Beyond Love: The beginning

7. Trapped in the Dungeons

"Maalik(Master), we have nothing left to feed our family," the middle-aged woman pleaded with folded hands, and dropped to her knees in sheer agony. "Please let me meet my son Vineet," she wailed miserably.

The next instant, a steel hard fist connected with her swollen cheeks with paramount force, and she impacted against the unyielding floor with a deafening clang.

The grey-haired plump man, in his late sixties, was seated comfortably on an armchair, and rubbed his knuckles after bestowing that mighty blow. 

"How dare you!" he snarled venomously. 

He now leaned forwards by a minuscule from his chair, to glower scornfully at the frail figure, that had supposedly collapsed on the ground, amidst a pool of blood.

"How courageous of you to even utter a word being dressed like that," he seethed.

Fighting the spurt of blood from her cracked skull, the semi-conscious woman pulled the loose end of her saree to drape her head.

"That is much better." A second man, who was considerably younger, nudged at the woman's hip frightening her. He then turned towards the fuming man.

"Calm down Roshan Saheb (Sir), I am dismissing that useless lady. Right now, she isn't our concern. We have crucial plans that needs to be executed precisely, with proper informed decisions."

He aimed at the two heavily-built monstrous men, who stood guard beside the door, to shift the bleeding woman outside the room. Once the woman was out of vision, and the doors were securely shut, the younger man cautioned, "One of our men has been captured at the outskirts. And he knows too much. So, he has to die."

Roshan Saheb shot a grave look at the younger man, and rubbed his beard in deep thought. After a while, he concluded the obvious, "We have a traitor amongst us, somebody had to have given him away."

*******

"Dhwani didi, slow down!" Khushi demanded, and paused to catch her breath. Her heart thundered against her ribs, and she peered helplessly at a restless Dhwani. The five of them had been dashing behind her, feet shuffling through the detritus since quarter past hour.

"I do not recognise this path," Shaurya warned, as he cast a troubled look at the nervous looking Dhwani, who refused to stop.

Khushi clapped her hand to her mouth at Shaurya's warning. She deeply suspected if it was another one of Dhwani's panic attacks. Regardless, they worked their way along the narrow trail, with thorns cutting into their skin. The flapping of unseen wings, snapping of branches and the whistling wind sliding against the leaves from behind the shadows, amplified their anxiety considerably. Sneha complained as she struggled with cobwebs on her face.

"Turn your flashlights off!" Dhwani hissed urgently. "They have found us!"

Khushi lifted her hands to console Dhwani, but she instantly shook them away.

"I am not fabricating anything Khushi," she defended sharply.

Khushi nodded convincingly, noticing the profound anxiety that filled Dhwani's eyes.

"Go hide, quick! I can hear them!" Dhwani pointed at a group of massive banyan trees, and sprinted towards it.

"Hear who," Piyush questioned, and hastily searched around him for any sign of human or animal life. Meanwhile, Sneha grasped his hand, and dragged him to follow Dhwani behind the trees.

As Khushi was scampering behind them, she caught her breath in a startled gasp of throbbing pain. Something sharp had gashed into Khushi's feet, setting her off balance. She dropped down over a bunch of dried leaves. To her absolute horror, she fell even further into a muddy narrow trench, and landed on a rough surface with a deafening thud.