Mirage #3 Check note on pg 149 for next thread! - Page 14

Khushi woke up from her short afternoon nap and glanced at the clock on the wall opposite to her. It was 3:30 pm and there was still a long time for Arnav to return back home. He had left after lunch saying that he had some work to do. Finding herself all alone, she had dozed off and now, waking up, she still found nothing to engage her attention.

She had to find some work to do. Staying at home for twenty four hours was making her lethargic and restless. It wasn't as bad when Arnav was around her coz he would always entertain her just with his presence. But in moments like these, when she was all alone, she couldn't help the sorrow of Buaji's death resurfacing inside her all over again.

Not wanting to feel gloomy anymore for her past, she went outside the room to the living area, hoping to watch some movie. Surprisingly, she found Aman already seated on the couch, with what seemed to be a glass of alcohol in his hand. Right beside him, she also noticed an half filled bottle of liquor. Gauging his expressions, she noticed that he looked gloomy and depressed.

"You know, alcohol won't solve any of your problems." She said clearing her throat, taking a seat beside him. Even though she had been sceptical about him initially, she later noticed that he was nice guy, who was just going through some tough time of his life. Their later interactions had been calm and friendly unlike their first one. And somewhere, Khushi had started to like this guy.

He looked up at her face, a bit surprised to find her here. There was no more annoyance whenever he saw her. Somewhere, he realised that she was just an innocent girl who genuinely tried to make people around her happy, including him. And quite frankly, his worries seemed to abandon him whenever she was near him, giving him a false consolation for a minute that everything was alright in his world.

"You wouldn't be saying so if you knew what I'm going through." He snorted, gulping down the contents of his glass and refilling it.

After dealing with Arnav, Khushi had inferred one thing about men. They were all alike. They liked to talk in riddles and never expressed what they really felt unless they were taken into assurance or compelled to, the second one being a risky choice since outbursts normally followed it. Choosing the first alternative, she continued. "It cannot be worse than mine, can it?"

"What do you mean?" he asked back immediately.

"Aman, you know, I lost my parents when I was just ten. And then, I lost my only family, my Buaji, a couple of weeks earlier. Theoretically, I'm all alone in this world living with a man who I barely met around two months ago. I have no job and I'm living off his income. And I definitely have no idea about what is going to happen to my future." She sighed.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you had lost your family." Aman replied back, feeling a strange sense of fear building within him, thinking about his own family that was in danger.

"You know Aman, life has taught me something. When we feel that it is the end of the world and that all doors have been closed for us, we shouldn't quit hoping for better, because some day, we will eventually find solutions to our problems. And Devi Maiyya always sends help to the needy, just like she sent me to Arnav and him to my help." She wondered how strange life could be at times. What would she have done if Arnav hadn't been beside her when Buaji had passed away? She could only shudder while thinking about the feeling of being all alone in this whole wide world.

"Khushi, can I ask you something?" Aman asked pondering a lot about what she had said.

"Yeah, sure." Khushi answered, snapping out of her thoughts.

"What would you do if you had to choose between the two people whom you loved the most in the world? How would you choose?" he asked back, looking at her eyes.

"Honestly, I would first of all, avoid landing myself in that situation. Secondly, even if I did, I would choose both coz I love both of them equally right?" she replied back.

"But if you had to choose only one of them, do you think the other person would forgive you for not choosing him?"

"Maybe. It depends on how much the other person loves you. If he does, then maybe he would understand and forgive you for your decision."

"What if the consequence of your decision was death? Then what would you do?"

"Then I would prefer me dying than seeing my loved ones die in front of my eyes." Khushi replied, suddenly feeling a bit alarmed on where the topic was heading to. "Aman, are you in some serious trouble?" she asked, placing her hand on his shoulder.

"No, it was just hypothetical questions. Don't worry." He shrugged off the matter. "I wouldn't be sitting here calmly, if I was facing something like that." He waved his hand, trying his level best to mask away his expressions.

"But you are drinking a lot. And it is afternoon. People don't drink in the afternoon unless they are serious addicts or they are facing some serious tension. And you don't look like an addict to me." Khushi answered back, pointing to the half empty bottle beside him.

"Have you seen Arnav drinking alcohol? Maybe you haven't. That's why you are asking me this question." He replied smilingly.

"Arnav drinks like this?" she asked curiously. "But he hasn't from the time I've arrived here."

"Yeah, he hasn't. Exactly from the time you have arrived here, which is very astonishing fact for a man who consumes whole two bottles of alcohol in one go." He laughed, thinking about his friend. Khushi felt sudden relief seeing him laugh for the first time since she had met him. It made him appear a lot younger than he really was.

"But Aman, take care of yourself okay?" she replied back. The men of this house had much more serious issues than what they appeared to be, but she didn't know whether this was just her overactive mind imagining things. Maybe, she needed to speak to Arnav about Aman. Maybe he could get through to him.

o0o

"Arnav?" Khushi called out his name, stepping into their bedroom, wondering if she was doing the right thing. He was busy arranging something in the cupboard and suddenly turned around hearing her voice.

"Yeah, tell." He said closing the cupboard behind him and walking towards her, he grabbed her by the waist and planted a soft kiss near her right ear.

"There is something I need to talk to you about Aman." She said, putting her arms around his neck.

"What happened to him?"

"Nothing much, except you know, he seems very worried from the time he has arrived here. And he was drinking alcohol in the middle of the afternoon." She replied with a worried face.

"So what's there to worry about that? He's fine. It only seems strange to you because you are new to this house. Once you get to know him, you will find that it's his normal behaviour." He replied, closing the door behind him with his leg and began nuzzling her neck.

"But he was asking something about you know, choosing between your loved ones. He seemed like he was in some trouble." She stopped midway, finding him starting to strip off her clothes.

"Did he say they were hypothetical questions?" he asked, busy pulling down his pants.

"Yeah."

"He always does that. It's his habit. Aman can be a bit eccentric at times." He said, carrying her over to the bed.

"But I think you should really go and talk to him. He's your best friend afterall. Maybe he would tell you something about it." She managed to utter before he claimed her lips.

"Ok, Khushi Gupta, you talk too much. Ssshhh..." he glared at her, breaking apart from her lips.

"But..." she protested, but she was immediately silenced by his lips.

"I'll talk him to later. First let's do this." He said, as he pinned her hands over her head.

o0o

It was nearly midnight. Arnav noticed that Khushi was fast asleep beside him. Thinking that this was the perfect opportunity for him, he stealthily got up, making sure to not disturb her sleep and silently went to the living room. It was dark, but he knew that Aman would still be awake at this hour. Climbing the stairs, he knocked on Aman's bedroom and slowly, made his way into it. He saw that Aman was infact, lying down on his bed, with his arms beneath his head, staring at the ceiling blankly.

"Bhai?" Aman asked suddenly sitting up, surprised to find him in his room at this hour.

"Is everything alright?" Arnav asked, gazing his friend's face intently for any signs of distress like Khushi had mentioned. But there weren't any that were alarming to him.

"Yeah Bhai!" Aman replied, wondering why he was having this strange conversation at this hour.

"You know, Khushi was worried about you. She asked me to talk to you." Arnav replied, taking a seat beside him.

"Ahh.. women!" Aman replied shrugging off the matter. "They like to dissect everything with their overactive imagination."

"Yeah, even I thought so." Arnav joined him.

"But she's a nice girl." Aman said, turning around to face him.

"Yeah, she is." Arnav echoed his thoughts, twiddling his thumbs.

"You really are serious about her, aren't you?" Aman asked, glancing at him, to which he saw Arnav silently nodding his head affirmatively. A long silence followed this, after which Arnav finally spoke about why he had originally come to talk to his friend.

"Aman, I have come up with a plan and I thought you might be interested in this."

"What plan?" Aman asked, suddenly feeling a bit apprehensive about the glint in Arnav's eyes. Arnav rarely made any plans. He was trained to follow orders. But when he did make one, it was definitely going to be a dangerous one that involved a lot of risks.

"I was thinking about what Khushi had said the other day about Money Laundering. You know, about Goenka's file. Fifteen years in jail. Did you hear that?" he paused, scanning his friend's face for his reaction.

And suddenly, Aman knew where this was heading to.

"No, Arnav. Don't!" he said before Arnav could complete it. The same idea had also flashed in Aman's mind when Khushi had mentioned about this. He would have even agreed to it if it were any other day. But with his family kidnapped and Arnav's life in danger, he had immediately shrugged it away.

"Why not? We can definitely blackmail Goenka for more money. He will be willing to give it, to avoid going to jail. We have the file. All we need to do is threaten him that we would give it to the Authorities unless he paid us more."

"Are you out of your mind? Khalid Bhai will be furious with you. And everyone knows, Goenka is a powerful man. Khalid Bhai isn't the only person whom he has contacts with. If he knows we are double crossing him, he will send out men after you." Aman blared furiously, completely losing his cool at what Arnav had suggested.

Here, there was one whole unknown deadly gang waiting to hunt down Arnav and this idiotic friend of his was inviting more trouble.

"We have done this before remember? So, why not now? Khalid Bhai won't say anything." Arnav answered back.

"But Arnav, three years ago, things were different. Do you even have any idea of all the turmoil that is going on in the Underworld? Everyone wants to reign over Delhi and if we blackmail Goenka, we will lose so many suppliers in the process and it will weaken our stance. And have you forgotten the attacks on your life twice? People are after you Arnav. They are only waiting for a chance to hunt you down."

"But that was just an isolated incident. If they were really after me, why are they sitting back calmly now? Why hasn't anyone attacked me in the last one month?" Arnav asked immensely surprised at the reaction of his friend. He had never thought Aman would react like this to his ingenious idea.

"Because..."Aman gritted his teeth, trying to calm down his anger that was dangerously spiralling inside him. How on earth was he supposed to tell his friend that he is alive only because of him? How could he tell him that this was just a huge calm before a storm and some dangerous game was being plotted without his notice?

"Leave it. This time I won't support you Bhai!" Aman said firmly. "And why are you so suddenly interested in money? You are getting ten crores for the file right? Why more?"

"Aman, are you of all people asking this? Why more money? We have worked all our life for money. Why else did you think we entered this criminal world? Aman, why did you come to Delhi, leaving behind all your family in Haryana when you were just thirteen? Because you were struck with poverty. You were reduced to nothing, forced to eat the dust from the ground. Don't forget that if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have been here. If your family is where it is right now, it is because of me. I showed you the way to earn money and it is this same money which raised your family. And you are still asking why? Unbelievable!" Arnav replied furiously, unable to understand why his friend was overreacting to this.

Aman had had enough of it. He couldn't tolerate it anymore. The only string that was tying up all those emotions suddenly snapped.

"Yes Arnav, my family is where it is right now, only because of you!" Aman blared out, poking his finger on his friend's chest, trembling with fury, as the irony washed over him. He didn't know what was happening to him, but at that moment, Aman felt immense hatred for his friend because it was this very friend who was responsible for what his family was undergoing.

"Don't shout!" Arnav felt his temper suddenly burst over the roof and screamed back at him, glaring at him with wide eyes. "This is my house. Don't shout at me Aman Singh! Don't!"

"Or else what will you do Arnav?" Aman responded with equal intensity, addressing his best friend for the first time with his name. "If this is your house, then fine! I don't want to live here anymore. Go to Hell!" He said, standing up and walking towards his cupboard, he retrieved his bike keys and simply walked out of the room.

"Yeah, I'll see you in Hell!" Arnav shouted back, following his friend downstairs. He saw Aman storm to the main door and walk outside into the pitch black night, banging the door behind him. Unable to control his fury, Arnav took an empty liquor bottle lying on the table and hurled it at the main door, shattering it to a million pieces, cussing violently under his breath.

What was wrong with his friend? Why did he get so violent all of a sudden? And how dare he behave with him like this?

Still seething with fury, he turned around, only to find a completely pale faced Khushi, petrified to the ground, staring at him with a completely shocked expression on her face.

"What are you doing awake at this hour?" Arnav asked, trying utmost to not lash out at her.

"I heard you both shouting at each other and woke up and while I came to the living room, I saw Aman walking out of the house. And you just smashed that glass bottle. What happened Arnav? Why were you both fighting at this hour?" Khushi yawned, her eyes still droopy.

"Nothing. Just go and sleep." He gritted through his teeth, pointing at the bedroom door.

Khushi took a step backward, feeling a bit scared about his fury. This was even worse than the other night. The madness in his eyes threatened to consume him as well as everyone around him and she knew that it would be foolish to argue with him in this condition. So, she silently relented to his command.

But suddenly remembering the shattered bottle shards near the main door, she decided to clean it up lest it injure anyone's feet.

"What are you doing? I said just go and sleep. I'll clean it up." Arnav reminded her once again and this time, Khushi silently nodded and made her way back to the bedroom accepting defeat.

o0o

Two hours had passed and it was nearly 2:30 am. But still, Arnav hadn't returned back to the bedroom. In fact, thinking about him, Khushi couldn't sleep too. Through the bedroom door, she could see the lights of the living room still on. Feeling worried for Arnav, she decided to go and check up on him.

As she reached the living room, she saw Arnav crouched near the door, slowly picking up tiny shards of glass with his bare hands and putting it in the dustbin.

What was he doing? This way, Arnav would definitely hurt his hands in the process, Khushi panicked. So she went to the kitchen and brought along a broom and dustpan with her.

"I'll clean it." She said, standing beside him. He froze hearing her voice, but he didn't move. After not receiving any response from him, she began to sweep the floor, collecting all the shards to one place and cleared up the whole mess. Placing it back in the kitchen, she came back and found him still crouched in that same place.

"Come, let's sleep." Khushi said, pulling his arm. For a minute, she thought he wouldn't relent. But after few seconds, he got up and followed her lead. He silently got into the bed with her without uttering any word. She knew there was no point in talking to him. So she did what she knew the best.

Khushi snuggled closer to him, stroking his hair and lulled him to sleep.

o0o

"Aren't you going to call him up?" Khushi finally asked, after receiving silence from Arnav for the entire morning. She had waited for him to give her some sort of explanation about what had happened in the house at midnight, causing his best friend to walk out of the house. But neither had Aman returned back home and now it was past noon and she began to feel worried for both of them.

"He left. I didn't tell him to leave. If he wants to, he'll come back." Arnav replied grimly and closed his eyes, enjoying the feel of her soft hand on his jaws, as she stroked his face. He was resting his head on her lap, lying down on the couch for the past half hour. Somehow, he found solace in her arms and found the tension slowly ebbing out of his body.

"What did he say that made you so angry? Tell me. I'll talk to him." Khushi asked for the tenth time for the day, hoping she would receive an answer. But as usual, she was replied back with 'Nothing'.

Applying gentle pressure on his temples with her fingers, she began to knead the crease lines on his forehead. She saw him relax a bit as a lazy smile faintly spread over his lips.

"You don't worry, okay? I'm fine." He said and saw her faintly smiling back at him. But Khushi knew that those words were far away from home and everything was not as he painted it for her.

o0o

The room was pretty dark and quiet except for the small window at one end that brought in some sunlight and noise from the outside world. There were huge carton boxes all around them, stacked up one above the other creating towers of cardboard. This was the main headquarters of their gang where they stored all the consignments from the suppliers. No one really visited this place except for delivering new goods or restocking their weapon base. So this was one place where any person who wanted some peace and quiet in his life could seek refuge without anyone's disturbance.

Aman had straight away driven to this place in the middle of the night, after walking out of Arnav's house. He hadn't known where else to take refuge at that hour coz ironically, it had always been Arnav's place for him all these years everytime he had needed a place for himself. All throughout these years, he had actually considered it as his own home. His best friend had never made him feel to the contrary that he didn't own the house legally.

Infact, it was Arnav himself who had offered him a share in that house after it was given by Khalid Bhai for completing one of his missions successfully years ago.

But now, for the first time, Arnav had showed him his real place and somehow, this hurt him a lot, considering the fact that he had always considered his best friend as his brother.

Lighting up a cigarette, he sat on one of the stools placed at one end of the room. He didn't know how long he was supposed to stay here in this room. After storming out of the house in fury, he realised that all his personal belongings were still at Arnav's house. But that hurt and fury refused to fuel down even hours later.

No, he was no way going to step into that house ever again, he decided firmly.

He was busy thinking about all this, when suddenly, he heard the main door of the headquarters open and someone stepped into the room. Alarmed, Aman stood up, wondering who it could possibly be at this hour. According to the schedule, no one was supposed to visit the headquarters for the next two days.

He slowly made his way to the main door to get a clear glimpse of the visitor, and to his utter shock, he found none other than the man whom he least expected to find.

"Aman?" the man asked, raising his eyebrow, a little startled but he was quick enough to cover it up.

"Abbas!" Aman echoed back.

"What are you doing here? I thought no one was supposed to be here today." Abbas asked, looking all around the room behind Aman. But he found no one else in the room.

"Hmm... that's strange. I could ask you the same question right?" Aman replied back, baffling the elder man a bit. "I thought you were outside of Delhi. What are you doing here? And I've never seen you visiting the headquarters." He added, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Nothing. I just wanted some cartridges." Abbas replied and made his way to the boxes before Aman could ask more questions. "You never answered my question." He added and it was then that he noticed the creases on the spare bed of the headquarters, concluding that Aman had spent the last night here. "So I see that you were here from last night. What happened?" he turned around to face Aman, completely catching the young man off guard with this question.

But Aman was fast enough for him. He had learnt one thing through all his time in Khalid Bhai's gang. Abbas was a man who could never be trusted upon. No one could really say what lay behind that calm facade that he portrayed to the entire world.

"Nothing that would interest you." Aman replied back calmly.

Abbas knew that Aman was not going to divulge any details easily. Hence, he backed away unsuccessfully.

"So how is Arnav? I know he is going through a tough time. Tell him to meet me immediately." Abbas asked, remembering about Khushi. He had been outside the city for the past couple of weeks, making some arrangements for his big plan and had forgotten to enquire about Arnav. However, he had hoped that his plan had worked successfully, giving him full access to this pawn in his game.

"Why would he be going through tough time?" Aman snorted. "He's having a good time with his girlfriend." And then suddenly, Aman realised his slip of tongue and simply hoped Abbas hadn't heard his last statement, since Arnav had clearly instructed him to not leak out any info about his relationship to Khushi, to anyone in his gang.

Abbas felt like someone had splashed a bucket of cold water on his face when he heard this new piece of information. Questions after questions bombarded his head. How was that girl still with him when he had clearly devised an ingenious plan to separate the two lovebirds?

"Khushi Gupta?" Abbas enquired, stammering a bit.

"You know about her?" Aman shot back instantly, feeling a bit apprehensive that the older man had indeed heard him clearly, but at the same time, he felt a bit relieved that he had already known about them previously.

"Yeah, I met her once." Abbas replied, mentally cursing his plan for backfiring.

"Oh. Poor girl you know. And her aunt passed away recently too. Now she has moved in with Arnav." Aman continued, oblivious to all that was going on in the mind of the man who stood in front of him.

What! Abbas exclaimed mentally. Not only had his plan backfired, it had only worsened the situation. Now that girl would be clinging to him 24X7 making it next to impossible for him to do what he had planned for him.

"So she still doesn't know about him?" Abbas asked, his mind working instantly on new plans.

"No. She doesn't." Aman replied back, lost in some distant thoughts.

"I wonder whether she will still stick to him if she knows his true face." Abbas asked, tapping his fingers on the cardboard box.

"That's what even I was thinking about." Aman said looking at Abbas's face. "Arnav is ruining his life." But suddenly, he noticed the suspicious look on the older man's face and stopped. "I hope you got all that you required." Aman concluded, moving to the cartridge box. He knew he had unintentionally divulged more than necessary details to this man.

Taking the cue, Abbas replied. "Yeah, I think I should leave right now. I've got lots of work to do. I'll see you around." He said and walked out of the headquarters. He had got the right amount of information from Aman and now, he knew what had to be done.

This mission had been his main plan for coming to India from Bangkok and he would see to it that it was accomplished at any cost. And that would only be possible if he had Arnav in his side. And for that to happen, he would do anything for it.

Even destroying everything in Arnav's life.

CHAPTER 41