sas chp 8

 CHAPTER 8 - what is happening?
When I started gaining consciousness little by little, I recalled everything that happened. Was I dead or alive? Was I in heaven, hell or earth? I tried opening my eyes but couldn’t. My eyelids seemed very heavy. I lay there in silence with my eyes closed for a few minutes, pretty sure now that I was alive. ‘We have to take the girl down’ Armaan had said. He planned on harming Tiara. No! I wouldn’t let him. But where was she?

I heard footsteps. I lay there silent, unable to do anything. I might as well pretend I’m still unconscious. “You can’t do this. Look at her. Does she look like she’s completely lost herself?” a voice said. I hadn’t heard Armaan’s voice much but this wasn’t his. It was someone elder than him. However, he replied and I knew it was him from his husky voice. “Tia told me that her name was Sana.” So now he nicknamed Tiara? How dare he? I’d nicknamed him too. I liked calling him Mr. Devil soul. Even better, I’d call him “Mr. devoul”, like devil and soul put together.

“She didn’t harm her. I can see she’s not completely gone. But she’s impure. We all can see that. This is something beyond our understanding. I’ve never seen anything like this before. She could be a threat. I don’t think keeping her captive is a good option. Like I said, we might as well take her down. We need to kill her chief. Plus, she’s so close to Tia. I can’t let her hurt her.” I hoped I was dreaming. Mr. devoul wanted to kill me to protect Tiara from me? Was he crazy? Why did he keep calling me impure? The chief spoke now, “Armaan, she’s mixed. We’ll figure out what this is but she needs to stay alive. Three of her friends followed her here because they care. If she was really a threat, she wouldn’t have them. Souls only hypnotize one person whose body they need. These three really care about her. I don’t think she’s dangerous. You’re being overprotective about Tia.”

I needed to bang my ears somewhere. Who had come for me? One would be Aksha of course. Who were the other two? Maybe Khushi was here. John wasn’t possible. Who was the third then. Perhaps it was Adhiraj or Hemant. Or maybe, just maybe it could it be Dravya. He always helped me when I was in trouble. It had to be him. The chief continued completely unaware of my inner thoughts, “We’re guardians. We need to protect all humanity. We have to stop the souls. A doctor does not kill a patient who has HIV. Even though the patient is going to die one day, a doctor treats him. Similarly, we can’t just kill her because we know she’s going to die. We’re not even sure, she might have a chance to live. We need to help her as much as we can. Anyways Armaan, it’s not safe to talk about any of this in front of her. Whether she is in her senses or not, if she hears any of this, ‘it’ might too. It’s best she doesn’t plan anything and remains unaware. Ignorance is bliss for her”. I think I was too stunned to even adjust myself to what I’d heard.

According to the chief I was going to die. Nothing was clear from the vague conversation about what was happening to me. I wasn’t even sure if this was a trick or they were actually telling the truth. I tried to open my eyes and failed again. My brain stopped working and I think I fell asleep. Because the next thing I remember is that I was waking up, not sure if all of that had been a dream. No, it wasn’t a dream, I thought. Because if it was, not even in my worst nightmare would I have thought that Armaan was a guardian like Dravya. He looked evil. Too bad he wasn’t.

I squinted my eyes and adjusted them to the sunlight. I was in a room. I wasn’t tied to a rope like I expected. I was on the floor and it was cold. I was shivering, not of anger or fright this time. I walked towards the door that I could see. Armaan’s chief sounded like a reasonable guy. I could talk to him. The door was closed but it wasn’t locked. I opened it and stepped outside. It was kind of a big party hall. The position of the sun told me it was a little after dawn. Armaan was standing there with an old guy. The chief, I guessed. They were having coffee like it was just a normal day. Well, it was, for them. When the chief heard me coming, he turned around and greeted me. With a handshake? It was weird.

He had a little-long white beard and he was lean. But not very old. He reminded me of ‘Dumbledore’ a little. “Hello Sana. That’s your name right?” he greeted me with a smile. “Uhm, yes” I said and now I turned to Armaan. He still hadn’t looked my way. Like he didn’t care. Huh, neither did I. He needed to answer me some questions though. “Hey you” I asked him straight. “Why on earth did you make me unconscious? And where’s Tiara?” “She’s safe, back where she belongs” he said, not bothering to answer my first question. “I asked you something else as well” I spat back. The chief soon interrupted our sour exchange of words politely. “Why don’t you have breakfast first? Then we can all sit and talk. Oh and by the way, my name is Clark. And before you ask, I’m not superman” he joked and winked playfully. “You need to learn a lot of things from your chief, especially manners” I mumbled really low, hoping he heard it. I think he did because his side glance was sourer than ever. Good. I smirked a little.

Clark took us to the other end of the hall. A table was already set there with six chairs. I clearly remembered what Clark had said. Three of my friends were here. Within two seconds I heard Aksha’s voice squealing my name. I was so happy to see her. I smiled from ear to ear and gave her a tight hug. “Thank god you’re safe!” she exclaimed. “We’re sorry we followed you. You acted so strange during lunch, even in the bus you ignored me. And you left the room before I could freshen up. How dare you missy?? That’s why we followed you. Are you okay?” So that’s what had happened. “I’m fine Aksha” I said, while I still wanted her away from this mess. “Where are the others?” I asked. “Ah! Here they come” she said and pointed behind me. I turned around to see John! He was here, after what happened at lunch!! “John, I’m so so-“ when I saw the person with him, I couldn’t complete my sentence. I was completely dumbstruck.

It wasn’t Dravya, neither was it Khushi. It was Martika. Martika! I couldn’t believe it. “What are you doing here?” I accused, rather than asking. “Actually Sana”, Aksha replied instead, “she was the one who bought us here.” “Re-pe-at” I couldn’t believe my eyes or ears. “She did notice your strange behaviour, and when I was in the washroom, she saw you leaving. She called me immediately and we left. On the way we met John, he was following you already. We just bumped into each other.” Now I looked at John. Very dramatically he put his hands up and said “I only wanted to confront you and ask you what’s the deal with you. You were going alone so I thought it’s the right time to talk to you”. I smiled. “Thank you guys, Martika, you too”. She only nodded rather than telling me how thankful I should be to her, throughout my life. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all.

We ate some food and I felt good. I didn’t even realize I was starving. Clark’s witty comments were enough to lighten up the mood. Mr. devoul was the only one who hadn’t smiled even once and kept giving me cold scowls, as usual. It reminded me of what he’d said about an impure soul. I wanted to ask them about it, and why they thought I was going to die. But every time I tried, an inner voice told me that I shouldn’t. The curiosity was killing me but I wasn’t allowing myself to say anything. That had never happened before. When I was in this inner dilemma, I heard Clark and John arguing over something. I didn’t even know how the commotion started. All of a sudden, John was up from his seat and asked me, “Come on tell me. Don’t you wanna know what’s gotten into you?” I was completely lost with where this conversation started. Now Aksha got up too. “John how could you? They told you this could be dangerous. You shouldn’t have said anything in front of her.” That left me shocked. What just happened?

“That’s enough” John said. “Listen Sana, you need to know what’s happening. You have a right to know.” I felt anger whirling inside me. I wanted to know but I didn’t want him to tell me. It was a crazy stir of emotions. “Listen, these two here. They’re guardians. And you have a…” he stopped mid-sentence and I was shivering, of anger this time. “Enough!” I growled. I could feel my face turning red. There was a knife on the side plate on the table. John didn’t deserve to live. I took the knife and attacked him.