Achilles' Heels: An IPKKND FanFiction

Chapter Six: The Phantom of Iago

He still wished he had the means to wipe that filthy smirk off his face.

Then run, Arnav, run!

He twitched as Shyam's words refused to leave him alone for the last eighteen months as they banged and echoed in the chambers of his brain, never-fading down - never dying out. He tried to tune them out, but he was always unsuccessful at that - and he didn't hope for anything better that night.

"Let's go home, Khushi," he muttered, trusting his words to carry themselves to her because he wasn't sure if he had put enough weight in them to sail to their destination, "This is not the right place to talk."

"Khushi?" he called at her when she didn't answer for a minute. Maybe his words were loud enough to reach her. He thought back to another thing he needed to apologize for before they got anywhere with the current discussion they were about to build on to.

"Khushi, I'm sorry for what happened earlier -"

"Yeah, I know", she snapped, "You are sorry for everything. I don't see why you shouldn't be anyway."

"So, you are coming with me?", he asked his eye-brow flying up to his forehead.

"No", she retorted as she turned her face away - her eyes stony as she gazed at the seascape.

"I thought so," his reply was prompt, "Perhaps your apartment then. We need to talk," he shrugged as he spoke to her back, "I've been quiet too long. It's unhealthy."

"Talk? Isn't my innocence coming in the way now? And anyway, you will be the one to decide everything, is it like that?" she said, her words escaping into the cold of the night. Silently flowing sea-breeze jumped on her words hungrily, stealing them. "Arnav?", she added as she turned back to face him, only to find him staring back at her.

"Yes," his voice was laced with unpremeditated simplicity as if he had stated the obvious, "It is like that," he repeated.

***

Lavanya Kashyap paced across her room, her hands folded across her chest. She threw her phone on the bed after a couple of rounds around the room and watched it spring up on the plump material of the mattress after the impact. She sighed. She was tired of waiting for her phone. It had been more than a day and there had been no contact of any sort from Khushi.

She cursed her under her breath as she poured herself another drink from the wine bottle placed on her side-table. She had spent hours contemplating where Khushi might have gone this time, but she had come up empty-handed. She was down two drinks when she heard a knock from the door.

She drained the remains of her third glass in a gulp before she replied to the knock, "Come in."

Lavanya sighed when she saw Anjali saunter in the room.

"Lavanya ji, Nani is calling everyone down for the evening tea", Anjali told her, "I made some pakoras for you. It's raining outside," excitement dripped from her voice.

Lavanya kept her glass in front of the mirror, "Yes Di. I'll have some pakoras. Thanks", she said, as she turned to look at her.

Anjali smiled. "Did Khushi ji call?" she asked; her eye-brows pulled together.

Lavanya shook her head in denial, "No. I have been waiting for her call myself. She should have called by now."

"She spoke to Akash though", Anjali informed as she picked up the wine-glass from the table and sniffed, "Wine?"

Lavanya nodded as she idly folded some clothes that were lying on the bed.

"What happened?" Anjali asked, "Tensed? Is it work?"