The Pride

7. Blood of none

Hello my fellow friends! I am so so sooo sorry I am late. I apologize for that, hopefully I will be able to start updating more regularly.  Anyway let's get to the story..... Enjoy!

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Ranveer couldn't see Ragini in tears. It stabbed his heart, to see his love in that condition. Ragini noticed Ranveer there and went from Sanskaar's arms to Ranveer's. She hugged him even tighter and cried her heart out. "Shhh Ragini, it's ok, calm down," said Ranveer hugging her tighter, hoping to console her. Ragini tightly held onto his collar, and buried her head into his chest, only able to say in a soft whisper through her sobbing, "I'm sorry...... I'm so sorry," with that she slowly let herself fall asleep in his embrace. Ranveer noticed her sobbing had stopped and found her sleeping peacefully in his arms. He carried her to their bed and tucked her in. "She needs time to recover from what ever happened at Himalayas. Most of all she needs rest," said Sanskaar looking at Ragini. "Yes, I agree but we need to get to the bottom of what's bothering her...," stated Ranveer looking at Ragini's condition.

The next morning, everyone was up and relaxing in the living room, laughing and joking about. They thought to lighten up the mood as things hadn't been that great. Ragini was in the kitchen cooking breakfast. Even though Ranveer didn't agree with her doing house work, she insisted saying when it gets too much she will back off. Finally after tons of convincing she was able to go to the kitchen and make breakfast. When she got in there she went to go rinse some fruit (I really don't know what she should cook, so please bear with me). As she opened the faucet a red liquid came out. Ragini was shocked. Ragini touched the liquid with finding it strangely warm, as if it were fresh. It was blood. As she was examining the blood, a small piece of paper flew in from the window. The paper had a message written, "Look behind you. I have a reminder..," was written on the letter. Ragini turned around and was shocked to see a messaged smeared on the wall with the same blood. On the wall the reminder simply stated, "TICK TOCK. TICK TOCK. YOUR TIME IS RUNNING OUT." Ragini then realized she had heard this phrase before, somewhere in the past. The question was, who had she heard this phrase from?

She snapped out of her trance when she heard Ranveer asking her from the living room if everything was ok, as he felt something was off. Ragini straightened herself up, and got rid of the small paper that had flown in. Ragini heard footsteps and quickly cleaned the blood off with her hand. Ragini then quickly left the kitchen to find Swara right outside the kitchen door. "Hey everything ok?," asked Swara. "Yeah, just... can't decide what to make," said Ragini hesitant. She followed Swara out to the living room. "So Ranveer, your wife now can't decide what to make," said Sanskaar laughing. "Hahahhaha that's how she is," said Ranveer side hugging Ragini. Ragini gave a nervous chuckle. That was when Sujata gasped in horror. "B-Blood!!," she yelled in shock. Annapurna who was sitting next to her followed her gaze and also got worried, "Ragini!!!!"

Everyone looked to see where Annapurna was pointing to, and saw Ragini's hand covered in blood, misunderstanding that it was bleeding. "Ragini what happened?!?," asked Sanskaar worried. Ragini bit her lip remembering that she forgot to wipe the blood off her hand. She quickly came up with an excuse that it was some sort of fruit juice that she forgot to wipe off her hand. "Only you can do this stupidity. You scared us like anything!...... Please excuse me, I need some time alone," said Ranveer going to his room upset. "Sanskaar, what do you think about making your world famous Aloo Parathas," asked Ragini. "I'm on it," said Sanskaar walking to the kitchen. "I'll be back. Y'all please carry on," said Ragini following Ranveer into their room.

Once she reached the room she saw Ranveer looking out the window looking upset. "Ranveer..," said Ragini in a soft voice. "Please.. just don't... I- I don't know what to do," said Ranveer still facing the window. "Ranveer I...," started to say Ragini when Ranveer asked in between, "Why?.. Why are you keeping secrets? Tell me.... what's stopping you?," Ragini kept a hand on his shoulder, "Ranveer I know..," she was about to continue when suddenly Ranveer turned around with red eyes and yelled, "TELL ME!!!! Why are you keeping secrets!!!?? What is your problem!? What are you hiding!?!?," said Ranveer pushing Ragini away from him. Ragini was shocked, no words were able to come out of her mouth, Ranveer was never like this, he would never even talk to her like this. Something was definitely off. Ranveer noticed her expressions and started to laugh, but the laugh was in a different voice. A very familiar one. This "Ranveer" took off the face mask he was wearing, and the person was revealed to be Laksh. "Your time is running out!! Your timer is ticking Mrs. Ragini Khanna... and then everyone and everything you love and care about will go up into flames, BOOM!!! And just like that, everything is gone......"

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On another note, I would also like to thank all of y'all for reading and voting on this story, it really means a lot! a really big THANK YOU, and lots of hugs and kisses. Once again I'm sorry for the late update. I hope you enjoyed, and as always.... keep guessing!!! 😉