Surprise! (not really, I'm sure you knew I was coming back today :P)

Thank you so much for all the love and wishes while I was trying to get my life back on track. I must say scholarship application essays suuuuck, they suck more than the associated qualification exams! Now I'm just *fingers crossed* waiting until the results come <3

Meanwhile, enjoy this *insert any adjective here* update because I honestly don't know how it's going to be received, and however it may be received, I'm fine with it! :P

𓆩𓆪

Unable to contain her inquisitiveness, Nandini mindlessly traipsed into the house they had just cracked the code to. Manik, however, remained outside for a moment, scanning the deserted landscape. Their car devoid of a battery, the lonely road covered by thick barks on both sides, and the main road just a speck at the peak of the hill – at the other end of the canopy.

As he studied them, they duplicated.

Manik blinked and shook his head, re-adjusting his focus. He entered the beam of light they brought with them, which shone on the opposite wall, embedding their silhouettes as dark figurines. "Let's make this quick!"

Of course, because of the darkness, Nandini understood. "Acchha. Tum left se jaana..." She wiggled her left hand, which Manik faced, as she cited her meticulous plan. "...main right se jaati hoon aur –"

Facilitated by a humongous gust of wind, a swarm of fine dust particles swirled ominously. Its chaotic dance sent a shiver down her spine. She broke into violent coughing fits, doubling up on herself as her body instinctively rebelled the assault.

Manik turned sharply, using his arm as a shield against the smoky demon's onslaught. "You okay?" He sighted Nandini from the corner of his eye, sprawled across the ground in front of the open door.

Amidst her chokes, Nandini held a closed fist before her mouth like a microphone, exhaling into it while another thumb came up victoriously. She was clearly not good, he mused. He headed towards the main door – the source of those gusts – and slammed it shut with a thud. To protect her.

Instantly, the demonic force subsided its voodoo acts.

Still mindlessly coughing and between her laboured breathing, Nandini was about to dust herself and stand up when a cuffed hand generously came before her. She didn't give it, or anything else he was doing to her over the last few hours, much thought. Her palm securely enclosed on his and she was tugged upwards. 

"That was so strange!" He mumbled to himself and separated from her, but in the vacant premises, his words echoed.

How could a window and a door placed opposite each other but on different floors generate a flow of air when opened?

Stoking the thought, he pressed his nose bridge, and as his hand lowered, something slipped on his fingertips. Shit!

"Nothing strange, it's just cross-ventilation." Her cheeks were a mild shade of pink as she gazed from the corner of her eye. There were a multitude of opportunities for her to flaunt her smartness that night, and she was seizing every one of them. "Shall we? Do you know what to..."

"Abnormalities, yeah, I got it!" He murmured as if distracted by something else and promptly left her in said darkness to handle the right side on her own. On her own? Was this how he aimed to help her, to protect her, by leaving her in some unknown house to fend for herself?

In a fit of irritation, she deduced that if anything – or anyone – was indeed abnormal, it was him.

Forget it, she would just find everything out on her own.

As she moved into the living room that was deprived of furniture, in solitude, Nandini scoured the less obvious places: the kitchen drawers, the rice drum in a bottom cabinet, and the pasta boxes in the pantry. Every little noise she did not source made her jump.

What in God's name was Manik up to?

It was so strange to believe that up until about five hours ago, being in his vicinity had given her frightful goosebumps but presently, being separated by a room made her feel mildly unsafe.

Deciding she had to check on him, she tiptoed towards the bedroom door to the left of the living room, a mischievous plan forming in her mind. But as she passed across, her gaze fell on a peculiar sight.

A pile of envelopes underneath the Mona Lisa painting.

She hadn't seen it before; how?

Did that not appeal to Manik as abnormal either? Surely, he must have seen it on his way out left...

Who was she kidding? He seemed more than happy to bolt at her first suggestion of parting ways.

If he was so excited to get rid of her, why did he bother kidnapping her or force himself to put up with her for so long?!

Nandini spitefully approached the pile with renewed resolve, to imagine them as his neck as she ripped each of them. She crouched near it and collected the envelopes. Above her, the painting was perched to a side. The powerful breeze from before must have done that.

She was so engrossed in both her passions – twisting Manik's neck and finding answers to her curiosity – that it was only when she heard his footsteps again that she realised how far into the rabbit hole she had fallen. Her black diary was exposed, and the list Zubin printed off for her placed side by side with the contents of one of the letters she had found.

"The boat one of our military teams seized... on July 19... was Pecoraro, but we both saw it here. Today. Now." Nandini revealed and spoke to the side of her shoulder, addressing one of his questions from earlier in the night. "Here it says Operation Rising Phoenix captured 85 thousand rupees worth of illegal ammunition on the record, but this wire-transfer initiated on July 15 reveals a lot lot more than that."

Deeply lost in her monologue, he gave her all the space she needed to express, for answers they both sought.

A painful lump made its way down her throat. The sheer amount quoted on that sheet stupefied her, further cementing the conclusion she had arrived to. Because she had known of people who had done a lot worse, for a lot less. 

"That has to mean he is in on it, Manik."

His head sharply tipped at her.

It was clear that she was voicing out her internal thoughts without a filter, unaffected by whether or not her companion was getting the full picture or not. She just needed to tell someone because her own brain struggled to comprehend it.

Lines of morality dulled before her eyes, and she could do nothing about it. Absolutely nothing. 

"One of our military chiefs permitted – no, not just permitted... he aided – someone to smuggle 15 crores of illegal substances across maritime borders. And got paid 7.5% of that. That was why he didn't act on Smaran's observation of a ship that night. Because he was the one who arranged it." The news, as she was narrating it itself, was revolting. To think that she was even associated with an organisation where such swines were bred...

It shook her to her very core.

She fiddled with her thumbs restlessly in her lap, anxiety building with every second that passed. "That's 11.25 lakhs for one operation that I got to know of through a patient. Aise kitne saare hue honge, Manik... I'm trembling just thinking about it."

He looked away.

"Lekin mujhe na... bas yeh nahi samajh aa raha hai ki... inn sabka Harshad se kya connection hai?"

He cut her off by stating, "Maybe you're thinking too deeply into it. Harshad is not a good guy."

Was it that black and white?

"But Harshad was there that day. What if... what if Harshad suspected something like this and that's why... that's why he's in jail? What if they wanted to silence him, and make an example out of someone who knows too much, jabki uski koi galti hi nahi hai?" How many people had to suffer because of one person's doing? And for how long would the cycle continue?

"Kitna aasaan hoga na unke liye, to sacrifice noble men for insurmountable sums of money." She spat distastefully. He, who is supposed to be guilty, was roaming around a free man, thoroughly unworthy of the respect he sought and breathed in a daily basis. They, who smuggled the goods, were living free lives with not a spark of fear in them. Despite being immoral, they had a free pass.

While the faultless soldiers suffered.

Privilege was what that was.

Someone needed to act, to right their wrongs, to be the voice for those who could not stand for themselves. For people like Smaran.

"I have to tell someone about this," she declared and was about to rise to her feet when she heard something snap in place.

"You won't do anything of that sort." Manik blurted, taking two bold steps to the side. 

Nandini blinked on command at the uncanny shift in tone. It was a cold slap to her face. No other footsteps echoed in the area to offset the blame.

She eyed a spot on the wall right in front of her, starkly aware of one thing... she was alone, in an unknown person's house, going through their mail and revealing those secrets with a man she had blindly trusted.

Flashes of him steering her in a different direction appeared like montages in her mind – like when he evaded the flashlight from the boat's name, when he suggested an incorrect code to the house they were in, when he promptly headed towards the bedroom on the left without even stumbling in the dark... as if he had known the exact layout of the place from before...

Nandini's chest hammered at a thundering speed.

Her friends, who had specifically called to check up on her, did not know she was here.

Succumbing to an icy standstill, her brain and lungs caved to the stark horror of the situation. Her treacherous heart was the only organ that reminded her that she was alive – even if it was only for a few, countable moments.

With a deep breath, she dared to look up, and there it was: a barrel aimed directly at her head. Affirming his presence, and his alone.

All along, she should have known.

How could she have been so foolish? The gun wound on his bicep should have set off alarms, but she had silenced those instincts in favour of the belief, or hope rather, that actions were not a sole reflection of one's intentions. Had her naiveté not slipped in, she would have known far sooner.

Perhaps this was the punishment she had to pay... for being a fool, for her bewakoofi. 

Gulping, she rose to her feet, her breaths dragging and heavy out of nowhere.

"This is not how it was supposed to go." He confessed. She had seen him as her protector. The entire evening, it had been his only goal, but in a split-second, that had all gone for a toss.

A surge of anger swept over him at the unfortunate circumstances. "Those letters... you were not supposed to see them." Callously, like she meant nothing to him at all, the words remained bitter on his tongue. "I think they must have fallen when I shut the main door, but that's okay. It's not too late to rectify my mistake."

History was going to repeat itself. Just like her parents' accident, her death too was going to be unjust.

For the second time in her life, she had put her faith in a man, and he had failed her in a devastating way... in a way that pricked the most sensitive of her nerves.

"Kaun ho tum?" she asserted, louder than she had anticipated. Where that courage was coming from, she herself didn't know. Blended with Navya's angst, Nandini's own betrayal took a completely different form.

He didn't respond to her.

She turned, facing him with scorching eyes that were dulling out her words. "Tum... tum koi chauffeur ya kuch nahi ho, na hi tumhara music ke saath koi connection hai, aur na hi tumhe stars acche lagte hai. Sab bakwaas tha... hai na?" Her voice had begun cracking, but she achingly held her composure... no matter how much of herself it was consuming.

A whole evening. She had spent a whole evening in his company, in solitude with him... she felt like she was beginning to understand him, only to have the rug pulled from under her feet at this juncture. In an unknown house. Stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Destined to die by gunshot.

One that he was going to fire.

Manik, she reminded herself to humanise the monster in front of her. Or was that name also a lie? 

The Nawab in him emerged, unscathed by her accusations. "Hand over the locket, and put your hands where I can see them." He said, lazily stretching the weapon a couple metres away from her temple.

"Sab bakwaas tha... sab!" She uttered to herself, more out of disappointment in herself than aggression or irritation at him, because even in the split-second where her life was on the line, she could not help but think of the variety of instances throughout the night where she had secluded herself with him. Willingly.

A plethora of opportunities were bestowed on him.

Yet he had chosen such a vulnerable moment to expose himself.

As if he himself was waiting for a few revelations, some answers.

Merely using her as a pawn, just like every immoral person with an agenda that superseded humanity.

𓆩𓆪

It got wayyyy too intense; my heart is beating sooo damn fast and yet I'm beyondddd excitedddd, I'm sure you guys think I'm a psycho ATP! :D

If you have any questions and anything is confusing, please do drop them below! I promise to get back today ya tomorrow!

If you're still wondering: this house Manik and Nandini are currently in... that's the house Fab 5 stayed at when they were living in Mangalore. Pecoraro is the pizzeria their clan is associated with!They all link back to Fab 5's gundagiri :P

Ab kya hoga?

Kya Manik Nandini ko maar dega?

Kya Nandini dishoom-dishoom karke Manik ko khud maar degi?

Jaanne ke liye thodi der rukna padhega :P Meanwhile, do shower your thoughts on this update (please no slippers, but tomatoes, eggs, bhindi pasta, and egg khichdi are all welcomed)! :D

Next update: tomorrow <3