Hey guys, thank you for your votes and comments.
Continuing from the last part,
Monami sat down on the sofa. She decided to take a nap.
It doesn’t take long for her to stand up again. She is wearing a thin jacket and her hands and feet are getting cold.
'I might catch a flu.' She thought to herself.
She makes her way to the room where Karan is in. At the end of the corridor, she gets another surprise.
Light.
A narrow streak of light shines through the gap at the bottom of the door. There is emergency lighting equipment!
Monami stand there, stunned for a moment. She knocks on the door.
The door opens. Fluorescent tubes in the ceiling shines brightly. She finds it hard to adjust to the brightness after being in the darkness for so long.
Then she sees a man, blocking most of the light as he stand in front of the doorway.
Monami blinks. She is curious what else is inside the room. But Karan quickly stands in front of her to block her view.
“What’s up?’ says the man wearing a huge white surgical mask. All Monami can see is his eyes.
“Mujhe thand lag rahi hain.. isliye.., I need to borrow some clothes.” says Monami.
After a few moments of silence, he replies : "koi doosra mere clothes pehne.. mujhe pasand nahi.."
Monami is dumbfounded.
Then he steps back and closes the door.
Darkness surrounds her once again.
While he was closing the door, she noticed Karan was wearing surgical gloves. She also saw some round containers sitting on the shelves inside the room. She is not sure what’s in them, but they had something in them.
****
Monami goes back to the lounge. She sits down for a few minutes, and then she stands up once again. This time, heading toward the kitchen.
She lights up the gas stove top. Monami places her hands close to the yellowish green flame to warm herself up. She looks up and sees a cupboard. The bottle of wine she gifted to Karan is sitting on one of the shelves. Without hesitation, she opens the bottle and takes a few sips.
Now that she feels a little warmer, she realises that she is also quite hungry. She begins searching for food in the kitchen.
Empty. There’s nothing in the cabinets. Not even a piece of fruit or biscuit. She looks inside the freezer. Again, it’s empty. She turns to the fridge next. Bingo!
Fish. Lots of fish. Neatly stacked inside the refrigerator. She chooses the biggest one and puts it on the chopping board.
Using the light from her mobile phone, she makes herself a plate of poached fish fillet pieces. It is still pretty dark in the kitchen, but it’s enough for her to prepare the food.
Satisfied with what she has cooked, she places the plate on the dining table and heads back to the kitchen to clean up before she enjoys her meal.
After she is done, she returns to the dining room, only to find the table empty.
A tall white shadow stands on the other side of the table. A pair of hands is holding the plate of food.
“Thump” Karan puts the plate back on the table.
“Unpalatable!.. bakwas” He says in his deep voice.
“The fish is boiled for too long. And you added too much salt.”
Monami feels as if a bomb has exploded within her. She walks over to him, takes the plate and brings it back to the other side of the table. "Maine kaha tumse tum kha sakte ho.. nahi na toh taste- taster kyon ban rahe ho? "
Then she sits down, picks up the fork and knife, and eats in silence.
(Mujhe nahi maloom kise khate h fish😭.. isse jyada nahi research kia..)
Karan gives no reply. He just stands there, like a quiet tree. The wind is howling outside. But inside the house, it’s a sharp contrast. Everything seems so still and quiet. The flickering flames from the gas stove are the only movement.
Suddenly, he walks over to her. She keeps her head facing down towards the table and pretends he is not there. In the corner of her eyes, she sees him leaving a man’s jacket on the back of one of the dining chairs. His fingers are slender but plump, not skeletal as Koel has described.
Monami is a little stunned. But she chooses not to comment.
Then he turns around, and walks into the kitchen.
*****
He rolls up his sleeves. After washing his hands under the faucet, he stands before the chopping board and starts filleting more fish pieces.
He places the pieces of fish on the plate neatly, then one by one he puts them into the pot, and scoops them out quickly, like an experienced chef.
Soon he holds up another plate of poached fish, put it on the table pushes it in front of her.
"Poached Fish aisi hoti hai.."
Monami looks up at him.
All that work just to prove he can do a better job?
He is standing very close to her. Close enough for Monami to see his face. He is not wearing a mask anymore. But he is wearing a pair of chunky complicated looking glasses with bits of red beam showing on the sides. They are so big that most of his face is covered.
Night vision goggles?
His house has no hand held torches because he wears night vision goggles?
Even with the goggles on, Monami can tell that he has attractive facial features. A slender and straight nose, thin lips and a nice jaw line, Well proportioned and …smooth, not like ‘crumpled concave’ as Koel described.
Monami protests in silence and refuse to try his fish. She continues to finish what is on her plate.
Without saying another word, Karan heads back up the stairs and once again, his tall white shadow disappears in the darkness.
Monami is alone again.
She picks up the jacket. This looks familiar. Ah, it belongs to Faizi. It was hanging on a cloth rack on the day of their interview. Half way through their conversation, he stood up, walked over to the jacket to retrieve his mobile phone.
She suddenly remembers what Faizi said. Karan is an eccentric guy with no friends.
So, Karan is socially challenged and lack interpersonal communication skills.
That thought makes Monami feels a little better. Unable to contain her curiosity any longer, she picks up the fork and knife again. She chooses the smallest piece of fish fillet she can find from his plate and puts it in her mouth. Then she moves the remaining pieces of fish around the plate to make it look as if she has not touched the plate at all.
Sigh! She has to admit, it tastes much better than hers.
*****
Monami was awakened by loud banging sounds. She sits up from the sofa, and finds two windows moving with the strong wind. The banging sounds are caused by the windows hitting the frame.
The sky is still dark. The rain seems to have eased a little but the whistling sound of the wind is like a roaring beast.
- If the windows keep banging on the frames, the glass will shatter.
Immediately, she gets up and walks over. When she is in front of the window, she notices Karan is also making his way down toward her, obvious concerned after hearing the banging sounds. His face is still mostly dark. He is still wearing those night vision googles.
Monami is too busy to talk to him now. She manages to grab the handle of one of the windows and quickly secure it back to the locked position. As she reaches out for the second window, a gush of wind rips through. A streak of white lightning blinds her eyes. The window is coming towards her with great force.
Monami reflexively turns to escape, while lifting her hands to block her face. She feels a hand clenching her right wrist. She is pulled away from the window. Meanwhile behind her, there’s a loud ‘bang’, followed by a large area of broken glass shattered all over the floor ......
What a close call.
She turns around to face Karan. Because they are standing so close to each other, she can smell his scent, masculine and unfamiliar to her. His hand still holding her wrist.
"Thank you." She tries to loosen his grip. The next second, he bends down, lean her back into his arms and carries her.
Monami is shocked: "yeh.. yeh kya kar rahe ho tum?"
Karan looks at her: "Mujhe nahi lagta tum inn kanch k tudko se bach kar jaa paogi without night vision googles."
He walks toward the sofa.
With close proximity to his chest, his faint masculine scent is even more apparent. She feels safe in the arms of this tall and slender man.
Monami feels a little awkward. She’s never been in such close contact with a man before. But there is nothing she can do. She can only hold on to him for now.
"Thank you.” Monami said.
After putting her down on the sofa, he heads to the kitchen. Within a minute,he is back.
"I believe you have come to a conclusion.” He says.
- Huh? Oh, the fish. She thought she concealed the evidence very well. How does he know?
With a honest and calm expression, she said "I admit, tumhari fish jyada delicious thi, but can you not speak in such a condescending manner?”
Karan ignores her criticism. Softly, he says to her: "Good night" Monami is sure there’s a smile on his face when he said that. A smile of victory.
He disappears up the stairs again..
*****
The next morning,
Monami woke up. The storm has passed.
She took a breathe of the clear cold morning air. Everything that happened last night is like a dream.
She folded Faizi’s jacket and left it on the sofa, took out a broom, cleaned the broken glass in the living room and went home.
****
There’s not a lot of people on the street in this time of the day. Monami headed over to her step-father’s house but he had gone to work. She sent a text to her mom to say she is okay. A few security guards walk past her.
Monami overheard their conversation. They sound anxious and angry.
"Yeh pakka se wahi hoga.."
"Haan wahi ho sakta hain jo bachho ko agwa kar raha hain.."
“Hume kuch toh karna padega nahi toh aur bacche kidnap ho jae.. kuch karna hoga...."
......
- Abduction?
Monami remembers what Sid mentioned previously about the kidnapping cases. The security guards hop in a car and drive off.
Monami knows this is something to do with those cases. She feels it’s important to tell Sid about the security guards. She tries to call him but no one picks up the phone.
Maybe he is somewhere with poor phone signal reception. He did mention he is working in the countryside for a few days. She decides to try again later.
****
At home. She told Koel about the security guards. Koel told her that one of the sons of the guards has been missing for a day.
“unhone police ko bhi report kia h.." Koel said,
Monami nodded. She tried to call Sid again but she still can’t get through. Feeling very tired, she took a nap.
*****
Monami woke up around noon. Scattered clouds, bright sunshine. It’s a nice day outside.
Monami ate a late breakfast and got ready to leave the house.
"Are you heading back to the villa? Par abhi toh tu wahan se hi aayi thi.." Koel asked.
Monami replied: “Just a little work left to complete. I should finish everything today." She pauses and adds, "Pata hain kal maine Karan Shergill ko dekha tha.."
"Really? Uff kal toh itni barish..toofan aa raha tha..aise me usse milna.. kya hua bahut darawana toh nahi tha.." Asked Koel
Monami didn't know what to say. She gave a sigh. Soon, the work she is doing for Karan will come to an end. Karan and her will never meet again.
Life will return to normal. The holidays will be over. She will return to B city, where she will work as an intern for a company. She will find a boyfriend, get married and have kids.
But unknown to her now, her life is about to take a turn. This very afternoon, in the villa. Something unexpected will happen. Her life will change dramatically, leading her down a path that is so different from her current dreams and aspirations.
*****
Okay I know yeh bada boring sa part tha.. more like filler..
But agla part thoda interesting hoga..
Tab tak ke liye
Ta-ta
Your writer
Kriya