MaNan FF - HEAVEN (On hold)

~ 8 ~

Nandini shrieked as a shocking blow struck her squarely over the fingers and sent a jolt of excruciating pain coursing through her. "Ahrrghhh! Grrrrr!!! You f*****g bastards!" she gnashed her teeth with intense fury and cursed at the top of her lungs. Aryaman wrapped himself around Nandini, rolled over onto her and took the shower of blows that rained down on them.

WHACK – WHACK – WHACK – WHACK!

Besides the shouts, curses, and the loud thwacks that rang in the air, Aryaman's tortured groans reached Nandini's ears. He was taking it all! Every single one that was aimed at her. "Aryaman! Get off! Stop hitting him!" she cried out and stuck her hands around to protect him but ended up getting more burning thrashes on her nails and fingers. Tears of pain and fury shot out of her eyes as she let out a deafening scream of agony. She had probably never been hit so badly before.

"Nandini! Stay in! Don't move! You'll get hurt!" Aryaman warned and sandwiched her even tightly. The intense agony from the thrashing was beginning to take a toll on him. Anymore and he would probably end up with a popped blood vessel. From the burning pain on his skin and flesh, it felt like he had already burst a few.

After beating up their victims to a pulp, the cops grabbed hold of whatever they could get their rock-hard hands on – the "protesters" smashed limbs, collars, anything... They were dragged like an overstuffed garbage bag and thrown into the police bus to be taken away. Aryaman and Nandini were amongst them. The stuffiness... the moans of agony... the confusion... and the silence amidst all the noise... felt like hell. She tried to register what was going on around her. But all what she could see was Aryaman's cold, sweaty chest plastered against her face. Half of the buttons had been ripped off from his shirt in all the manhandling. Like cattle being transported for slaughter, one by one, man and woman were tightly packed into the bus before moving off. There was hardly an inch of space left to set foot on the ground. The air smelt of diesel, mould, sweat and blood. Unwilling to accept defeat, some of the protesters began to shout slogans once again.

Nandini looked up at Aryaman as she felt his ravaged body shiver against hers. "Aryaman! Aryaman... Are you okay? Just say something! Please talk!" She nudged him gently but he seemed to be in shock.

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Meanwhile, the news had reached Raghav's ears. He continued to be on call after call, blasting left right and centre at the person on the other line in a struggle to get his people out from behind the bars and to make the lives of those involved... miserable. "Find out the cops who were responsible for this! Don't spare them! Screw them all!"

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By evening, Nandini was roaming around the corridors of City Hospital in a bid to find Aryaman's room. She had a dark lash across her face and a bruised lip, right where she had been struck by the cops. Three of her fingers looked blue and swollen. She cradled them with her good hand whilst she searched for the room in which Aryaman had been admitted.

When she was getting tended to by the nurses, her boss Raghav had dropped in to meet her. He had assured her not to worry and that he would "unleash hell on those who dared to touch my kids." With this, her heart had just grown fonder for him. He was a very cooperative guy as it was, but this incident and the way he was taking things forward had really touched her. He had just exposed how protective he was about his staff. He was genuinely upset and wanted to avenge those who beat up his team for nothing. But what worried her the most was the information she had got from Raghav about Aryaman. He wasn't doing too well. Doctors had determined the extent of his injuries, most of which were internal. Crushed muscles as if hammered with a meat mallet. A cracked knuckle, a ripped tendon and smashed blood vessels.