Mirage #3 Check note on pg 149 for next thread! - Page 86

"He's awake." Aman heard a faint distant voice in his ears as he struggled to open his eyes. His head was throbbing with enormous pain and his body felt no less than a heavy wooden log paralysing him to where he lay. His throat was aching dry with thirst, when suddenly he felt a cool patch of cloth being placed on his forehead, providing him an instant relief.

"Aman, can you hear me?" he heard the same voice and finally, his eyes focussed onto the face that the voice belonged to. He found a pair of curious eyes peering at him, while his right hand was held in a comforting stance.

"Khushi?" he asked in a surprised voice, scanning the entire room in utter confusion. Trying to recollect the previous night, the last thing he could remember was walking into Arnav's house and then, everything blacked out. "Where am I?" he asked, panickingly.

"You're at home. Don't worry." She assured him. "Arnav!" she called out, turning towards the door and soon, she heard footsteps hurrying towards the room.

Aman tried to sit up straight with the help of Khushi and soon, Arnav entered the room.

"What happened to you?" Arnav asked worriedly, sitting beside Aman on the bed.

"What?" Aman asked completey dazed.

"You were lying unconscious on the floor of the living room when we woke up in the morning. At what time did you arrive at night? If you weren't feeling well, you could have informed me atleast. I would have arranged for some doctor. Are you alright now?" Arnav spoke.

"I'm fine. I don't know what happened." Aman replied, clutching his head.

"Aman, your drinking is spiralling out of control. You were never like this! What happened to you? Is everything alright?" Arnav spoke out in a concerned tone. For the first time, he realised that something was indeed wrong with his friend as Khushi had pointed out. In the whole of the ten years spent with him, Aman had never behaved like this. He seemed quieter, moodier and depressed, as if something was really distressing him.

"Bhai, I'm really fine." Aman responded, trying to brush away the matter. "Alcohol seems a bit tastier these days." He laughed, deviating from the topic. "You both are simply taking so much of tension. See, this is why I don't have a girlfriend. Women always keep worrying you, imagining things which aren't really present. Khushi, you have to stop making Bhai panic for these silly things."

Both Arnav and Khushi smiled back at him, but deep inside they knew that something was definitely wrong. However, there was no point in pursuing the matter. It seemed as if Aman was hell bent on concealing whatever was in his mind.

"Ok, then go and refresh yourself up and come downstairs for lunch. Yeah, you missed the breakfast." Arnav grinned, patting Aman's shoulder. "We'll be waiting for you." He said and both of them went of the room, leaving behind Aman all by himself in the room.

o0o

"Has this ever happened before?" Khushi asked, wiping the plate and passing it to Arnav.

"No. Never has he fallen unconscious before by drinking liquor. Khushi, we both have been drinking from quite a young age. So our bodies are used to it. But it looks like he simply drank too much yesterday night." Arnav replied, going to the dining room and setting the table. Peeking quickly at the stairs to make sure Aman hadn't arrived downstairs yet, he made his way back into the kitchen.

"And did you notice the slight tone of panic in his voice while he spoke to us?" Khushi pointed out, turning to Arnav.

"Yeah, I did. You know, you are right. Something is going on and he is hiding it from me. Now the question is how will I find it out? Aman is never going to tell me if I ask him directly. " He echoed his thoughts, leaning back on the kitchen counter.

"Maybe you should stalk him around and find out. Coz Arnav, I'm really worried about him. He looks like he has undertaken a self destruction mission." She suggested back.

"Sshh.. I think he's down." Arnav silenced her, leaning forward to get a view of him coming down the stairs. Silently signalling with his eyes, he ushered her to go to the dining room, while he followed after her.

The three of them, quietly sat down and had their lunch. After they were done with it, Aman stood and announced, "Bhai, I have to go out. Got some work. I'll see you later. Bye Khushi." He said and went back to his room to get dressed.

"Follow him." Khushi mouthed silently, gesturing Arnav and he too got up to go to his own room.

"On second thoughts, even I want to come along with you." Khushi came running into the room, sneaking behind Arnav who was changing his shirt.

"Are you mad?" Arnav asked, glaring at her.

"I want some adventure too." She winked at him, as she quickly changed her own clothes too. "Arnav, how about this?" she asked, veiling her dupatta over her face so that only her eyes were visible.

"You have lost it Khushi!" he exclaimed grinning at her avatar.

"He's not going to recognise us. Here, take. You wear this handkerchief around your face." she offered the cloth to him.

"Where do you get these ideas from?" he asked, trying to cover his mouth with his palms so that he wouldn't burst out laughing.

"Fifteen years experience of watching movies." He heard her muffled voice through the dupatta.

"Nautanki!" he exclaimed as he pulled her cheeks with both his hands and kissed her lips over the nylon fabric covering her face.

They were alerted by the noise of the main door shutting and they knew Aman had gone out of the house. So they hurried to the door, peeping through the window and after they made sure Aman drove out of the gate, both of them hurried outside, rushing to the bike and followed him.

The ride was a long one and Arnav made sure he maintained atleast a hundred metre distance from Aman's bike. By now, they had reached the highway and were heading to the outskirts of the city. Suddenly, Arnav recognised the familiar route that Aman was going on. It was the way to the gang's headquarters. Sceptical about the whole idea, he continued to follow the man and finally reached the headquarters.

"What is this place?" Khushi asked, behind him.

"This is our gang's headquarters. I wonder what he is doing here. Generally, no one visits here. This is the place where all our weapons and other goods are stored." Arnav replied, scrunching his face in utter confusion. He was in second thoughts about whether he should go in too.

"We have come till here. Let's go further." Khushi ushered him, getting down from the bike and pulling him along with her.

"Do you always like going to the dangerous territories?" Arnav whispered as she dragged him.

"Otherwise, I would have never met you. Remember?" She replied nudging his arm. They reached the main door of the warehouse that was slightly ajar and Arnav tried to peep in to catch a glimpse of Aman. But there were no signs of him.

"Where's he?" Khushi hissed furiously, when all of a sudden, she felt a hand on her shoulder and she froze completely, frantically grabbing Arnav's shirt, her heart shutting down for a few seconds.

o0o

Aman entered the gang's headquarters, scanning the room in search of Shyam who had informed him earlier that he wanted to meet him. And moving deeper inside the warehouse, he found him sitting in one corner of the room with his legs crossed on the table in front of him, smoking a cigarette.

"Oh! You arrived." Shyam exclaimed, getting up from the chair. "But you brought company too." He added, furrowing his eyebrows with a huge scowl on his face. "What is Arnav doing here? And who's that woman with him?" he asked, glancing out of the window from where he had observed Arnav and this other woman, whose face was veiled, arrive after a minute Aman had reached the place. "Does he know about our plans? Are you double crossing me?"

"What? No!" Aman rejected the claims.

"Then, go to your friend right now and see that he goes away. Looks like you are not playing your role properly these days and he has become suspicious about you." Shyam ordered and Aman ran out of the backdoor to the front and to his surprise found what seemed to be Arnav and Khushi trying to peep through the main door. He walked towards Khushi and placed her hand on his shoulders and he noticed how she fearfully turned around instantly, tugging Arnav's shirt along with her.

"What are you two doing here?" Aman asked, glaring at them. At that minute, he was really pissed off with both of them. Had they both really followed him till here?

"Oh!" Khushi gasped and before she could remove the dupatta from her face, Aman pulled both of them aside to a place where Shyam couldn't get a view of her face. If that son of a b*tch knew about Khushi, he was definitely going to hunt her down to use her as a leverage.

"Khushi wanted a tour of the headquarters." Arnav lied, clearly embarrassed at being caught red handed like this.

"Are you crazy? There are others of our gang in there." Aman hissed out furiously. "Do you want them to know about Khushi? Then, go away!"

"But why are you here?" Arnav demanded.

"I was sent by Abbas to cheque Rode's consignment." Aman lied convincingly like he had been doing for the past few months and once again, Arnav got convinced by him. "Now, go!" he barked.

"Okay." Arnav agreed. "Come let's go before anyone else sees us." He said, pulling Khushi's hand and she had no other choice than to follow him.

"Satisfied?" Arnav growled angrily, glaring at Khushi as she sat behind him on the bike.

"It was your idea!" Khushi retorted as she put her hand around his abdomen for support.

"Really?" Arnav asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Now I know why Khalid Bhai said not to mix profession and personal life." He murmured under his breath, rolling his eyes as he sped off back to where they had come from. Had he really tried to stalk Aman this foolishly? He sighed, inferring that Khushi would one day drive his sane brain crazy.

Aman returned back to the spot where Shyam was waiting for him, hoping that Shyam hadn't observed Khushi. As much he was trying to be indifferent and cold towards Arnav, plotting his murder, he couldn't put Khushi's life in danger. From what he knew of her, she was a kind hearted girl who never deserved to be involved in the criminal world in any way.

"Arnav has a girlfriend?" Shyam asked quirking his eyebrow.

"No. He just sleeps with her, you know." Aman once again lied, hoping that Shyam wouldn't pursue the topic.

"From when did he start visiting a brothel?" Shyam sneered. "Oh! Maybe he knows his end is near and he wants to enjoy as much as he can in the last days of his life." He added with a sickening laugh.

"Why did you call me here?" Aman asked, trying to get to the point.

"Ahh yes. You see, you have started behaving really well with me. So I decided to give you an early reward. I'm setting your brother free tomorrow. You heard it right. I want this plan to be executed perfectly and it all depends on you. I want you to realise that if you do everything as per my orders, soon your entire family will be with you." Shyam announced, as if he was telling an employee about the incentive package.

Aman stared at the devil's face sneering at his misery. He would finally get to see his younger brother. But the rest, what about them? His other siblings and his parents? The only relief for him was that atleast something was happening to free his family.

o0o

"So little Miss Adventure!" Arnav exclaimed as he lay on the bed in his white shorts, too lazy to cover up his upper body. "Feeling happy after your adventure?" he asked, crawling towards Khushi so that he rested his head on her midriff, perpendicular to her body.

"Admit it. It was fun." She grinned, as she brushed his hair with her fingers, while he purred with delight. "Especially when Aman caught us." She snorted.

"Yeahhh..." he murmured, closing his eyes. Suddenly, remembering something, a very important topic to be specific, he rolled to his side to face her.

"Since today is dedicated to Aman, let me continue it forward." He said cheekily. "I want to ask you a hypothetical question just like him." He asked, smiling sheepishly.

"Oh yeah?" Khushi asked, lifting her upper body to rest it against the head board. "And what is that question?" she asked, tracing her finger sensuously against his jaw.

"Ok, suppose that I asked you to marry me soon, would you accept my hand in marriage?" he asked, gazing intensely into those hazel eyes. Arnav was definitely sure he felt her breath hitch as he popped the question.

Khushi couldn't believe her ears when she heard him. Had she really heard him properly? Had Arnav really asked her to marry him or was her mind playing some freaky game with her? The way he was eagerly staring at her, calmed her doubts proving that he had indeed asked her the question.

She could feel her heart sprinting like a cheetah, as an ecstatic feeling filled her entire being. From the time she had realised she was in love with this man, she had envisioned him proposing her, asking her to marry him, to be his forever. But she had never imagined it would be like this and she would be feeling like this. The whole feeling was simply too marvellous and out of the world to be decribed.

"No!" she replied back, as a mischievous idea formed in her mind. She decided she had to make him dance to her tune for some time, before she finally gave in.

And the changes in him were instantly visible. She felt the colour on his face drain hearing her response and she was sure he stopped breathing for an entire minute.

"Why?" he cried out, pushing himself off her body, unable to believe her answer. How could he? He had expected her to respond positively to such an important question.

"Because I have a choice. And I choose not to." She said, hopping off the bed. Arnav immediately got up and followed her, yanking her arm from behind, sending her crashing onto his bare chest.

"But I thought you wanted this." Arnav argued in a helpless tone, his ego offended by her refusal.

"And I thought you didn't want this." She replied casually, enjoying every bit of panic on his face.

"No, it was never like that. I just needed some time to be sure. Now I'm sure of my decision. I even had a talk about this with Khalid Bhai. He agreed for this." Arnav said, trying to make her understand. "I want to marry you, Khushi. I really do." He said, cupping her face, resting his forehead on hers.

"But I thought this was a hypothetical question." She said, pushing him away as she ran back to the bed.

"Wait, what?" Arnav stammered as he suddenly realised his own folly and knew his silly game had backfired on him. "But I was serious." He said, running after her.

"But I wasn't." She said, kneeling on the bed. "I was just messing with your head." She added, as she pulled him down on the bed, putting both her arms around his neck. "Now stop your hypothetical questions and ask me the real one. Come on, don't be scared."

And for once, Arnav didn't know why he was feeling so nervous. He didn't even feel like this when he asked her the same question in a hypothetical way a minute ago.

"Khushi Gupta," he uttered every syllable excitedly, gazing passionately into her eyes, as goosebumps erupted on his entire body. "Marry me!" he whispered, eagerly waiting for her response.

"Is that an order?" she asked, glaring at him.

"Yes, coz I don't want to hear a 'No' from you." He replied.

"As if I ever disobey your orders." She answered back pouting at him and the next second launched herself in his arms with a huge smile on her face.

And all of sudden, he found himself being pushed back on the bed as she sprawled on top of him. "Already started taking control over me huh?" he asked, smirking at her, as she bent forward to capture his lips. "Not that I'm complaining." He added, as she trapped his wrists above his head and started her playful assault on his lips.

"So when do we get married?" she managed to ask in between as she sucked his lower lip with a wicked smile lingering on her face.

"Next week? I can ask Khalid Bhai to arrange with the registrar at the court." he asked, rolling her over so that she was now pinned underneath him.

"Are we marrying at the court?" Khushi asked surprisedly, a slight tinge of disappointment in her tone.

"Yeah, ofcourse. I cannot marry at the Mandir. I'm an atheist remember? And Devi Maiyya wouldn't want a person like me at the temple." he replied and then, it suddenly struck him as to why was disappointed. Ofcourse, as a girl, maybe she had made so many plans for her marriage and now when the day had finally arrived, all he could give her was this.

"I'm sorry, Khushi. I know you must have envisioned a grand wedding celebration, but I cannot give you all that." He apologised, sitting up straight.

"No. It's alright. You are right. I had so many dreams about my wedding. But then, dreams rarely come true right? And then, I had never dreamt I would marry a great guy like you. So that compensates for everything. And at the end of the day, I only want us to be together." She replied, hugging him.

Arnav simply wished that as always he could console her and tell her that her dream would be fulfilled. But he knew that it could never happen. When the whole world was against them, it was useless to hope for it.

"I promise you, I'll give you an awesome honeymoon as compensation. We'll go out of the country, somewhere far. It will be even better than you had dreamt about." He smirked, stroking her back as he hugged her. "Just imagine. You, me, locked up in a room." he whispered, huskily in her ears. "We'll go on a marathon session." He added, just to cheer her up.

"You are crazy!" Khushi replied, breaking apart, blushing three shades darker than crimson.

"You are crazy too!" Arnav replied, winking at her as he pulled her flush against his chest, hovering his lips over hers.

o0o

Khushi stood and stared at the bridal lehenga that was on display in one of the shops of the mall. After their conversation, Khushi had asked Arnav to drop her off at the mall for some shopping. But the truth was she had wanted some time away from him to reflect on her decision. Everything had happened so fast and she had agreed for the marriage instantly at the heat of the moment.

But now as the time flowed by and her mind had calmed down, she began to think about the repercussions of her decision. Had she really made the right choice? Was she ready to be married to a guy who was a criminal, who had no place in the society? What about her life? Where would it go after that? Where would they live?

And there was another separate fear of her safety. Would his rivals come after her to extract their revenge? She trusted Arnav's words that he would protect her till his last breath. But what if something happened to him? He had already been attacked so many times. What was the guarantee that he would survive the next gunshot?

Maybe love was blind. But she could never put a blind eye to what lay ahead in their future.

She looked down at the emerald pendant that was visible on her cleavage. She didn't doubt her decision. She knew she had made a right choice. But somehow, she just wished their future wasn't this complicated. For once, she wished everything would be normal.

As she was busy pondering over these thoughts, her eyes suddenly focussed on what looked like Lavanya coming out from one of the shops with a shopping bag in one hand.

Khushi reflexively got up and strode towards her best friend whom she was nearly seeing after a couple of weeks.

"Lavanya!" she called out behind her back and saw her best friend turn around in startlement hearing her voice.

"Khushi?" Lavanya turned around, instantly recognising the familiar voice. For a second, no one could say that these friends were not in good terms with each other. The longing in their eyes, the happiness in their voice betrayed all the anger and misunderstanding between them of the last few weeks.

Khushi was sure she saw a faint smile on her face. But whatever it was, Lavanya's expression turned grim the next minute, as Khushi's betrayal flashed in front of her eyes.

"Please Lavanya!" Khushi begged, holding her arm. "Please don't do this. You cannot be angry with me forever. It was just a misunderstanding. Can't we put it behind us and move on? We have fought so many times earlier and we have forgiven each other every single time. So why not now? My life seems incomplete without my best friend in it."

"A misunderstanding? Really Khushi? Care to explain?" Lavanya retorted back, folding her arms stubbornly across her chest.

Khushi opened her mouth to explain the whole situation. But suddenly, she remembered about Arnav. What was she going to tell about him? That he had only used her as a pawn in his game to fulfil his gang's task?

"See! You don't have an answer. Have you ever thought what that son of a b*tch did to me? How I would have felt knowing that he used me for God knows what? I'm sure you must still be with that two faced cheat!"

"Lavanya, don't say like that. Arnav didn't mean to hurt you. He's not like that. He lied because he was compelled by circumstances to do so." Khushi tried to defend him. How could she tell her the truth? Why did it have to end up between choosing the two persons whom she cherished the most in her life?

"What circumstances? I cannot believe you Khushi. Are you trying to defend him? I had hoped that atleast you would have learnt a lesson by now and sided your best friend. But you chose him, didn't you? Unbelievable!" Lavanya exclaimed, shaking her head in disbelief. "You know what, yes, even I was sad after the day I fought with you. I tried to convince myself that you were innocent in this, just like me and that man had just played with our lives. But when you side with a man like that even now, do you know what I feel? I would rather have nobody than to have you as my best friend in my life!"

Khushi felt her words stabbing her like a venom coated blade.

"I'm not going to stop you Khushi. Do whatever you want with your bloody life. But don't come running to me when Karma comes and bites you back!" Saying so, Lavanya marched off from that spot, leaving behind a completely devastated and heartbroken Khushi all by herself.

And just when she had thought that today was one of the best days of her life, it turned out to be just the opposite.