Furore

46| At Last.

46| At Last.

I could hear my breath echo too loudly in the car, my heart thump against my chest too wildly and my hands cold and numb on the steering too horrified.

I couldn't think clearly, I was too afraid and the only thing I knew I was doing right was chosing the correct road to my house. I roughly turned the steering into the row I lived in, finally stopping in front of my use gate.

I looked behind with my eyes shrunk through the back window and grasped huge mass of air finding no one.

I grabbed onto my handbag and mobile and rushed out of the car, the noises of vehicles from behind caring me.

"Sithara." Arsalan's soft but surpirsed voice shook me and brought me out of my trance.

"You okay?" He cupped my cheeks in a second, his features frowning in worry. "What happened?" His hands ran across my face. I was sweating, I was red.

I breathed at the question, ample of tears running into my eyes. "Tell me?"

"Ah." I car zoomed by before I could open my mouth, terrifying me again. "Tell me? I'm with you." He whispered, noticing my reaction.

"I was.." I broke down. "I was at the NGO and there came a girl, she was raped, half burnt. I was in the hospital all day, there were a lot of problems." I was heaving, but his finger tips on my skin was soothing.

"At the signal, while I was coming back, some boys were misbehaving so I could not control but scream at them for that, I was mad already." I paused. "But I do not know that probably instigated them and they started saying dirty things to me and they chased me until I until I entered the main gate."

"You are safe, you with me." He took me in a tender hug. It wasn't something like I was pressing against his body or any thing but we were close, his arms were around me and it felt so better.

"You remember the car number?" He asked me in a mellow voice. I nodded, telling him the same.

"Junior, give Aadya to us and go to the local police station and file an FIR." He informed his man who was carrying Aadya.

I had grown and grown in a way I had not expected. I had lived alone, all on my own for so many years, be it be in Bengalore or London or in Delhi now, but things had changed. I wasn't the Sithara who could walk freely without a trace of anxiety within her, I might have fought Ranbir, I might have won over him, but the truth that I was aware of that I couldn't physically fight a man attacking me was troubling.

I knew it wasn't my fault that I didn't know how to punch, or I didn't know karate or any martial arts trick, I knew it was the men who didn't make me feel safe around them but eventually it was nevertheless me, the woman in me who suffered.