9. Enshrouded by Grey Black Clouds

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7 : 30 PM , Kochi .

NANDINI :

Everything in life is subjected to change as 'Change' is the only thing that remains constant. It was quite an hour after the Sunset when the heavy grey black clouds enshrouded the city obscuring the very presence all the shimmering stars and the bright shining moon; still my pertinaciously intrepid nature made me stick to the decision of meeting Stefan near the big deserted ground behind 'Malini Infotech', despite the fact that I latched the door of my hotel room leaving Manik Malhotra in a torpid state .

Of course, I was anything but a lighthearted person, yet , both of us discommoding each other in that manner made my cardiomyocytes cringe. The taxi's continuously roaring engine came to a halt as the driver pulled the breaks to stop the vehicle saying, "Njngal angu ethi, (We have reached) Madam."

After paying the driver, I started walking in the direction of the deserted ground, a loud thunder whizzed in the sky while I saw a muscular silhouette sitting on a bench, thinking of the figure to be Stefan I moved my feet towards him. Standing in front of him I asked, "Stefan?"

He looked at me and my eyes took in his appearance, those long curly hairs, the big black colored headphones clinging to his neck, the hoodie like dark blue leather jacket having many bruises and some blade cuts with a phone in its pocket, a big scar on the left side of his forehead and a star like tattoo pattern on his neck which was being camouflaged by the headphones .

"Nandini?", he questioned.

Nodding my head I said, "I guess Jack has informed you everything in detail. I want you to hack this Pendrive for me. Crack its codes and copy all the data in this other Pendrive."

Taking both the Pendrives from my hand he asserted, "Fine. I'll contact you as soon as the work is done. Now you can leave."

Frowns appeared on my forehead as I processed his words, "No. I want you to do this work in front of my eyes."

"Don't try to teach me my work Ms.Murthy.", he retorted in vexation.

"I'm not teaching you anything. I'm just stating what you are supposed to do.", I spat folding my hands close to my stomach.

Stefan stood up from the bench and started walking in order to exit the place and the grey black clouds in the sky roared once, again .

"Stefan, Stop right now.", I threatened him.

He turned and started laughing like a maniac, I scanned him narrowing my eyes under my scrutinizing gaze, nothing was making sense until a loud thud sound reached my ears and I felt excruciating pain on the back of my head while blood oozed from the wound as someone walloped my head with a rod and my world started collapsing due to the growing dizziness .

Handling myself I tried to concentrate, fighting with my blurry vision, turning behind I smacked their faces without wasting a second. They were five, but accepting defeat wasn't in my nature, in fact my blood was boiling with the cognizance of betrayal. I did't know why they were doing all of it. But they needed to know that just because I was a woman, it didn't mean I was weak. I had the strength to take them head on.

In order to win over my strong fighting skills two of them tried holding me in a futile attempt of restricting my vigorous menacing movements; I managed to abscond from their hold and once again attacked them breaking their nose making the blood extravasate from their nostrils. Pulling them robustly by their shoulders, I made their fronts collide with each other and they fell on the ground .

The fight continued for a while with me having an upper hand, I was giving them some strong back to back punches when someone once again assailed the back of my head and I fell down while screaming due to the severely agonizing pain. It was Stefan who attacked me with a rod .

They were all set to run away, I was trying my best to stand up and stop them but my motor controls were getting weaker due to loss of balance and excessive bleeding. My eyes were getting shut despite my multitudinous protests. Everything seemed to be going out of hands when a prismatic drop of rain fell just above my right eye making me open my eyes while I heard someone's footsteps, recognizing him I just uttered the name 'Manik' before closing my eyes lying there insensate as my world seemed blacker than the external world.

MANIK :

The rain started pelting down as I fought with Stefan and his five other people. I already had an idea that he might pull this stunt on Nandini if she refuses to go forward by his way. I wasn't ready to spare anyone of them as they had messed with Manik Malhotra and they were going to pay for their deeds .

The fight continued for quite fifteen minutes, that was when I knocked all of them unconscious confiscating the pendrive from Stefan. It wasn't much whammy to me that all of them had the same 'Three stars tattoo ' on the neck which made me abominate them more . They were all worthy of Manik Malhotra's wrath.

The night was getting darker, the rain was getting heavier and her unconscious state made the things most lamentable. Of course, her whip-smart, sharp witted nature surprised me; she came out as a real nuisance for me still it was getting on my nerves to see her like that. Incarcerating her securely in my arms, with the thought that Nandini Murthy owed me a lot of explanations I carried her to the place I never thought I would ever take anyone else.

An Unknown place 8 : 00 AM

NANDINI :

Grappling hard I tried to open my heavy eyes imploring my lord for all the happenings of last night to be a part of one of my worst dreams but the deep pain, the sensation of cotton and bandages on my head despite my opened eyes corroborated that the last night was anything but a dream, it was very much real. I wondered if I had lost the pendrive for which it all started.

My doubts confirmed even more when I saw a familiar face entering inside that utterly shambolic dark room. The room wasn't mine. It didn't seem like any of the hotel rooms,too. It rather appeared to be some sequestered place. The one with multiple ropes, iron rods scattered here and there, some wooden piles kept in a corner, a single yellow bulb which kept flickering all the time.

The very familiar face asked me, "Nandini, as now you are conscious and you seem to be quite fine I want you to tell me why you pretended all the time? You already knew that I lied. You already had an idea about the Pendrive, you could have easily confronted me. Tell me, What was your real motive? Why you played along so sharp-wittily in this game of mine"?

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Vote and comment !

Expected Stefan to attack Nandini ?

Expected Manik to show up at the scene ?

What you thing why Nandini pretended ?

An guesses about the 'Three stars Tattoo' ?

Some words for our fighter Nandini ?

Bye!

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