ArHi FF! Dante's Labyrinth: Thread 1 [Completed] - Page 35

with his comment of the girl not doing anything right i dnt have much hope of shyam being right with his confidence on arnav.
whts with malvika.
and whts with anjali, i am being paranoid with thinking tht there is something here as well?

omg arnav is freaking me out...lovely update...keep it up

Nice part
thanx for the pm
Twinkle

God, this Arnav seems so dangerous! Loving him too, thank you for showing a completely new Arnav, I am loving this story more & more as I am reading a new chapter. So interesting, a total mind blowing chapter 😊

Wow fab update
Why is Dr m so interested in Arnav now is he a part of her plan too
What group is Arnav a part of ? Was it he who helped payal ?
Can't wait to find out thanks for pm plz keep em comin N update soon

Alright, that was FREAKY.

this ff is just brilliant...psychopathy has always interested me...the way it can trigger the minds of people is remarkable😊

Chapter 07: Sycophancy

"How are you holding up?"

Khushi stared at the man sitting in front of her and shrugged.

"I am fine Arjun. I feel I am at home here," he said grinning. Arjun rolled his eyes. "What's the news from the outside world?"

"I am your lawyer Khushi and-"

"I know…lawyer blah, blah, blah…" Khushi leaned forward. "What's new?" She asked narrowing her eyes.

"As your lawyer and your friend I must advise you to stop investigating every person you come across – especially the doctors." Arjun lamented.

Khushi stared at him. "Start with Akash Sampat and Arnav Raizada." She said. She stopped being a friend at that moment and ordered him as his client. Arjun sighed and noted the two names in his pocket book.

"Who are they?" He asked out of curiosity.

"They are my fellow inmates." Khushi replied.

"Why are you interested in these two?" Arjun asked. "I was expecting you wanted some dirt on your doctors so that you can play them," he said and sniggered.

Khushi rolled her eyes. "Yeah, them too but I need everything about Akash and Arnav pronto, Arjun." Arjun raised an eyebrow at the urgency of her request. "They scare the shit out of me," Khushi replied defensively.

Arjun frowned. "Should I be worried about this Khushi? Are they…physical or something?" He asked worried about Khushi's state. "If that's the case then I will have to speak with court again. It could be a good thing too."

Khushi looked at him blankly. "Akash has issues with anger management but…there is something off about him."

"Wait, is this the same Akash who hit you few times?" Arjun asked.

Khushi nodded. "The first time he hit me cause he said something he didn't want to. The second time was his residual anger. The third time was because I provoked him. After that he was put into solitary confinement, or, hole as it's called here."

Arjun kept his temper in check. "Why did you provoke him in the first place?"

Khushi shrugged nonchalantly. "I wanted to gauge his reaction."

"What is wrong with you?" Arjun hissed and bend his back towards the center of the table and glared at her. "It took a lot of effort to get you here instead of a prison Khushi. Don't blow it up by playing games with other inmates."
"I prefer prison over asylum. Any day," Khushi replied harshly. "Don't sell this hell hole to me Arjun. I know how bad it is in prison but there I can be safe; safer than you could ever possibly imagine."

"No one will harm you here Khushi, why don't you get it through your thick skull?" Arjun ranted. They had been over this before and he had managed to convince her of playing the insanity card as he believed she would get life in imprisonment.

Khushi sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. "You are such a nave little fool Arjun." Arjun bristled at that comment. "I can tolerate a punch to my gut, even five punches if I am feeling lazy and not break the person's hand before they could land the second punch on me. But this isn't a place like that where a person after punching you in the gut will have a reason. In prison the emotions that run are quantifiable and sometimes even justifiable but not here. A place like this can shake even a sane mind like mine," she elaborated.

Arjun looked at her blankly and said, "So?" Cleverly ignoring the insult she took time in making it obvious.

Khushi sighed and chewed her lip. Arjun was extremely stubborn when it came to seeing another perspective so she took her usual route when he was being like that. "So, get that assignment done by next week Arjun. Arnav could be a manipulating sociopath out to destroy people because he is bored and then there is Akash whose insanity is hiding incredible amounts of anger and possible psychopathy. I am not taking chances." She finished.

Arjun swallowed and dissolved all the expression on his face.

"Yes ma'am," he said flatly and started gathering his things.

Khushi wanted to scream at his childishness; each time she pulled her rank, Arjun shut himself off from her and behaved like a stranger. And then they fell into the regular pattern of her cajoling him and him explaining why whatever she was asking him to do was wrong. The pattern repeated continuously but now she was just tired of it.

"Whatever," she said breaking the pattern for the first time and stood up with a force which pushed the chair several steps away from her.

Arjun looked surprised at her outburst and was about to respond to that but she wasn't done.

"Add Dr. Jha into the list."

"Why?" Arjun asked curiously but added the name in his notebook anyway.

"He is probably one of the smartest man I have ever met and he fell for my half a rupee insanity act. Doesn't that seem weird?" She pondered.

"Maybe you are a better performer than you think you are," Arjun stood up and ready to end the meeting.

"Or maybe I really am insane." Khushi said softly.

Arjun didn't know how to respond to that.

*****

"I love it when you are working from home," Anjali said watching Shyam read the file and make notes in a yellow notepad.

"Is it because you are amazed by my presence and can't take your eyes off me?" There was laughter in his voice. Anjali grinned at him toothily.

"That and the fact that I get to learn about your profession a little more!" She chirped happily. Shyam laughed.

"Anjali, you are my best student. Ever." He said. She trilled happily and shuffled closer to him.

"Who is this patient?" She asked holding up Khushi's file.

Shyam sighed and the laughter fell from his face. "I was on the board of the psychologists that certified her insane during a trial but now…"

"You aren't sure anymore?" Anjali finished it for him.

Shyam shook his head. "There is a definitive streak of lying, shop lifting and even anti-social tendencies but…they don't necessarily can contribute to insanity in a person."

"However in the right mix in the right environment, it could turn against the subject and make them do things they would never realize or would accept under normal conditions." Anjali surmised.

"Khushi lost her father when she was very young and her mother remarried another man immediately. They were normal and happy family."

Anjali looked thoughtful. "Did you suspect sexual abuse?"

Shyam nodded. "I did but I don't think that existed in this case. I interviewed the family several times Anjali and I checked their rooms in their house to match their words to their living space and they all checked out."

"It could have been…psychological abuse," Anjali wondered aloud.

Shyam stopped blinking for moment and stared at his wife. "That's what I am guessing too. Maybe her parents ignored her after her father's death. Maybe she had intense sibling rivalry with her step sister."

"Why don't you sound confident about that theory?" Anjali asked looking at Shyam.

"It doesn't add up. You should see her track history Anjali – the girl is extremely intelligent with lot of money in her name. She is physically fit, can defend herself with her martial training and speaks five foreign languages. She can be incredibly charming or devastatingly depressing. It's as if we have barely scratched the surface of her psyche while she is already aware of all of our tricks." Shyam sounded agitated with the decision of the board.

"You don't believe she is insane," Anjali asked rubbing his arms in soothing motion.

"I don't Anjali. I think she was faking it with brilliant effort which fooled many of my peers. I was the only one who deemed her sane. But since this is the collective decision of the board, I lost in voting."

"That's why you are planning on taking up a permanent job at the facility," Anjali said in realization.

Shyam nodded. "That and the fact that I am tired of teaching and working in some college. This gives me wider perspective about cases I generally read about."

"I am happy to hear that Shyam."

"You are?"

"Of course!"

"Why?" Shyam was flabbergasted. He could never understand his beautiful wife.

"Because you are happy!" She said as a matter of fact.

Shyam smiled wanly at that.

Note:

About the length of update: I have received several PMs and a comment or two complaining about the length of the updates. My target is around 1500 words or as long as the update has to go. If I have to consciously write longer, then the updates will be once or at the max twice a week - which I don't like because I lose the thought process. Decide what you want.

Please don't ask me if Arnav and Khushi are getting together. The story genre is thriller making romance secondary or almost non-existent; I haven't decided about that yet.

Actually I'm scared a lil nw...what these people are?
Sry 👏 just reslised that posted the coment just brlow the update.
So Khudhi is faking it and fooling most of the peole...

Romance would be lost on this story - the characters are far too interesting in their own right.