What Lies Beneath

Chapter 17 (iii)

With a tranquil sigh, Ishaan opened his eyes and met the same scene he was left with.

The person in front of him lay soaked with blood, breathing weakly and unconscious.

He retreated his hands and stood up slowly, wanting to burn the body on the snap of his fingers, he halted as his hands quivered. Watching it still breathing he couldn't bring himself to follow his brain. Rolling his eyes frantically, he turned around to leave the alley as it was.

Right when he took a step forward to move, a hand grabbed his foot tightly, freezing him on the spot and he stopped cautiously. Though his body remained firm on the ground his expressions definitely grew stern as he shifted a little to look over at the man behind him.

The person was not unconscious anymore but half awake, leaning his upper body from the ground to grab his leg while the lower stayed glued to it, he threw some puffs of air tiredly as he glared at him dead into the eye; as if he was barely gathering his strength to stop him in place.

Ishaan frowned, not startled but taken aback by the fact that the grip of this man was much stronger than a normal should have after waking up from such a deadly state.

Keeping the possibility that this could be a trap to ensnare him, he waited for him to strike first but to his surprise, the grip of the man loosened and he collapsed on the ground, defenselessly.

"St-ay..." He whispered before completely letting go of his foot and closed his eyes.

Ishaan looked at him confused before swirling. "What did you just say?"

Of course he heard him well, but it was a little too unbelievable for him to trust his ears.

"Pl-ease stay..." The man repeated, looking at him from the gaps of his lashes.

Ishaan both frowned and laughed at his request, thinking he was literally asking for his death to stay when he spoke again.

"She n-eeds... he-lp."

Ishaan's brows raised. "No sir. I'm very sorry that I sneaked into your brain without asking for your permission but neither can I help you, nor can anyone else. Your life isn't more than this so please, don't push yourself to live more and just rest in peace." He said while crouching down in front of him, ready to strangle him for a peaceful death.

But the man didn't buy anything and persisted.

"My daughter... is in the hos-pital."

Ishaan's hands stopped at once as they were at an atom's distance from finishing him. His expression became solemn as he glared at him with sharp eyes.

"She needs- help... she has a- surgery to-day... she n-eeds money to... pro-ceed."

"I don't have money on me, sir."

The man sighed tiredly after talking too much. He closed his eyes and roamed his hands weakly near his abdomen on the ground, before momentarily pulling out a stack of notes and showing it to him.

"Plea-se... give it to my wife- in the hospital... she would be- waiting- for- me."

Ishaan was confounded by his impudence and scoffed, ficking his eyes away.

"I don't want- help- for myself. Just- sa-ve my... child- please." Grabbing his hand with his own bloodied one, he placed the cash in Ishaan's hand and begged.

"She's only twelve... I don't want her to- die at a young age... like that- " He said, his eyes tearing up. "She- still has a cha-nce... plea-se don't say n-o...

"I'm sorry, but it's already late." Uttered Ishaan, before retreating his hands back but the man held them tight.

"Please... I don't want my wife to- lose- two lives- at a time... She'd be- devastated." He breathed heavily after saying so many sentences and just closed his eyes, wanting to rest truly.

"Are you trusting a stranger with your daughter's life?" Ishaan questioned, looking at the cash in his hands, his words sounded more like a threat and a statement.

The man only opened his eyes silently and replied with a smile, yet brilliance laced in every word as he enunciated. "At least... I tried..."

His grip on his hand loosened as he started to feel light headed, his body falling asleep.

Hearing those words, Ishaan felt something hurting inside him all of a sudden. His demeanor breaking down as he questioned himself why, why can't he just stay put with it? Why can't he ignore it? Why does his soft side always show up at times like this?

It doesn't gonna benefit him anything then why can't he be like other vampires, who would just crush his bones and move on... who doesn't give a damn! Why is he always the one who cares?

___

Ishaan didn't know how long the night lasted but when he finally came to his bed, sleep came fast to him.

He only remembered taking a few turns in his position when someone had started shaking him already.

"Ishaan! Wake up!"

An annoying voice of a girl filled his ears along with a sweet scent as he rubbed his eyes and shifted to look up. His face scrunched in recognition of who it was.

"What the hell do you want?"

"Are you coming to the office today or not?"

"Why do you care?" He said snuggling back into the blankets.

"I care because I have to go with you. It's 8:20 in the morning! and if you're not coming then I'll have to leave in 5 minutes because you might not get scolded for coming late to the office but I do. And I don't have time for that."

His eyes opened wide as he looked at the clock and found she was shockingly right. He hadn't planned on taking a day off today just to catch up on his sleep, nor did he need one to function properly because mostly he just did it out of... habit. But hearing her freaking out on him made him irritated and he threw a pillow at her.

"Stop yelling Misha!"

She caught it on time before it hit her on the face. Infuriated, she threw it back at him except this time, it hit him hard.

"I'm going to wait in the front yard. If you don't come in 5 minutes I swear I'll leave, then you better keep answering your mother!"

She announced before leaving the room as Ishaan watched her astonished. Not only did she throw a pillow at him, she also threatened him of Mrs Malhotra? What has gotten into her?

Not able to do anything as she had already left the room, he threw up his blanket frustratedly and went to the washroom to freshen up.

Too bad, he could only brush his teeth and comb his hair in the meantime. Wearing the same sweat shirt and pajamas from the night, he not only dropped Misha at the company but also attended the office in the same look too.

_ _ _

a/n: i have literally no idea how things are going at your end after being notified of this book in a long time... 🫣 please tell me something...

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