Loved ones

Arjun asked the girl to spill the address for where her friends had sneaked out, and call any of her friends about whether Sia was safe or not.

He then turned to Manya and made her stand on her feet again, and instructed the guards not to inform anyone yet.

Within a few minutes, they got the address along with the news that her friends were also looking for now. Apparently, she hadn't entered the club with them at all, and they hadn't noticed it before the call.

Manya rushed towards the car without listening to anything further, shouting "Give me the keys!" 

She dashed with all her strength, without even looking back or stopping for once, knowing that Arjun would also have started running after her. She stopped in front of the car, took the keys from Arjun and looked at the head guard. She stepped closer and whispered in his ears, "I don't know if I am right or not, but I am fearing something. And if it is true, you know what you have to do next- so I suggest you better start the preparations."

Then quickly entered the car, ignoring Arjun's nagging that she had to be careful about the injury on her head, which she had gotten earlier that same day. As soon as she started the engine, she said "Hold tight" and stepped on the accelerator.

Before Arjun could have gotten a chance to ask why, he got his answer as the car started running at the speed of air.

*He had always thought that if she didn't have the dream of dressing the world in her desired colour and clothes, she would definitely have been driving cars in the races, talking to the breeze and playing with speed. The address they had been told was in almost the exact opposite direction from their location, in the other part of town. But luckily, there was only one well known route with almost negligible traffic and this time of the night. He noticed the traffic police trying to catch them and noting down their plate number and smiled at the fact that they probably wouldn't have been able to find any of them- the girl who had once been a rebel was still a rebel! Her self-proclaimed motto in life was that if nobody was getting hurt in breaking certain rules, then those should be broken like a pinãta at a birthday party!*

She covered the entire distance in less than half of the time, and parked the car in front of the Hotel, as it was the only option they had, to start their investigation at. Meanwhile, when Arjun was busy making some calls, she started walking ahead

Arjun looked at her moving away and quickly followed in the direction she was heading. When he was within hearing distance, he shouted out from behind, "Minnie, where are you going?" 

She turned and gestured to her to keep quiet and keep moving.

Arjun walked even faster to match her pace and managed to come parallel to her. He tried to keep quiet, but eventually asked again, "Minnie, tell me, why did you opt for this direction? She could have gone in all the three possible ways from there!"

Manya looked at him and spoke in a flat tone, "This is why you always had to cheat from my copies to secure a position. Tell me, I'm curious as to how you managed to pass your exam after I left?"

Arjun looked at her, in awe of how she could be so savage in this moment. He whimpered , "Now please give me the answer, at least!" 

"Because it's the route with the lowest lighting, anybody who tried to kidnap her, harm her or even threaten her might have opted for this route."

Arjun was shocked at the way she was able to speak these words so calmly, when he was scared to even think about them. He frowned, "Don't say these things, you don't know yet- she might just be trying to fool us, or she might just have gone to take a walk…"

"Stop, Arjun. I am just stating facts and wishing for what you said to be the only truth, while I am preparing myself for the worst, like-"

Arjun intervened again, "Minnie, this was not the Minnie I know. She was the most optimistic person in the entire world, then what happened to you?"

"Yes, you are right Arjun- this is not the Minnie whom you used to know. She used to have many people, whom she loved more than her own life, guarding her back. And the version of me that exists now had been left almost by herself for a major portion of her life, and she is never gonna get those years back. Now that she has gotten a chance once to salvage herself again, her Karma is again standing in front of her and making her pay for the sins she doesn't even remember committing. So I hate to break this to you, but the reality is you are standing in front of Manya Rahal, who is well aware of the difference between reality and imagination. The reality is so cruel that you can lose a person in a fraction of second, never to see them again, without even so much as a chance to bid them goodbye." 

She stopped her narration, trying to smile towards the end, to make it look like a somewhat normal conversation. 

*She knew that Arjun tended to cry on the hypothetical scenarios of his loved ones getting hurt, then this was something which would totally blow him away. She seemed to have forgotten that she was also standing in front of an entirely different Arjun, as he might have the same feelings and care within him when it came to her, but he had also grown up into a mature adult today, who definitely had faced problems of his own. That she was not the only one who had lost her loved ones, he also shared those persons with her.*

Arjun looked at the corner of her eyes, which sparkled due to the tiny droplets which were trying to acquire the territory of Manya's beautiful eyes. He let out a sigh and spoke softly, "Minnie, I know, but I have already promised you that I will not let anything happen to her. So just trust me-" 

He stopped when he saw Manya take a few steps, then bent down and picked something up from the road. 

Manya turned the object around and called out, "Look! It's Sia's cellphone, she was showing me the cover just the other day."

She quickly unlocked the phone and found out the second-last dialed number was- 'Ish(brother-in-law ?❤️)'.

She panicked, first at the name, and then at the probability of Ishaan hurting her only sister. No, this couldn't be possible, thinking this, she pulled out her phone and dialed his number.

Ishaan picked up the call at the first ring.  But before he could say anything, she screamed with her voice shaking with fear and anxiety.

"Ish, tell me where Sia is...please!" 

"Manu ..what happened? Sia is at the party with her friends. Just relax, I talked to her almost two hours ago…"

"No, she is not!" She replied, before tears burst out from her eyes again.

No matter how much you prepare yourself for a possible event, it always hurts at the moment of its arrival. We can never be prepared for losing anyone in our life, no matter how many times we have made up the entire scenario in our imagination, and played it in different ways in the dark corners of our minds. At last, we are always left with the tears, broken hearts and the feeling of being lost.

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