I announced in the form of a rant what my creativity slump looks like. Being more nitpicky would have meant keeping you waiting for longer so I thought I'll put up a small segment of what turned out okay from the draft I typed up.

Ab ke liye yehi sahi, but that also means the other update will be either tonight or tomorrow, hope that makes you happy :")

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Alia buckled her seatbelt as the front passenger.

"Hello, I am Navya Naveli," Navya squeaked, extending a palm in the gap between the front seats.

Cabir glanced at the strange woman through the rearview mirror, and snarkily commented, "Don't shake hands with her, she spat on it sometime ago."

"Oh hello, usse high-five kehte hai, jo normally dost ek doosre ko dete hai!" Navya advised, gesturing him to 'shut up' with a waving hand.

Scoffing, Cabir added, "Yeah, right. Normal people don't do that."

Navya's mouth opened to form a retort, but Soha firmly gripped her shoulder, silently ushering that they needed to focus. They had to find Nandini.

Quietly observing the exchange, Alia shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Has Harshad tried to reach you? I mean, did he send any messages or anything?"

Where did Harshadji come from?

Navya looked at Alia skeptically, studying the beautiful and classy woman her two close friends despised from the bottom of their hearts. Finding the question rather invasive, Soha jumped on the bandwagon, rubbing her friend's shoulder.

"You don't have to tell her anything, Navya. She's not entitled to any information about your boyfriend."

Cabir had known that Nandini Murthy repulsed Alia since they had known each other in college. Alia found her to be a prude, a behenji, incapable of opening up to men, especially in the context of physical intimacy. But what was the equation between the calm, fashionable, and rather responsible of the two friends and Alia?

His lips twisted in a tight, disbelieving grimace. "Wah, so much hatred?! Aisa kya kar diya tumne, Alia? Did you flirt with her crush or something?"

"Haan!" Soha said seriously, and at the same time Alia defensively remarked, "NO!" Briefly, they looked at each other, equally confused and irritated with one another. When, how, where, and whom?

"Oh wow!" Cabir mused, slowly coming to terms with his antaryami powers that had been hidden just beneath the surface. He chuckled at his friend who was frowning in the passenger seat. "Ab toh pol kholna toh banta hai, khair, baadme karte hai. Tell them about Harshad first."

Alia said Harshad had met her and her friends to purchase some gaanja – something Cabir had not expected her to reveal but then again, Soha appeared unfazed by the information. Apparently, Harshad had then gotten desperate for cash and robbed a small store, which led to his arrest. He was a criminal, doing jail-time until merely a few hours ago.

It was as if Soha had braced herself and expected it, both from Harshad and from any man who tried to charm a woman. She did not even twitch at the revelations.

Madhubala, on the other hand, went bonkers at the news and could have auditioned for an Indian soap opera with the multitude of emotions she emoted in merely a couple of minutes.

When she finally voiced herself, trembling disbelief coated Navya's words, "Nahi, aisa ho hi nahi sakta hai. He sent me a letter a few months ago."

Thoroughly pitying the innocent girl who had fallen for his tricks, Cabir glanced at her through the rear-view mirror at the traffic light. The only good thing that had come out of it all was that Navya was safe and they had found her before anything dangerous had happened. Sure, her heart was presently wounded but it would heal... eventually... She was fortunately not completely scarred by him.

And as long as Cabir and Alia were with and around her, Harshad could not come anywhere close to causing her harm, he had made up his mind about that. Then why was he feeling remorse and a sense of responsibility for her state?

Why, within her reflection, was he seeing flashes of another beaming soul who had been crushed in a similar fashion several months ago, because of their clan? Because of his friend.

The lights turned green and the car began moving again. Alia turned in her seat and leaned on the headrest, torn by the young woman's naive shock. Determined to be more sensitive, and not bombard her with hard-hitting facts that would put some sense into her, Alia confessed. "I know, I know about it. I was the one who sent it on his behalf." She hesitated, gauging a reaction before continuing, "That was how I knew where to find you."

"You both came looking for her?" Soha asked, taken aback that Alia had so much as a bone of humanity in her.

Until some minutes ago, she could barely believe she was breathing the same oxygen as the druggie sitting before her, but she was quick to believe the allegations. It was not because Alia was convincing, but because her best friend Nandini too had been lied to and taken advantage of in a similar manner – under the pretence of love.

Textbook manipulation tactics.

Navya scrutinised the sly idiot driving the vehicle, regretting offering food or any kind of ransom for his help, if she could even call it that. "Par tumne toh –"

Cabir sorrowfully came clean, "We thought you would be in danger."

Lies, she scowled and turned to Soha who was gently offering her comfort, and mutely tipping her chin to ask if Navya was doing okay.

The support of her friend, and her earlier suggestion to not trust two strangers, rang in Navya's mind. "Hume tum logon ki baaton par vishwaas nahi hai, Harshadji bure nahi hai hume pata hai."

Rolling his eyes, Cabir grumbled under his breath that certain types of stupidity could not be cured through conversations. Alia interjected his hushed monologue, placing a palm over her chest. "Look, I'm Alia Saxena, Harshad Saxena's sister."

Navya stared at her, doubly shook by the confession as was Soha. So they had both been tactfully captured by the villain himself, was that so? 

They were on the main road, not the highways yet. Soha contemplated unlocking the door and jumping out, because the worst that could happen by doing that was she would roll down the sides of the road, knock her head into a tree and die on the spot... and death was anyways bound to happen if they remained in the dreadfully expensive car.

Them pretending to help Soha and Navya, badmouthing Harshad to get on their good side, and now taking them to some unknown destination to find Nandini... it all seemed like a well-thought-out trap.

How did they know where to find Navya and Soha, unless they were stalking them?

And where were those guys supposedly driving to, in order to find Nandini, if they didn't know where Nandini was?

It was all a plan. The two women were better off dying on the side of the road than dying wherever those idiots were taking them, but such an impulsive act would result in them never finding out Nandini's whereabouts.

Stricken by another plan, Soha unlocked her phone and pressed the 'Record' button, discreetly tucking the device under her thigh. 

Still in disbelief, Navya questioned, "Aap Harshadji ki behen hai?"

At wits' end for even considering helping the naive two-braided woman, Cabir chimed in sarcastically. "Nahi, woh Mr. India ki behen hai! Abhi abhi toh usne bataayaa, tum so rahi thi kya?"

Soha cut in quickly, "Don't believe what she says, Navya. Have faith in your love."

Just then, a call vibrated inside Alia's handbag. Everyone fell silent at the sound. The screen flashed: Inmate Caller. Alia eyed her friend saying, "It must be him."

Cabir narrowed his eyes. "But he's out, why would he be calling you from prison?" He paused, realising the implication. "Oh right, because he doesn't know that you know he's out."

Navya and Soha exchanged frightful glances at each other as Cabir motioned them to be quiet as the device went on speaker phone.

"Hello?" Alia answered the call, her voice steady but her eyes betraying her anxiety. "Hi Bhai. I'm sorry I could not visit you today."

Harshad's voice came through the usual crackles on prison phone lines, almost calm and reassuring. "Don't worry about all that, Alia. I am glad you are doing okay." They heard a deep huff on his line, as if he felt relief about something, and Navya could not believe her ears. It was unmistakably the voice of the man she fell in love with. "I... I just wanted to check up on you. It's been really lonely here and I am running out of things to keep me occupied. I guess in times of need, a brother really needs his sister."

Alia tried to keep her voice steady, despite the tears welling up her eyes and Navya's. "I'm here for you, Bhai. Always one call away," She immediately palmed her mouth, holding back an involuntary cry as Cabir pulled over to the side of the road. He took her face to his shoulder, patting her in reassurance.

Navya scrambled for Soha's hand, gripping it firmly.

"That's like my little sister. You won't believe how much I just needed to hear you say that." He said, his tone light-hearted. "Listen, I have to go now, the next person's waiting for the line. I love you."

Alia choked out, unable to reciprocate those words and instead resorted to, "Bye, Bhai." The line died on his end.

The vehicle witnessed betrayals of two different forms and Cabir wasn't sure who he could best bring back to normalcy. Was it the heartbroken woman in the rear seat, who had been cheated in love, or the devastated sister who had found a fragment of her family and clung onto it for stability amidst her coked-up, lovelorn life?

He chose the latter, aware of other opportunities and well-wishers the Bollywood fanatic had.

"He's trying to tip you off, Alia. He has people to help him disguise these things."

"But what if he's been caught again?"

"Humaare saath aise kaise kar sakte hai woh?!" Soha turned to Navya's abrupt cry filled with anguish, as did the other two helpless individuals in the front seat. He was a criminal... not just a petty thief, a cold-blooded one who had threatened to shoot a child... all for a few bucks?

Renewed by a pang of insatiable pain, she shouted, "Humse jhoot kyoon bola? Humaara yeh rishta... Abhi kispar vishwaas kare hum? Kispar?"

Cabir and Alia were in two minds whether or not to say something, but determining amongst themselves that she was merely expressing and letting out her feelings, they didn't intervene.

Tears lined Soha's waterline too at the sight of her devastated friend. Both her friends had made the same mistake, seven months apart. Though what had happened to Nandini was far worse than how much Navya was involved with Harshad, emotionally, the pain of betrayal hit the same chord. She could have done something to stop them from falling... or from falling too hard, too fast... but it was too late now.

The damage had been done, and both her friends would forever live with that pain in some crevice of their hearts. 

"Humaare Matarani ko..." As Navya mindlessly touched her neck, she swivelled to Soha. Overwhelmed by her unstoppable cries, she came to a burdening analysis of her own character – that she was indeed the most stupid woman to ever exist.

He had given her that Matarani locket, he had promised her that he would always be close to her in that form. His gift was what she considered God. She held him on a pedestal but what had he been, a criminal all this time?

Repulsed by the thought of considering anything he gave her to be remotely associated to her Matarani, she was hit by another thought: the locket. Was that what he wanted from her all along? What the hell was she even thinking, giving it to Nandini and putting her in danger?

"Nandini..." She gasped suddenly, returning to reality. "Hume lagta hai usne hi Nandini ke saath kuch kiya hai,"

Cabir twitched his lips out of impulse. "Nahi, Nandini – I mean tumhaari dost – woh uske saath nahi hai,"

Soha shot him a puzzled look, falling back on her initial suspicion, about them knowing Nandini's whereabouts. "How do you know that?"

Realising he had said far more than he was supposed to, Cabir put on the right indicator as a means to escape the question. Soha sought Alia, hoping for an explanation but on noticing her equally confused, she eyed Cabir with a glare. Slowly, the car drifted back on the main road.

"I asked you, how do you know?" She repeated, this time more firm in his tone, as if a protective instinct kicked within her. 

"As in... I meant, he has different plans... bigger plans than just wanting a woman. If anything, he plotted Navya to execute his plan, but not Nandini."

Unconvinced by the explanation, Soha leaned back in her seat. The recorder was still rolling – solid evidence in the case of any foul play, even if she ceased to exist, it would come handy in court. To give hers and her friends' families justice for their potentially forever-lost lives. 

As if in a trance of her own, Navya decided to herself out loud, "Nandini ko kuch nahi ho sakta. Nahi. Hume Nandini ko dhoondna hoga. No matter what happens, I need her." She looked at Soha, nodding to her. "We need her."

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Navya being so sad kind of hurts, but it's a parallel between Navya-Harshad and Nandini-Manik, one lied to use his woman to his advantage while the other lied to protect his woman from him and the world surrounding him.

Good riddance, because Navya deserves better anyways :")

No MaNan in this update, yes, but please still do support if you liked it, because I'm kind of running dry on inspo atm and your encouragement will keep me bringing more updates faster :P

Vote, comment and share your thoughts! :")