"Why is he disconnecting my phone Aiyappa?" Nandini thought aloud. This was the third time she had called him and each time he had rejected her call.
Just then a message popped up on her screen 'In a mtng. Cl u soon. Y was ur cell switchd off for so long? I was worried'
He had to have a meeting now, of all times? It seemed that even Aiyappa was not in her favour. Uff what would she do now, how would she just calm her nerves. May be she should just write everything down. This would kill time and also help her structure her thoughts.
She was deeply engrossed in writing when he finally rang her up. "Missing me already??"
"Manik I need to meet you" she got down to the point, right away, not enquiring about him or his drive as she usually did.
"You are missing me so much?? You should have told me earlier no.. then I would have stayed back. See I came to Pune and now I am stuck in this stupid meeting." Manik was being his usual flirtatious self, but Nandini was cursing herself. Yes, she most definitely should have. Why the hell did she not stop him.
"Manik I seriously need to meet you. Should I come over to Pune?" What could possibly be so urgent, Manik wondered. Why was she behaving like a child. He was with her merely 6 hours ago. She didn't tell him anything then and now that he was in Pune and that too held up in a critical meeting, she wanted to come over. This didn't feel right.
"Nandini, something is wrong, right? Tell me kya hua, tell me right now."
"Can't tell you over phone. I am coming over to Pune."
"No, no don't do anything like that. I am held up in a meeting with a few foreign clients. Abhi dad nahi hai to I have to be here. Gimme an hour or so, I will wrap it as fast as I can and I will drive back to Panchgani, ok?"
"Matlab tumko aate aate shaam ho jayegi" Her voice clearly expressed her dejection.
"Utna time to lag hi jayega na Nandini, it's a 4 hour drive from here. But don't worry, I will be there. Ok?" he was trying to calm her but he himself was apprehensive about what Nandini was going to share. From the look of it, something was wrong. Could it be Neel?"
AS he was about to disconnect the line, he heard Nandini's panic-stricken voice again "Manik!!! Drive safe...n... I love you.. I love you very very much."
"I love you too Nandini"
"Manik...will you always love me? Chahe kuch bhi ho jaye?" She desperately wanted a reassurance. She wanted him to promise her that he would continue to love her, even after what was to come next.
"Why do you ask that Nandini, You know I will." He needed to assure himself more than he needed to assure her. Who had seen eternity, who knew what the future held for them, yet they wanted to make promises standing where we were. He had seen so many dark shades of life that he knew shit happened, still he hoped, no storm, no past, no circumstance, nothing would tear them apart.
"I don't know why I ask. All I want is for you to tell me that come what may, you will never leave my side. I understand things will not always be right, sometimes I will screw up badly, but if you are there besides me, it will be worth getting up & pulling through. There's so much going on in my head now, but I just want you to know that you are both my jar of sunshine and my starry night and without you, I will perhaps be alive but I doubt if I will ever truly live" She blurted out in one breath.
"You do have a way with words, Nandini" No one could have said it better than her. She had said it for both of them. "I will message you before I leave"
"You didn't answer me Manik"
"I will always love you, till I am alive..and perhaps even after that." Nandini closed her eyes..and a tiny drop of tear fell on her cheeks. Those were his last words to her.
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No No No this wasn't happening. This girl was on her way to spoil his entire game plan and he could not let this happen. Time to redraw his strategy. Should he just bump her off after having some FUN? He so so wanted to do that, his hands were literally itching but being the seasoned player that he was, Neel knew he couldn't as much as touch Nandini. She was like a live ticking bomb and if he blasted her, he would die as well. Nandini had already confided in Navya, even Manik knew something was wrong and if she were to suddenly disappear or die, it won't take long for both of them to figure out that it was his handicraft.
What if he targeted Manik instead. If Manik died, no one would guess it could be his doing and no one would suffer more than Nandini. She would forever hold herself responsible for this ACCIDENT. Yes, this seemed to be the right option.
Killing Manik was never actually on Neel's TO-DO list. Infact a month ago, he didn't even know who Manik was. That's one of the most dangerous traits of evilness, it sucks you inside like a black hole. You start with one offence and that one offence leads you to something bigger and NASTIER till it becomes a vicious circle. By the time you realize that you have become the biggest victim of your own deeds, its way too late. If someone ever found out that he had killed Manik, he would lose everything he had achieved in life so far. It would have been much easier for him to just leave Manik and Nandini and walk out of their lives. But as I said, evil ness is like a black hole. It sucks all sense out of a man.
Well, he had time till evening. Time to find someone who would nudge Manik's car just a tiny bit off the winding roads of Panchgani and the rest, the deep valleys of Panchgani would take care of. The world would know, he skidded off the road and fell into the ditch and poor Nandini would always believe that her words led him to cross the speed limit and eventually meet death.
He already had the car's number and make, which he had noted down the previous night when he was spying on them. Also there was only one road that came from Pune to Panchgani. So his men could wait at one of the secluded check points and follow him when he crossed it.
This shouldn't be hard.
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Manik had been very anxious throughout the latter half of the meeting. He just could not put his mind to the discussions and even though it was a matter of only a couple of hours, it felt like forever to him. Finally at around 3 pm, he was done and as soon as he could, he walked out of his office, and went straight to his car.
As promised he messaged her before starting because he knew she would be waiting with bated breath. Little did he know that she wasn't the sole recipient of the message and someone else was waiting for it even more eagerly.
In a little more than 2 hours, Manik entered the hilly zone. From here onwards, the roads would be all narrow, winding and uphill with the deep valley on one side and the rocky terrain on the other. With the intermittent rain coming unannounced anytime, one had to be more careful. Manik was lost in his or rather Nandini's thoughts. Even then, he did notice a truck in his rear mirror. He had driven so many times on these treacherous roads in the past couple of weeks that by now he knew them at the back of his hand. He was also careful, because couple of times, once while driving and the other time while walking out of the jungle he had almost had two lethal accidents. That's why this truck which was constantly following him for over 5 minutes now, bothered him. He did signal the driver to move ahead but surprisingly he didn't either time.
So much was going on in his mind. First a sleepless night with Nandini, then the early morning drive to Pune, the exhausting meeting, Nandini's worrisome demand, driving back to Panchgani and now this nagging truck behind his car. He was too tired to think, too tired to function yet he couldn't just lie calm.
By now he was sure, the truck was definitely following him. In a few more minutes he would be at the steepest part of the road and if the driver had any nasty plan, he would definitely execute it there. Manik had to be careful. He knew that a little bit ahead, there was a cross road, one uphill road leading to Panchgani, the other towards a jungle. He took the later one. He gestured the truck one last time to move ahead but it didn't. This time Manik pressed the accelerator and just as he had expected, the truck too increased its pace. He knew he was in a huge mess. Either the truck would hit him or he would hit something. Eitherways, it could be fatal. Manik quickly calculated the risks in his mind. And before the truck could hit him, he took a hairpin curve towards the jungle, moving away from the trajectory of the truck.
They say that when you are about to die, seconds stretch into minutes and your entire life plays before you like a slow motion movie.
' Crying young boy - Three boys - one holding a guitar - stars - a group of five hugging each other - friends - fun - tears - music - college - concerts - HER - fireflies - he throwing egg at her - she punching - THEY singing together - Their love and break up - she looking over her in the hospital - he wooing her - their coming close - She trapped in fire - THEIR confession in rain - the kisses - He hugging her under the shower - Her confession under the stars - The group breaking up - The final concert - Making love to her - getting into the car to pick her ...........failed brakes...smoke...CABIRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!' Manik screamed.. A blood curdling cry..followed by a deafening thud.
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Author Note: Which update do you next? KYY season 3 or Silence Speaks??