Chasing Death

Epilogue

"Love can never die. It fades, it withers, but it still lingers, somewhere in the conscious or unconscious. Love leaves a mark on the soul always, be it a happy memory or a wound."

🖤🖤🖤

"Maa, I'll see later, okay?" Rik ended the call abruptly and slammed the phone on his bed. It skidded off almost to the edge, stopping there.

The ping of WhatsApp messages was heard. Definitely it was his mother forwarding him pictures of girls his relatives had gathered for him. Rik absolutely hated nosey relatives poking unnecessarily into his life. As soon as he had landed a job as a junior doctor at a local hospital, the relatives were behind him like bloodhounds for marriage. He failed to make them understand that he wasn't ready at all.

His small bedroom was suddenly feeling stuffy. He paced to the window and threw it open. It was then that he heard a commotion in the streets below. Quiet by nature, normally he wouldn't bother at these little things, but little snippets of conversations caught his ears.

Something was wrong with a girl. The inner hero in him gave a little nudge. He slipped on his worn-out slippers and swiftly came downstairs.

A cluster of people was gathered at the gate of their apartment. He recognized a few neighbours standing there with grim faces.

"What happened, uncle?" he asked one of them.

The man just gestured towards the front. Rik elbowed his way through the crowd, all the way to the front, and stopped short. A girl was lying face down on the concrete road. Rik's medical brain immediately went into emergency mode. There was no sign of blood or any injury, but she seemed to be unconscious. He moved towards her swiftly and sank into his knees beside her. Then he located her carotid and felt for a pulse. Strong and bounding.

The crowd was still mumbling. No hint of anyone willing to help. And Rik lost his cool demeanour. "Someone is hurt here and you all have been standing here doing nothing?"

"Don't touch the body, young man. It's a police case," someone warned.

"I am a doctor," he said in a gruff tone. "Please don't crowd here. She needs air."

The crowd stepped back reluctantly. The ones behind jostled each other.

"Who dumped her here?" someone asked.

"We are a civilized society. What a calamity," another commented.

"Look if they did something to her..." A third voice trailed off ominously.

Rik drowned out the last of the comments as he gently turned her over. Her body was warm. It appeared almost as if she was sleeping.

"Definitely drugged." Someone offered an unwanted opinion again.

He opened her eyelids, whipped out his phone, and checked the pupils with his torch. They were reacting well. His cautious eyes roamed all over her. No sign of injuries. Dressed in casual denim and a red T-shirt, she looked like a normal girl. Rik's gaze rested on her face. She had a moon-shaped chubby face with little dimpled hands.

"She just fell unconscious somehow," Rik announced, much to the relief of the crowd. "And she wasn't injured," he added, glaring at the half-lit faces in the dark. A few made faces, apparently displeased that no drama happened.

"Help me carry her upstairs please," he begged one of the neighbours.

He raised one eyebrow and huffed. Rik felt awkward, taking a lone girl to his room when he was a bachelor himself. But his duty towards her and his concern for her safety was above everything.