Hello everyone!
I really enjoyed reading your reactions to the last chapter and thank you for the appreciation. As I'd mentioned, I haven't written thriller sequences much before so I really appreciate the encouragement. Coming to this chapter.. I've had to think a lot to write this one. I had way too many ideas about how I wanted this to go and I'll be very honest, I am not too happy the way this has turned out. To be honest, my personal favorite version I had written out was the one where the story takes an unexpected leap of a year and I keep you guys hanging to know what happened to Raman. But then I had a feeling that was going to be way too much and I ended up with this version instead. I normally like to keep my stories as realistic as possible but I've added a twist in this one that I am hoping you'll like.
Anyways, do let me know what you think of the chapter! And please buddy Neet006 for PMs!
Cheers,
Neet
Chapter 15
She sat down next to him and raised his head to place it on her lap. "Raman! Raman!" she screamed cupping his face with her hands. Raman opened his eyes slowly and Ishita hugged him. "Thank God! Thank God you are alright!" she said as she cried hugging him. "Remind me to never make you angry again. God knows when you'll whip out a gun and start shooting at me!" Raman teased her. Ishita hit him playfully as she wiped her tears. Raman got up and they turned to look at the killer. He was lying motionless. Raman went near him and placed his hand against his nose. "He is still alive," he said, "We have to get out of here before he regains consciousness. If only we could find the transmitter, we could've signaled for help."
Just then they heard noises from the forest behind them, like footsteps approaching. Could it be the killer's men? Or maybe a herd of some wild animal? Raman decided it would be safer to take cover. They headed toward the forest in the opposite direction and hid there. A few minutes later, they saw a group of people reach the waterfall. Raman squinted to try to see who they were. In the faint moonlight and the lights of the flashlights the men were carrying, he finally made out that they were the police. He tugged at Ishita's hand and ran towards them. Mr. Singh spotted them and met them halfway. "Raman! Ishita! Are you both alright?" he asked worried. "Ishita.. She has been shot," Raman replied and before he had finished saying it, Ishita slumped on the ground next to him. "Ishita! Ishita!" Raman called out to her. Mr. Singh turned around and yelled to his subordinate. "Kishen, quick! Call for the ambulance and ask the doctor to be ready at the hospital! Mithun, you make arrangements to get the killer to the hospital and make sure he does not escape, okay? The rest of you will go with him. Kishen and I will got with Raman and Ishita." He turned toward Raman and said, "We'll have to get to the road by the time the ambulance comes. They can't come into the forest. Quick!" Raman picked Ishita up in his arms and started to run following Mr. Singh.
***
"How did you find us though Mr. Singh?" Raman asked as the thought struck him later at the hospital. Ishita was being operated upon and the killer was being examined while Mr. Singh and Raman were sitting in the hallway outside the operation theater. "We tracked the signal you'd sent," Mr. Singh replied. "Signal? What signal?" Raman asked. "The one you sent, from the device I gave you. We received a signal from it and were able to locate that you were near the waterfall by Rani Jheel," he replied. "But.. I didn't send any signal! We were running from the killer and I barely took the transmitter in my hand to send the signal when Ishita got shot and the device fell from my hand. It was too dark and too dangerous so I couldn't even find it after that. I didn't send any signal!" Raman replied flabbergasted. "How is that possible? We very clearly received a signal at the station from your device. How else would we know that you were in the forest, that too exactly near the waterfall at Rani Jheel?" Mr. Singh replied.
"They say that the King and Queen still haunt the area of the waterfall near Rani Jheel where they confessed, especially on full moon nights."
Raman remembered Mrs. Singh's words from what seemed like forever ago now. Was it true? Had there really been some supernatural force that had helped them tonight? He wondered.
The doctor came out from the examination room and Mr. Singh stood up. "He has regained consciousness. The concussion was probably from the impact of the fall or he said he'd been hit on the back of his head with something hard. There were no bullets and his scans don't show any internal bleeding so he is medically all clear. You can take him with you," the doctor said. Mr. Singh thanked the doctor and headed into the examination room.
None of the bullets had hit the killer? Then what had made him fall? Raman wondered. He distinctly remembered the killer scream and fall over. He had assumed it was because one of the bullets had hit him. He said he'd been hit on the head from the back. But how was that possible? The killer had been holding Raman in a death choke and Ishita had been standing in front of them, shooting at them. Mrs. Singh's words kept whirling in his head. Was it really true? Had they really been saved by..? No! It was such a ridiculous thought. And then he remembered something else Mrs. Singh had said.
"It is also said that lovers who meet by the waterfall on a full moon night are bonded together for life and even after death. Not many lovers have been able to make it to the waterfall on full moon nights because the forest is pretty dense and.. you know.. ghosts and all."
He looked towards the light above the doors leading to the operation theater that was still glowing red. What was it that had brought them together in such unusual circumstances? And why? Why was it that he had no explanation for anything that was happening to them? He was a man who was always in control and yet, everything that had happened with them had been out of his control. Fate? Destiny? God? The things he did not believe in?
"Raman!" Raman turned at Abhi's familiar voice. Abhi came up and hugged him, "I am so glad you are alright! How is Ishita doing?" "She got shot. They are still operating on her. She has lost a lot of blood though.." Raman replied in a shaky voice. "Well, lets hope for the best. As soon as Mr. Singh received your SOS signal, he informed me and I headed down here. He briefed me on everything that happened over the phone while I was on my way here. I know I shouldn't be saying this because its pretty much pointless but I told you not make any direct contact with Ishita's family, right? Looks like Mr. Iyer's phone was tapped. For the rest of the info, we will have to wait till Mr. Singh finishes questioning the killer. I doubt he'll say anything here and now. Once we take him back with us to Delhi, we'll have to work on him. This guy surely had us misled. We were thinking all along that Mr. Shah was the target and were tracking down people who might have a grudge against him. But you were his target. I guess you owe it to Mr. Shah and Ishita for saving your life that night and even tonight," Abhi replied. Raman looked towards the doors of the operation theater again.
The doors to the OT opened and the doctor stepped out just then. Raman and Abhi rushed towards him. "Doctor.. Ishita... Is she alright?" Raman asked worried. The doctor placed a pacifying hand on Raman's shoulder and said, "Your wife is fine. We managed to take out the bullet. It wasn't a deep wound. She lost a little blood and that combined with all the stress of the situation you were in is probably what caused her to faint. But otherwise, she just needs plenty of rest, food and fluids and she'll be fine." Raman thanked the doctor profusely and asked to see Ishita. "She'll be shifted to the room shortly and you can see her. She is under anesthesia so she probably won't wake up till tomorrow morning though," the doctor replied. Raman and Abhi thanked the doctor again before he left.
Shortly after, the ward boys rolled Ishita in on a stretcher and brought her into the room. She looked really pale and almost fragile in the baby blue hospital gown, a surgical cap covering her head and a dozen or more wires connecting her to a myriad monitors. Raman caressed her face gently and unknown to him, tears started falling from his eyes. Abhi placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "She'll be alright Raman." Raman simply nodded his head. "I am staying at the guest house. You should come with me and get some rest Raman. You look like you could really do with a good night's sleep. Ishita will be fine here. I will have my best men guarding her here. As it is, the killer will spend tonight in the local prison under lock and key and tomorrow I am taking him with me to Delhi. If the two of you are up for travel, I can have the two of you dropped off at your respective homes too tomorrow. So, basically, I was saying, you really need to get good rest tonight. Come on," Abhi said. Raman started to protest and then stopped. He had to stop worrying about her. Like she'd said, their time together was coming to an end. "Okay," he said.
As he started to leave, he kept turning back to look at her. Why did it hurt so much? Maybe tomorrow, after a good night's sleep, he would have a clearer mind and he'd be back in control of his emotions. And then they had the journey back together too. Maybe it would all miraculously sort out, he assured himself. With a final backward glance, he left the hospital with Abhi.
***
Raman woke up to sunlight streaming in through the curtains of his room. He squinted and looked around trying to make sense of the unfamiliar surroundings. Then he remembered. He was in the Govt. Guest House. He rubbed his eyes and stretched when his eyes fell on the clock on the wall. It was 4 o'clock! It certainly wasn't 4 AM he deduced, considering how bright it was outside. He had been knocked out for more than 12 hours! He honestly didn't know when he'd fallen asleep. He'd tossed and turned for quite a bit, the previous night's happenings lingering on his mind, before sleep finally overcame him. Ishita! She must have woken up too. They must be getting ready to discharge her, he thought as he scrambled out of bed to freshen up and get ready.
Just as he went downstairs to head to the hospital, he ran into Abhi. "Raman! You are awake! You were sleeping so peacefully, I didn't have the heart to wake you up. But now that you are up, are you ready to leave?" Abhi asked. "Yes! But Ishita.. Is she awake? Did they discharge her? Is she here?" Raman asked. "Ishita left already," Abhi replied as he went over the file in his hand, missing the look of shock on Raman's face. "She woke up around 6ish this morning and the doctors discharged her by 9 and she requested to be sent home immediately, so yeah. She must have reached home by now," Abhi commented, closing the file in hand, "I was caught up in all the paperwork of the Witness Protection Program and transferring custody of the killer and stuff." Its only when he looked up that he saw the mixture of shock and hurt on Raman's face. "Raman, is everything alright?" he asked.
She had left. Just like that. Hadn't said a word. Hadn't even bothered to say good-bye. But how and why did it matter? She'd always told him this was what would happen with them eventually. Then why did it hurt so?
"Oh, I forgot. She asked me to give you this envelope," Abhi fished in his coat pocket and pulled out an envelope. Raman took it and opened it hurriedly. A single sheet of paper, folded over once, the golden chain with Devi maa's pendant that he'd tied around her neck as a makeshift mangalsutra and the small box of sindoor that the Panditji had given her, telling her it would bind them for life, spilled out of the envelope. He opened the note. Her handwriting was just like her - simple, straight and neat.
"Like I promised, there will be no ties that bind."
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