The Vile.

Chapter 9: A tangled situation.

"What's meant to be will always find a way..." 

Trisha Yearwood
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"You have to stop doing this Sudha! Do you have any idea the amount of risks you're taking every day?" Ganika whisper yells.

"Trust me I wanted to take him to a hospital, but he was just not ready to go. I couldn't leave him there. What else I could have done?" Vasudha responds. Both of them are standing at the door of one of the rooms at Ashroy, while Baburam bhai keeps on cleaning the droplets of blood here and there.

"I have no idea how this man managed to stay awake for so long with such a gruesome wound. He seems to be someone facing this regularly. You're lucky that he didn't need blood transfusion, otherwise this whole situation would have drawn the attention of the police and you would've been answering them right now. When will you understand that your safety concerns us Sudha? I won't be surprised if this man turns out to be gangster or something. Have you seen the scar on his face, his whole body is filled with gruesome scars as well. Please do show him out the moment he gains his consciousness. I find him fishy." Ganika says while handing over the prescription to Vasudha.

"You might be right but even if he was something like that I would've done the same thing Ganika. You can't let someone die on the road relying on your assumptions only, can you? So I couldn't. Moreover, the scenario can be different as well. But I'll try to avoid situations like this, I promise. Now, let's get you back to the car." Vasudha smiles.

"Leave your scooty here, I'll drop you on the way." Ganika adds smiling back at her.

"I think, I'll stay back. I brought him here. Can't just throw the responsibility at Baburam bhai now." She replies.

"Are you sure? What about uncle? God.. You're incorrigible, you know that?" Ganika adds dramatically.

"Yes, that I know. I'll call baba. Don't worry. See you tomorrow." She adds, yawning.

"Go, get some rest now. And please change that water bag of a dress, if you don't want to catch pneumonia." They both laugh to that. With this Ganika leaves.

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"Your T's are real comfortable Baburam bhai." She says while eating.

"Sudha didi,you can sleep at Pravati ji's room, I'll stay here." Baburam bhai suggests.

"No way Baburam bhai. Rather bring me an extra pillow and two blankets. I'll sleep here on the floor, so that I can keep an eye on this big guy." She adds smilingly.

"Don't you get tired of helping others. Look at yourself. You've lost weight, there are dark circles around your eyes. You're stressing yourself too much." Baburam bhai says looking at her with concern.

"This will pass Baburam bhai. Helping people makes me happy. The thought that at least someone got to get out of a particular trouble leads me to a peaceful sleep. Trust me. However, I couldn't find this man's identity. His family might have gone worried sick. His phone is dead, due to water obviously. I found it beside him on the road." Vasudha says while standing up with the empty plate in her hand.

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Finally she gets to have a good look at the man's face. Ganika was right the scar on his face looks really gruesome. "What can cause such a ghastly scar? It might have been really painful for him." She thinks to herself.

His facial features are strikingly beautiful if not for the scar. The injections are working. He seems in less pain now. The whole room is silent apart from the light sound of the saline drip and Baburam bhai's usual snoring. Yes, he was adamant so Vasudha had to let him sleep on the floor of the other side of the bed.

The man's bloodied white shirt has been replaced with thick bandages. His upper body is visibly well sculpted and filled with more scars. He seems to be used to with pain. She instinctively feels bad for him. From his clothing and everything he seems to be wealthy but the scars prove that wealth is not everything after all. Who knows he ever gets to have good sleep or not. With these thoughts finally her eyelids close and take her to a dream full of light, rainbows, flowers, butterflies and a beautiful fragrance. The fragrance resembles woods, trees and freshness. She keeps on looking at the greenery smilingly but her smile fades when everything turns red, blood starts dripping from the leaves. The light gets replaced with a gloomy weather. It's cold. She feels too cold but sweaty as well. What is happening to her? She slowly turns around and a hooded man drives a knife through her face, giving her a horrid scar. She cries out in pain. But her voice is not hers. It's the voice of a male.

She immediately sits up, sweating then turns around to find the scarred man screaming in sleep. She moves towards his bed and holds his hands. Hands, that are inhumanly clutching his own hair, in pain.

"Oh my God! You're hurting. Please don't do this to yourself." Vasudha tries to comfort him. He slowly opens his eyelids a little, looks at her then surprising her he very vaguely utters,
"M-my head hurts, it- it hurts." And with that he closes his eyes again.

She slowly brings the chair at the head of the bed and starts massaging his scalp. Even in sleep he releases a relaxing sigh. She can't help but smile at that.

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That smell is close, very close to him. It reminds him of purity, something he has not witnessed for an eternity now. His head is not aching like usual. He has got habituated with that pain.

Then he feels a soft hand tangled into his hair and as if immediately he snaps his eyes open only to find the most unexpected person's face lying some inches away from his. Her eyes are closed, small strands of hair fell on her face, one hand lying straight on the bed and the other.... tangled into his hair.

He kept on looking at her face in awe. How can a person rescue and take care of a person like this, knowing that the person is a total stranger? Is she insane? He could've killed her, could've done something really horrible to her, does she not know about "stranger danger"? As if out of instinct his hand moves towards the small strands of hair.

Right then she opens her eyes and he immediately draws his hand back to his side. She immediately gets alert seeing him awake.
"Hey, how are you? Is everything okay? Paining anywhere? What about the headache and the wound, do you fee.." Her bombardment gets interrupted.

"I feel fine." The man answers in his deep voice intently looking at her. She nods her head in understanding releasing a deep sigh of relief. She then moves towards the small table at the end of the room and brings a glass of water with some pill strips.

"Do you think you can sit up?" She asks to which he nods and tries to sit up with all of his effort. Seeing him striving she immediately moves to give him support.

"No need to sit up fully, this much will do. Open your mouth." She urges. He keeps on looking at her without any expression.

"What? Don't you  wanna get well soon? Then you'll be needing the pills. So please open your mouth." She urges firmly this time.

He finally opens his mouth and she throws the pills into his mouth. He holds the glass which is also held by her and drinks the water.  He then lies down.

"You lie here, I'm bringing something liquid for you to have. Maybe soup, what say?" She asks while placing the glass and the strips on the table.

But he doesn't answer. She gives a defeated sigh and utters,

"Fine then. You have no right to complain later." Saying that she leaves.

He keeps on observing her retreating figure and recollects how her soft hand was tangled into his hair. What the hell. What is he doing here? With her? Why is he complying to her orders? What the hell is wrong with him?

He needs to leave this place as urgently as possible, before it starts affecting him even more.