Chapter 24
Rehaan was back to their farmhouse in Omkareshwar and promptly locked himself up in his room for quite some time. He was indulged into deep thoughts for his sister and everyone around him. Spending almost a decade after being suppressed by the internal pain of losing his parents to death, he could not set his mind free from the disheartening situation.
It was pretty obvious for Aarohi to have followed him to his house, pounding on the panel of his bedroom door and requesting him to unlatch it. He didn't budge though and plainly refused to move out of it.
"Rihu, please open the door." Aarohi hammered against the wooden panel with her fist. "It's not time to lose patience. We need to rescue Pihu instead. Why don't you listen to me?"
"If I were in your place, I would have given you a comfortable space where you could've toiled on your own over the situation."
"That's not how things are going to work every time." Aarohi managed to answer in a squeaky voice. "Weren't you the one who left my house in an aggressive mood to rescue your sister? What happened to your baddass nature when everything took place? Why didn't you try helping uncle Vihaan or preventing Pihu from committing such a bold defensive action?"
"You haven't yet analysed my real nature, Miss Aarohi Agarwal Rana. Though I sound aggressive, have you ever seen me doing anything that's violent or hostile in behavior?" Rehaan raised his voice a little. "Damn! I was hating all of it— the violence, the fight, the quarrels, the heated conversations and my parents—"
He cut his sentence short when he heard the voices of the other family members from outside the door partition. Reclining on a chair next to his bed, he held his forehead with both his hands. "I'm having a very severe headache. I wouldn't like to speak to anybody until the morning. Convey my message to them, Aarohi."
"You are such a bull-headed guy!" She spat angrily. "It wouldn't be too incorrect to say that you are as stubborn as a mule—"
"Whom are you cursing in such a way, Aaru?" Arjun rushed to his daughter as soon as he heard her loud voice. "Is everything alright?"
"Rehaan, dad." Aarohi shook her head. "He has locked himself up and is refusing to move out of the room."
"Leave him as he is." Shaurya told them. Trailing behind him were Sanchi, Vihaan and the other family members. "It's very difficult for the boy to accept the truth, Arjun. As far as I'm aware of, Pihu has been the most important individual in his life who is very dear to him. Seeing his sister in distress is not something he will consider lightly. He needs some space and time, and he will definitely join us after he's cooled down."
"That's the advantage you've gained after having the opportunity to spend almost a decade with my children," Vihaan said sadly as he rested his palm against Shaurya's shoulder. "You've studied my children better than anyone, Shaurya."
"I will have to because I'm their only maternal uncle." He approved with a smile. "Let's sit and decide what we are supposed to do next."
"Shay, I'm very sca-red for Pihu." Sanchi implied painfully. "She is only twe-nty years old, Vih. She's not as matu-red and valiant as you were wh-en you had been to the cus-tody. How will she sur-vive till we get the bail?"
"I have a very strong intuition that my daughter will survive the hardships." Vihaan told her assuringly. "Let's find some best lawyers in the town tonight and get the bail as early as possible tomorrow. Shall we?"
*****
Prachi was ushered inside the dark cell corridor of the Omkareshwar police station. It wasn't the first time that she had been to such a chamber of dimly lit cells; her silent and secretive night expeditions to the outhouse of the Talwars had certainly helped her to some extent.
Extending her fettered palms at the officers accompanying her, she spoke in a voice audible to only them, "I mustn't have allo-wed male offi-cers to fetch me here. It's aga-inst the rules but you men per-sisted on it. I know this police sta-tion doesn't come under the pur-view of uncle Arjun's but it doesn't give you the lice-nse to handle me in any way you want. Stay at least th-ree feet away from me and stop touch-ing my arms or shoulders or what-ever!"
"If you think you can get away easily by inflicting Talwar sahib with bleeding wounds, you are mistaken, Miss Prachi Singh Bundela." One of the officers shot his deadly glare at her. "Like a dumb hen, keep your unruly mouth under check or else—"
"If I'm really not mis-taken, are you among tho-se many other minions who dwell in Mr. Bhairav's poc-kets and impart legal and crime related infor-mation to him?" Prachi was as steady as a rock in her loud voice. "I won-der how my fath-er missed to take care of you dur-ing the tenure of his ser-vice. I will gladly pass on the inform-ation to him as soon as I'm out of this idio-tic place."
"Surely you would if we allow you." The police officer laughed like an evil giant. "Talwar sahib's special instructions have arrived us even from the hospital, Miss."
"A police wo-lf in sheep Bhai-rav's clothing—" Prachi nodded her head in a definite banter. "But in my case, I'm afr-aid you wouldn't be succe-ssful like every other ti-me."
"Oh we can't?" He pretended to choke on his voice. "Are you threatening us? Do you know what we can do to you?"
"You can do any-thing but not kill me inside the cus-tody. So basi-cally I'm safe." Prachi's eyes were smoking of rage. "The most you can do is to try moul-ding me in the worst of the worst condi-tion inside the custody— like giv-ing me no food or water, keep-ing me in a cell devoid of electri-city and providing me with no bedd-ing or warm blankets in this free-zing weather. And guess what? I'm already prepa-red for it."
"You yourself gave us the best suggestions to control you." The police officer grabbed her elbow by force and plunged her into a very dark dungeon. "Stay inside for the rest of the night. We'll think of different things tomorrow, if ever you survive tonight."
"Cool!" Prachi mouthed at him angrily with a few curse words that stayed inside her mouth for some restricted reason before the jail guard locked her cell and marched away with the rest.
With a twist of her heels, Prachi squinted her eyes through the dark. It was pertinent for her to be able to take no glance of anything inside her cell and she decided to plop down on the floor without any complaint.
As her butt landed on the cold floor, a trail of dust flew into her nostrils and she sneezed. Skimming the surface with her palms, she could feel the bulk of dust that had accumulated in the cell she was pushed into; and the foul-smelling odour added more to the filthy charm of the closed walls.
"Ah! They thou-ght they could weaken me by keep-ing me locked in such a stink-ing cabin." She whispered to herself when a series of very feeble squeaks reached her ears, followed by gnawing and nibbling at her feet. "Now wh-at's that?"
Jumping to her feet, she sprang outright towards the steely iron bars and grabbed hold of the railings with some struggle. Lifting her legs by almost a foot from the floor, she tried her best not to lose her balance. A ray of very dim light was streaming along the length of the corridor before her, and she could see a brown rat scurrying past the railings of her cell and disappearing into the darkness of the far-end corridor.
"Rats? Serio-usly?" Her heart pounded suddenly and she moved her lips in a short prayer before landing her soles on the dusty floor. "Pihu, you need to calm down. These rats are just little creatures and they can't be worse than these men around you."
Stiffening her caged hands, she sat on the floor again. Keeping both her palms steady, she brought them closer to the left pocket of her trousers. She failed to find what she was looking for in both the pockets and closed her eyes in abeyance.
She pondered over for a couple of minutes. With one long sigh and a deep thought, she snapped her eyes open and pressed her knees together to her chest. While one of the rats jumped to her feet in a second, she whined in annoyance before running her fingers along the sides of her pants and reached the hem of her socks in no time.
"The-re you are!" She clamped her fingers around the metalled mouth organ and pulled it out of her socks in the left leg. Pinching the harmonica between her lips like a sandwich, and with a sleek movement of her fingers along her right leg, she drew out another small metal can. "I hadn't imagined that my plans would come handy with myself being a prisoner!"
She wandered back in time to the hour before she was kidnapped by the chamberlains of Bhairav. Her master plan of freeing her grandfather from the outhouse of the Talwars was all set by then and she was to only implement it if she hadn't been abducted. It was when she had bought a new mouth organ and the fast spreading anesthetic spray from the supermarket. She was supposed to return to the Talwar house again and rescue her grandfather, which couldn't occur unfortunately.
Filling her secret harmonica with the contents of the spraying can after little struggle with her tied palms, she tore a piece of her cotton shirt with her teeth which she was wearing under her jacket and jabbed the corners of the torn cloth material inside her earlobes to guard her nostrils with it.
"The-re you go, rats. . . and the men of cou-rse!" Saying so, she aligned the mouth organ between her lips properly and blew air into it. It didn't pop out any sound and she raised her eyebrows before standing upright, striding over to the iron bars and smiling to her heart's content.
With the little stinky creatures nibbling at her feet, she began blowing more wind into the musical instrument again and magically, the harmonica started playing its true melodious notes that emerged out from it like a trail of rhythmic smoke and got blended in the air surrounding her.
While the rats were quick enough to doze off to sleep under the effects of anesthesia, the officers-in-charge of the night duty took more time. One by one, they traced the musical notes and queued next to the iron bars as if they had been hypnotized. Unable to see the person playing such binaural beats that sounded pleasant to the ears, they fell unconscious within few minutes just in front of her cell.
Prachi paused her music this time only to stare at her preys— the ones who had tried manhandling her. Both the officers who had argued with her were also among the senseless ones and her heart leaped in joy. "You don't even kn-ow who I am— the daugh-ter of two coura-geous individuals who were capa-ble enough to face any sort of danger all throu-ghout their lives!"
The last man to follow the other officers was the jail guard who came rushing towards them with a scream. "What sort of noise— eh I mean music was that? Why the hell are you people lying down on the dirty floor? Yogesh Sir? Manav Sir? Patel? Lalwani?"
Surprised by their unresponsive behavior, he rotated his eyes around him and checked the surroundings. Prachi's dark cell was almost invisible and she decided to play her final masterstroke— mouthing into the harmonica for one last time, she began playing her most favorite note which caught the guard by stupefaction and he pressed his ear between the iron bars.
"The music seems to appear from this direction—" He took out the keys quickly and began unlocking the cell in a hurry. "What's wrong here? Why do I feel so dizzy?"
The guard's hands froze midway and he fell down unconscious in the next second with the keys still jingling in the keyhole. Taking this as the golden opportunity, Prachi bent forward and tried turning the key into the hole. Failing multiple times with her caged palms, she began sweating profusely until a very familiar hand turned the key and unlocked the cell for her.
Prachi lifted her face to recognize her saviour, who was holding a torch in his left hand. With a mighty force, he flung the gate of the cell open for her and pulled her outside of it. In the next moment what she did was to push him backwards before loosely clutching his wrist and fetching him towards the end of the corridor hurriedly.
"Ish-aan! What are you do-ing here?" She enquired with a quiver in her words. "Just cover yo-ur nose. You shouldn't brea-the the air of the cus-tody or else—"
"Or else what, Prachi?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong with the air?"
"It's intoxi-cated." She lowered her eyes and confessed in a feeble voice, "I've contami-nated the air and rend-ered them senseless."
"So you are all ready to escape!" He asked her in a serious tone. "And get into the headlines of the newspapers tomorrow?"
"Wh-at do you mean?"
"The public wouldn't find it easy if the headlines tomorrow send information about the escape of a prisoner by breaking the jail custody and intoxicating the officials. Your case wouldn't be seen in a good light and your release will become more difficult. If I'm not wrong, the media might also be forged by my father's men." He substantiated her. "Do you want something like that to happen with you?"
"I never thou-ght of it." She clasped her palms together. "What am I supp-osed to do now? I can't stay lock-ed up in a dingy cage the wh-ole day and night. It's better that I get my na-me ruined and—"
"Shhh. . ." He placed one finger against her lips before dragging her outside the police station. "Let's think what we can do about it until the intoxicated air dissipates."
It was almost dark and the moon was right up above their heads. Signalling Prachi to take a seat on the concrete frontier steps of the building, he also sat beside her.
For quite some time, nobody spoke a word until Ishaan broke the silence. "Are you thirsty or hungry? Do you want to drink some water or have food?"
Prachi was fearing to look into his eyes which were boring deep into hers. With a slight nod of her head, she answered, "Only so-me water."
Ishaan nodded and rushed towards his car parked in front of the building and fetched her a bottle of water. Plucking at the torn cloth covering her nose, he threw the cover on the soil underneath. Eventually, his eyes froze on her pale and disheveled face.
After visualizing her facial expressions roughly for a few seconds, he held the water bottle before her. "Here. Have a sip."
"I—" Prachi stammered before pinching her lips into a thin line. Her hands were fettered by handcuffs and she couldn't get hold of the bottle. And even if she did, she wouldn't be able to drink without a struggle. Ishaan quickly realized his folly and uncorked it for her. Pouring the clean liquid into her mouth, he helped her quench her thirst to her heart's content. "Tha-nk you."
He nodded again before staring at her bleeding wrists. "You have been hurt."
"Not mo-re than you." She whispered in a feathery voice. "These inju-ries are nothing compa-red to the ones you've been infli-cted with, by every indivi-dual closer to you— be it yo-ur father or—"
"Oh yes, injuries. . ." He muttered inaudibly before engulfing her hands carefully, avoiding the bleeding skin that circled around her wrists. "I'll get you unshackled of these very soon, Prachi. You are not supposed to suffer due to the ill-doings of my father."
"How are you go-ing to do th-at?"
"I have an idea. Come with me." They moved inside the building again and strode together to her dark cell. With a disgruntled expression, he said, "Let me put these men in their respective cabins first. You just wait here."
As Ishaan started performing what he had announced one by one, Prachi didn't fail to follow him to everyone's respective cabin including the jail guard's corner desk near the entrance. After Ishaan had finished with replacing them in their particular cabins, he turned towards her.
"Now do as I say without a question." Grabbing her elbow, he gently pushed her inside the dark cell and locked the iron bars. Rushing to the entrance, he dropped the keys into the pockets of the jail guard and returned to her. "Prachi— I. . ."
As he held up his torch to focus on her face, he could see her kneeling on the dusty floor and a stream of tears were flowing down her pale cheeks. "Shut up, you mon-ster! I thought I could trust you. I thou-ght you were here to res-cue me but— you also tur-ned out to be a bloo-dy moron like your father!"
"Listen to me, Prachi. I— Pihu?"
"Get the hell out of he-re and never sh-ow your blasted face to me aga-in. I hate you and des-pise you with all the bones and sin-ews in my body, is that clear?" She screamed at the top of her voice as fat moles of tears rolled down her cheeks. "I thou-ght you were the only sincere per-son in your house, never consi-dering that you were here to muster reve-nge from me— for attac-king your father and for tur-ning you down in the mid-dle of the street. After all, the same blood of Tal-wars runs thro-ugh your veins too!"
To be continued...
A/N: Ain't Prachi resembling the behavioral features of Vihaan and Rehaan resembling Sanchi?
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