Bafflement. "W-when we can leave, Sir?" I asked him in a small voice, staring up at him with a strict tone of my own, to gain his attention. Suddenly, his smile vanished and was replaced by a snarl. Turning his face my way, he glared down at me with his penetrating dark eyes, both jaws set in a hard line. I gnawed at my bottom lip, looking down at his hard gaze, feeling more distressed all of a sudden. "What's with the question? Didn't I tell you yesterday regarding the same matter?" I kept quiet. He continued: "You do really love your brother, no? Or was it just a showoff to other people to attract their attention?" He asked me caustically, with a bit of calmness in his voice. His face was blank and void of any emotion. My heart was trapped in my chest, and the world turned upside down at his choice of words. "Huh?" He demanded in his low, vicious voice, stepping closer to me. “You know there is nothing money can buy? Don't you? Your trust in the law is futile. No one will
Suffering. “I guess that's what you're trying to portray, doll. Is that a nod for me to hand over your brother to you?” Was he jesting with me? "Yes, S-sir." "Do I really have to?" He inquired again. "Because he is way too warm," he completed, kissing his cheek. “Aren't you, big boy?” "Please, sir," I pleaded with him, my tears of anxiety already blurring my vision. "Alright! All right! But you have to promise me something. Would you do that for your beloved brother? And I could ask anything?" He asked icily, suddenly. All the humour was gone. I nodded at him willingly, despite the tears.. "Hmm. . Good girl. Okay, take him.” I went closer to get a hold of Shaurya. But instead of giving Shaurya to me, he laid him down on the mattress of the bed, tugging him gently with a thin blanket over him. Then I noticed a soundly sleeping baby on the bed with a bottle in his mouth. Did he sleep? When did that happen? And how? He never sleeps like this—not before having heard the lulla
05— Miserable. “Healing is never easy. It is the most painful and hurtful path. Yet it is essential for the growth of humans in mental, physical and psychological states. Trust the process.” — Saumya Tripathi Although I was sleeping, my brain was already replaying the disconcerted scenes that I'd suffered yesterday night. Everything came hiking back in a hurried rush. I was stuck somewhere in a state of sleepiness and drowsiness, with scattered thoughts going wild in my head. I was so confused when I woke up that I tried to blink away the blurriness. My thoughts were hazy, and everything looked different. I wasn't even in the state of consciousness, fully. I blinked rapidly the cloudiness of sleep from my eyes to see and make out my surroundings. Regardless of my hazy thoughts and confused slumber, I tried to remember, but nothing came to mind. I felt tired and groggy, but eventually, I sat up unsteadily, still pondering the situation. Promptly, my breath hitched up when I let my
Naive. Intentionally, I stepped back from him, making my hold tighter on Shaurya, who was also busy watching him inquisitively with his big brown eyes and a pout on his lips, which lay displayed. We stared at each other for a while. But the silence was cut off by his derision. "Jesus! How possibly could you carry this plump kid by yourself? Huh? You rather seem to have such a fragile form." Again, I just peered up at him, quite offended. Why'd he say that? My brother was healthy, not fat! And he seemed to be making fun of me again, wasn't he? Yes, he was! Fuming, I stayed quiet, however. Waiting, I did not know what to do. His obsidian eyes flickered down at my brother with a hint of a smile on his lips. Shaking his head in disbelief at something that I did not get, he raised one of his eyebrows, astonished by the movement. Then, looking down at me and staring intently, he sneered, curling his lips upwards. "Are you afraid for yourself or your brother, Radhika?" He
Furiousness. "I will not stay here at any cost. You are neither my father nor any of my relatives. You cannot abduct us to stay here with you. It is against the law. And if you will not let us go this instant, I will go to the cops!" My tone was supposed to be strong, but it came out as merely audible, but somehow he heard it. He chuckled darkly. “I see.” “I'll report you,” I repeated strongly this time. “I'll report you, which in turn can put you behind bars for a lifetime!” His face turned blank. And despite my tear-stained face, I frowned. Wasn't that enough to scare him? "I am not a little boy, my little one, who would get scared of your little threats by the name of cops. I owe my own police. If you'd like, I can call them up for you," he smirked. His casual behaviour made me more scared. “With money comes power. Two strong weapons: you have them. You are a god. Practically invincible.” My shocked eyes snapped in his direction. I had no answer to the confidence he radiate
06— Him. “And in the end, we all need a friend who would listen to what we have to say.” —Saumya Tripathi “Wouldn't life be simpler for once?” Ebbing away the feeling of apprehension, I chanted and chanted repeatedly, drowning myself in my own belief that I would go. I have to! And I will, implicitly. "I'll soon be away from here. I just have to be patient and wait for the right movement to flip and escape." I contemplated inwardly. My will burned strong, even though I was scared. Reconciling, I enthused and sighed constantly for a few seconds before it was cut short. "Don't be so imaginative about your never-happening escape plan, little Dove. It will not work.” His words burned at my skull. “Nor that it matters, because I'll be making sure that it doesn't.” He piqued my interest incredulously, as though reading my psyche's talk. In spite of jumping at his all-so-sudden tone, the first time my temper flared, I glared up defiantly at him. Persistence and determination a
Staggering truth. “Why am I here?” My silent question filled the silence in the room. I asked the same question, trying to get some answers that my brain could understand, not the ones he had been making up. "Right now, to get some rest. You look worn out and depleted. Hm?” There was a gentleness in his tone this time. “And you better sleep, as I don't want to see those dark shadows below your eyes,” he demanded, wagging his index finger in my direction threateningly. “You better eat and rest well.” Did he just change the important topic? Did he? He did! At his expressive eyes, I felt like a prey, his prey. “I expect you to have taken a good rest and eaten well before I return.” "And for the previous questions, you'd come to know in due time," he revealed, staring. “Be patient till then.” What? I wondered briefly, staring confusingly at him. Looking somewhat satisfied with my confounded appearance, he smiled slightly; however, his eyes were hard. Hastily, he brought his hand
A word with my Saviour. She quirked up an eyebrow at me. Then, walking past me steadily, she sat on the edge of the bed leisurely, crossing her leg over another. I shook my head in negativity, answering her queries while tightening my hold on Shaurya, who was too listening to her talk, whether understanding or not, but looking curiously with a thumb in his mouth, sucking. "Huh! Probably not. I should have guessed, though. Whatever, I don't wanna gossip, just know," she stood from the bed, walking towards me in confident steps. “He is not a good man, and, on the contrary, he is far from being one. For someone like you, especially," I shivered. My hair stood on end. My heart started pounding again in an instant. “He will get hold of your weakness to ruin you in the most tortured way you could ever predict. And then—" Her eyes flickered at my baby brother and then at me again. My breath got stuck in my throat at her accentuated Converse. "If you love him, then go from here; otherwi