The Vile.

Chapter 7: Intruder.

"Boss, is it safe for you to come out of the car? I mean i-if anyone of them gets to see you?" The worried voice of Ojas says from the other end. Danuj knows that Ojas can see him clearly from behind the tree he has hidden his car.

Instead of responding he disconnects the call. Something or rather someone is deliberately drawing his attention. His eyes are glued to the girl who successfully and almost forcefully sticks to her strong persona as if nothing can break her.

As commanded, all of his men left, leaving the protesters broken, hopeless and devastated, with only one exception. It has been more than an hour. The police came and gave them a small visit. Some of them spoke to them and they left. During this entire time she seemed adamant to re-fix that stage back into life, which seems rather impossible. They obviously need a new one. Slowly most of them leaves for the day, leaving her with few more of her companions. And then something happens that almost forces him to come out of his car.

A group of children and some aged people enter the field, led by Baburam bhai. It took only a second for Danuj to realize who these people are.They have to be the inhabitants of "Ashroy".

He comes out of the car as he watches the kids running straight into Vasudha's embrace.

She kneels and smiles at all of them. As if trying to give everyone of them individual attention. A bandage is wrapped around her forehead to cover that bleeding wound. Her open hair is a beautiful mess. But the most striking feature has to be her eyes, they are glittering with liquid happiness. She is striving real hard to hold them back. This is a particular sort of happiness that can be very easily addressed as motherly.

Her friends gather around her, some of them start picking up the kids into their arms in an affectionate way, while one particular looks worriedly at the wound on her forehead and wraps her tiny arms around Vasudha. Who in turn stiffens and closes her eyes. One of her arms wraps around her tiny waist and other rubs her head full of curls.

The kid pulls herself out of her arm and gestures towards one of the aged women. Who slowly moves towards them and hands her a lunch box. By that time every one of the her companions received a lunch box.

The small girl then smilingly opens the box and takes some food in a spoon and brings that to her mouth . Her eyes widen with surprise. She freezes for a moment then somehow manages to take that spoon full of love into her mouth. Just like that she finally manages to eat few more spoons before she smilingly raises her hands in surrender.

He found this intriguing. An emotion so alien to him. That is when he gets to see something that leaves him with utter perplexity. The strong headed girl starts moving out of the stage, rather stealthily, as if she doesn't want anyone to notice her. Keeping a smile plastered on her face she slowly moves towards the back stage and hides herself behind a huge tree.

And now he can freely witness what he so wanted to see as she finally covers her mouth with both of her palms. Her whole body starts shaking as her eyes clench, and she cries. But he can tell no sound can be heard, because she is making sure not to make any. Tears seem to pour out freely from her eyes.

Now is the time for him to feel satisfied, content but what he feels instead stuns him. Is he feeling sympathetic about her?

"Bullshit, no way in hell!" He thinks to himself and as if immediately his whole demeanor changes. That unrecognizable feeling is forcefully overpowered by irritation and anger.

He turns around in manner as if looking at her is contagious. Without wasting another second he gets into the car and leaves.

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"Enough Ojas! Drag them out of my property by tomorrow afternoon, I don't want any blatant excuse. And if they don't come out by themselves don't hesitate to show them what Danuj D' can do. Am I clear?!" He asked menacingly.

"Yes boss. It will be done." Ojas responds nervously.

"Has to be." And with that he disconnects the call.

Standing up from the bed he lights a cigarette and opens the window, it's dark outside apart from the tiny lights coming from the lamp posts or hoarding towers. The city is under deep slumber. The particular time he can roam around freely, without worrying about someone seeing his scarred face.

He should be used to with the curious stares and disgust in their eyes by now. But every time anyone did that he was reminded of the incident that gave him the ugly scar. So he decided to never show his face to anyone, unless he wanted to frighten someone to death.

He brings out a dark polo shirt and a grey sweat pant and gets ready to go out. He always carries a mask for emergencies if he ever felt like hiding his face, specifically from kids. They tend to cry out loud.

He knows why he is going out for this run today. There is this feeling that keeps bothering him, a certain face that keeps occurring. He has never felt like this, this feels weird. As if you're being controlled by a secondary force. Something he doesn't like at all. It's he who controls everything and everyone around him. Being under someone else's control sounds pathetic to him.

"The hell!" He shouts to himself, punching a wall infront of him.

No, after all it seems really difficult than he assumed. A girl with an honest and confident pair of eyes, who smiles at the kids like a mother, who fights the goons like a pro, who confronts the enemies like a fearless tigress, and who captured his mind like a leach, is intruding every sane part of his mind. And he surely doesn't want that to happen.