Arhi FF:Mirage #2 Next thread link on Pg 151 - Page 63

She tried to run away as fast as she could, but the darkness behind her was catching up with her pace. It threatened to engulf her completely. She closed her eyes, unable to bear to witness her own doom. Looking up straight ahead, she could only see the never ending highway in front of her. Deserted by everything, everyone, except for the sand on either sides of it. Stretches of the barren land lay in front of her. An empty land where she could find no one to help her.

She tried to scream for help, but her voice failed her. She glanced back once more to see how far away her predator was. The evil eyes were catching up, just a few feet behind her. She then realised that she wouldn't make it. She had fallen into an inescapable trap that had been weaved by herself.

Her gasps became quicker and fiercer as she felt the curtain of life inviting her to cross into the oblivion. A dark curtain behind which she could hear groans of agony and destruction. Closing her eyes, she surrendered herself to the curtain, tired of running away, tired of life, tired of everything possible around her. She just wanted to quit.

But then, she suddenly felt a strong pair of arms pull her away out of nowhere and anchor her to safety.

And then she felt warmth surge inside her. A strange feeling of security and tranquillity enveloped her.

"Khushi, I am right beside you. Don't be afraid. Just trust me." The calm voice reassured her.

"I trust you." She replied automatically as his words seeped into her mind. And then everything faded into black.

Khushi suddenly woke up from a nightmare, sweating profusely and panting for breath. For a whole minute, she didn't realise where she was or what was she doing. Her surroundings were familiar but not what she expected it to be. She grabbed the bedsheet that was covering her body and threw it aside. She tried to get up, but her muscles failed to provide her any strength.

"Khushi?" she heard a voice call out to her from the other end of the room and she looked in that direction to find Lavanya staring at her surprised.

"Lavanya?" Khushi asked even more confused, trying to recollect how she ended up here in her friend's room.

"Are you alright?" Lavanya asked coming ahead and taking a place beside her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Khushi replied unsurely. "How did I end up here?"

"You don't remember anything? After the funeral, you decided to come along and stay with me right? And then you were sick and puked, collapsing on the floor."

"Oh!" Khushi exclaimed as the memories of the previous day slowly flitted into her mind. And then surfaced anger, guilt, fear and helplessness along with those memories as the harsh reality stood before her.

"Feeling hungry? I'll tell the servants to get you something to eat." Lavanya assured her and got up to leave the room.

"How long have I been sleeping?"

"A whole twenty four hours." Lavanya replied back before exiting the room.

o0o

It was mid noon. Khushi had finally eaten something and was sitting in the living room of the Kashyap's house. Lavanya was continuously engaging her in some conversation or the other to divert her friend's mood. But Khushi was oblivious to her chatter. She realised that she couldn't concentrate on anything that was happening around her. She continued to stare blankly at the wall ahead of her.

Just then she heard the door bell ring and saw Lavanya striding towards the door.

She heard voices. One of her friend and another of a man. She didn't bother to look who it was. Everything seemed to be too disinteresting for her to engage her attention. Few minutes later, she felt a warm hand grasp her shoulder lightly. Khushi suddenly turned around, startled at the surprising gesture.

She saw that the hand belonged to Akash, who was standing beside her with a calm smile on his face.

"Khushi, how are you?" he asked, while she instantly jumped to her feet.

"Akash?" she asked confused to find him here at this hour. "I'm good." She said nodding her head, as a standard reply she was using to everyone who asked her the question.

"Surprised to see me?" he asked gazing at her startled eyes, trying to suppress his smile. "I called up your cellphone and found out that you are staying at your friend's house and that you weren't well. So I decided to drop by and enquire how you are doing. I hope I'm not disturbing you." He asked, directing the last question at Lavanya.

"No, you are always welcome."Lavanya replied back. "So how do you know each other?" she asked wondering about how she was suddenly meeting unknown faces in Khushi's life.

"I was her Buaji's doctor. And she also works for me." He added. And then Khushi suddenly realised that she hadn't been to her workplace since the time she went to Mumbai.

"I'm sorry Akash, I couldn't come to the clinic." She apologised, adding more guilt to her huge pile of it.

"No, it's ok Khushi. I understand your situation. Infact, I think you can take a long leave and return back when you feel like. I have other staff to manage the work. But you are always welcome whenever you wish to return back for work."

"Thanks Akash." She replied back, grateful to him, more than ever to have him stand beside her whenever she was in some difficulty.

He looked at her face carefully, gauging her mental state, wondering if this was the right time for him to speak about Arnav to her. But he realised that she still hadn't come out of the recent tragedy and that it would be highly inappropriate for him to bring out such a sensitive matter. As it is, she was staying with her friend and noticing her surroundings, he realised that she was in safe hands. Arnav wouldn't dare to hurt her or take advantage of her in such a vulnerable situation. Maybe he could talk to her when she was finally back to normal.

o0o

"Hello Khalid Bhai! It's me Arnav. I have the Kashyap's file with me. When should I come to hand it over to you?" he asked the elder man on the other end of the call.

"Arnav, currently I'm in Hyderabad and tonight I will be leaving to South Africa. There is a big and a really important mission for you. I will tell you about it after I return back after fifteen days. About the file, I will inform Goenka about it. Until then keep it with you carefully. And good job Boy! I'll meet you soon. Allah Hafiz!" he heard Khalid Bhai exclaim out happily.

"Ok, Bhai." He said and disconnected the call. Arnav was slightly disappointed that he couldn't meet him to talk about his future plans. But it was fine. Fifteen days would pass very fast. Until then, maybe he could come up with alternative ideas to convince Khalid Bhai.

He had also mentioned about a big and really important mission. He knew Khalid Bhai never exaggerated anything. If he meant big, it was going to be a really big mission literally. Wondering what it could be, he went to his bedside to retrieve his bag that he had taken along with him to Mumbai.

Shockingly, it wasn't there. He crouched down to investigate if he had pushed the bag underneath his bed. But it wasn't even under the bed. Strange, he thought as he began to search the whole house for it. But after nearly searching for fifteen minutes, he realised that it wasn't present anywhere in his house.

Then where did it disappear?

And then, as if he was struck with enlightenment, he realised that with his preoccupied mind, he had never really brought back his bag home and that it was left behind in Khushi's house in his hurry to slip out of her house. He clearly remembered that on that particular night, he had placed his bag inside Khushi's room, not wanting to leave it behind in the car lest it be stolen away.

"Oh Great!" he muttered sarcastically to himself at his foolishness. And here he was ready to hand it over to Khalid Bhai. What if he had actually asked him to hand over the file? From where was he supposed to get it when Khushi wasn't even in her house?

Khushi!

He remembered her instantly as her memories flooded through his mind. It had been two days since he had met her. He didn't even know how she was doing. He longed to hug her, kiss her soft lips, feel her in his arms, hold her so tightly that she wouldn't be able to leave him however hard she tried to. He longed to hear her voice, the way she called out his name. Her infectious smile that instantly lightened up his mood. The comfort he felt when she was beside him.

He had tried to think of ways he could try to meet her. But it was impossible without alerting Lavanya about him.

Lavanya!

He didn't know how much he despised her until now, when she was the only thing stopping him from being with Khushi. He cursed his luck as to why Khushi and Lavanya had to be best friends. If it was anyone else, he would have just barged into their houses and taken Khushi along with him.

And then he remembered something that he had planned to do since their trip to Mumbai and which he couldn't because of all this mess that had propped up out of nowhere.

Rishab had to officially break up with Lavanya and put an end to whatever that was between them. He had to end this matter. Maybe this would help him in clearing out the mess a little and move ahead.

But before that, he silently looked up to the sky outside the window, asking his mother to help him out. Whenever he had asked her for help, she had guided him. He had always believed that it was his own mother who had sent Khushi to help him out that night when he was wounded and left to die. She had sent this angel into his life, bringing enormous happiness which he never thought he would ever get or even deserved.

And now, he needed that angel once again.

"Mumma.." he called out to her, feeling desperateness tugging his heart. "I know I have been a bad person and that you aren't really happy with me. But you sent Khushi in my life. You clearly know what I feel about her. You know everything. I don't know what to ask you, but I know I want Khushi back. I want to be with her. But currently, all odds are against me. I need her Mumma, I need her back. Help me." He pleaded desperately, hoping for some way out of this situation.

Turning back his attention to his cellphone and changing the mode of his phone to the second sim card, he dialled Lavanya's number.

o0o

Lavanya had decided to resume her college after two days of leave and was busy asking Khushi for help on her wardrobe for tomorrow. She was trying everything to bring her friend out of the sulking mode and it looked like her efforts were successful to some extent as Khushi started responding to her questions.

"Blue or Green?" Lavanya asked holding the nail paints in her hands.

"I think Blue." Khushi said disinterestedly.

"Or maybe Purple?" Lavanya asked pulling out another nail paint bottle from her drawer.

"Purple then." Khushi sighed, plopping herself down on the bed.

"Khushi," Lavanya called out as she settled down on the floor to apply the nail paint to her toes. "You never told me that you left college and you are working in some clinic?"

Just when Khushi was about to respond back, she heard Lavanya's cellphone ringing. "Oh it's Rishab!"Lavanya exclaimed out seeing his name flash on her screen.

"Hey Baby! Long time huh!" she asked flirtatiously, continuing to attend her toes.

"Lavanya, listen. We need to talk." Arnav said bluntly, not wanting to waste any more time with her. As it is, her voice was enough to make him cringe and loathe her.

"What?" Lavanya asked shocked, suddenly aware of what was going to come ahead. She knew the tone. She was too experienced with this because she had used that line with her ex boyfriends.

"We are done. Sorry Hun, but you and me isn't working out." Arnav rolled his eyes, preparing himself for her next reaction.

Lavanya was shocked would be an understatement. With each of her previous boyfriends, she was the one who had dumped them. But here, he was dumping her and that too over a phone. And this was unacceptable to Lavanya Kashyap. She felt unexplainable rage flood through her veins at this man on the other end of the phone.

"F*ck you Rishab Malhotra! Go to hell! How dare you mess up with me? I will find hundreds others like you who are ready to worship me." She blared out over the phone.

There, it came. He sighed before he continued. "You are dumped by me, you self obsessive, arrogant B*tch! I have found someone else whom you cannot even think to compare yourself with. Rot in hell now!" he barked furiously before slamming the phone on his bed.

He had never planned to say something like this, but whenever he was reminded that Lavanya was the reason he couldn't meet Khushi, he felt enormous rage blind his senses. Atleast, it wasn't that bad as he had expected. He had only hoped that she wouldn't go all sentimental on her and emotionally blackmail him to stay on. That would have been worse to handle. Rage was something he could handle. He was glad that finally the chapter of Lavanya was permanently closed.

"Lavanya? What happened?" Khushi asked sitting upright from her sleeping position as she heard her friend cuss under her breath.

"That B*stard thinks he wins by dumping me. How dare he!" Lavanya replied seething with anger.

Khushi rolled her eyes knowing what exactly she was going through. All throughout her friendship with Lavanya, she had observed that there were only two things that drove her to the rage of this extent.

When someone lied to her and when someone undermined her dominance over them. This time it was the second case.

"Lavanya! Why are you fretting over such a trivial matter? Maybe he was just a loser. Why are you bothered about him? Anyways, I'm sure you will find someone better for you." Khushi spoke openly for the first time since her arrival in Lavanya's house causing her friend to look back at her in surprise.

Lavanya felt the anger immediately subside in her as she noticed how Khushi had finally spoken of her own accord.

"You are absolutely right Khushi! Good to have you back." She said moving towards her friend and hugging her. "Who needs losers anyways right? Awww... What would I do without you Khushi?"

Khushi hugged back, trying to console her friend. For a minute, she felt like she was back to normal. As if nothing had changed. But then, the reality was once again on her face and she felt her own smile falter away from her face.

"Oh!" Lavanya exclaimed out for some reason remembering the call Khushi had received yesterday. She banged her head with her fist wondering how she could forget to mention about it to Khushi. "You know, yesterday, some guy named Arnav called you up on your phone. But the strangest part was he disconnected instantly when he realised that it was not you. Totally weird, I have to say."

"Arnav?" Khushi asked suddenly, her ears becoming alert at his name. For the past few days, she had completely forgotten about him.

"Yeah. Who is he?" Lavanya asked suspiciously, puckering her eyebrows.

Khushi wondered why Lavanya didn't know about him. Hadn't she really told her about him? Didn't she mention about him at the party just before leaving to Mumbai? Oh! She realised as she remembered Lavanya being drunk. Ofcourse, there was no way she could remember it. But could she tell her about him now?

It wasn't even two minutes since she had broken up with her boyfriend. Now, it would be really mean on her part to announce about her and Arnav. And she didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings especially after all that she was doing for her.

"Some random guy." Khushi declared trying to brush away the topic as a trivial matter.

CHAPTER 31

Please don't fret that there was no Arhi here but,

You will be getting an Arhi filled treat soon. 😛

I know this story has so many things happening simultaneously. Let's just say, this is all slowly leading to a Big explosion at the end. Hence sorry for too much of Non- Arhi scenes.😳