ArHi SS! Escape Velocity [Completed] - Page 99

Originally posted by: Prakal

Arnav and Khushi both are thinking about "end of life" ' There is subtle difference; Arnav is thinking Killing and Khushi is thinking Death. Arnav is thinking instincts, Khushi is thinking spiritual; yet they both don't miss the fact that it might be by design!!

Khushi isn't thinking in spiritual sense. Its pretty much as realistic as it can get :=)

Chapter 16: Red Sky

He couldn't help but not tell Bharadwaj about him leaving the resort. It also helped that Bharadwaj and Suman were attending wedding of a friend thus he checked himself out and asked the reception not to tell Bharadwaj about his departure immediately. He breathed a sigh of relief when they complied with out a fuss.

He hadn't told Khushi that he would be leaving either. He had told her not to contact him for another week. He hadn't offered her any explanation when she had looked at him questioningly. He pleaded with his eyes as to not to ask him anything further as the information may potentially be compromised. Khushi had nodded bleakly as he simply squeezed her hand and very discreetly shook his head. Khushi understood then that she had just become a huge liability.

"We haven't had much luck in finding this person." Shukla said driving through early morning traffic. He couldn't read the expression on Arnav's face.

"It's a wide area to search for the parameters you gave and-"

"I told you it's not going to be easy. You may even have to knock on some doors Shukla and since there are only few officers working on this, I thought I will lend you a hand." Arnav smiled.

Shukla breathed a sigh of relief. He was currently torn between two investigative units and neither group had found anything concrete till date. The latest victim came from an influential family who had put direct pressure on the commissioner.

"Thanks Arnav. Why did you say that the man would be dangerous and we have to be cautious while confronting him?" Shukla asked.

"He is having a ritual and you are going to interrupt it. He has probably marked his next victim already and is fixated on killing the person. Once we start asking him questions to affirm his identity, his rage will come back to him ten-fold and attack. We need to proceed with caution." Arnav said.

Shukla sighed. "I'll talk to commissioner that you are already here and helping me. I will share the profile with him so that he understands what we are up against."

Arnav nodded mutely.

"Thanks again Arnav." Shukla said stopping the vehicle. "You wanted to get down here?" He said pointing to a small grocery store. Arnav nodded.

"I am going to check out this area for our guy." Arnav said opening the door. "I am going under the assumption that our killer has a similar lifestyle as that of our victims' and this area comes close to that." Arnav shrugged. Shukla nodded.

Arnav watched Shukla drive away and inspected the surroundings. He hated lying so blatantly to Shukla and giving an inaccurate and incomplete profile for what they should be looking for. He couldn't take the chances of getting the man arrested. If he did, then they would never be safe.

He sat in a bus stop and opened Khushi's book. The details were exquisite and she had written about every small thing she had seen when she had had seizures. That quality of observation and memorizing was all thanks to Dr Sharma's administrations.

There were crude drawings of things she had seen and the most prominent one amongst them was a huge banyan tree right next to a small temple. The temple's premise was quite small which was unusual but not unheard of. It hadn't taken Arnav too long to take a jog in memory lane to remember where he had seen it. Using the markers as given by Khushi, he had to trace back all the way to killer's house. He had spent most part of the night and morning during flight figuring out the markers from which he could deduce the house more or less accurately.

It took him six hours of foot work, three incorrect identifications leading him to apologize profusely to the people in the house and one near miss - he found the house. It was more like when he saw the house, he knew. Everything about the house from outside matched Khushi's descriptions. He wondered how he should proceed. He decided to stick with a ruse rather than telling truth to the person on other side of the door.

He rang the bell and ran the scenario in his head. Within moments, the door was opened by a man who was probably the same age as him. He smiled when his eyes fell on Arnav and Arnav with practice grace began his ruse.

"Hi, my name is-"

"I was waiting for you Arnav," the man said and held the door open. "Why don't you come in?" He said still smiling.

"Why were you waiting for me?" Arnav asked staring at the man who walked past him and sat on sofa.

"I am Akash, by the way," he said charmingly. "How is Khushi doing after last seizure? She must be having a hard time." He said with a voice filled with concern.

Arnav sighed and sat opposite to the man. "You know why I am here, right?"

Akash nodded. "Khushi is much transparent to me than I am to her. She only gets glimpses of my life when my emotions are riding a bit high while I can sense her feelings as soon as her heart skips a beat. She never learned to control herself."

Arnav leaned back on sofa. "That didn't answer my question."

Akash chuckled. "You are here to kill me Arnav that much is evident. Because whether you like it or not I sensed what was going to happen when Khushi twisted and turned last night in her sleep thinking about your safety."

Arnav kept his face neutral. Akash peered at him. "You know, I always wondered how is that you maintain such a blank expression even when you are presented with gruesome of the gruesome crime scenes. I never saw you flinch, grimace or shut your eyes at the crime scenes. I was always fascinated by you-you - the son of a sociopath who didn't blink when he butchered his entire family except for his two year old son because they were disturbing his afternoon nap."

"How could you possibly know all this?" Arnav asked with same neutrality.

"I think like me, you have the same darkness lurking in the corner of your mind but you hesitate too much to unleash it." Akash said. "Coming back to your question, I remember much better than all of you. I was hurt the most when another kid went berserk in that loony-ville and they had to transfer me to the state capital to patch me up. I was under intensive care for several days before I got better. Everything changed after few years when my parents, my brother and I were on vacation and the hotel where we were staying collapsed. I was already sixteen and had my dad had made enough money to last a lifetime. I enrolled into a boarding school where my nightmares began."

"You started to remember." Arnav noted.

Akash shrugged. "Apparently the PTSD I experienced after the hotel collapsed stirred old memories which were blurry. It was like poking a sleeping dragon. Couple of years later when I was old enough to walk into a neurology department of a reputed hospital, everything started to unwind. After eight months, my memory was restored to a great extent. Just to ensure that my psychiatrist wouldn't blab, I had to kill him." Akash said. Arnav simply nodded as if he was listening to sermon.

"I really admire and hate the way you bottle your emotions Arnav. Here I am confessing to my crimes to you, a cop, and yet you don't blink." Akash said frustration creeping in his voice.

"There was at least a family member or a friend coached enough to look out for us. In my case it was quite impossible because my pseudo family was dead and I was a loner. I was nineteen when I killed that psychiatrist after which I adapted a new name, new identify and moved to this city." Akash supplied.

"Because Khushi was here," Arnav said.

"No. Because you were here." Akash said.

Arnav raised an eyebrow at that. "Are you surprised at that Arnav?" He asked. Arnav nodded.

"Back in the facility, I was Khushi's buddy, so to speak. We had and still have true connection. We did everything together then yet her eyes wandered towards you ... the lone boy who sat on a bench and played alone. Like before even now, she has her eyes only for you. She never married, was never in love with anyone till now and it's as if she is searching for that lonely boy from the facility. I don't know how you do it or what you do to make her so attracted to you...I knew it because she went back to old memories again and again remembering only you...only you Arnav. Imagine how I must have felt then. The doctor's trick had failed when it came to the affection she had for you. I anger I felt when I sensed the sigh of her pleasure while she remembered you...I wanted to kill you...so many times but then I realized that I would have more fun in tormenting you." Akash said. "That's why I had to kill those women - in your jurisdiction, surrounding Khushi's house and dropped you enough hints. Khushi practically wrote about it and yet you arrogantly ignored it all." He snarled by the end.

Arnav chuckled for the first time. "You know what the irony is Akash? If you had left things alone, I and Khushi would have never met face to face." He grinned knowing that it will irritate Akash further.

Akash shrugged. "You killed those women to get my attention, didn't you?" Arnav said looking at Akash. Akash nodded after a moment.

"I wanted you to notice me." Akash said simply. "I wanted you to admire my intelligence and not look at me as if I am a dumb kid with enormous anger management issues- like the way you used to."

Arnav scratched his stubble. "You could have walked up to me in police station and spoke to me. Then we wouldn't be here, I suppose." Arnav said taking out a gun. Akash looked at the gun without fear.

"I like my way better," Akash said drolly. "We have been competitors since we were six Arnav and I had no interest in meeting you the way the stupid people around us do." He said still looking at the gun as Arnav fixed the silencer. "It's not company issue, I hope. Imagine the paperwork you will have to fill." Akash said sardonically.

Arnav chuckled. "I know, right? There is so much of bureaucracy in our system. And it's much harder to explain why I had to kill you especially when there isn't a shred of evidence in the house. And no one will understand our past, history and how I really tracked you. I bought this gun a long time ago on a whim and it wasn't hard to score a silencer later. This isn't on record anywhere and it's as if fate wanted me to buy just because of you. I am using it for the first time, you know?"

"Let's hope it actually works. If it doesn't, will you let me go?" Akash threw back his head and laughed. The idea of being few minutes away from death didn't deter him from any aspect of life.

Arnav looked at Akash and smiled. "I can't let you go because they are coming for all of us who were in that program and drag us back to the facility. I can't have you seeing, feeling and sensing everything Khushi does and give away the information under trance. The risk is too much. I will be with her for the rest of my life and we cannot live in fear all the time worrying about your probable betrayal." Arnav rationalized.

Akash nodded in agreement. "My room has a lot of information which you would need when you are on the run. Help yourself. And...I'll see you soon in hell." He smiled wanly.

Akash smile was frozen in time as blood trickled from his forehead bullet wound. His lifeless form lay mocking the world of his knowledge and knowing the world's deepest and darkest secrets.

Arnav sat on sofa gazing at Akash's lifeless body.

The End.

NOTE: That's it folks! That's the end of this series. I will however MAY write an epilogue for this. I am undecided on the subject at this point.

This was the first chapter I wrote for this SS/FF. From here, I drew the storyline in reverse order. I did want to introduce Akash much earlier in the story but I couldn't find a neat entry point to do the same unless I drag this story out.

I hope you enjoyed this story. I had great fun in thinking and writing this one more than any other story till date for various reasons - the genre, the darkness and the fact the story upped the characters a little.

On Another note: after finishing LOVE, INC., [another three chapters left] I will not be writing anything new for few months. I have three different course exams coming up and I should start studying for that. :=) Will update the unfinished ones once or twice a week but that's about it.

[Will put up this message again on the other thread]

barbie this story was mind- blowing...👏 awesome work...😃

wow!!! what a surprising end...
it had been awesome...
hats off to u for writing it with much precision...

and a few months???? :( ouch!!!!

Wow! This was a connection between Arnav and Akash...over jealousy of Khushi's attraction to Arnav...Even Arnav's stoicism and unflinching nerve has sinister connotations - that he can potentially murder without qualm. How many such 'qualities' in us can be twisted in such a way? Too many to count. There is potential in many of us, given the right circumstances, to go berserk I think.

This was a strange end. The surprise was the name Aakash, I thought the killer might be with the name of "Shyam Manohar Jha"

Please do write an epilogue...

the story deserves one

its like having a cup coffee after a sumptuous dinner

😉

What an end... sbsolutely loved this thriller. Waiting for the epilogue

So it was Akash and only because Khushi had this "feeling" for Arnav? So they will run for rest of their life?