Nature in Hiding

30- We aren't alone

Neer let out a huge sigh, before standing up and joining the other elements. Ahana, who had been comforting him until now, was confused by his sudden action, but stood up nonetheless.

"I am really sorry," Neer apologized in a hoarse voice to the other three members, "Because of me, you all are also caught in this mess."

"It's not your fault," Sameera said, looking at him with comforting eyes. "You loved, and loving is not a crime. Maybe one day we will find out the reason behind why all this happened; Why the person who was supposed to love you did this to you. Or maybe we would never receive the closure. But in any case, please never forget that you had no hand in whatever happened. You are not the culprit of this situation."

"Sameera aunty is right. Culprit is the one who is forcing my mom, Maanvi didi and our other loved ones to go against us. None of us are at fault," Avan said, patting Neer's palm in comfort as he couldn't reach up to pat his shoulder.

Ahana inhaled sharply, and instantly grabbed Neer's other arm, before he could break Avan's false hope in his sadness.

Neer gave Avan a sad smile, before nodding and ruffling his hair in response.

"We have to get out of here soon," Gyaan said suddenly, earning everyone's attention. "The empty alleyway might have been a safe place for us during the day, but there is no other dangerous place than this at night. Shady people will come lurking here soon."

"I understand where you are going with this," Neer said, eyeing Ahana, Sameera and Avan, who were at the most risk by staying in open at night, "but we can just ward them off by our powers."

Neer couldn't understand why Gyaan was worried. Their energies were more or less back and they all had powers. No one could even come near them, not when they were alert.

"No we can't," Gyaan answered, causing Sameera and Neer to furrow their eyebrows in confusion.

"We cannot use our powers from now on. Not before any public," Gyaan explained.

"Oh yeah!" Neer said in realization, "those people might let others know about our whereabouts later. Although, we can just leave the place after beating the shit out of them."

"No it's not about where we are. We can't let them know that we are still alive," Ahana said, confusing the other three even more.

"Didi, what do you mean?" Avan asked in a confused tone, while looking at others to see if they understood.

"Soon there will be the news of us being dead. The chapter of us being vicious villains will get closed," Gyaan informed, raising more questions instead of quenching their curiosity.

"That's where we went," Ahana spoke up, answering Neer's questions that she was stalling till now, "to plant the evidence of our death."

"Damn!"

Neer was shocked, proud, and guilty all at once. He stupidly doubted Gyaan's intentions with Ahana and also troubled Ahana because of it.

"Then...then my parents and Ayaan would also think I am dead," Avan whispered to himself.

"For now. But once everything calms down and everyone else forgets about our existence we will come back," Ahana said, kneeling in front of Avan to assure him as much as she could. However, I also told him the reality, "It might take some time though."

Avan wiped off the tears that had gathered in his eyes, before nodding in understanding. They had no choice but to go into hiding. Not only to save themselves, but also to save his parents who were being controlled by some bad person to say wrong things about elements.