Khushi could feel herself being dragged on the cold, hard, and dirty floor. The pebbles poking and scratching her skin,  her clothes not at all protecting her from the power of friction.

"Aaah," 

Even her screams for help escaped in whimpers and grunts. So, extreme was the pain she was feeling. From the soul-sucking pain on her shoulder to the force with she was dragged with her nails broken in odd-shapes and bleeding from her tries to hold onto something.

But everything seemed futile, nothing helped. She didn't even know why she was being dragged like this? What wrong has she committed? 

She gasped when the pressure on her leg was suddenly increased and she was flung to the side hard.  For a few minutes, she was airborne before crashing hard against a solid object that made a clang side.

She screamed

When she fell, not even certain where she was, Khushi took a deep breath and coughed. It pained, got everything was paining so much. Her vision was blurry and her hearing muffled. And she was cold. So cold.

It felt like she was dying. Slowly her life force draining out of her. The pain was unbearable. She has never been in so much pain.

A chilling female cackling drew her out of her painfilled haze.

"This is such a happiness-inducing moment. Aah!! I can't explain how satisfactory it is to watch her whimper so painfully lying beside a trash can, "

The familiar female voice laughed proving her words. How can someone relish in someone else's pain? Khushi didn't know but she did squint her eyes to see who was this woman laughing at her misery?

Thunder cracked and lightning flashed over-head as her blurry gaze finally noticed the people standing around her in a semi-circle. People illuminated by the purplish light of lightening before it was dark and stormy again. Five men, two women, and she knew just three people out of them.

There was Dadi laughing at her broken condition with satisfaction at her face.

Sheetal with poise and perfected aversion directed towards her broken form.

Shyam with his lustful eyes, unclothing her with his gaze and that terrifying smirk. The other four men spotted similar looks and she was in too much pain to think rationally yet a whisper of "why" escaped her lips.

Why does dadi hate her so much?

Why were they hurting her?

Why she was here?

What did she ever do to them?

What do they want with her?

There were infinite "why's" roaming in her mind and only a single syllable escaping her lips.

"Why?"

The evil cackle around her stopped with Dadi's furious snarl and Khushi again wondered what exactly did she do wrong to this woman?

"Well apart of being Rajshree's daughter nothing much, "

There was a sneer directed to her towards the end of that statement and her hazy with pain brain wondered what did her mother do to spite dadi? Khushi didn't know her own mother well enough to guess what she might have done? She was just a twelve-month old child when her mother said goodbye to this world.

Her adopted mother, Who is also her maternal aunt hated any talk about her mother. All she knows about her birth parents are their names and how they died; it was a fire accident according to her aunt.

Her face might have given her away, for the next thing she knew was that Dadi had broken into another mad laughing fit.

"You don't know anything about her, do you?"

Khushi didn't know whether she imagined it or not? For Dadi seemed really happy realizing this. She seemed almost gleeful about something and before Khushi could think more about this matter—dadi spoke again.

"You know Khushi, I always had some special plans for you. I had them for you the day you were born but my grandson ruined them all. He fell for you. It was unacceptable if he loved any other girl as much as he loves you. I would have been delighted. I would have done anything and everything in my power to make sure he gets the girl and the girl stays with him. But it was you and it's unacceptable, totally unacceptable, not after everything your mother did to my love, "

Khushi didn't understand what dadi means by all this. There was a touch of dismay in dadi's tone like she couldn't believe her misfortune and this was the second time her mother is mentioned. What did her mother do? Dadi mentioned love, did her mother seduce dadi's husband or something? That will explain the hate but dadi couldn't hate her enough to try to kill her for that reason could she?

But...it looked like dadi was about to kill her? Is really going to punish her for her mother's sin? Did her mother really seduce dadi's husband?

Khushi's mind was full of numerous questions and for the first time, she hated not knowing enough about her own mother.

"You know your mother hit me where it hurt me the most. She destroyed half of my empire alone. My empire–do you know how hard it was to establish my empire? How hard I worked? And how good it paid me, I earned in millions. I was the undisputed queen of the underworld, people feared my name, they shuddered at the mere mention of my name, I ruled the whole north. Bela Baby ruled the drug, liquor, and trafficking market but your mother..."

Dadi paused full of contempt and Khushi was already regretting thinking bad about her mother. The old lady standing before her was a demon. Nothing her mother did to her can be bad.

"Your mother, the second or third female IPS officer of her time, who cares right. Destroyed my empire, confiscated my trafficking assignment. She became a hero in the eyes of the public, trying to rescue girls and women alike from the quicksand of prostitution and trafficking. She turned my empire upside down. Rescued more than 700 women and I faced a loss of crores. She didn't have any idea how much money a single girl earns me. How much money an illegal slave auction tips me off? No, she didn't care nor she got lured like many of her superiors. Even went as far as encountering my youngest son, my heir. She needed to be finished, she needed to be destroyed... I burned her informer first and then burned her. Her screams soothing melody to my ears but till the end, she had that haughty warrior look in her eyes. It ruined the effect you know went down like a hero, a warrior, a soldier. Didn't beg me to spare her, didn't beg at all"

Even before dadi finished her mad rant, Khushi felt her heart grow cold for the woman in front of her. She murdered her mother. This woman in front of her was the reason for her being an orphan and she married her grandson, tried to please this woman, prayed for her safety and well being.

Her mother must be rolling in her grave. Her mother must be so ashamed of her. Her mother must be hating her. God, now she understood why the villagers always respected her more than her family? Why they followed her every whim and indulged her? It was all because of her mother.

They respected the lady that safeguard their wives and daughters. The lady that protected them. They tried to give her daughter the affection they had for her. Why didn't her aunt tell her this? Why?

She would have never married Aryaman then, she would have never come to Delhi. She would have hated that family.

"But you; my dear are no worrier? Your eyes held the fear your mothers never had. You look like a scared kitten. It's so satisfying you know, so very satisfying. I had decided on the day I heard of your birth. I'll make you one of my girls. I'll push you to the same fate, your mother tried saving hundreds from but someone tipped off your mother. She hid you. No one knew where you were, no one could find you and twenty-one years passed after my revenge stayed incomplete but then my grandson found you...he didn't know of course, "

Another pause and Khushi could hear her ears ringing. It was so much. It was too much to take to much to comprehend. She was unaware of so much for all of her life.

"But the moment I saw your massi, I recognized her. I put forward a small condition in front of her, you see. Which daughter she'll like to sacrifice? And she turned you out in a second. Everything was going perfect, you were where I wanted you but my own grandson ruined everything saved you and marries you. I thought it was a phase will pass, waited a year, and more but no he didn't deter from his choice. No matter, how exotic piece I sent to seduce him. Even tried to prove you mad but seems like you do have some bits of your mother's spirit and not only her beauty. But now it's enough, he was already drowning in guilt hearing my precious prodigy's story and your supposed actions did what I was waiting for, " Dadi cackled proudly again, patting Sheetal's head lovingly and Khushi felt her heart freeze.

What story did Sheetal tell Aryaman? What did they do? There were so many questions in her mind yet no one to answer them. Did Aryaman and Anjali know dadi's reality? Were they a part of this cruel game? No, Aryaman seemed unaware but Anjali?

Khushi thought she will burst apart, the pain, revelations everything too much for her.

"Here the last dose for you dear, "

Khushi didn't know what dadi meant by this but Sheetal walked up to her and Khushi tried to move away from her, tried to put some distance between them, tried to be a little like the mother she never knew.

But it all seemed futile. Sheetal yanked her left arm injecting something in her. Khushi thrashed wildly trying to evade whatever they were giving her. And suddenly, she felt someone press brutally on her injured arm, right at the wound.

And Khushi couldn't stop the scream that escaped her lips, all fight leaving her body and the thunder overhead muffled her screams, again.

"Now...dear, Sheetal do your work, " Dadi commanded Sheetal.

Khushi couldn't move her limbs but she could hear and feel everything alright. Even worse, it felt like her senses were on an override. It was hurting, her nerves were on fire yet she could clearly make out Sheetal mimicking her voice perfectly sending a voice note to Aryaman from her phone informing her about the signed divorce papers left beneath her sarees. How she was tired of everything and specially Aryaman and leaving forever.

"Don't try to ever find me or contact me, I don't love you...I hate you, " spoken again and again in different words with special emphasis on.

Again Khushi was left confused, she didn't sign any divorce paper. She didn't have any such thing in mind. But seemed like she was underestimating the power and shrewdness of mafia queen Bela.

"Because my grandson loves you, I might not be able to fulfill my dream of making you a prostitute, I can't push you in the same quicksand your mom saved girls from but I'll make sure you feel the same pain before dying, "

Dadi whispered deadly calmly in Khushi's ear. She sounded like she was talking about tea and not rape and murder. It was terrifying yet Khushi felt a fire burn in her whole being. She didn't want to die, she didn't want to die for anything. She didn't want to shame her mother's sacrifice like this. She didn't want to die yet it seemed too late for her, maybe she would have survived is she protested earlier.

If she opened her mouth and spoke about everything dadi and co put her through in name of rituals to Aryaman. If she has just vocalized and shared her pain not caring about how–hurt Aryaman might be learning about his family's true nature. Trying to spare him momentary pain, she dug her own grave

"You...you'll be punished, "

Khushi declared with false bravado. She was terrified of the inevitable and too helpless to fight against it. How should one kill oneself? She didn't know. She'll prefer death by her own hands over what they had planned for her.

Dadi just laughed hearing her words. She acted as if Khushi had just cracked the joke of the century and Khushi might have done just that to her.

"I've evaded police and law for more years then you've been alive, silly girl. Law can't do anything to me. They won't ever find anything against me. Your mother had tried and everyone knows how it ended, "

There was a taunt, a dying daughter reminded again and again about how she lived with her mother 's murderers. Tried to please them.

Khushi hissed some more about wrong and sins but it all fell to deaf ears. Why will the people who sold their souls to the devil care about sins?

"Dump her where Aryaman can never find her, " Dadi ordered her men.

They were all high ranks of her gang, her favorites for she trusted none but them with this matter. Errors were never tolerated by her.

"Shouldn't we just left her here, the police on raid can find her or I can tip off the media and the commanding officer can be framed. A total nuisance that one, " Shyam suggested.

"Do I look daft to you? I waited for 2 years, planned everything to the brim to get rid of this girl and you want me to waste it all just like this... Because of your stupid idea, don't forget the message I sent my grandson. It won't take him seconds to connect the dots and establish an investigation. Do as you're told and nothing more, "

There was a resolute danger in dadi's even-toned words. A biting edge, Khushi didn't hear Shyam's reply. She didn't catch anything but dadi's last words to him and her.

"Send me a picture of her when you're done, I'll send it to her father, "

Her father was alive. Why didn't he came for her? Why didn't he ever search for her? Didn't he want her?

"You know what Khushi, the best thing about me is I don't ever keep my promises, "

With those ominous words, Dadi and a silent Sheetal left Khushi with hungry wolves.

Wolves that slowly devoured her whole, playing with their prey. Their sharp nails slowly tearing her apart, their love for violence leaving its mark on her skin and bones.

They played with her, hitting her, throwing things on her, slowly breaking her apart before taking her all.

Her blood-curdling screams and howls swallowed by the howling winds, violent rain, and the loud echo of gunshots. She screamed and screamed until only silent screams escaped her soul.

On one side good prevailed evil, the police force succeeding in their raid and annihilation of a notorious gang while on the other side, not even 500 meters away from the police team evil prevailed over good.

Demons slowly killing a human.

And the cycle continues.....

~to be continued~

Okay, so this was it.

Thoughts are well appreciated.

Tried to be kind of symbolic and stuff.

Sometimes darkness really wins at the end of a battle but the war continues.