Forever Yours

Chapter Thirty One

"GET OFF HER!" Shehnaaz screamed, barging into the kitchen. "Leave her alone."  

For a second, Shehnaaz felt a spell of dizziness clouding her vision, but then she saw Megha's head turning to her direction. Tears spilled down the younger girl's pale cheeks and she tried to move. 

To no avail. 

Shehnaaz looked around, adrenaline rushing through her body and lunged towards the kitchen shelf to grab something, anything to defend herself with.  

A knife.  

"Get away from her, or--" Shehnaaz warned, walking towards the kitchen cook in a kind of crazed frenzy, holding the knife in her left hand and her right outstretched to grab Megha and push her away from the pervert of a man holding her arm in a vice like grip.  

The kitchen was in a fairly secluded area of the orphanage property, and Shehnaaz knew now why her instincts had led her here. There was no one except Megha, the Cook and Shehnaaz herself in that part of the property.  

Megha was standing in the middle of the room, scared and shaking as tears continued to spill down her cheeks. "Megha.. yahaan aao." Shehnaaz managed to speak, although her voice broke throughout. The knife was still in her hand and pointed into the direction of the man. "Let go of her, you bas**d. She's a kid."  

The cook looked aghast, but his grip was only tightening on the younger girl, causing her to hiss in pain. "Shehnaaz didi.." She whimpered. 

"Shut up!" The cook hissed, "Chup-chap khadi reh yahaan. Agar gale se awaaz nikli toh--"  

"Toh kya?" Shehnaaz growled, her eyes radiating a fire that the man would never have seen before. "Kya karega tu?"  

She walked up to the man, "Chod de Megha ko, warna teri kya haalat hogi tu khud bhi nahi jaanta."  

The cook grinned maniacally, "Kya karegi. Chaku se maaregi?" He asked sarcastically. Shehnaaz looked at the knife in her hand.  

She took a step forward, and in a divine second of power cut a deep, bleeding gash on the cook's upper arm causing him to yelp in pain and let Megha go.  

"Run." Shehnaaz spoke, not breaking eye contact with the cook and holding the knife, tighter in her hands. "Run. Tell someone! Go!!"  

The cook seemed to come to his senses as Shehnaaz spoke those words and tried to grab Megha but fortunately for the girl, she had by then left the kitchen to inform someone. Shehnaaz growled again, shoving his hand away and held her knife in front of him, defensively.  

"Don't come near me."  

***  

"Sid-- Siddharth bhaiyya.. kitchen.. kitchen.. Shehnaaz di.. Didi.." Megha practically collapsed against Siddharth, breathing heavily and with a crazed look in her eyes.  

Siddharth gasped, holding the girl up by her shoulder. "Kya hua.. Megha--" 

"Come with me. Shehnaaz didi-- woh.." Megha mumbled desperately, pulling Siddharth's arm to try and steer him into the kitchen's direction.  

"Shehnaaz.. didi ka kya--  kya hua beta.. Megha.. kya hua kitchen mein?" Siddharth asked, struggling to calm the girl down. He held the girl in place, by her shoulders and wiped her tears.  

"Shh.. calmly batao. Kahaan le ja rahi ho? Kya hua?" Siddharth asked, getting more and more worried every second by looking at Megha's condition.  

A number of orphanage staff members had gathered around them, worried. Siddharth looked clueless as to how to proceed.