A Man among Wolves

Chapter 13

His mind was silent compared to the previous night. In that dense silence, he could grasp the reality of the situation far too easily.

He had to run! There was nothing else to do now except run!

Selva vaguely remembered brushing Anbu aside as he took off into the street. There was no time to answer Anbu's questions. There was no time to waste. He ran like a crazed lunatic, barefooted along the muddy road.

The muddy road turned into tar under his feet but he kept going. Many turned their heads around to watch him run past them. A couple of dogs chased him and he had to slow down and make kissing noises to make them stop.

But soon, he had to stop as he felt giddy. Slowly, he walked to a juice shop nearby and sat on a plastic chair that was placed outside. The smell of sweet lime glided towards him and he realized that he was dreadfully hungry. It was so severe that he could have sworn that his stomach walls had stuck to each other from the emptiness. Perhaps that was why he felt giddy...

Selva looked at the shop. Different kinds of fruits from Apples to Figs were displayed to the customer's eye. But every time someone walked up to the shopkeeper to buy a juice, the shopkeeper always filled the juice in a glass jar from one of the lidded containers before him and gave it to his customers. He never touched the fresh fruits. Some of the lids were clearly damaged, leaving their respective container open.

But he badly needed something to eat or drink, even if it wasn't fresh and came out of a container open to air. So, he stuck his hand into his pocket to check if he had any money.

He did. Just some hundreds.

Selva caught the shopkeeper staring at him, as he checked his money. In Selva's mind's eye, it wasn't a casual stare of curiosity that people usually throw in the direction of a stranger. It was something else.

No other thought followed. He was already on his way.

This time, he couldn't run. His duck feet were fatigued and throbbing with pain already. At best, he jogged a few paces before continuing to walk at the highest speed possible. His eyes were surveying in every direction, to see if he recognized anyone he should be afraid of or to see if anybody recognized him. Selva tried his best to walk in the shadows, face cast downward while also allowing his eyes enough view. He kept glancing behind him. Yet, his breathing was now so laboured that some people stopped to stare. That fuelled his paranoia and he jogged a short distance again before he resumed walking, at the behest of the pain in his feet.

And then it became unbearable. Selva felt open and exposed. He was a major flesh wound left undressed, open for infection. Anybody could do anything to him. Anybody could be connected to Agilan...even this youth who walked by with earphones lodged in his ear. Or that woman in the green saree with enormous eyeballs and a big kumkum paste on her forehead. Or it could be that unkempt, homeless man lying on the pavement who lifted his hands robotically to beg for money from every passer-by. Every single one of them seemed dangerous. If anyone made a move, he may not see it coming. And even if he did, the ache in his ankle and his blinding, ravenous hunger would render him weak enough to succumb to their attack.

So, what was he doing walking by in such an open space? He was an idiot. An idiot of the finest order. He had to go hide somewhere. A closed space. There was a marriage hall nearby. But there seemed to be an occasion and it was crowded.

Selva badly wanted to run straight into the dining hall and eat at the feast. But it was so heavily crowded that he could hear them buzzing like bees. It wasn't a place he wanted to be. Furthermore, the very next second, he noticed a car parked in the parking lot. There was a party flag on its front.

It was the party Agilan served.

Selva doubled his pace and only stopped to look back when the marriage hall was barely visible on the horizon behind him. And he kept walking.