SURVIVE

4. The End

Niraj sat in his room. This was the place where he'd spent so much time with Sahara. Sahara. Sweet and innocent Sahara. She was his and he was hers. No matter what had happened between them he still loved her more than his life. She'd have to be rescued.

He got up from his bed and paced back and forth. He had spent unnecessary time back in the U.S. He could have come back to Nepal and could have saved Sahara. But better late than never and he was glad that she still loved him. They both did.

He gulped down the glass of water on the table. Why did he feel something slipping out of his hands? Why did something feel so wrong?

A knock on the door. He couldn't place it. Who would be visiting him at this time of the night? He quickly put on a decent shirt and a pant.

Grabbing his phone, he headed for the door. According to the notice outside his gate, the home had no occupant as of now. So who would venture all the way in to knock on his door? Maybe it was Sahara. Maybe something had happened and she had run away from her house. Yes. It had to be her. No one else could come in this way. With that thought he ran upto the door and quickly unlatched it. He didn't even wait to think or look through the peephole. He swung the door open. Nobody. Was he dreaming?

He took one step out onto the porch.

Bang.

The smell of gunpowder. Only sometime later he felt the excruciating pain and the hot liquid of his blood flowing on his hand from where he held his guts.

Then all went black.

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Sahara lay on the floor of her room for hours, weeping. It was almost midnight and all the doors had been locked from outside. She had not had anything to eat.

Engines hummed outside as Bijay's car came to a halt. He would come in now. Probably beat Sahara up again.

Footsteps on the porch. The rumbling of keys. Sahara quickly pretended to be asleep on her bed. She pulled up her blanket just as the front doors were opened.

Bijay was obviously drunk. She had no doubt about that. She had no idea what he would do next. She felt him stumble into the room and crash onto the bed.

Silence. Relief flooded through Sahara. She then closed her eyes gently.

Before long, a shrill scream was heard through the house. Sahara's head throbbed with pain. She was being dragged by her hair onto the floor. Bijay tore into her clothes and mercilessly started to take her on. She, for the first time fought for freedom but maybe it was the lack of practise that made her weak.

All she could do was scream out. Her body was pinned with the weight of her husband. She couldn't even budge.

Then when he was done, he grabbed Sahara by the hair and dragged her out of the room. He had his leather belt, again. And she waited for each blow, each strike. She was driven numb with pain. Nothing was more painful.

Where is Niraj? Hope he is fine.

"You slut. You whore. You cheat. You marry me and run away with that guy? That guy who doesn't even have money?"

Atleast he has a heart.

She couldn't speak out loud. Her ears were ringing with the slap of the leather on her skin. Her head throbbed and somewhere she could feel the coppery taste of blood.

He dragged her by her hair. She forgot to scream. The pain was so numbing that she didn't feel the pain anymore. She was being taken somewhere.

"Do you want me to dip you in cold water? So that some sense gets into that small brain of yours? Huh?"