This tale just keeps getting thrilling at every turn. There are so many elements to the story, and the biggest mystery remains - Who the f is AMAN. By this point I’m as annoyed as arnav to know bout him. Im sad to say that Dhruv is a bad guy :/
Khushi remains the powerhouse feminist, changing the world, one single person at a time.
Whatte brilliant update!! Absolutely no words!! Loved it that's all!
cheers
Too much adventurous...steadily Everyone is going to know anjali's crush on Abhi...I really liked the back and forth between Arshi...this is getting too exciting...is the girl case going to be path breaker for khushi's career...where are other duos missing them...
Such a big cliffhanger
Loving this cute bonding ..I quite like kushi
Street smart and sassy
Amazing...I am reading this story again and again ...can’t get enough of it... plzzz update sooon.... dying to read more...
Thanks for the update .The story is getting more and more interesting now with many twists and turns .Also now kushi has become a detective along with being a reporter and has roped Arnav in compelling him to join her in the hot pursuit of Shyam.
The kushi you have portrayed in this story is like a con girl and now after pursuing shyam they have ended in a hotel across the place to have a watch on him where shyam is hiding , but looks like while doing so they have come across a girl who is locked in the bathroom of the hotel.
Will wait to see what happens next
I had read this story a long time back and was so disappointed that it was incomplete.
Thank you for starting again even with your busy schedule.
Loved every part of it and read the whole thing from the start . The impulsive Khushi, the imminent ASR, the sweet Anjali....is a real treat.
The last Chapter again has a twist with the locked girl and not forget the Bus's son......
The plot thickens.......
Looking forward to read the next chapter...
Waiting....its nearly a month
From the author's desk: Dear friends, this chapter deals with some disturbing facts, reader caution advised.
Thanks so much for all your wonderful comments, and new readers, Welcome aboard!
Happy reading!
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter 17: Into the unknown
Part 4: The darker side
Arnav stood in shock as he watched Khushi working on the locked balcony door with her lock picking tool.
“How does this work?” she asked him, wiping her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand
“Don’t you know?” he asked skeptically
“No, never used it before” she answered him
“You carry something that you don’t know how to use?” Arnav was surprised.
“Never got a chance to… I don’t go picking locks…” she said with little annoyance. “Help me” she added for a good measure.
“That’s exactly what you are trying to do right now”
“This is different” she hissed. “Are you going to stand there asking questions until whoever has locked that girl returns back?”
He rolled his eyes, looked at around
“I never thought I would do this ever in my life” he sighed “Move aside”.
She extended the lock picker. He sighed as he took it and put it inside his pant pocket
“Are you not going to use it?”
“No”
He gestured her to move back and shoved at the door
“People will hear” she hissed urgently.
“As if they won’t see?” he asked shoving at the door again “for your information we are standing at someone’s balcony”
“People watching us from those shops won’t know that… But what you are doing will attract attention”
“If they have not already watched us jumping balconies”
On the third shove, the door hinges gave away and opened with a bang.
This room was shabbier than theirs with empty bottles of alcohol on the floor and stale smell of smoked tobacco. A rotten smell emanating from half eaten and rotten food parcel left on the table gave them a nauseated feeling .
There was no one in the room.
They rushed to the locked bathroom and opened it to reveal two young girls, half fainted and looking pale and weak, slumped on the floor of the bathroom.
“Please let us go” the elder girl whined pitifully as she kicked her legs the moment she saw Arnav, she moved backwards to a corner
“Relax.., I am not…” Arnav called out urgently, moving towards the younger girl
“Not her… don’t touch her” The elder girl screamed, shielding the younger one.
“We are here to help” He said as turned quickly to Khushi
“Let us go” the girl begged as Arnav stood rooted to spot.
“Let me take care of this” Khushi said, stepping inside the bathroom. “You stay outside”
“It’s Ok, we will get you both out of this place” Khushi told the girls.
After a few minutes, Khushi had brought the girls out to the room
It took a lot of persuading from her side to make the girls to speak
The elder one introduced herself as “Tara” and younger one was her sister “Tanu”. The next few minutes passed as Khushi consoled and convinced the girls assuring her that they have come here to help them both, slowly trying to get the girls to trust them.
“Khushi, we don’t have much time, we need to move from here” Arnav called out. He felt he was going to be sick with the pungent smell in the room. But more importantly, he was concerned that the criminal who has done this to this piteous girl will be back.
“Yeah, he is right. We need to get out of here” Khushi agreed
“The door is locked, the balcony is the only way out” Arnav said
“Are you both up to some adventure?” Khushi asked the girls
Within a couple of minutes, as Khushi helped the girls out of the room, they locked the bathroom door to look like how it was. There was no use closing the balcony as the hinged were hanging off the door.
Khushi pulled the dirty bedsheets off the bed and tied them to the balcony.
“Are you planning to get down this way?” Arnav asked in a shocked tone.
“No, just setting up the scene” Khushi said, inviting a relieved sigh from him.
The return trip to their room 4 balconies away started with persuading the hungry, weak, timid, anxious and half-conscious young girls to make the most difficult first step towards her escapade.
Then they heard it. The door lock being turned open. They were still standing in the balcony.
Then Tara had a panic attack and it took all the resolve of Khushi to make her keep quiet. Arnav quickly held the balcony door closed, holding Tanu close to him, hoping whoever is entering inside takes time to notice that something is amiss and does not notice the awkward way in which the balcony door stood.
“We need to make a move fast” he told Khushi and then turned to Tanu “Listen Hun, can you trust me enough to let me hold you?” he whispered urgently.
Tanu nodded.
“and you Tara?” Khushi asked
“I am ready” Tara said.
“I will go first and then Tara can follow me” Khushi told her as the girl nodded her head.
“That’s right, I will closely follow behind, along with Tanu, you move ahead” Arnav said handing over her bag to her.
Tara and Tanu were not able to leap between balconies and they have let them use the sunshade between each of these balconies as an interim step. Not really sure if the sunshade could hold his and Tanu’s weight together, Arnav gingerly stepped into the shade and lifted her to Khushi and Tara who pulled her to the next balcony. It wasn’t as swift as leaping between the parapets of the adjacent balconies and this was the best they could do.
Thankfully, the sun had set, providing them momentary partial darkness.
They were still 2 balconies away as they saw the shadow of a man rushing out and checking out the bedsheet and trying to peer into the streets searching for the girls
He then called someone on his mobile and informed that the girls have escaped.
“Sit down and stay still” Arnav whispered to both the girls as he and Khushi stood close to the wall, trying to merge with the shadow of the walls of the building.
But the late evening lights were still bright enough for someone to spot them if looked their way.
Taking care that Tara does not slip into another panic attack, they stayed still, while speaking to both the girls soothingly, hoping that the person who had rented the room of the balcony they were in does not open it.
The man was still on phone as he moved inside the room.
“Let’s make a move before that man is back” Arnav hastened them taking advantage of the momentary chance.
Those few crucial moments gave them enough time to quickly slip into the next balcony. They were just a step away from the safety of the room that Arnav and Khushi had rented when least three men tumulted into the balcony of the very room from where they made their escape, with an uproar of confusion as they had found out that their prisoner has escaped.
Tara was already into the sunshade, Khushi was to follow next and Tanu was still with Arnav.
“Tara, get into the room” Arnav hissed as he urged Tanu into the sunshade “stay here. Don’t move.”
“Me alone?”
“Yes Hun” Arnav told her softly but firmly “if we are lucky, we will pull through this”
Just then, one of the men brought out a torch light from somewhere, flooding the surrounding with light.
“If they see this side, they will find us” Khushi whispered as she saw Tara getting into the balcony.
“Hopefully, this will keep them distracted” Arnav said pulling her close, trying to position them so as to hide Tanu from their view
“What are you…” Khushi’s initial shudder turned to utter silence as Arnav cupped his hand over her mouth
“Try not to look so shocked or you will give it away”
Within minutes they were flooded with the light from torch “Who is there?” one of the men wondered.
“Not them” his companion confirmed
“Oye, what are you doing?” Arnav asked mimicking local language to the best of his ability. Khushi meanwhile from the corner of her eyes saw that Tara had landed into their balcony and sneaked into the room as instructed.
“Sorry buddy” one of the men shouted back.
“Let’s go down and search…”
Arnav and Khushi took the final leap along with Tanu to their room and finally they were inside the safe haven which an hour before wasn’t so inviting, but now, they were relieved that they made it this far.
Tara was sitting on the bed inside as Tanu rushed to her
“We made it jiji”
But Tara was still very frightened
“That was Jagga who was with them. He is the one who runs that place” Tara told them shivering
“Which place?” Khushi asked
Tara was hesitant
“That hell where we both escaped from” Tanu said
“hell?” Khushi repeated “you meant that bathroom?
Tanu shook her head to indicate a no. But fell silent as Tara glared at her sister
“Tara, if you don’t tell us, how can we help you?”
“Just take us both away from here, far away…”
“But why did they lock you in this hotel room?”
“Because we knew too much” Tara said “Jiji, please believe me… Jagga is merciless… the last time I tried to escape, he beat me until I bled and burnt me with cigarette stubs”
“He is not going to get hold of you this time.” Arnav told Tara
“Yes, that’s right… we will call the police” Khushi agreed
“Police? “ Tara laughed sarcastically “They are also with him”
“Not the ones we know”
“He is very powerful jiji… he knows a lot of important people” Tanu said
“Don’t worry, we will plan something” Khushi said indicating Arnav who was trying to reach out to Abhi and Rajesh, but neither of them were picking up the calls
“Any luck?”
Arnav gestured indicating a no. “Not picking up”
“Should we call Police helpline?”
“If what Tara says is true, the local police should be in with this guy Jagga. Calling a police helpline will not help, the call will be transferred to a local police station and they may tip him”
“What can we do now?”
“I don’t have my vehicle here nearby as well… Even otherwise, how do we smuggle them out of this place?”
“Can we just take the elevator and dash downstairs? I am sure that there will be a lot of people in the reception and they cannot act”
“Don’t be naïve, this should be his place”
“Yes, he is right. This is like a safe place for Jagga and his men”
“Safe place?”
“Yes, the other two men were supposed to take us back to Jagga. But since we got news that there was going to be a raid by a higher official of police, they locked us up here in this hotel. This hotel has been used many times in the past as a safe place for them to hide”
“raid by police?”
“yes, they said that one of his men got caught”
Khushi turned back to Arnav
“Did they mis-took Sandy’s arrest as police being here for them?”
“But Sandy is their man” Tara said surprising both of them
“You know Sandy?
“Unfortunately, yes. He is Jagga’s agent”
“Agent? For what?”
Tara grew quiet again
“Drugs?”
She didn’t answer further.
“Ok, if it is painful to talk about this, we will talk later ok?” Khushi told Tara.
“How do we get out of this hole?”
“There is a way… Arnavji, if we can buy some sarees?”
“Sarees?”
“I can try with ghoongoot for both of them or even a burqa will work, we can get them out of this place”
“Seriously? Khushi you are crazy”
“Do you have a better plan?”
“Yes” Arnav said “I have to retrieve my car first”
“Its 4 lanes away”
“Your mistake”
“I didn’t want the Chandini Chowk episode to repeat”
“Khushi, repeats? When you are around? We get treated to brand new trouble every time”
“You call this trouble? Tara was locked inside a bathroom”
“No, I didn’t mean that” Arnav said looking apologetically at Tara and then making a move towards the door, called out “Khushi, promise me – don’t do any gimmicks. Stay put. Your phone is charged now?”
“Yes, I have got some 46 %”
“Good. Three of you stay here. I will call you Khushi, don’t take any risk please”
“Bhaiyya, can you also get me something to eat? I haven’t eaten anything for 2 days” Tanu asked
Arnav and Khushi looked at each other
“Yes Hun, I will. Stay safe”
“I have something for you to eat” Khushi said rummaging her bag and pulling out the peanuts and handing it over to Tanu and Tara. Tanu grabbed it and started to eat it hungrily.
“lock the door”
Khushi followed Arnav
“I will bring help Khushi, promise me to stay safe”
“I will”
“Don’t open the door if anyone…”
“I am not a ten-year-old”
Arnav sighed and then he swiftly walked to take the escalator.
***
“Will he come back?” Tara asked Khushi
“Of course, he has gone to bring us the car”
“I don’t trust men, they give you hopes and leave and never to return back”
“Not this one”
Tara scoffed sarcastically.
“I pray you are right jiji” Tanu said innocently
“I am very sure of it” Khushi assured her “Now tell me, why did they lock you up?”
Tanu looked at Tara who was quiet
“Who locked you in?”
“Where are your parents?”
“Where are you from?”
“Tara, how am I supposed to help you if you don’t tell me anything?”
“We escaped and they caught us. We were being taken back to Jagga”
“So Jagga is related to you?”
“No. that devil is not”
“What business does he run?”
Tara was quiet. Tanu stopped munching looking nervously at Tara.
Khushi asked her next question very carefully. She knew Tara was hesitant to answer twice before. Khushi somehow got an instinct of what it could be. Tara was begging Arnav to not do anything the moment she saw him opening the bathroom door.
“Are there others like you locked up there?”
Tara looked up at Khushi and nodded her head
“Tara if you don’t talk, we cannot help your other friends”
Tara gave Khushi a haunted look
“He runs a brothel”
Khushi shut her eyes in pain. Tara should be just 14 or 15 years old… and Tanu much younger. What kind of demons did these things with children?
“Oh Devimaiyya”
“How did you?”
“We don’t have our father, My mother worked hard to provide us. When my mother got very sick, I was forced to stop school and get to work. Who will give work for a 12 year old? I went around doing household work. I couldn’t earn much. Only enough for my mother’s medical expenses. Then one of them told us there is an agent who can help us get work in the city and I can earn more money with Household work or baby sitting. I trusted him but he left me with Sandy. Sandy brought me to Jagga. At first cried and cried, but you know how it works right? It’s been two years now.”
“Oh Girl!” Khushi hugged Tara, unable to stop her tears.
“How did Tanu?”
“My mistake. I was trying my best to escape from that place. After I begged one of my clients, he got me a greeting card to send my sister on her birthday. I gave her the information about my whereabouts so that she can get me help. You see, no body in our village know about my work here”
“Where will I go for help Jiji? I got into a bus and came here directly” Tanu informed
“Just like that?”
She nodded
“The moment she landed here, Jagga started to see the prospective of turning her into a whore too, I couldn’t stand it anymore. She is just 11. I grabbed her and ran away from there”
“But they caught us even before we could cross this street and we were being take back to him… then we saw the police vehicles. They brought us here and locked us up here”
“Tara, you don’t have feel ashamed. If there is anyone who has to it is them – cruel monsters.”
“Does the society have the same opinion as your Jiji?” Tara asked
“It doesn’t matter Tara, you have to stay strong for your sister and mother. Think, your bad days are over”
“mother?” Tanu asked
“Hmm, we will take you both to the safety of your mother”
“But she passed away two months after Tara left” Tanu informed her sadly.
“What?”
“Hmm, the irony is, Jagga only exploits us, but doesn’t pay us. I could not send any money back home. Mother passed away. Tanu was left with a relative”
“She is all I have left Jiji” Tanu said hugging her sister.
“They didn’t even inform me about my mother passing away” Tara said dejectedly, they didn’t even let me see her for one last time. Then she burst into tears. Tanu started to cry too. It took a long time for Khushi to console both the girls.
“Jiji, You trust Bhaiyya will come to get us?” Tara asked again.
Khushi nodded her head.
“with my life”
Then they heard knocks at the door. Khushi got alerted. Arnav would take atleast half an hour to return. The car was parked more than 2 kms away. But Who was at the door now?
She got up cautiously and went to the door.
To be continued.
__________________________________________________________________________
Please do take care of yourself and your family, Follow all the precaution and stay safe! and yeah, Do leave your comments.
| topics | author | replies | views | reply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disnhining_star | 150 | 4237 | ||
| abavi | 247 | 90829 | ||
| Rizz-ington | 34 | 4679 | ||
| spvd | 636 | 41474 | ||
| NostalgiaLove | 185 | 1310 |
comment:
p_commentcount