly got up from the bed. She could never get a chance like that to escape, she thought and started to move towards the door, but her foot caught something on the carpet. She truly jumped from her skin as she bent down to watch the thing on which her foot had accidently treaded on...

It was the photo of Shlok with the child. Maybe it had fallen while she was trying to put all the photos beneath the mattress. The picture had fallen almost beneath the bed that's why the Mafioso wasn't able to see it...

"Going somewhere princess", She was pondering over what to do with the picture when his low drawl almost made her jump out of her skin. Did the man never showed any weakness? she thought, fuming. "Just to wash my hands", she faked calm, looking straight into his eyes, but inside she was frightened witless.

"Think Astha think, what to do now, where to hide the picture", she though nervously. He was looking at her with narrowed eyes. An idea snapped in her mind, with the speed of lightning. Acting on it she started to move, then giving a low squeal fell down on the carpet, acting as if her foot had caught a thread on the carpet. Before he could move, she folded the picture and forced it down under her bra.

"Tuh, tuh princess, all you alright now, how was your fall, should I come and pick you up", Shlok jeered. "I am alright, you don't have to pick me up, I'll get up on my own", she bit out angrily and then groaning got up from the floor.

"You know princess, you are troubling yourself in vain , you can't win my compassion ever", he sneered. "Yes I already know it, you don't have to remind me again and again that you have no heart", she said in a bitter voice, swallowing painful tears. "Good for you", he saluted, tauntingly.

She stared at him bitterly, his face had no expression whatsoever, no compassion showed in his smooth features, he was like a rock, solid, still, unfathomable, unreachable and unbeatable...

And she was like the waves, crashing, striking and pounding herself against him...

Kalindi was on the way to the hospital, Rani had found her lying at the foot of stairs, in a dead faint. She was feeling tired that's why she had finished her work early and had gone to her quarter to take a little rest.

She had just gone to sleep, when Ramlal's rapid pounding on the door had woke her up. He was asking her to go in the house and watch on Kalindi as Avdhoot had given him instructions to tell all the servants in the house that they take care of his wife's needs behind him.

Ramlal also told her in a brisk voice that Avdhoot gave him special instructions to keep watch on servants so they couldn't neglect their duties. Rani had made a face at his high-handed attitude, but had agreed to go and keep a watch on her mistress.

And when she had arrived in the main quarters, she had been shocked to her core to find Kalindi lying on the floor. She had gone outside at once, shouting for help. In less than a minute everyone had arrived and now they were taking Kalindi to the hospital...

"Come here princess", Shlok purred, his eyes glittering darkly at her like polished onyx. "Why?", Astha raised her chin up a bit and stared at him with narrowed eyes. To hell with him, she was done with his constant threats and his menacing presence, he was just a flesh and blood man, what he could do more to hurt her that he hadn't done to her already, she thought angrily.

"Why the question princess?, hadn't your father taught you any manners that you say thank you when someone gifts you something", Shlok taunted.

"Why must you always talk in circles? And I can say thank you from here, where I am standing, I don't have to come there to say it, or do you want me to shout it down your ear", she folded her arms across her chest and stood there glaring at him defiantly.

"Wohoo, so the little princess has claws", he gave a soft whistle of appreciation. She bit her lips, so that a particular bitter retort couldn't escape her mouth. "I am going to call you kitten from now on", he goaded.

Fire blazed from her eyes and she curled her fist so tightly that her nails dug in her palms, but she still remained silent. "So little kitten, did I stroke your fur the wrong way", he was laughing openly at her now. A nerve was beginning to tick at her temple, she clenched her jaw to impound her fury that was beginning to flow through her every nerve ending...

"Well kitten, did you forget how to use your tongue to answer", he scoffed, while getting up from the chair. "Ahh now I understand, your tongue remembers it's one use only", his crude remark was like a lightened matchstick thrown on gasoline.

Her past torment, her helplessness, her misery, her loss of virginity at his hand all acted as a catalyst and something simply snapped inside her. She flew at him, with her hands drawn into claws, but it seemed he was ready for her attack.

Shlok caught the little spitting and hissing bundle of fury easily in his arms. "Shut up you b*****d", she screamed like a banshee at him. "Easy princess", he laughed wrapping his arms tightly around her. "You sick son of a b***h", she shrieked at him.

The sadistic swine was enjoying her anger, which was acting as a fuel over her already raging fury. She moved her hands towards his face to rake her nails down his monster's face, but he caught her wrists in a steel grip, bending her arms painfully behind her back.

"Leave me alone, you psycho", she gritted her teeth. Shlok transferred her wrists in his one hand behind her back and with his other hand, he caught her jaw in a brutal clasp. "I'll leave you but on one condition, that you'll behave like a good girl, no more tantrums, otherwise I'll turn you over my knee and give you a spanking, which a brat like you deserves", he hissed, his dark eyes staring menacingly into her angry ones.

Astha struggled to get out of his grip, but his arms were like steel hawsers around her body, entrapping her in their solid grip. She knew when she was defeated. "I accept your condition", she spit out bitterly. For a moment he simply gazed at her, with no expression in his dead eyes, and then he left his brutal clasp on her body, pushing her away from him.

She glared at her as she rubbed at her wrists where his fingers had left their marks. Without uttering a single word he went towards the bed and silently picked up a shopping bag from there.

He took a box, unwrapped it's covering then spread a hand towards her. "What?"she asked, a questioning look in her eyes. "You ask too many questions kitten", he retorted, calling her with his new given title. "Do once what I am telling you, then I'll leave you alone", he asked in an irritated voice.

"And why should I believe you? I am beginning to understand that you kidnapped me for a purpose, am I right?", she asked staring at him with suspicion. "Again questions, all your questions will be answered tonight princess, you just have to keep your mouth shut for a while", his eyes were beginning to show annoyance now.

"Come here", he clasped her arm in a tight grip and dragged her towards the mirror. "What?, What are you doing", she spluttered and began to struggle. "Shut up and stand still kitten, otherwise, you know I know a very effective way of shutting you up", he reminded her arrogantly. That truly shut her up.

She clenched her jaw and scuffled on her feet impatiently when he began opening the box, but said nothing. Curiously she stood up on her toes and peeked inside the box and her breath caught in her throat when she saw a river of glittering rubies, embedded in diamonds, lying on the bed of silk. The box read Saint Laurent. "No I can't wear them, why are you giving them to me?" she asked in a horrified voice, a feeling of uneasiness was beginning to spiral down her body.

"I am not giving them to you, I am borrowing them to you", he explained casually, lifting the glittering necklace with one hand and turning her body to face the mirror with the other hand. She started to open her mouth, but closed it when she saw him giving her a stern look. He looked the same like her algorithm teacher whenever he did that, she though grumpily.

Shlok moved her hair aside and clasped the necklace around her throat. Astha's hand automatically lifted to set it in her cleavage, her fingers caressing the glittering fire. She raised her gaze to see her reflection in the mirror, and caught sight of him. He was totally absorbed in replacing her simple earrings with the ruby scrolls, his tongue in his cheek...

Something tugged at her heart , he was so busy in his task, that he had quite forgotten to wear his ruthless mask. He was looking so heart wrenchingly vulnerable, his lips pursed like a child and a dark lock of hair falling on his forehead. She didn't know how much time had passed, maybe a second or maybe a thousand years that she stood there, staring at him in the reflection, mesmerized.

Shlok raised his head after finishing the task and his gaze caught sight of her staring at him in the mirror. She was watching him with clear wide eyes as a child would look at a candy which is beyond his reach, as a moth who would wish to burn in the candle's flame, as a gazelle would look at her hunter, helplessly, vulnerably, fighting temptation, but still drawn towards him...

Kalindi woke up with a gasp, feeling as if her breath had left her body before but now had come back in her lungs. She felt disoriented, floating, as if she was suspended in midair, with no idea about where her head was and where her feet were. She opened her eyes slowly, to close them again reflexively as blinding light hit her retinas.

After squeezing her eyelids once she opened them, blinking in the light, emanating from the ceiling bulb to adjust her tunnel vision. She raised her head a little to look around. It was a sterile room completely bare of any hangings and decoration. Everything was white, white curtains hung at the windows, white bed sheets, and white coverlets.

In a corner a woman was sitting on the chair, her head lolling on the headrest. She was probably sleeping as her snoring indicated. Kalindi swallowed, her mouth was dry like the sahara dessert. She was beginning to remember the events which had lead her to this room. Her mind was telling her that it was a hospital room and the machinery all around her was proving it right.

Her daughter, she had to find he daughter, she suddenly remembered and started to get up from the bed. But her body didn't obey her. Frustrated she tried to move her hands and legs, they bent a little but didn't move completely. They didn't budge. "Ast...", she shouted, but the only thing that came out of her mouth was a croak, her breathing had started to weaken and tears were beginning to well in her eyes from her helplessness.

The machinery had started to beep warningly. Two nurses in white rushed inside to control Kalindi, who was flailing like a dying fish on the bed, her arms and legs sticking out at weird angles due to her struggle, but still she wasn't able to get up. The sleeping woman had awakened and she was now looking harassingly at her mistress. One of the nurses was admonishing the sleeping woman, who Kalindi recognized as Rani, through her closing eyes...

Maybe one of the nurses had injected her with a sleeping dose. "Why couldn't you took care of her, she had already got major spinal injury, she wouldn't be able to walk or talk for a while, couldn't you see to her, that she must not move, it may cause permanent damage to her, you stupid, witless woman, what type of caretaker are you", one of the nurse was hissing at a harassed Rani.

Their voices were beginning to garble inside her drowsy mind. "Leave her padmini, she is uneducated, she won't understand what you are saying?", the other nurse took side of Rani. Their voices were thickening, tranforming, sounding heavy and masculine now...

That was the last conversation that Kalindi heard off before she began to sink into oblivion. "No I am not paralyzed", that was the last thought that echoed in her mind before the darkness completely engulfed her mind...

"Give me your hand", Shlok said sharply looking away from her reflection. Without moving her gaze away from his reflection, she placed her hand inside his palm. He snapped a delicate bracelet, laced with diamonds and ruby over her wrist.

"Stop staring, it's rude", he barked at her, when he found her still gazing at him. "Does it and when you stare at me, then it's not rude right", she answered boldly. She was amazed at her answer, when did she found the courage to answer him back in his way. What was happening to her?

She was feeling dazed, confused, out of time, without gravity like a planet that had fallen from its orbit, like the shifting sands, like a homeless bird...

Like an astronaut that had forgotten the way to his spaceship, and now wanders aimlessly in the vast space, until his last reserves of oxygen are depleted in the darkness, and no hope is left for him to ever return to his natural habitat, his mother earth...

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