Chapter 8 Turning Point

Life had always been unpredictable to me, either I expected too much from it or destined me to be something else. No matter how hard anyone tries, they cannot change the rules of life. We are just humans who want to make out lives into a blissful one, never aware of what could happen next. While I thought my life was finally back on track, I was still at that moment blissfully ignorant of the fact that God still had other plans for it.

I woke up around six a.m. in the morning and heard the frequent tapping of raindrops and hails against my bedroom window... I hated rainy days it would always bring up some unpleasant memories. I started getting irritated and was sure that it was going to be a rough day. It soon became worse and was beyond anything that I could have imagined. I got ready and started preparing breakfast, while Aparna had started getting ready for school. By seven a.m., we both had left home. I dropped off Aparna at her school first and handed her my only umbrella, so that she wouldn’t get wet by the rain, then I went straight to the shop. Because of the rain, my co-worker had also refused to come today by making excuses. For that reason, I had no choice but to close the shop before going to college.

During the morning hours, hardly any customer came up. It was no weight-thirty a.m., I was closing the shop and was thinking of re-opening it during evening hours. By the time I had closed the shutters, my phone had rung. Chhavi’s was on the other side.

“Hello Chhavi” I answered.

“Avi, there is no one he who can take me to college today.

Could you please pick me up?”

“Of course Chhavi, wait for 10 minutes, I’ll be there,” I said and ended the call.

I took the keys of Utkarsh’s bike and immediately went to pick her up.

It took me about twenty five minutes instead of the usual time of ten minutes to reach her house. I was late today mainly because of the rain traffic. By the time I had reached Chhavi’s home, no one was inside, and the door was also locked. I looked around to see if I could spot Chhavi somewhere, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Suddenly, I heard a loud voice that came from behind, and as I turned my face and saw Chhavi being forced inside a car by a group of people. I tried to stop them. But, they speeded away with her.

I could see Chhavi shouting for me, trying to get out of the car. it shocked me to see her get kidnapped.

Without wasting any time, I quickly started following them. I tried to call the police but there were no answer. They went towards the deserted mud-island area. I couldn’t get anyone to help. But I still kept chasing them, they were quick, but not quick enough to lose me. I was right behind them. I was trying to step ahead of them. Yet somehow I lost sight of the car and I couldn’t see it anywhere on the road. I franticly looked in every direction, I stopped my bike beside. On the now empty street, the car was nowhere to been seen. I immediately felt pained, the girl I loved was taken from in front of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything about it. I cursed myself for not being able to save here. An idea suddenly jumped in my mind, I immediately contacted Debjit Bhai. And as soon as he heard his phone ringing he picked it up.

“Bhai, Chhavi is in danger, she was kidnapped by a group of people in a car with the license plate number ‘MH 07 ATC 0007’. I was trying to catch them, but then somehow I lost them.” I told him.

“Where are you now Avinash?” he asked.

“Sir the place,” as I was about tell him, I was struck on my head by an iron rod. I turned back to see the who did it, but I collapsed.

...

My heart was racing, I could hear a splitting voice as I opened my eyes. At first, I could not see where I was exactly. It took me about twenty-thirty seconds to see better. Confusion had overtaken my mind while lying down on a dirty wooden surface. It looked like I was in an old, de-constructed house. I tried to get up, with the support of the left side of the wall, I groaned in pain. As I tried to stand up, I found my hands tied with a rope that was attached to the wall. I managed to sit alongside the wall, and tried to remember what had happened. I started remembering everything, while I was chasing the kidnapper’s car, I was struck by an iron rod on my head the moment I had left the bike and was searching for their hideout.

“Where am I?” I asked myself

“Heaven,” a rich sounding voice chuckled from the right side. I turned my head and saw a man coming from that direction. I couldn’t recognize his face as he wore a black mask.

I saw him carrying a girl in his arms. He made her lay down and tied her in the same way I was tied up. When I saw her face, I found out it was no one else but Chhavi.

“ Let Her Go, “I exclaimed.

“So you’re her boyfriend,” that rich sounding voice said, and as two other people joined him. Chhavi had regained her consciousness and as she turned her head towards me.

“You can’t get away with this, I have informed the police about your car as well as your location.” I told them.

“We shall see about that, but you still won’t be able to get out of here alive, “said one of the three people, who came towards me. I tried to snub him, but I could not do so.

“only your dead body will be found,” he repeated.

One by one, they started kicking mw. First, they kicked my shoulder, then onto my stomach, and finally they kicked my face. The last kick broke my teeth, and I started bleeding profusely.

“Leave him bhai, he is going to die anyway. Let’s call the girl’s dad for the ransom money,” One of the guys said to the other. Then all three of them immediately left that place to call her father.

I lying there, cover in wounds, blooded and in pain, but still I remained conscious. I constantly thought of how to safely escape this place with Chhavi. I kept my sprits high and didn’t accept my defeat yet. I kept on thinking about Chhavi and how to escape this situation with her. On the plank, where I was lying, I found a broken nail attached to it. I rubbed my tied up hands on it so that it would somehow cut the rope. I was trying hard, moving my tied-up hands in all directions. even though I failed on the first few tries, I didn’t lose hope. After trying for 10 minutes, I finally succeeded on cutting the rope. I stood up, and took out the nail from the plank and kept it in my pocket, then I slowly went towards Chhavi to wake her up.

She woke up and was relieved to alive and freed from my restrains. As, I tried to untie her rope, one of the kidnappers had entered the room. He wasn’t wearing a mask this time so I was able see his face.

“How did you escape?” he asked, trembling in fear.

“I told you, you can’t get out of this so easily,” I told him as I turned towards him.

“What are you talking about?

Tell me, I demand to know how did you escaped, did you have some type of hidden knife with you, if you do, give it to me.” he said as he tried to look for it.

“I am not going to let you do that, and even if I did have a knife on me why would I tell you, let alone give it to you, you fucking bastard,” I shouted as I jumped on him, making sure he had no chance of escaping. He kept punching my stomach, but still I didn’t let him go. I tightly grabbed on to his legs and made sure not to let him escape. Chhavi was standing right in front of him and didn’t know what to do.

“Be careful Avi,” she exclaimed.

Suddenly, we heard the sound of Police siren coming from outside... This distraction gave him the chance to get his legs out of my hold. He stood up and kicked me in the face again. I don’t know what happened to me at that time. My mind suddenly went blank and went into a berserker like state. I immediately took out the small rusted iron nail, grabbed his collar, pulled him towards me, and stabbed his neck with it. He immediately started chocking on his own blood.

...

“What did you do Avinash, you killed him.” Debjit Bhai, in a low toned voice, said

“I don’t know Bhai, I didn’t want to kill him, but I couldn’t stop myself.”

“Sorry Bhai,” I said trembling.