अन्तः अस्ति प्रारंभः।
The end is the beginning.
A caterpillar dies, to birth a butterfly. Water evaporates to rain down. Dead carcasses fill the stomachs of vultures.Life gives way to death and death to life. In a vicious circle of different karmas...
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Violence wasn't a new thing for her. Her own father and uncle had taught her the basics of self defence and she had inherited her parents' quick temper. Samar Veer had given her a blade and taught her to break bones and separate flesh from bone. Had taught her what to eat and how, if push came to shove.
Mihira had known one thing above all: Shaili's life and Mihira's survival mattered above all. There was no boundary that she wouldn't cross for that.
So, when Shaili was kidnapped by Hafiz while Mihira had gone for an odd job, Mihira had seen red.
Her aunt had informed her instantly, had come running to her, sobbing and shaking about how too many men attacked the house and how her father and uncle had been injured and they couldn't save Shaili from them and now they had taken Shaili to the JN square.
JN square was notorious for one thing on Friday evenings. Auctions.
The beast in her chest had snarled and Mihira had immediately called Bishnu, along with Kaveri, Ekveer, and their own other acquaintances, and within the next ten minutes, they had already been on the way to the square.
None of them were friends— but all of them had one common factor. They owed something or the other to Mihira. And the price of a favour from Mihira was simple. Complete loyalty to Shaili.
The city's biggest square was usually a market for everything a man could think of— from edibles to weapons to information. And that day, the market was full of men and women who were filthy and they all wanted either of the two: a person bought for themselves or sheer sadistic entertainment from seeing the auctions.
Mihira had reached just as Hafiz had started to grin and order his men, and while the platform he was standing on was too far away to shoot safely yet, Mihira could already see Shaili. Her poor eleven year old sister, her soft and frail body held back by Hafiz's filthy hands.
Her heart almost stopped beating. Mihira knew the truth. One failure towards Shaili's health and safety and Mihira would rather stab herself in her eye.
Rage unlike anything before coarsed through her veins and she felt something in her throat growl. Her vision tunneled, knowing that her acquaintances had already started to set perimeter but her focus could only remain on her sweet sister, shoulders hunched and head lowered as she flinched away from a man who looked like he may be middle aged as he tried to forward his hand to cup her cheek.
The snarl that tore out of her throat was more beast than human and the bullet from her gun seared itself into the palm of the man who had dared to assume he could purchase her little sister.
The crowd panicked and started to scatter and the despicable man fell back on his ass, shouting curses and crying out for medics. How unfortunate, Mihira thought sadistically, satisfied, knowing that Ekveer already had instructions to pose as a medic and whisk away any direct culprits that they wouldn't be able to kill immediately.
