Pride vs Prejudice

Chapter 14

Ria felt her heart hammering beneath the ribcage. She touched the door for a second, still feeling unsure of who was on the other side. Shiv may have been flippant about her concerns, but she hadn't forgotten them.

As she touched the bolt, the banging stopped. She stood there is silence before the banging began again with renewed enthusiasm.

"Who is it?" she asked, her voice croaking a bit

But there was no answer. Only more banging.

She looked around for something to help defend herself. With the pepper spray used up, she went for the next best thing. Her 4 inch stilettoes.

She walked to the door and opened it gently. She peeped into to see a young boy of around 10-11 years standing outside the door. He was literally jumping on his toes. He was clearly at the end of his patience seeing Ria not move a inch. He pushed past her and kept some things, that he was carrying, on the small and only table in the room and ran out before Ria could get a word edge-wise.

Ria examined the items on table to realize that he had left some Dettol and antiseptic cream for her. Shiv's doing? She wondered, before finding a tap close up and cleaning up her wounds.

It was 20 minutes after Ria had settled back in the room that the someone banged the door again. This one was gentler than the enthusiastic one that the door had borne before.

"Who is it?" she called out again

"The leader of your fan following" was the response after a brief pause.

Ria sighed and opened the door. There could only have been one person as sarcastic as that. Shiv.

"Very funny" Ria muttered

"Glad you thought so" Shiv said flatly before dumping a paper parcel on the table

"A young boy came sometime back. He got me some Dettol and antiseptic cream" Ria said softly, reading to thanks him of his gesture

"Must be chotu" Shiv commented

"Chotu?" Ria asked

But Shiv seemed to have no intention of responding. He has really gone monosyllabic in his response, or maybe this was his normal reaction. She didn't really know what normal was with him to be sure.

One thing that she was sure of, though, was that he could have fit into those spy movies. The one where the spy said "I will have to kill you if I tell you anymore" or where the spy said "This information is on need to know basis only and you don't need to know" Information hoarder!

"There is some food for you in this. This is all that I could find which seemed edible" Shiv told her, pointing to the parcel "Have it"

He was ready to turn and leave when Ria called him "Where are you going?"

He stood there pondering for a minute, enough to make Ria want to tie him to the chair and get him to blurt everything out

"There is a bus stop some distance ahead. I was told that there is bus that stops there, departing to Pedhe. I am going to find out the timing and the location"

"Pedhe?" Ria asked

"I assume that is where you were going as well. That is if you are still up for it" he commented raising his eyebrow in challenge

"Yes, I am up for it" Ria responded primly

"Good" Shiv said, taking his jacket off and throwing it on the chair "We should find out about the bus then. It is the best way to get there, unless you want to try out getting lift again"