A/N:- This is a few days after the Janmashtami festival in Deshmukh House. Raghav and Pallavi haven't found out about Akshat yet. 

The various residents of the Deshmukh House were broken out of their sleep rudely by Mandar Deshmukh's loud yell. They came running out of their respective rooms disoriented but panicked to collect in the courtyard only to get the shock of their lives. 

Mandar was standing at the centre fuming like a mad man while their resident cook Swapnil was tied to what looked like one of the pillars of their house. The ropes so tight around his athletic muscular form that it almost seemed to dig into his skin through the fabric. His one visible eye was glaring at the eldest son of the Deshmukhs with the ferocity of an inferno which was frankly as disconcerting as it was familiar.

"Mandar, what happened? Why are you screaming in the middle of the night and why in God's name is Swapnil tied?"

Milind asked completely bewildered  voicing everyone else's perturbed thoughts, utterly unaware of how Pallavi's frantic gaze raked over the tied man, fear painted over her sleep mussed face so stark that it was almost painful to watch. 

"Come and see for yourself Kaka! This man is no Swapnil Nirulkar... a cook.. this bastard tricked all of us!"

"Mandar what are you saying? Why would he.. who is he then? And why have you tied him?"

Sulochana asked a bit miffed at the whole situation. Mandar went and ripped the mask over from their cook's face harshly making everyone else gasp in surprise as they finally recognized him. 

"Raghav Rao! Bohot chalak samjha tha na khudko tu? Pallavi ke paas jaane keliye ye ghatiya tareeka azmane mein sharm nhi aayi tujhe!!!"

Raghav snarled like a wounded wolf so viciously that Mandar unconsciously took a step back, his flight and fright instincts taking over as if in default, even though the former was securely tied up in unbreakable ropes at the moment. We can't fault him because it was a justifiable and by then a normal occurrence of any human being coming face to face with Raghav Rao's apoplectic rage. 

"Ei Kabaristan se utha hua laash! Woh mera wife hain! Ghatiya harkat toh tune kiya hain ye sab nautanki karke. Bohot ho gaya ye drama. Abhi khol mereko aur phir main dikhata hain merese panga lena kitna bhari pad sakta hain."

Mandar smiled so nastily that it made both Raghav and Pallavi's skin roil in disgust. 

"Galti kardi Raghav Rao. Bohot badi galti kardi tune. Mere hi ghar mein ghuske, meri hi patni ko paane ki koshish karke bohot badi galti kardi. Tujhe pata hain na ki abhi Navratri aane walaa hain. Yaad hain na, Navraatri ke ant mein Vijaydashami ke din kya hota hain?"

Raghav was glaring at Mandar so poignantly that had he been able to shoot lasers from his eyes, the latter would have been nothing but ash. Milind and Amrutha looked absolutely gobsmacked while Sulochana for some reason felt ill. Vijay kept throwing furtive and confused glances between Pallavi, Mandar and Raghav, his brain malfunctioning due to all the confusion whereas Pallavi for some inexplicable reason felt a sense of foreboding. 

As if something truly bad was about to occur and she was completely helpless in the situation. 

"Ae bina address ka envelope apna bakwas lecture band kar or dum hain toh ye rassi khol, phir bata ta hain main tereko."

Raghav cut in between stopping Mandar's almost disconcertingly maniacal flow of words. Mandar just smiled serenely looking more insane by the minute. 

"Haan.. toh jo main keh raha tha. Dusshera mein Shri Ram ne Ravaan ka ant kiya tha aur apni patni Sita Devi ko Lanka se bacha ke apne saath leke gaye the Ayodhya. Lanka se toh meri Sita pehle hi mukt ho gyi thi par Ravaan uske piche piche yahaan tak pahauch chuka hain. Ab uss Ravaan ka ant karna baaki hain."

The Deshmukh's looked slightly sick at the sudden shift of Mandar's expressions which seemed to have given him a completely dangerous makeover. Something truly unnerving had shown itself in his otherwise innocent visage. 

"M.Mandar.. Mandar dekho.. hum thoda sochke dekhte hain. Aise hi tum kiska murder nhi kar sakte na. Please. Police case ho jaega bekaar mein.. kholdo usko abhi.. hum.."

Pallavi had immediately gone beside the eldest Deshmukh and tried sweet talking him into releasing her husband who had started struggling against the bonds realising that provoking the fool would not get him anywhere. He hoped distracting him long enough might result in Farhad reaching or Pallavi or any of the Deshmukhs managing to free him though he was highly sceptical of the latter. 

"Nhi Pallavi. Ye murder nhi hoga. Ye acchai ki jeet hoga burai pe. This is our sacred duty as God fearing people. Tum pehle akeli thi isliye iss rakshas ke jaal mein fass gyi par ab main hoon tumhaare saath. Tumhe darne ki zaroorat nhi hain."

Mandar shook his head and held Pallavi's arm in a show of fake gentleness which made her skin crawl in revulsion and she resisted the need to recoil violently and snatch her hand back through a Herculean effort. But Raghav could hardly bear his wife's not so hidden discomfort. 

"Ae! Chod usko! Chuna met usse Mandar, main tera haath kaat dega!"

He yelled and Mandar whipped around so fast that for a second everyone thought he might have given himself whiplash. The pretence of softness had been wiped clean of his face and a loathsome wrath seemed to darken his features in an ugly malice. He went and took a mighty swing at Raghav which made the latter's head crack at the side painfully almost breaking his jaw. Pallavi couldn't control the short cry of pain mingled with fear escape her lips as her husband spat the blood collected in his mouth on the ground beside turning to swear at the madman who claimed to be his wife's rightful husband, hatefully. 

"Mandar bass ho gaya! Tum josh mein hosh kho beithe ho. Raghav aur Pallavi ka divorce nhi hua hain abhi. Kholo usse abhi warna assault case ho jaega."

Milind finally yelled having gotten his senses back. Mandar just smiled again in that creepy way making his family intake a sharp breath and almost draw back from the inky darkness suddenly seeming to surround him. Who was this apparition who had their Mandar's face and voice?

"Sunny!"

His sudden yell startled everyone as Sunny Ahuja came swaggering in with a what looked like an oil beaker in his hands, his beady eyes taking in the sight as if in perverse pleasure. Raghav sighed in exasperation and hung his head for a moment. How could he have even for a nano second believed that Sunny would have an iota of self respect? But what was making Pallavi's heart run a agonized marathon inside her chest was that oil beaker.

"M..Mandar ye.. ye tel ka dabba.. matlab? Itna tel leke kya karoge tum.. Sunny ko kyun laane bola? Mujhe kuch samajh nhi aa raha.."

"Arre meri jaan, tum ab bhi nhi samjhi. Aaj Deshmukh Nivas mein Dusshera manaenge hum. Today will be the day of our triumph against this monstrosity. Aaj Ravaan ka dahan hone walaa hain. We will burn this demon and that pyre can serve as our wedding's havan kund."

Raghav gaped at Mandar shell shocked while the blood drained from Pallavi's face as she felt her heart stop with her ex husband's words. The Deshmukhs looked suitably horrified and thunderstruck at the clearly deranged man's declaration. 

"Chehra aisa kyun banai hain Pallaviji? Itni khushi hui Raghav ki ant ki baat sunke ki sadma lag gaya? Shall I do the honours Mandar, while you may hold your wife? She doesn't seem like she's strong enough to see this sight?"

Sunny chuckled, a dark malevolence ringing like the bells of Hell in his disgustingly saccharine voice. Mandar smiled at his accomplice and then at Pallavi reassuringly. 

"Don't worry my love. This will get over soon. But you may close your eyes if you can't see it. It can be a bit too disturbing to watch. And no Sunny, thanks for your kind offer but I would rather do this auspicious task myself. Aakhir Ravaan ko toh Ramji ko hi maarna hoga na?"

The spell which seemed to have been casted over everyone else shattered. The Deshmukhs broke out into panicked yells as Mandar took the beaker from Sunny's obliging hands and started moving towards Raghav who still looked too stunned to react in any other ways. 

"Mandar! Mandar kya kar rahe ho? pagaal ho gye ko kya? Dimag kharab ho gaya hain? Manaa Raghav ne bohot galtiya kii hain par tum aise kisiko jalaa nhi sakte! Mandar! Ruko! Kholo usse! Milind tu kuch kar!"

Vijay Deshmukh's voice was perhaps the most surprising yet the loudest. Milind Deshmukh already two steps ahead his elder brother had jumped in front of Raghav physically trying to hold Mandar back. 

"Mandar! Ruko! Pagal ho gaye ho? Arre Dada kholiye Raghav ko! Khade kya hain? Amrutha Manasi! Sulochana!"

Pallavi who had immediately broken into a run to open and free her husband found herself being ruthlessly held back. She screamed feeling Sunny physically tackle her and holding her arms back painfully as she struggled like madwoman. 

"Mandar! Mandar nhi! Please! Tum gusse mein pagal ho gaye ho! Please! Accha Sunny ko hatao mujhse! Dekho he is hurting me!"

Vijay who had been trying to open Raghav suddenly found himself being roughly dragged back by one of the unknown men who had entered the melee unannounced as Mandaar pushed Milind away with a shocking amount of force. Manasi and Amrutha tried holding their stumbling father back as Sulochana stood immobile, the sheer terror of the situation settling on her features.

"Mandar!"

Pallavi shrieked which made him turn momentarily towards her and his eyes looked apologetic.

"I am so sorry sweetheart. Tum abhi hosh mein nhi ho isliye Sunny ko tumhe pakad na pad raha hain. Don't worry ekbaar ye khatam ho jaega phir main tumhe kabhi chot nhi pahauch ne dunga. I love you Pallavi."

"Nhi! Nhi! Please! Farhad! Baba! Kaka! Amrutha! Kaku! Manasi! Aai! Please! Amma! Keerti! Farhad! No! No! Leave me! No!"

Streams of tears ran down her anguished face as Pallavi tried to free herself frantically, calling for anyone who could help as Raghav tried his level best to come out of the ropes tying him almost looked morbidly fascinated by the fire licking the edges of the stick which was held in one of Mandar's unannounced goons. 

"Mandar!"

"Mandar no!"

"Dada please!"

"Mandar beta!"

"Dada please! Please mat kijiye!"

"Oh God!"

It was at a point where no voice was recognizable in the literal hurricane of shouts which had risen in the Deshmukh House like a desperate tornado, the only words heard were it's residents' frantic pleas to Mandar Deshmukh to stop this madness. Yet to no avail. 

As Mandar threw the oil over Raghav drenching him with it and the goon holding the fire threw the stick which he caught in one hand, Pallavi Rao saw her entire life flash in front of her eyes. She could see all the memories she had so lovingly crafted with her husband pass in front of her blurred vision like a kaleidoscope of happiness. Their daily banters, sweet moments, ugly fights, crazy antics, sensual nights.. all of it flashed in front of her like a cruel reminder of what she is about to lose in a second. She could hear Sunny's cackle against her ear yet the repulsive roiling of her skin had given way to a deadly numbness. As if her very body and soul was prepping itself to die along with the man she loved. 

Raghav watched wide eyed through his oil drenched spiky lashes as Mandar grinned like a crackhead at him before throwing the fire licking stick at his feet. 

What followed was the stuff of nightmares. It would torture the breath out of everyone in the Deshmukh family for the nights together spanning several years. 

Raghav's gut wrenching cry of pain was overlapped by his wife's simultaneous heart rendering scream of agony. The fire seemed to gain a tumultuous life of it's own coming in contact with a man who was perhaps even made by it. The flames had immediately lapped up almost till the torso of Raghav's towering six feet frame melding the fabric of his kurta and coat into his skin as he turned his face side to side violently in unbearable agony. The smell of burning flesh and hair made the Deshmukhs gag, not favouring the sudden influx of bile which had already risen in all their throats seeing such a terrible nightmarish sight at the first place. They just coughed and whined unable to see or comprehend or shout anymore. 

Raghav's heart breaking screams had stopped as the ache of literally being consumed by fire had snatched the breath off his chest making him incapable to even shout out and instead he resorted to a set of wracking whimpers.  

On the other hand, Sunny was truly having a difficult time trying to hold back a now hysteric Pallavi who had suddenly started behaving like a rabid creature. Her voice had gone hoarse screaming for her husband as she kicked, punched, scratched and almost gouged her captor's eyes out. She managed to slam her head back with all the might in her body into Sunny's face making him shriek in agony and leave her. 

But unfortunately for her, Mandar had her in a vice grip before she could jump into the fire and hopefully burn to her death along with Raghav. 

"Please.. nhi.. mujhe jaane do! Raghav! Raghav! Raghav! Let me die! Please! Raghav!"

Mandar slapped her hard but in vain as she kept chanting her husband's name like a woman turned insane with grief and shock. Which might not be too far from the truth if one comes to think about it. 

Suddenly before anyone could comprehend what was happening, a loud splash of water seemed to land on Raghav from nowhere followed by another loud additional splash which thankfully and effectively stopped the fire immediately. Raghav let out a bleating moan of pain before mercifully loosing his consciousness from all the mental and physical trauma. His ropes had been burned off from places by that time and could no longer hold his now limbless frame against the pillar and he fell to the ground with a sickening thud. 

Then there was a complete pandemonium at the house as many unidentifiable black clad men who were almost certainly Raghav's security detail ran in like guerrilla warriors out of all the corners of the house and launched on Mandar's goons mercilessly. 

Pallavi found herself getting freed violently as Mandar was suddenly almost airborne by the sheer intensity of the punch landing squarely on his bewildered face. Pallavi disregarded the bloodbath which seemed to have descended all around them like a scene right out of a Hollywood action film and ran towards her husband, crashing on her knees painfully beside him. She slapped a hand over her mouth struggling to keep herself from emptying the contents of her stomach and maybe all her organs along with it and found herself trembling incessantly like a leaf stuck in a tornado looking over the literally smoking body of the love of her life. 

She couldn't scream, or cry, or speak and just resorted to raking her nails over her own head leaving almost bloody trails on her scalp, the terror in her heart so potent that she saw white behind her eye lids for a moment. 

Mandar couldn't figure out what was happening to him for some solid minutes till half his face had almost been caved in from the relentless and monstrous blows raining on him like hellfire. Anyone who knew Farhad Ahmed would have died in shock had they seen this version of him. He was perhaps the most cool collected pragmatic and aloof person one can ever find on this planet. A perfect match for his temperamental Boss. But at the moment he was looking far more dangerous than Raghav Rao himself. 

Farhad himself wasn't aware of his own transformation. 

All he remembered was running in the room, seeing his boss, his mentor, his best friend, his elder brother, his Anna screaming in pain, burning right in front of his eyes while his sister in law shrieking like a madwoman held in a monster's unforgiving grip. 

And he had seen red. 

He had lost it at the very moment. 

The synapses of his brain had snapped like a shorted circuit and he had mechanically collected water in a bucket with inhuman speed from the tap outside and had doused the frightening flames consuming the man he loved beyond anyone and anything else before throwing himself bodily over the demon known as Mandar Deshmukh letting his control loose like that of an insane animal. Because that was what this fight was like. Animalistic. He would have punched the man to his death and kept punching his bloodied mashed corpse beyond recognition had his Bhabi's desperate screams and the police and ambulance's sirens not sounded in tandem. 

He stood up from where he had a now blood drenched Mandar Deshmukh and spat on his face unceremoniously like he was nothing but a pathetic dog, dirt beneath his shoes, the scum of the gutter. 

"Farhad! Farhad! Tumhare Anna ko bolo to open his eyes! I want to talk to him! Farhad please!"

He went and muttered an apology to his Anna and his Bhabi before forcefully dragging her up from the ground letting the paramedics swarm over Raghav's prone half burnt form. He had collected her weak frame effectively in a brotherly embrace and dragged her away from the place gesturing at Harish to collect their men and empty the room before the Police came in with a simple nod of his head. His most trusted henchman nodded his head in acknowledgement and literally swept away the others into the air before Deshmukh house was swarmed by the men in uniform. 

Though it was a futile exercise trying to find out what had happened. 

Cause all the Deshmukhs either appeared too shocked to be of help or literally vomited over their shoes before fainting on their own sick. It was disgusting and pathetic. When they had turned to the only seemingly functioning person standing in the house it was still of no use. 

Farhad who was still holding the now limp and frighteningly quiet form of his beloved sister in law in his able arms had glared so piercingly at the Inspector that the latter had only shaken his head and turned around to seal the place of crime and leaving the rest to come out of their trance. It was only later when he had managed to somehow bring Pallavi to the hospital where Jaya had silently collected her daughter in law's deadly lifeless form in her own shaking arms, her withered face drained off all colour, Farhad had allowed himself to break. 

And break he did. 

He had run out of the hospital building and collapsed on the edge of the road, on the pavement, painfully hard on his knees and emptied his guts. Then he had sat there, rocking and crying hysterically like a small child begging for the first time since what might have been forever, the arms of his Ammi. 

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A/N:- Should I continue this? I dunno..