WOAH! Not in a mood to mug  up about bacterias causing dysentery. So double update today! 

Yayy!

Enjoy, vote and comment!

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NEHALI

"Ap fikaar maat kijiye. App to jaan hai hamari." The man coos before caressing her face. Just then she turns to face the man and her face becomes clear to me. I am not surprised, its Ruksar. But, what is she doing here? But she doesn't look at him, instead looks past him to the darkest corner in the room where I am hiding. My heart rate spikes up already thinking about the excuses that could have landed me here. Curiosity killed the cat and Nehali.

I wonder if I am hallucinating, but I swear I just saw her smirk, before she turns to look at the face of the dead pilot.

"Maybe. Gussa mat kijiye aap." She whispers, rubbing her hands behind his back." You can tell me you know and relieve your stress. I am always here for you."

"Yeh saali, she was being too brave. So my men put a bullet in her head. I would have preferred to torture her. She has a relatively nice figure, but alas, I don't do the dead." The nerve of that man! If I could, I would leave him with drug resistant strains of Acinetobacter baumani.

Another man strides in, with a long white coat before dipping his head in salute.

"Mahaboob, I need you to take of this body. Do anything, but this body must not reach India. I don't care how you deal with it, but make it done. Or else boss will be very angry. Also, are the preparations done? Boss wants her today, no more delaying!"

"Everything's set as per your orders, Sir!" The man says before pushing away the trolley carrying the body to another door just to the right of the entrance. I hadn't noticed it before, must be where post mortem is done, or in this case, bodies are cared for.

"Chaliye." Ruksar urges, before pulling him away. Two minutes after they walk out, I slowly come out of my hiding place before making a dash for the door. All this while I hadn't noticed how weak and cold I had been feeling.

As soon as I step out, warmth greets me and blood rushes to my skin. Bright yellow lights meets my eyes, almost blinding me as I take a few steps with closed eyes, not before crashing with a wall, a soft one. I take a moment to open my eyes, adjusting to my surroundings before I am hardly yanked and pulled to a nearby room.

"Nehali, Nehali. Can you listen for once? Can you not just stop pushing?" Ruksar stands right in front of me, her hands still holding onto my arm, her nails engraved in my skin.

"You are hurting me." I wheeze out. Damn, I don't want my both arms to be injured.

"Shut up! Did he not tell you to just work in the hospital? What part of work includes hiding in the morgue? Come one tell me!" She shouts at the loud part before looking around me.

I yank away my hand before rotating it see a few nail marks, and blood oozing out, "look what you did! I can do the same to you! Who are you tell me what to do?"

"I should have put a bullet through your head instead of trying to get some sense in you! DO you know they are looking for you? You are to be kidnapped today. I don't understand why a nobody like you even matters! For god's sake stop paying with fire, Nehali!"

"I am sorry," I finally say. I know I am real trouble. I just can't seem to make the choices that would keep me alive longer.

For a moment she looks shocked and me embarrassed. She expected me to fight her, not apologize. She crosses her arms nonetheless, looking rather pleased.

"We are gonna have to get you out of here." She says, as her eyes flicker around the dark store room as if looking for somebody.

"Wait, how do you know what Basheer wrote to me?"

She ponders a moment before answering, "I know you hate me as much as you don't trust me. But you are gonna have to trust me this one time. Trust Basheer that he wouldn't risk your safety. You gotta listen to me."

"You are partners?" I ask her. So, she's not a maid.

"We are. I collect information for him. He can't do it all himself. A few sweet words and a few glasses of drinks and they open up their heart to me. What gullible creatures are men!"

I take a moment to analyze her. Could she have seen the letter when she came to clean my room? She looks confident and almost worried for me. Why would she wait to trap me when she could have well enough exposed me in the mortuary?

"Fine, I will trust you this time, don't make me regrets."

She gives me no words of understanding, going straight into plan mode. "Take off your coat, use your duppata to cover your face. And follow me, don't speak unless I tell you to." She says, before muttering a slight, "Please."

I take off my white coat discarding it in a box of antibiotics before wrapping the dupatta to look like a veil. She slowly turns the knob, walks out like its perfectly normal to walk out of a storage room.

I follow her, walking alongside her, we are barely noticeable among the throngs of patients surrounding us. What was the accident about? What could they achieve? I keep on wondering until we are stopped by a voice.

Caught!

Caught!

"Ruksar! What are you doing he..." Dr. Nizamuddin looks astonished for a moment, before resorting back to his normal self. I wonder if it was trick of lights but then he asks, "Who's this with you?"

"This...this is my maternal aunt's sister's brother's daughter. A very far away relation. She's here for a few days actually."

"Oh, I thought...never mind. Anyway, how are you? And how is she?" Asks Dr. Nizamuddin.

"Nehali?" She asks before squeezing my hand as an indication to keep quiet and leave the ball in her court, like I was gonna do any different.

"She...i don't know. I haven't gone to Basheer's a long time ago. Basheer left today morning for some business, so maybe she accompanied him."

"She's alone with him, oh okay. Thanks for stopping by." He mutters before moving to check on a patient.

Ruksar pulls me along, speeding up to the exit before anyone can stop us. As we are out of the building and onto the streets, she slows down, but still keeps a keen eye around us.

"Why couldn't we just tell him the truth?"

"Those men looking for you are going to ask him, and will say you are not here. Do you understand? This will buy us more time."

"Where are we going?"

"To a safer place."

I know she's not gonna answer anymore than a few cryptic words, so I restrain all the questions I had wanted to ask her.

How long until I get back? Where is this safe place? Will Basheer ever come back? To me perhaps?

Ahead of us the road divides into two brick pathways, one of them leading to our house and the other to an unknown path.

"We go right from here." She says when she sees me looking at the road that leads to home.

"Can I get a few things? They wouldn't be so quick to catch up right? Please just let me go?"

"Nehali, it's risky. I can't compromise your safety."

"It's one last thing I have of Basheer, please let me get it." I beg.

"You love him don't you?" She asks, with a strange longing in her eyes.

"What about you?" I ask her back, equally curious.

"I don't...I don't love him." She says looking away, "Be quick, I'll wait here."

I nod, sprinting onto the familiar alley that leads home. I climb up the stairs that lead to his room. I find the bracelet still where I placed it last, donning it on. A crumpled piece of paper lies near my toes. It reveals the letter written by Basheer.

Strangely, I don't remember throwing it here. How? Oh!

Just as my eyes widen, a soft cloth is placed over my face and a sweet smell invades my senses and I slip into unconsciousness before a last fleeting thought.

I thought using chloroform is outdated?

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Good night guys, its 2:40. I gotta sleep now, I still need to mug up those bacterias in the morning.