Enchanted melody of our hearts

🔽BLOOD RUNS HOT-CHAPTER-17

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Meera pov:

The scene that greeted me was a nightmare come true. It was a makeshift fighting ring, a bare concrete floor surrounded by a makeshift fence of barbed wire. In the flickering light of a single bare bulb, I saw my little brother.

Naveen was slumped in a chair, his face a canvas of bruises and swelling. His shirt was ripped and hanging from one shoulder, exposing a raw bruise. His eyes were glazed with pain and fear. Beside him sat Aaron, his friend, his expression mirroring Naveen's, a mixture of terror and despair.

A primal scream clawed its way up my throat, but I choked it back. Tears welled up in my eyes, blurring the image before me. But I pushed them back, forcing myself to remain strong.

Ignoring the throbbing in my head and the growing nausea, I rushed towards him, my heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Reaching him, I knelt before the chair, cradling his face in my trembling hands.

"Naveen, ena da achu?" (What happened to you?) My voice was a strangled whisper, barely audible above the pounding in my ears. "Epdi adipatruku unku? Ena aachu nu sollu?" (There are so many injuries on your face? What happened?) The urgency in my voice was palpable.

Naveen whimpered, flinching at the touch. "You shouldn't be here akka. Wh-what happened? Why are you here? I called Appa..." His voice trailed off, his eyes filled with a question that mirrored the turmoil in my own heart.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I explained about Appa's cardiac arrest. The stark shock that washed over Naveen's face mirrored the blow it had dealt me. His breath hitched, a gasp escaping his bruised lips. "No," he whispered, his voice barely audible. Shaking his head in disbelief, he choked back a sob.

Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to focus on the immediate crisis. "Now, Naveen," I said gently, wiping a stray tear from his cheek. "Tell me what happened. Why did you call Appa?"

Naveen flinched at my touch, his body stiff with pain. But slowly, with each labored word.

"Akka," he began, his voice barely a whisper, "for the last three months, Appa has been struggling with a debt. You know his employee deceived him and ran away with the money. Appa had to borrow from private lenders to make ends meet." He paused, wincing as a fresh wave of pain flickered across his face.

"Just a week ago," he continued, his voice trembling, "I overheard Appa talking on the phone in the garden. He was pleading with someone, requesting an extension on the loan. I'd never seen him so pale, so defeated. He never begged before, Akka. It broke my heart."

 "That's when I...well, I heard from a schoolmate about underground boxing. They said you could win a lot of money there. I just wanted to help Appa, Akka. I couldn't bear to see him like that."

He took a shallow breath, his chest rising and falling with difficulty. "So, I decided to do it. But to participate, you need a support boxer. That's where Jordan, my classmate who already fights here, came in. We made a huge bet with a man named Jack. He...he defeated me, Akka. And now I don't know what to do but I thought I could win," he rasped, the pain evident in his every word. "But he...he defeated me."

My heart ached for him. I knew what he'd done was reckless, driven by a desperate need to help Appa. While the method was wrong, his intentions were pure.

"It's okay, Naveen," I soothed, squeezing his hand gently. "Don't worry about that now. I'll handle this."

Just as I spoke, a loud, dramatic clap echoed through the dingy space. My head snapped towards the sound, my breath catching in my throat. A man, heavily tattooed and radiating a menacing aura, emerged from the shadows. He couldn't have been much older than twenty-five, but his eyes held the coldness of someone far more hardened by life.