Was he real or imaginary?

Chapter 11

Pragati opened her eyelids slowly and with squinted eyes held her aching head. Perhaps the hoodie man must have unconsioused her just like he did to Sahil. On opening her eyes completely, she still couldn't see anything. Still her vision was dark. After a little focus she discovered she was somewhere in a dark place. It might be the hoodie man's place where he had caged Pragati, or so whatever she wasn't sure of anything. She got up and dusted herself and discovered few things like two big tyres, a drill machine, few cans of Asian Paints and a Hero honda as well. 'May be it's his garage', she guessed and looked around in the small square garage. Pragati moved towards the shutter. Thankgod it was not locked. She opened it to find the morning sun shine at her and the chirping of the birds calling her. She came out and saw the whole area around the garage was abandoned. Few trees and bushes nearby and nothing else. Where had she come? The garage walls from outside were too dusty. She looked to her left and found a house attached with the garage and stepped on the threshold. The house looked very old and dirty. What did the hoodie man want her to see here? And definitely no one would live here in such a junglee place so the conclusion arrived that it was not that hoodie man's house but any of his relative may be, too old relative who must have been apparitioned till now. She saw a big lock on the door and was not at all in mood to dustify her hands. She stepped back and looked the house carefully. She had seen it somewhere! Or so she just thought, trying to be a little cinematic. Pragati's eyes fell on the name plate beside the door. 'Hemant Rao' she read on the name plate. The name she had heard before too but where she didn't remember well. She tried to recall it by repeating the name in her mind emphasizingly. But the thing had almost been deleted in her mind such that no results occured. She walked a bit away in that area which led to a road. It was an urban area only and in front there was a big water tank. She went close to it and read the letters written with distorted blue paint in hindi - Janaki Water Enterprise. She quickly mapped herself on google and found the area to be Malad East. She realized it was the same place which the hoodie man had messaged her to come. If she did not agree to come here, the hoodie man took her so far from her house. The fear that now occurred was how would she go home? If rickshaws were also found there, she did not have any money to pay them and where would she stay also for her house was no more her house. She checked her phone. The data coverage was poor there. She went away from the bushy area and the network slowly was arriving. Her fear relaxed on realising that the hoodie man still must be around her. He can't leave her here just like that. She opened her WhatsApp and messaged him: where are you? A reply came one minute later: Do you know where are 'you'?
This man was a salt of fury.

'Janaki Water Enterprise, Malad East. And I don't like this house. I won't be able to stay here.

Finding house for yourself is your job. Not mine.

What...but...you won't find a house for me? Then why did you bring me here? Where will I live?

You can find it on yourself, Pragati. I brought you to find something else not houses.

That's not an easy task. Where and how will I find? I don't have my suitcase also which had some money in it. Where will I go? You have to do something. Please!

I don't know. Take care.

Pragati was going to explode into tears. She never expected the hoodie man to be this rude. After the last night's incident of saving her from Sahil and not touching her in her unconsiousness, he had made an assurance of safety in her mind. But now he also abandoned her like Vishal did. Are all men same? Not only men but every person, they are same. She missed Vishal. She even missed the hoodie man too. Atleast Sahil, though a ruiner of her life, but she missed him. She missed all the people who could hold her in her emotional break down. Specially Vishal, who always sticked her to his chest whenever she cried or was upset. Pragati remembered on her mother's death, Vishal consoled her so compassionately and promised to her mother's pyre that he would always love her. Promises, something that builds a core of trust in the soul, are the only thing to shatter the heart. She went back into the bushy area. By her wonder, Pragati found a maroon suitcase beside the garage. She had not noticed this before. May be because she didn't look to the garage's right. Promises though may shatter the heart but never the soul for they still store a belief in the soul, no matter how many times the heart is broken. The hoodie man had brought her suitcase and now she hoped him to find a house for her as well. She thanked texting the hoodie man with a smile and moved ahead on the road to look for some place or inn to stay. Pragati looked at her stretched perspective of her shadow on the road. It looked fat. She had become fat in these days. But she had heard anxiety makes a person thin. This was a discomfiting paradox. Then she was jaw dropped on seeing her shadow divide slowly. Another shadow of a woman was there right beside her shadow. There were many pedestrians walking here and there and it could be a person standing behind her or coming. But the shadow was still, just like hers was. Who was this woman standing behind her? A woman or.......a man in hoodie? Her haste heart beats echoed in her throat and chest. He was standing just behind her. But what for now?