A Danger That Lurks In The Darkness | A TPQ AU |

XXII | Failure

SHEELA
SHE was brought back to consciousness, like someone had pulled her out of water just when she'd been drowning.

She tried to take deep breaths to calm herself, her gaze filled with darkness, panic coursing through her.

She couldn't hear anything. Just... silence.

She couldn't speak. It was as if her vocal chords had been cemented together. Her mouth felt dry, and her head felt heavy, with the early onset of a headache coming in.

"Miss Jagan,"

"Who are you?!" She tried to shout, summoning the last bits of courage she had, which dwindled moments later.

Somebody pulled the blindfold off her eyes, her eyes adjusting to the dim lights around her.

"What do you want with me?!" she shouted. "If it's money, then I'm sorry— I doubt you'll be getting that!"

"We didn't want you, specifically," the voice sighed. "He— we would have preferred your twin sister, instead, but... you would suffice," the words he spoke sounded carefully practised— each breath like it had been scripted.

"Sorry to disappoint." she snarked. "I guess my sister was more valuable to you? Worth more money?"

"Not money," the voice belonged to a man, she realised, belatedly, as he continued, "information. I want information."

"Information about what?"

His face came into clear view, illuminated by a single, exposed lightbulb hanging down from the ceiling of where they were.

His face was pudgy, and sweat beaded his forehead. Blue and purple bruises bloomed as patches on his sickly-looking grey skin, as he said, his voice croaky, "Your friend. The attorney, at the DA's office. Arundhati Shah."

Her heart skipped a beat. "What do you want to know about... Aru?"

She desperately darted her gaze toward the shadowed surroundings, looking for something that would help her escape.

Her hands and feet were bound to a chair, so she couldn't kick him, nor could she punch him.

The walls smelled of something like fresh paint— gasoline, maybe.

The panic inside her rose, more rapid than before. AM I GOING TO BE BURNED ALIVE?

She took several deep breaths to calm herself down once more, the sting of gunpowder tickling her nose.

One of the walls was lined with an old, run-down cupboard, which was slightly ajar, out of which several syringes and tiny vaccine bottles poked out, in a tray. On another shelf of this cupboard, was a contraption like a pressure cooker— but maybe that was her sanity finally cracking.

She fought to keep her voice even, as she said, "What do you want to know about Aru?"

She glared up at him, as he took a deep breath, his unsettled expression melting into one of discomforting smugness.

"I hear she has a wedding coming up?"

————

RUDY
"WHERE else could they have hid her?" she asked. Mini's apartment was strewn with documents, as she paced anxiously, her gaze fixed on the windows.

The sky was strewn with faint, scattered stars, nearly invisible against the blood-red horizon.

If the last time Nikita had seen her sister was at 8.30 PM, then they were nearing the 24-hour-mark of Sheela's disappearance.