Lost | ✔

Chapter Eight - The Journey Ends

They didn’t know where they were going.

As soon as they reached the car, Khushi had simply drove off with one goal in her mind—get as far away as possible from Sunshine Motel.

Arnav had insisted on driving but he didn’t look too good to do so. Their brief run in the rain had left both of them drenched. Khushi felt chilled to the bone, as if her insides were gathering frost and she had both the goons and the rain to blame for that. Her feet were killing her, especially the nasty cut on her right foot. But still, she looked and felt better than him.

As soon as they hit the rain, he had almost collapsed. She figured his head hurt pretty badly because he clutched it all the way to the car. Khushi had tried to cover them with the umbrella but the wind was ruthless. The umbrella broke not even a minute in. By the time they got to the car, Arnav looked a little too pale for comfort, his eyes unfocused and his jaw tightened, probably in an attempt to quieten a howl of pain.

It was, therefore, better that Khushi drove. She took them both as far away from danger as she could, while Arnav, in a half-asleep state, guided her every once in a while. She was not familiar with this surrounding so, she didn’t question his judgment—though he too hardly looked sure of where they were.

Till now, there was no other car in sight for them to stop and ask for directions from and Khushi was really starting to doubt whether they were getting any closer to the city. That was the moment the car chose to break down.

Khushi almost cursed aloud as the car started slowing down, lurching forward and coughing smoke until it stopped.

“What the--?” Next to her, Arnav was just as annoyed. He unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car before Khushi could say anything.

Khushi sighed, and followed him out, scanning their surroundings in the meantime. The downpour had reduced to a drizzle now, but the wind was still really strong, howling with all its might.

“Get back in the car, Khushi.” Arnav said as he opened the car hood.

“No, I’m good.” Khushi said, though she felt as if a thousand needles were piercing her skin at the same time. Arnav didn’t retaliate, probably because he only had so much strength left. And so, while he tried to fix the car, Khushi kept watch.

However, he closed the hood soon after, grimacing and shaking his head, “This car is no good for now. It’s too damaged. We’d need a proper mechanic or at least the proper tools.”

Khushi tried to control the chattering of her teeth as she asked, “So, what do we do now?”

Arnav leaned against the car and took in their surroundings. It was several seconds before he responded, “We’ll have to keep moving on foot. We can’t stay in the car, otherwise we would be in the open and if they happened to come by here...” He trailed off.

Khushi nodded. The Govinds had promised that they’d take care of those goons but they can’t take any chances. They would have to stay hidden. If those men can find them both at that motel, they’d definitely be able to corner them in the middle of nowhere.

Khushi furrowed her brow.

But why were they after them? By now, it’s clear they weren’t thieves. They undoubtedly seemed to be on a mission to hunt them, but why?

The touch of Arnav’s hand over hers broke the chain of her thoughts. She looked up as he tugged her forward.

“Come on, we need to move.”

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They were walking pretty slowly given that they were being chased by blood-thirsty hooligans, who looked disturbingly too much like trolls, but they couldn’t help it. They were both badly injured, specially Arnav, and they had barely given their wounds time to heal before they set off on another run. It was all they could do to not collapse on the ground and give up.