Laying low

When I opened my eyes, I was laying on top of some sacks. My arm stinged but when I looked at it, it was dressed with a cloth and a bullet covered in blood was laying next to it. I looked a little up to see Arjun, sitting near me leaning onto the wall. His black hair and his tanned skin shining in the evening sunrays. His eyes were closed, brows relaxed. Then I noticed the bottom of his shirt was torn.

He had carried me away from the ware house, took the bullet out and dressed my wound by sacrificing his shirt.

When I tried to get up, he opened his eyes slowly. "Welcome back to the living, princess."

"Thank you, for well," I looked at my arm, "All this". He cracked a smile then took my arm in his hand and examined it.

"It's so bad," He said as he touched the blood on the cloth.

"But better than bleeding to death," I said and he did a little laugh. Ouch! I rubbed my head and it was still hurting.

"You landed on a poor rock."

"EXCUSE ME? My poor head hit on that rock." He just shrugged. I felt like wanting to punch his face so hard.

"Wanting to punch me?" He asked. My eyes widened, how did he know? I just nodded. "Yep! No concussion for sure then," I looked at him annoyed as he smiled at me.

"Where are we exactly?" I asked as I looked around. It looked like a storage room.

"It's Mr. Jeff's Godown. He stores his harvest here." He said smacking on a sack.

"Won't we get caught?"

"Nope, they will think that we won't be stupid enough to hide near. They probably must be in city by now. Reverse Psychology." He said as he raised his eyebrows. I admit he was clever.

Reverse psychology, Skyler "Oh my god, Skyler is still out there and he probably have no idea about all that happened." I panicked. "What if they are going after him now." I jumped back on my feet but I felt my head heavy and like its pulling me back.

"Calm down." Arjun caught me before I fell down. "You are not –," He looked into my eyes. I could see worry in his. "You've hit your head and had lost some blood. So please if you panic like this you may pass out again."

He then sat me on one of the sacks. "But—,"

"He will be fine. I know he will." Arjun said as he sat beside me and I nodded.

It was already night. I switched my SIM card with another one which only some people knew existed, so that they won't be able to track my official number. Arjun just turned off his phone, Optional.

After I done switching the SIM cards I hear footsteps. It was coming towards us. We hid behind a pile of sack as the door opened slowly and then closed. The footsteps was getting nearer and nearer.

"There you are." I screamed when the person stood inches away from me. "Calm down, Lil mouse. It's me." He said as he covered my mouth.

"Skyler you… why are you doing this?" I asked as I gave a kick on his gut. He fell back growling in pain.

"He called me," He squealed trying to catch breath as he put one hand on his gut and other pointing at Arjun. We then pulled Skyler back up. He handed us some McDonald's. "Thought you'd be starving." Hell yeah I was. We then ate out food then sat on the stack.

"I can't believe we are the mouse running away from cat," Arjun said as he buried his head in his hands.

"You alright?" Skyler asked as he holding on my injured arm.

"Second time, same hand different spot that's all," I said with a smile.

"We can't do anything. We are stuck." Arjun said as he stood up and paced back and forth.

"We can find a solution, look who is stressing out now, you relax." I said.

"How?"

"Shade is still out there, He can get help." I said. Arjun sat next to us to listen to the plan. "I know Marjeena didn't film the video for sure," Skyler raised an eyebrow, "Instincts." He then nodded. "So someone must have did it. So we can tell Shade to look up at Marjeena' s last Contact list and see if any of the numbers were active at the same spot the same time."

 "Where do you get there dope ideas from, mouse?" Skyler asked and he looked impressed.

"Worth a shot." Arjun said. I them messaged Shade from my new number and told him everything. He agreed and told us to find a safe place till then.

"Hey there is a corner in the city where mostly Indian's live." Skyler said and turned to Arjun. "Let crash there. I'm sure there will be someone who has a generous heart." We nodded.

We then sneaked out of the Godown, and sneaked to the neighborhood as it was near. There as we were walking through the street we saw cops on the far end. We ran towards the nearby house and got in.

As we closed the door we heard a plate crashing. We turned around to see a girl, her dark hair tied to a bun, looked like she was around my age, was standing there shocked. Arjun walked up to her, "Don't worry we are cops, but we are in trouble right now. We needed some cover, so can you let us hide here for a while?" She shook her head. "Please mam, our fellow partner is injured, please help us." Her eyes then fell on my injured hand.

"Ok, but if you give me any trouble, you will regret it," She warned us and we shook our head. "Ok, you," she pointed at me, "Come with me." I followed her into a room. She then opened her wardrobe and picked out a pale green dress and tossed it to me. Then she took out a first aid box. "Remove your shirt." I raised an eyebrow. "To clean the wound. I am a medical student so trust me," I did. She then took a disinfectant and cleaned my wound, and bandaged it. "Change your clothes I will wait outside." Then she left.

I then changed the clothes and walked out. Arjun's jaw dropped when he set his eyes on me. Skyler looked impressed. Then suddenly we heard a knock on the door. She walked up to the door and looked through the spy hole, "It's the cops." My heart sank. "Three of you go into that room. I'll deal with them," She commanded and we went inside and closed the door.

I stood by the door ear dropping on their conversation. "Did you see there 2 people roaming around here?" An officer asked.

"Negative, now leave me alone. I don't do cops." She said stressfully... Suddenly a spray can fell down. The cops were alerted.

"Who is in the room?"

"My sister-in-law" She said without stammering.

"We need to search inside."

"You can't just barge into someone else's place, that too when women are alone. if you had a lady officer, I would have taken it into consideration."

"We are cops young lady, and we have every right—."

"And you are misusing it." I was stunned by how brave she was. I made a small gap and looked through it. There were two cops, they were double her size and she didn't even flinch when they threw questions at her. Atta girl.

"You are being over smart young lady we need to search." Saying one of them pushed her aside and was about to get inside when she screamed on top of her lungs. Skyler startled so hard that he fell of the bed and landed face first. Hearing her scream the neighbors came.

"What happened?" A boy came running. "Police endha evide?" (What are the cops doing here) yeah she told us that after all these chaos.

"I don't know" She started crying. "They are misusing their powers." She pointed at the officers. " Njanum chechiyum veetil ottakka." (Me and my sister-in-law are alone here) she then hid behind the boy. "Even after telling that they were trying to get in."

Then something bizarre happened. The whole neighborhood started to gather in front of the house. Some were angry, I could see a gang of boys wearing lungi walking towards the officers as if they were ready for a fight.

"This is the Indian neighborhood sir, almost all of them living here are south Indians, and with what I heard south Indians are dangerous if they are mad," one officer said to the other, and I was totally impressed by their power. "We need to leave sir." Then the cops ran away from there.

The people then calmed her down, and told her to be brave as they will always be around. Then everyone went back to their homes and she came back and closed the door behind her.

"Come out people, the coast is clear." We came out of the room.

"Are you alright?" Skyler jumped in between us. "You were crying."

"I just wanted to get rid of them that's all." She then walked towards a table. "Come sit," We then sat down. She pushed a bowl with fruits towards us. Suddenly Skyler elbowed me right on the ribs. When I turned towards them I saw Arjun staring at her without blinking. "Gauri,"

"What?" Skyler flinched.

"It's my name, Gauri." Then her eyes fell on Arjun who looked away immediately. She cracked a shy smile.

"Is it a crush my dude?" Skyler asked.

"What is your name?" She asked Arjun.

"Arjun"

"Sorry Arjun but Gauri got her Shankar," She said with a smile, Arjun nodded.

"Sorry bro, your crush is crushed." Skyler put his arm around him. "But you still have us."

"Where is Shankar?" I asked.

"Oh, That was a metaphor, his name is actually Gokul, he has night shift so probably be back tomorrow morning. He is a surgeon." She smiled.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I am in ortho department." She said. Then she turned to Arjun and smiled. "I know what you are thinking, Arjun." He flinched and looked at her. I could see hope in his eyes, but for what I don't know. "Your choice is right." They smiled.

Then my phone beeped, Shade. I opened the message to see a number from Jezelle's contact was active when at the park the same time we were there. Then he called me. 

"The number belongs to some Emmanuel guy. His phone is currently off and the last sighting was at Marjeena's house," Shade said from the other side.

"you have got to be kidding me." I exclaimed.

"The whole place is full of cops, this is crazy. Are you alright?" He said, he was trying to catch his breath as if he was running or something.

"I'm fine. We are currently at a house."

"Is Skyler with you? They are searching for him too,"

"Yeah he's here." I looked at him laughing with the others. "He's alright."

"Stay for a while. We will figure some thing out." I heard the sound of a car door closing. "See you soon." Then he hung up.

"Why is she hate you exactly?" Gauri asked.

"She was jealous of," Skyler turned to me, "Her perfect life."

"But no one's life is perfect," She murmured. Perfect life that word felt like a heavy weight on my chest.

"Dad! No" tyres screeched and I could hear the lady from 911 talking but my eyes were on the car that disappeared down to the cliff.

I blinked back. The tyre screech and the car going down all faded slowly.

Perfect life with years of therapy, doesn't sound so perfect to me.