Chapter-12

28 days ago

aakanksha4

@aakanksha4

“Aahh!” Arjun wriggled in pain, finally opening his eyes in the city hospital, ten long hours after the shootout at the cliff.

The ETF men, Commissioner of Mumbai Police and ACP Pratyush breathed in relief, after what felt like an eternity.

“Rathore!” Arjun spoke as Rathore rushed towards his weak form in two quick steps.

“Sikander?” he asked and Rathore looked up to meet his eyes. Cupping his face, he smiled while he spoke, “You killed him Raute. You killed him! You got Roshni the justice she deserved. Now, it is time for you to rest.” He said while adjusting his pillow. Arjun simply stared at his friend's face, perhaps because it exuded contentment similar to his own. It was finally here—the day he had been waiting for.

His chain of thoughts was broken on the arrival of the doctor, who ensured the cops that their friend was fine. So, he asked everybody to leave and let the patient rest.

"Did she...make it? Arjun queried the retreating doctor after everybody had left. “The one who was brought in here with me?”

He had stopped breathing as soon as he had asked. Fearing the response, he lacked the bravery to take a "NO" for an answer.

The doctor turned to him and nodded his head in negative, making his worst fears come true.

“We just…couldn’t save her!”

He kept a sympathizing hand on his shoulder and left, while tears began to well up in Arjun’s eyes.

Arjun fell on the bed; eyes fixed on the ceiling, while his tears flowing freely. The previous day’s events started to play in front of him.

***

Seeing Mrs. Wadekar there, especially at Rathore's gunpoint, had given Arjun the shock of his life.

“Rathore, ye kya kar rahe ho?”, he managed to speak in a tone barely audible.

“Khoon ka badla khoon Raute, jaan ke badle jaan!”, Rathore smirked.

“Paagal ho gye ho kya, Rathore?”, Arjun tried to put some sense in his friend’s head.

“Aai...”, Sikander murmured, closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, still holding Riya captive. Arjun was shocked, would be an understatement. He clung onto Shree and Chotu tightly at the revelation.

“His Aai?”, his questioning gaze met Shree’s and he nodded in response.

“They say the best place to hide, is in plain sight!”, the Commissioner walked towards Rathore.

“He wanted to keep his mother safe- safe from the enemy- safe from YOU. And being close to you was the safest place for her to be. She was his only weakness after all.”

The thought made Arjun queasy. He was staying with his enemy. His foe had managed to trap him at another front he wasn’t aware of- another failure.

Sikander hesitated for a moment, his eyes betraying a flicker of emotion. For a moment, he allowed himself to feel the comfort of his mother’s presence in front of him, he wanted to absorb the moment into his being.

“Aai,” he said, his voice barely audible, “I love you. You know that, don’t you?”

Mrs. Wadekar smiled; her eyes filled with a deep, abiding love. “Of course, my son. No matter what you’ve done, I will always love you.”

A tear slid down Sikander’s cheek, and he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. “That’s why I have to do this,” he murmured.

Before anybody could react, he shot three bullets right into his mother’s heart, leaving everyone stunned.

Her eyes widened, not in fear, but in a heart breaking sadness as she realized what has happened.

“Soham… you don’t have to…” she gasped, her voice trembling as her strength began to fade, and she thumped on the ground.

Sikander could not look at her. He saw her life slipping away, as he whispered, “I have to, Aai. I can’t let them use you against me. I can’t let them take you from me.”

The spectators couldn’t believe the turn of events.

Sikander stood still, his face a mask of stone, his heart shattered into pieces he would never be able to mend. He looked down at his mother’s still form, the one person who had loved him unconditionally, and he knew there was no turning back. Any chance of redemption had died with her.

Now, for the first time, everybody was really scared. When is a person the most dangerous, clearly when he has nothing to lose. They had never expected him to kill his own mother like that. The last bit of humanity, if it ever existed, within him, had died, and now, he was capable of doing anything. ANYTHING. And he didn’t disappoint.

Sikander threw his gun away and pulled out a knife.

“I killed her- so you don’t! I hurt her, so that you all can’t!”, he laughed like a maniac and Riya felt disgusted at his audacity.

“ACP Arjun! You should take lessons from me on ‘How to protect people you love’. Look, you are failing at it again!”, Sikander taunted Arjun.

“Sikander stop!” everyone shouted at the mad man standing in front of them, capable of doing any damn thing right now, “Stop, or I will shoot!”, Rathore warned him.

“Guns down everybody!”, Sikander shouted, “or else, you know what happens next! ACP, tell them, you’ve seen it happen before!”

“Nooo!”, Arjun panicked realizing what he meant.

“Put your guns down everyone!”, Arjun shouted, almost pleading.

“You won’t get away with it this time, Soham Wadekar! Your game is up!”, Riya barked at him.

Sikander smiled hearing his real name from Riya’s mouth. He dug his nails into her wound making her wince in pain.

He snuggled into her more, and she felt disgusted under his touch. “You are quite something!” he spoke in her ear, sending chills down her body.

“Stop it!” Arjun held his gun right at Sikander, and moved towards them both.

The other men provided him the cover and moved behind him.

Seeing his death approaching, Sikander took the knife and slid it right into Riya’s stomach, and took it out. Riya fell to the ground, and Sikander threw the knife away, raising his arms in the air, he felt victorious.

“Riyaaaaa!!!”, Arjun shouted and emptied all the bullets of his gun into Sikander, and he crashed to the ground too.

Arjun ran towards them, life almost sucked out of his body. He got down on his knees, next to Riya.

Riya managed to pick up the knife and turned towards Arjun.

“Time to finish what he started, ACP!”, she exclaimed.

Arjun looked at her face in anticipation as she tried moving towards him.

Arjun’s heart was beating loudly, his body shivering at the sight of her. But her face was still full of determination, and the very next moment, she handed him the knife.

“Do what you’ve always wanted to! Take that damn revenge of yours and finish him, for once and for all.”

Arjun got to his feet, tears flowing freely, he looked at dying Sikander’s face, whose eyes were fixed to his mother’s corpse. He lifted his eyes to meet Arjun’s and the smirk returned, as he spared a glance towards Riya, who was surrounded by the ETF men.

“Main haar ke bhi nahi haara, Arjun….Aur tum…jeet ke bhi nahin jeet paaye!”, he smirked.

Arjun took the knife and stabbed him, one last time, the way he did to Roshni and Riya, and Sikander was gone, forever.

“Aaaaaaahhhhhh!”, Arjun let out a roar full of anger, pain, guilt and satisfaction.

He spared a final glance towards Riya, who was in Pratyush’s arms, her face pale and lifeless. Darkness descended upon him the very next instant.

***

His breath was uneven. He clutched the bed covers underneath him tightly and closed his eyes shut, to suppress his overflowing emotions.

"It’s done, my love. They paid for what they did to you. But... it doesn't feel like victory."

"Arjun, you’ve done enough.", he heard Roshni’s sweet voice.

“I never wanted you to lose yourself for my sake.”, she caressed her hair lovingly.

"I had to. I had to make it right... for you, for us. It was the only thing keeping me going. Without you, I’ve been so lost.", he complained like a small kid, getting up.

"I know. I saw your pain, your anger. But you’ve carried that burden long enough. You need to let it go now, for me… for you. I want you to live again." she tried to make him understand.

"How can I? Everything feels meaningless without you. And now that I am responsible for taking another life, I feel like a criminal. I’ve blood on my hands, Roshni. She died because of me. How can I live with it?”

Roshni smiled at him.

"Life isn’t over for you, my love. There’s still light out there, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now.”

Arjun interrupted her, "I don’t know if I can. It hurts so much."

"I know it hurts. And it will, for a while. But I don’t want you to spend your life in this pain. Remember our love, not as a weight but as a gift. Carry it with you, but don’t let it hold you down. Promise me you’ll try. Find a reason to smile again, even if it's small at first."

"I’ll try... I promise.” Arjun nodded slowly. “I just wish I could...” his voice trembled

"I’m always with you, my love. In every sunrise, in every gentle breeze... whenever your heart is light again, I’ll be there. Let yourself be happy, for me. That’s all I ever wanted for you."

"I love you, always, Roshni."

"And I love you, forever. Now live, my love. Live."

Arjun opened his eyes, the pain still there but softened. But he still had guilt to live on with.

“I am sorry Roshni, but I can’t really move on unless I pay for my sins.”

With all the left over strength, he gathered himself and got out of the bed, drawing support from the bed itself. Limping, he reached the door and pulled it open, only to find his team mates and Commissioner Sir sitting on the benches outside.

“Arjun!!”, Dustin was the first one to notice him, “Are you ok?”, his voice full of concern. Soon, Rathore and Shree rushed to support him.

“What is wrong with you, Raute? Why are you out of your bed? Is something wrong?”, Rathore questioned him.

Arjun’s eyes, however, kept staring at Dustin Sir. And he exactly knew why and what was going to come.

“I want to know the truth!”, he spoke, determined.

“Arjun Sir…you...”,Shree tried to remind him of his vulnerable condition.

“No! The truth! Right now!”, he demanded, not budging.

“Fine! Get in your room!” Dustin asserted, never breaking the eye contact.

***

“Just after Sikander killed Roshni, he fled from the country. We tried hard to locate him, but no results. We tried to run a background check on him, but that too went in vain. We couldn’t find his roots and that was the strangest thing.

A year of no success. You were going insane.

And then one day, in a court hearing, I crossed paths with Pathan Lala. And guess what, even after being behind the bars for so long, he still knew about each of your whereabouts. Even the cases you guys were dealing with, in ETF. Our raids were being unfruitful, we were unable to intercept any drug consignment crossing the borders, something was definitely off.

It wasn’t that difficult to guess that there was a mole, quite close to you. So, I set up a surveillance, on Sameer, Shree and Chotu. I am sorry guys!”, Dustin raised his hands, apologising for not trusting them enough.

Rathore, Shree and Chotu looked at him in surprise, while Arjun was just disappointed.

“I had to! Six months, and you all came out clean. So, that theory had to be rubbished too.

In the meanwhile, Pratyush had made a place for himself in a local drug dealer’s gang, that worked for Pathan. He was winning their trust slowly, becoming their loyal.

Then, we brought Riya on board. ACP Riya Mukherjee. She was quite something. Her strong background in research and crime analysis, she was the perfect addition to our team.”

Arjun was shocked at the revelation. “She was a cop!”, he thought to himself.

“Although, she wasn’t to be directly involved on the field, but destiny had other plans. One day, when she was following you, an informer of Pathan clicked a picture of both of you together, believing that she was related to you.

The picture soon reached Pratyush too. We had two choices then- eliminate Riya from the plan for her safety or let her be, what they thought her to be, to reach Sikander. We chose the latter.”

Arjun was baffled. His ego clearly getting the better of him.

“You thought I was not capable enough, to defeat Sikander on my own, so you had to bring in other people, to help me. You thought I won’t be able to get revenge on him on my own, so you brought in a girl. You thought of me as too weak or you considered Sikander too strong an opponent, huh?” Arjun spoke rudely, unable to believe that his superior thought of him as being incompetent.

“Neither! I always believed in you, you are one of my best officers, and there are no second thoughts about it!”, Arjun shook his head, not believing any of his words.

“Par is Mahabharat mein, Arjun khud Chakravyuh ke beech mein tha!”, he continued.

“Pratyush somehow managed to get the responsibility of following Arjun and finding about the mystery girl in Arjun’s life. It wasn’t too hard as he and Riya coordinated, and she was there, where Arjun was, without being noticed. Several snaps and Pathan was convinced, but Shamsher wasn’t. So, Pathan sent Pratyush to meet Shamsher. Shamsher too, was just a name, nobody had seen or met. He only used to deal with Pathan and Sikander- the liaison between the two .

And guess who Shamsher was, your most loyal informer- Kumaar.

Soon, things began to fall in place as to why we were never able to catch hold of Shamsher or any drug dealing by their gang, simply because who gave us the intel- the man himself. He gave you the information, but only after clearing all the evidences from that place. He wanted you to raid those hideouts of his, so that you people do not lose your trust over Kumaar. The locations were always right, but the timings were not!

Soon, we had another lead to follow but the stakes were really high this time. It was really difficult to convince Shamsher about Riya, because in reality, he knew more about Arjun and ETF. So, we had to bring Riya out in the open.

We sent Riya to stay with you at the Ravi lodge.”

Arjun let out an audible sigh, while others just heard patiently.

“Shamsher called Pratyush the same evening to meet him and inform him that the same girl- Riya, had moved in with Arjun. He sent a picture of her to Sikander from his computer- the one you found next morning while you raided the same hideout. Shamsher then cleared the place because he wanted you guys to believe another intel given to you about a drug dealing hideout by him- as Kumaar. Now that, we knew Sikander was informed, Shamsher was of no use to us. So, we eliminated him from the scene. We didn’t kill him, but we needed to hide him, so we hid him in Riya’s room at your lodge- under the effect of sedatives. I know that was really stupid of Riya, but that girl, doesn’t think like normal people do! I also had to arrange for a constable right in the house in front of your lodge, to stop you or anyone else from entering her room.”

Arjun’s eyes shot open at that as he remembered the same joke about ‘laash’ Riya made that day, while taking the huge sack up to her room. And also, how she always came to know when he was right in front of her door.

“And thereafter, Pratyush became Shamsher. He began contacting Pathan as him, and soon Sikander contacted him too.”

Arjun was brought back to reality.

“Very soon, Sikander was lured into our trap, but he wanted to confirm all of that himself too. So, he brought out Pathan on bail, and they planned the college fiasco, to check if you really loved her. But to our dismay, you still didn’t have trust in Riya. So, I had to step in and make sure that ETF takes over the case and you go to save her, right as per our plan. You went there, but that was not sufficient enough. So, we had to trigger you up into believing that whatever was happening was because of you! Riya and Pratyush plan the façade. Riya was badly hurt, but we got what we wanted.”

Dustin placed his hand on Arjun’s shoulder, apologetically, but Arjun just turned his face away.

“That day, when we were here in the same hospital for Riya, and you cried in front of me remembering Roshni and your guilt that the same could happen to Riya, I felt sorry, for doing it to you, for hurting you again, but I had no choice. We were already into this mess, and there was no turning back.

I convinced you all to play along with what Sikander felt and you agreed. Everything was going as per our plan, when Riya found something, we had never noticed. Mrs. Wadekar, the sweet old lady, you were staying with. Riya found out that it was Kumaar who had brought you to stay with Mrs. Wadekar, he was the broker for the rent agreement.”

Arjun tried to remember and yes, indeed. Kumaar had found out that house for him to stay.

“Riya also found out some old pictures of Mrs. Wadekar with her young son- Soham Wadekar, his old report cards and identity cards. Little research and we knew that the boy had grown up- grown up to be Sikander- the drug lord.

Unravelling the rest wasn’t that hard! Mrs. Wadekar had been looking after Arjun way too well it seemed. She had as easy access to his life as she often fed him some sedatives through the food she cooked for him. She tried to do the same with Riya too. Remember, Riya made brownies with the antidote.”

Arjun felt cheated as the missing pieces of this puzzle started to fall in place.

“Now, we had to convince Mrs. Wadekar too, that Arjun loved Riya. So, Riya was forced to do things such as harming herself, in order to earn a reaction from Arjun and his care, evident through his actions made her believe that Arjun indeed loved Riya.”

Arjun felt exposed. It was like the world was convinced that he loved her, his actions, screamed that he loved her.

“With Mrs. Wadekar’s nod, Sikander came to India and kidnapped Riya. Arjun, however, grew suspicious of her, putting our plan at risk, but once Pratyush let Riya make that phone call to Arjun, he eventually reached the place Sikander wanted Arjun to be in.

We took Mrs. Wadekar in our custody. I kidnapped the three of your team mates, so that everything goes as per the plan and you end up where you were supposed to be.

All in all, Arjun believed that Riya worked for Sikander. Sikander on the other hand believed that Riya was the girl in Arjun’s life. One thing led to another and all of this was sufficient to lead Sikander to where he belonged, HELL!”, Dustin spoke.

“Not how you wanted it, but Raute, isn’t it all that you wanted?”, Rathore looked straight into Arjun’s moist eyes.

“How much I wanted Pratyush to kill Sikander, the day he met him alone, but Riya insisted that it should be you who should end the devil and get the closure you were looking for, the revenge you lived for, the justice Roshni deserved and the punishment that criminal deserved! You might not feel like the hero of this story Arjun, but trust me when I say it, that it was for you that everyone did, what they did!”, Dutin made him understand.

“I always said, you had become a victim of your emotions, and it was true. You were down with guilt and remorse. Why wouldn’t you, you had lost the love of your life. And people around you were taking advantage of the same. Sometimes, when you are stuck amidst the problem, having an outside perspective can make all the difference. Fresh eyes can spot solutions or possibilities we might overlook when we're too close to the situation.

I never doubted your capabilities, not for once. It was you, who made all of this possible. It was you who once arrested the drug lord Sikander and unfortunately, he killed Roshni- that was the beginning of his downfall, and it was you, who ultimately brought him to his death. But you couldn’t have done all of it alone. So, I let Riya and Pratyush help you.

It is like a circle of life. You have helped numerous people by getting them the justice they deserved, someone did that for you. Kindness comes back, you know!” Saying so he smiled and Arjun instantly wrapped his arms around him in a hug.

“Thank you, Sir!”, he could only manage to say.

“You are a son to me, so you don’t need to thank me!”, he ruffled his hair.

Arjun looked at Pratyush, and he instantly passed him a warm smile. Arjun opened his arms and Pratyush too, hugged the brave man, who had been an inspiration to him. “Thankyou!”, Arjun murmured.

He smiled in response.

Soon Shree and Chotu, too jumped upon the bed-ridden Arjun and hugged him, making him smile.

“Do I need to send you an invite?”, Arjun grunted at Rathore as he hadn’t joined them yet.

Rathore hugged the trio and felt contended. Arjun was finally at peace with his past. The truth was out in the open.

The doctor found the men in a group hug, when he entered the room. He rolled his eyes at the sight in front of him. So, he shooed them out of the room to let Arjun rest.

Once more, Arjun found himself alone in bed with his thoughts, which kept returning to the girl who had stormed into his life, messed everything up, and then blew all of his worries away before leaving quietly when everything was finished.

“Riya!”, he whispered as her smiling face refused to leave him.

***

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