"It's one of them" Ria muttered quickly, under her breath, without taking her eyes off the man in front of her. She wasn't going take the chance of being caught off-guard
Shiv looked around her, towards the man. He was a big man. The darkness in the courtyard and the light coming from the house accentuated his dark complexion. The man was wearing a white vest and white pajamas. He had gold chains around his neck. All in all, Shiv could guess why Ria was scared. The man did make a scary impression.
He walked around Ria, towards the man. Ria widened her eyes and pulled him back "What are you doing?"
Shiv sighed "Look calm down. Let me have a quick word with him"
"Have you lost your mind? We need to run away from here, not talk to him" Ria whispered urgently
"Stay here. I will handle this" Shiv told her calmly
"What do you mean handle this!" Ria exclaimed
"Ria! Butt out!" Shiv said firmly
Ria opened her mouth once, but then closed it. "Fine! See if I care if something happens to you"
"Thank you. That will be wonderful" Shiv said as he walked to the man
Ria stood rooted at the spot. A part of her wanted to rush off from there. Another part wanted to see if Shiv needed to be saved from himself.
Shiv spoke to the man for a few minutes. The man looked at her critically before going back to Shiv.
What the hell was Shiv talking about? What if he decided this wasn't worth it and handed her over to the goon? Why was the goon looking at her so weirdly? Could she really trust Shiv? He had helped her but could she really forget what he was like? Ria felt her head reel from the questions that were popping up.
"Come on" Shiv said, breaking her thoughts
"What?" Ria asked him, confused and apprehensive.
"We can use the night-watchman's room. The watchman is out today." Shiv told her plainly as he started to walk away
"And you agreed?" Ria asked following him cautiously
"He doesn't like us enough to give us his house and stay in that room himself, if that is what you are asking" Shiv said
"We are playing into their trap" Ria said walking besides him
"And what trap is that?" Shiv asked
"He is trying to be nice to us and once we go to the room, he will lock us in and then get the rest of his friends to attack us" Ria explained seriously
"Right" Shiv said rolling his eyes "And then I guess they will drug us like in those books and the movies and we will wake up to find them staring at us. Of course they would have tied us up before that, correct?" he asked shaking his head
"Fine! Joke about it. They will have the last laugh" Ria muttered
"Right, the evil laugh. How could I forget that?" Shiv commented
"You are going to regret it. He is one of them" Ria repeated again
Shiv could feel his headache coming back full force "Ria! Stop judging every book by its cover!" he snapped at her
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ria asked annoyed
God! She was infuriating! He couldn't do this. Not right now! There was a part of him that wondered if he could kill her, and save himself from reaching the point where he wanted to commit suicide; but he didn't want to be thrown in jail for her murder. Besides if he really wanted to die, there was an executioner, every ready to do the deed, back at home; why go to lady Dracula?
Shiv sighed "Nothing" he muttered before taking a deep breath to calm himself down. "Look, I will go and check out that room" he told her finally
"And what am I supposed to do" Ria asked concerned
Shiv looked around "Sit over there" he pointed to a heap of hay close to where the buffaloes were tied up "It is out in the open and no one will come to harm you with all these buffaloes around"
"Why? Are they going to sound an alarm to stop the attack?" Ria asked throwing her hands in the air
"Just go and sit out there. Or come with me as I check if that place is safe. It is one or the other. What do you want to do?" Shiv asked
Ria thought for a moment pondering back and forth between the two options
"That's it. You are sitting here. I am going out there. Scream if you need help" Shiv said looking at her indecisiveness and walked away.
Ria looked at him for a second before slowly walking towards the heap. As she sat down on it, she was on high alert, looking out for anyone coming her away.
Shiv was away for a while and Ria started to get worried. What if he was already captured? How would she know? While there were safety concerns on one side, she had become acutely aware of the pain in her feet by then. She had tried to avoid it, but it was becoming unbearable.
As she slowly pulled one of her feet out of the stilettoes, the cold air hit the shoe bites and her skin stung. Without meaning to, her eyes started to prick. She gasped in pain as she pulled the other foot out. Her eyes began to water.
Ria had barely had a chance to get her pain under control when she heard footsteps. She quickly wiped her tears and forced her feet back into the shoes. It felt ten times more painful than when the cold air had hit her wounds.
Ria turned around to find Shiv walk towards her
"It is safe. Let's go" he said seriously
Before she could stand up he picked her up in his arms.
"What are you doing?" Ria asked, surprised by his actions. He wasn't looking at her. His eyes were trained in the front
"Helping you"
"I can get there on my own" Ria protested
"Your feet must be killing you" he said, still not bothering to look at her
Ria was taken aback for a second. Why this concern? Had he seen her before she could cover things up? "Put me down" she said firmly, not wanting to show her weakness
Shiv sighed but put her down. Ria looked at him as she stood up.
"Go on then. Walk" Shiv said jutting his jaw and looking at her critically
Ria clenched her jaw and took a step forward. It hurt. It hurt like crazy. Then she took another one. She knew she was walking at snail pace and this was going to hurt more, but it was too late. She had committed herself to it. She couldn't back off now.
It was 10 minutes later and she had only taken a handful of steps towards her destination. She was about to take the next step when a pair of flip-flops landed at her feet. She looked up to find Shiv staring at her, jaw clenched.
Ria opened her mouth to speak, but he walked past her to the room before she could get a word out.
She wore the flip-flops and walked to the room, feeling lousy about the way she had behaved with Shiv.
When she got there, she saw Shiv standing outside the room looking around the area. She quietly walked into the room, unsure of what she could talk to him about.
The room was small. It had a small chair and a table at one end and a straw mat laid down on the floor. She had to admit, it was better than being in the jungle. The room at least had a light bulb and a door that seemed to have a working bolt. There was one small window at one end. All in all decent shelter for the night considering what they had been through. What she wasn't sure off, though, was whether the room would keep them safe enough from the bad guys.
Shiv walked in a few minutes later "I am going to get us some food. I have been told there is a small food stall about 10 minutes away"
Ria nodded "Shiv.." she tried to talk
"Lock the room if you are worried" he said, before she could finish, and walked out
So much for trying to apologize. Ria sighed.
She felt bad for her behavior towards Shiv right now, but that was no reason for her to be an idiot and take the chance of being attacked. She closed the door and bolted it. Safety first. She was on her own right now, for god only knew however long it would take Shiv to get back.
She sat down on the chair, resting her feet for a moment. This was one horrible day! She wished she could erase it from her memory.
Belatedly she realized that her family would be worried. She pulled out her phone. 100 missed calls in total between her mother, brother and her dad. She could see the signal was bad. She called them.
"Where are you?" her mom had picked the call on the first ring
"Sorry Mom. The network is pretty bad" she said softly. It was part truth. The network was bad here and had been non-existent in the jungle, she had checked.
"We called the police" her mom said in broken voice
"What?" Ria blurted. She should have expected this. Oh god! What mess! "Mom, I am okay. I promise"
"Why didn't you call back?" her mom asked, anger seeping into her voice
"I called as soon as I got some network" Ria explained
"Where are you? We called the hotel and they said you hadn't checked in" her mom questioned
"Mom, I ended up choosing a different one. The taxi driver recommended this. It is really good" Ria fibbed
"What is the name?" her mom asked firmly
"Mom! Mom are you there?" Ria called out, pretending to have connectivity issues "I cannot hear you. The network is really bad"
"Ria! I can hear you. Can you hear me?" her mom asked
"I cannot hear anything Mom. I will call you tomorrow. I am tired right now. Off to bed" Ria muttered and cut the phone.
Another reason to feel lousy. She had lied to her family. A big lie not just a small one. But if they knew the truth, they would be really worried. How could she put them through that? What could she even say to them? That she was stuck in the middle of nowhere. That she didn't even know the name of the place or how far it was from the nearest city or town?
Could this get any worse?
Belatedly she realized she shouldn't have asked that question, because just then someone tried to open the door.
She wasn't sure if it was Shiv. It had, after all, been barely 10 minutes since he had been gone. Whoever it was, started banging on the door in earnest after that failed attempt to open the door.
'Please let it be Shiv' she prayed as she walked tentatively towards the door.
Thanks so much for reading. I hope I am still keeping the story interesting for you.