"AAAHHHHH..." The thunder devoured the screams.

The stab was not deep enough to kill him but painful to make him scream.

Lying on the floor, Krishant shakes in agony. The stake plugs out itself from not being too deep, but the excruciating slash definitely needed immediate medical attention. It had immensely weakened him, physically and mentally. His white shirt was turning crimson.

His injuries were sufficiently satisfactory for Priyanka, knowing it wouldn't kill him, and neither her in distress. The severe injury will impede him before the rushing aid could heed him. Priyanka does not intend to punish or have satisfaction from his agony. It is her only duty to hand him over to the authorities.

As Priyanka frantically circled around him, she was consumed by anxiety due to the unexpected turn of events. Trembling with both fear and the adrenaline of her successful attack, she grappled with disbelief in her seemingly baseless idea. The lack of experience in inflicting harm on another person shook her confidence to its core.

If she hadn't calculated her moves during Krishant's monologue, then either of them could've died. She might have been one lying on the floor, rolling over in pain, if Krishant hadn't fallen for her parlour trick.

She predicted he could block the attacks he'd see and not resist the ambushes he had never foreseen. Priyanka wouldn't even have felt bad for maiming Krishant for life, but due to the fear of inexperience, she was only trying to disable him for the night.

Regardless, it wasn't sufficient to hold him down. He kept still, confirming the severity of the wound, keeping eyes on Priyanka. She was constantly looming over him, unarmed and frantically. She had no idea what she was doing.

"Why do you want to treat my amnesia?"

"What?" Krishant thought he heard her wrong.

She stops pacing, "Why are you so desperate to treat my amnesia? Why do you care if I remember that night or not?" She gruffs, staring solemnly at the sinner who thinks he's dying.

Krishant deduced the opportunity would work in his favour soon if he prepared his body for his next attack while distracting Priyanka now. Reaccessing her weaknesses, Priyanka is incapable of actually slaughtering anyone but might hurt the opponent to protect herself. Her strengths were only her brain which too seemed buzzed by the alteration in roles of harming. Priyanka probably saw herself as the villain here.

"What--What would you know?" Even speaking high provoked his injuries.

"What do you mean?"

"You know how lonely it is to know everything?" He murmurs dryly, breathing shallowly and lying still. "You have everything, and yet you feel lonely. I hate two things the most in the world, people more fortunate than me and loneliness." He met her distracted-solemn brown eyes.

Befuddled, he grips her ankle and pulls her down with him. She falls on her face. With little but quick movements, Krishant encircles his arm around her neck, taking her in a chokehold. With each passing moment, he maximizes the pressure till Priyanka ought to save her breath by struggling less.

She claws his arms and elbows his chest, twisting her torso, but the only disadvantage occurred with such action is her vision initiates getting dizzy. Finally, she spotted his weak spot and elbowed him directly at his wound.

"Shit! You bitch!" He shrieks as a result.

Priyanka crawls away from him, gasping for air. He was too strong even while wounded. She should've tied him.

When she tried to use restraints on him, he was quick to protest, overpowering Priyanka in controlling him. Too much movement weakened him, but it also numbed most of the pain. He was preparing to stand on his feet.

"I hate you."

Only a chilly breeze frazzled them as the rain was as good as gone. Their drenched bodies shake, but none of them seek retreat.

The midnight temperature was dropping.

"We are gonna die of pneumonia," Krishant remarks before looking at the shaking girl and straining himself into a sitting position against the nearby wall. He was fully ready to pounce on her, but laziness tugged upon him.

He couldn't help but stare at Priyanka.

She didn't feel distinct from him from the beginning, perhaps her life choices were different from his as affected by their backgrounds, but they shared the indistinguishable temperament. They act out of impulse, have daddy issues, and contain the same immaturity to forgive anyone. If they met in any other circumstances, they could've been soulmates.

"You don't want to kill me, and you don't want to die." Resting Priyanka listens to him, grabbing her rod again. "You remind me of my mother. She..."

Freeze reached to him, shuddering him as he spoke.

"She had many chances to get rid of my father. She was too soft-hearted to do so." His teeth teether and warm tears spill from his dark eyes. Relaxing his head against the cold walls, "She should've killed me in her womb. She died and left me to suffer." Closing his eyes, "I should have died with her."

"You could've changed your life."

A wet but warm cloth gets damps on him, and he bolts open his eyes to watch Priyanka hovering above him. She has lent him her jacket.

She slides back down on her previous position against the opposite side of the way, wrapping her arms around herself. "And not become him. The man you hate the most."

When his gaze questions her actions, "We're not killing each other," she responds shakingly before rubbing her arms around herself. "We can stop this."

"It was not easy." He teases, but she couldn't understand his tone.

"I don't know what was hard, killing or saving. You made your own decision." Krishant freezes with shame or perhaps with the realization that he truly was free to walk away anytime he wanted to. He read her merciless eyes.

With a sigh, "Then let's get out of here. Consider it a compromise and deal further inside."

Though skeptical, Priyanka agrees a few moments later. Krishant looked frazzled, but he was only relaxing to the freeze.

They stand up, looking at each other, hesitation still lingering in her guts. Krishant limps first to the door. Priyanka follows after him, leaving the rod behind.

He unlocks the door before gesturing for her to enter first. "What changed?"

Krishant held her maroon jacket, handing it back. "Maybe this."

The rain had ceased, his blood was washed and dried, and he could handle his slash. "After you." Priyanka doesn't think much, desiring to get out of the drenched clothes and freezing gusts. Her guards were down as the hope was seeking her.

It was foolish!

Krishant wasn't literally letting Priyanka go.

He clasped her neck in an iron grip before lifting her in the air and crashing her on the wet hard floor.

Priyanka crunches over in pain and surprise. The sound of locking the door again was followed by the chime of Krishant's hysteria. She shouldn't have trusted him.

"I am determined about the death. I am going to hell, or you're going to heaven, sweetheart. The Devil has already made the deal."

Priyanka tries standing up, but Krishant lifts her ankle and starts dragging her across the floor. Screams fled her mouth, and she lost control of her body.

'Cast out like dying seeds upon the ground

Single file, our marches echo through the trees...' Priyanka jumps and tries to crawl away, finding a weapon to attack and escape Krishant.

He muffles out her screams with his mocking singing.

'We left no crumbs of bread to lead our way back home again

Past the point of no returning, should we please...' He no longer sings in rhythm, only focused on dragging Priyanka around as her struggles increase, straining his wound additionally.

'And we all sang the Devil's song and sank into the night

Saying, "Goddamn, it might be wrong, but at the time, it all feels right"...' At the edge of the space, which was only fenced by the bricks, Krishant yanks up the thrashing Priyanka.

He grips painfully hard onto her shoulders, intending to leave marks on the dead body as she thrashes into his hold. He sings in her face, 'And my, my, how time flies, what are we living for? And we all cried, "At least we tried, " and drank a little more--' Priyanka lands a hard blow on his healing nose, having him crouching in pain.

Krishant still kept his grip on her arms, refusing to let her go while caressing his already broken nose. Faruqui had done him dirty. He had bestowed him with physical pain that he thought only his father was capable of inflicting upon him.

Priyanka tried to abuse all his weak spots due to her comparatively disadvantageous size.

He was now bleeding from the nose and abdomen, both compelling severe wounds with immense pain. Krishant is not used to such pain after leading a healthier life for more than sixteen years. It was an instantaneous reminder of the years he spent with Raman.

Raman...

"Let me go, or I will make you sing again but in blood," Priyanka warns before yanking herself away from his grip as he gets distracted by his thoughts.

Krishant scowls at her.

Priyanka hits him again, much to his shock. It was not really a man's punch, but falling on the weak spot had him hunching in pain again.

It was plenty of an opportunity to escape. Priyanka runs to the door with Krishant immediately hot on her heels. Unlocking the door baffles her, slows her, and gets her captured again. She screams in frustration.

Adrenaline encourages her instincts. Her body starts dangling around as he starts to strangle her. Her lips wobble, jaw clenches, nails clawing, eyes witnessing the most sinister smirk, ears hearing her own declining breath and rushing blood, and body trying to not give up on the soul.

"I don't regret killing them." He grumbles, growling in laughter, "They deserved it! They all did!" He barks in her face.

Priyanka had never taken defense classes but had written action sequences for her novels. Her heroes have been strangled by the villains too, and she has always gotten them out.

Remembering the moves she wrote, she applies them and frees herself too, but Krishant was too persistent to let her go. He had become a savage beast, stupid and thirsty for blood. He continued grabbing her, and Priyanka continued escaping him.

Every time Paris attempts to outrun him, she ends up getting clasped more in his arms. Once again, he tried strangling her, but the wooden stake from earlier pierced right through his shoulder.

Priyanka stabbed him on the shoulder, watching him stumble and hit the four-inch wall as the fence of the rooftop.

He pulls out the stake, unaware of the consequences and lunges at Priyanka with the same stake.

Out of impulse, Priyanka kicks his oncoming chest with a force she didn't register before applying, sending Krishant tumbling over the wall.

"Hey!" He hangs over the barrier, calling out to Priyanka for help. "Help!"

Priyanka couldn't outcome her shock from the force she applied out of fear in her one kick. She moved forward and leaned over the wall for a better look at the hanging Krishant. She didn't help immediately.

'I don't regret killing them.'

She should help, but before that, she wanted explanations.

"Why?"

It was hard to hold onto the wet wall. Krishant squinted his gaze at Priyanka.

"You loved them at some point, so why don't you regret killing them?" Her red eyes sparkled with sadness.

It was something Krishant couldn't answer, and he watched a few fresh tears rolling down her cheeks. "You knew!" He exclaims, connecting the dots, "You knew from the beginning." He shouts, realizing his voice couldn't reach her clearly.

"Everyone deserves mercy even if doesn't come from heart," Priyanka exhales, "Monica believed that, and so did Kangana and Roshini. They loved you!"

He shakes his head, "Dad didn't."

"I am sorry."

Krishant overlooks her head.

The clouds were gone, and a starry sky sparkled in his vision. Had he never seen a sky like this before? He couldn't tell. It was too long since he last admired the mesmerizing sparkles scattered across the dark void.

An earlier memory of him lying under the same sky, touched by the similar soul-chilling breeze after almost being beaten to death by his father flashes before him, realizing that was the only moment of peace he had really enjoyed in his lifetime on the night he had tried to kill himself but couldn't. The more he looked at the sky, the more he realized the dawn was about to break, 'Because Dad was lonely, just like I.'

"Beautiful." He murmurs as a soft-real smile appears on his bruised lips.

With a gasp, his hands slipped, unintentionally releasing the support before Priyanka could react.

"Krish--" Priyanka saw his body hitting the ground with a thud, and a minute later, blood poured out of him, making a puddle while his lifeless eyes stared back at her or past her.

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