Chapter: Fourteen    

Kirti stood facing the door which led to Sekhar's bedroom. She shuffled over her feet and threw an unsure glance at Abhi who gestured for her to go ahead. Sighing, she knocked on the door and waited for a response. Ever since Sekhar had arrived about half an hour back, he had locked himself up in that bedroom and hadn't talked to anybody. Abhi did think about talking to Sekhar but then again, he didn't know what sort of a mood Sekhar currently had and a pissed off Sekhar is never a pretty sight to handle.

"It's me, Kirti," Kirti spoke over the closed door, "I was wondering if you had had anything for dinner,"

Abhi passed Kirti a silent thumbs-up while she shook her head with a small smile at him.

"Kirti, would you come in for a second?" Sekhar's muffled voice reached her from the other side followed by the click of the door being unbolted from the inside.

Exchanging a look with Abhi for once, she mouthed the words 'You go and get some sleep,' to him before pushing the door open and entering the room. She closed the door behind her as she stepped inside but the moment her eyes met Sekhar's brown ones, she froze with shock and panic. His eyes held pain and agony which he tried and concealed with a blank face and lips pressed into a thin line.

Kirti's eyes slowly trailed down to his bare torso and the side of his abdomen which had a gruesome, bloody injury which made her eyes widen out in worry and apprehension. Sekhar was settled over the floor, his back resting against the single bed while he tried and kept his breaths under control, his one hand holding some sort of dressing bandage against the wound which perceptibly wasn't helping his situation in any way. Medical aid bandages, blood stains and antiseptic bottles scattered around him which made it evident that he had been struggling with this wound for quite a while now.

Kirti scrambled over to Sekhar and kneeled down in front of him helplessly.

"H-how did this-" Kirti breathed out feeling scared and petrified.

"Hey, I'm all okay Kirts," Sekhar interrupted her and passed her a smile, attempting to ease her down. Seeing Kirti terrified worried Sekhar more than the injury did.

"No you're so not okay!" Kirti spoke.

"Okay, listen I need something like a surgical knife and some more medical dressing cloth,"

Kirti deadpanned at Sekhar. Where in the world would she find those items which he asked for at this hour of the night? She couldn't leave the house which meant she didn't have a choice but to look for something handy inside the house.

"Just go to the common bathroom and check the topmost rack of the toiletries shelf," Sekhar sighed warily.

Nodding, she quickly jumped into action and reached the door. Pulling it open, she slid out hurriedly but the moment she turned into the narrow hall, she walked into someone. Raising her head, she met the jet black eyes of Yash who looked at her with a frown when he noticed that Kirti just came out of Sekhar's room. He took notice of her pale skin and wide eyes which further elevated his concern.

"You okay?" Yash asked her.

"Yeah," Kirti smiled shakily at him, "Just had a little talk with Sekhar and he says he wants some dinner so I was just going to grab a plate for him from the fridge,"

Yash nodded, still concerned. "Alright, let me lend a hand,"

"No," Kirti declined rather too quickly, making Yash frown confusedly. "I mean I'll manage fine. You need not take the burden," She added to which Yash nodded an unconvinced nod.

Turning, Yash walked into his room after glancing at Kirti one last time. Releasing a breath she had been holding onto, Kirti walked into the common bathroom and inspected the toiletries shelf as instructed by Sekhar. Her fingertips felt the hard surface of a wooden box which she grasped and pulled out of the rack. Balancing the box in one arm, she opened it and discovered a variety of tweezers, surgical blades, knives and a whole lot of bottles with long, incomprehensible names. Closing the lid lightly, Kirti tucked the box under her arm and peeked out of the bathroom door cautiously. All her friends were in their respective rooms probably and it was safe to move ahead.

Reaching Sekhar's room silently, Kirti bolted the door shut and kneeled down beside Sekhar as she opened the lid with trembling hands. The sight of blood never failed to terrify her and make her heart beat faster. It reminded her of who she was, of how many lives she has been risking all along with hers and how much more blood was to be shed only because of her.

Sighing, she settled down on the floor silently as she let Sekhar handle the wound with precision. He first used one of those blades and tweezers to pull out some sort of bits and pieces from the wound which were dripping with dark red blood, making Kirti's eyes well up with agony whenever he winced or flinched. She tried in vain to identify what object would've caused such a shallow but painful wound but all her sight managed to comprehend was blood and pain. Few moments later, Sekhar sat with a silent look, his back resting against the foot of the bed and his breaths seemingly pacified than before. Kirti wrung her hands in a fidgety manner as she glanced at the now-attended wound of Sekhar's which was now cleanly concealed behind dressing and bandages. There wasn't any more blood at sight except for the few trickles scattered over the floor.

"Remember the important work I had to wrap up before I returned to your place for the night?" Sekhar spoke up, making Kirti look at him.

"We had spent the remaining day in trying to figure out the exact location from where the hacker was operating to dismantle the firewall of CCTV's around the place. We were expecting him to be somewhere way too far from our reach but, surprisingly, his location was in Allepey," Sekhar said.

Kirti shivered involuntarily at that new bit of detail. First, that guy whom she encountered at the café and now, Ifaaz was in Alleppey as well. This was definitely not a coincidence anymore.

"I decided to inspect the place with my associates but, unfortunately, our car got a flat tire on the way and we didn't have a choice but to wait for another car to reach us. The place where the tire punctured wasn't of any advantage to us... surrounded by bushes and trees and close to no houses," Sekhar narrated, "I should've known already that they knew that we were coming. The flat tire was a planned accident. Those bastards had laid out nails over the road before the intersection,"

Kirti kept looking at him mutely.

"I barely got any chance to react when they outnumbered and ambushed us. There was no option but to fight out of this. Firing bullets wasn't a good idea because, though a desolate route, there were still houses where people might be present and who knows whom the bullets would scar," Sekhar spoke with a slight shrug of his shoulder.

Nodding, Kirti pursed her lips into a thin line, trying to stop the tears from escaping out. Smiling a small smile, Sekhar raised his free hand which wasn't resting over his wound and gestured for a hug. Kirti wrapped her arms around him cautiously and sobbed in a relieved manner while he patted her head with a low chuckle. Sekhar had always been like an elder brother to Kirti. He was her partner in crime, her mentor, the reason to her smile, and her life. She had already lost her father, she couldn't let go of Sekhar as well.

"What are you crying for?" Sekhar asked, still hugging her, "I made it out alive with just a scratch, emotional dummy,"

Nodding, Kirti pulled away and rubbed her tears roughly, her eyes glued down to her lap. Guilt was always something that encountered Kirti every single day. The realisation that her Ma always lived a life of paranoia, similar to Kirti's, just because Ifaaz was after her; the guilt of making her loved ones go through so much because she kept that file to herself and now, Ifaaz wanted to erase that damned document along with Kirti's life; it all made the guilt an overpowering sentiment for her to tackle.

"Kirts!" Sekhar called Kirti out of her trance. She looked up at him and realized that he had called her name for the fourth time while she was zoning out.

"Huh?"

Sekhar sighed with an amused smile. "I said I'm hungry,"

"Oh, right," Kirti mumbled with a nod and left hurriedly to get him some dinner.  

Author's Note:-

Hola readers! 

So things are slowly but steadily escalating for the negative, huh?

Why were Sekhar and his team ambushed? What all lies in the bag now?

Stay tuned to find out! *waves a goodbye*