Cloaked Intentions

Chapter 9

Swara sank on the floor next to Sanskar. She had began shaking again. Sanskar saw this and went to her, wrapping his arms around her. She rested her head on his shoulders.

"It has just hit you, hasn't it" he said softly.

She didn't respond, only burrowed further in his arms. He had been startled by the turn of events as well. That Walkman could have been left there on any day, but something had convinced him that that wasn't the case. What Swara had been telling was really the truth. She was here.

"Why do I not remember seeing you on that day?" he asked "Did you not meet me? How could that be though?"

"I don't know" was all she mumbled into his shoulder

"You weren't here with the police came in. They would have found you otherwise" Sanskar said almost to himself "If you had left through the front door, someone should have seen you" He looked around, his eyes resting on the curtains "The back door was locked" he said almost to himself.

She shook her head "I don't know. I just don't know" she kept saying.

"Shhh" He said consoling her, running his fingers through her hair trying to calm her "Its okay. Don't think about it now"

"But I want to help you. I need to remember" she countered

"It is okay. It will come to you. Don't force yourself. Don't think about it more"

"But" she tried to explain, looking at him.

"Look at your state. Don't think about it right now. Give it time. I know you will remember it eventually" He reassured her. A thought struck him just then "Is this why you fell sick? You saw something really bad and it affected you" he commented looking at her. She met his eyes but didn't have any answers for him. They sat there in silence for a long while, just absorbing the new reality facing them.

A small beep on his phone brought them out of their trance.

"Come on, we need to leave now" he said softly, turning the alarm off and looking at her once. He put the Walkman back to its original place and gave Swara a hand to get up.

"Sanskar?" she said confused by his actions

"I wanted everything back in its place. Just the way it was that day. It is important" he said. She nodded understanding. It had after all helped them today.

"But we haven't found the truth yet" Swara said

"I know. We can come back here some other day. I don't think we will be able to find it just today" he admitted as much to himself as much as to her.

He locked the room, put the key back in its place and rushed back with her to the mall.

"What are we doing here?" she asked. Nothing much that happened that day was making sense to her.

"I had parked my car here" he said as they entered the mall. He nodded to a person on the way, as they made it to the Canali outlet.

"Who was that?" Swara said glancing at the person once.

"My security cover." he answered

"Your what?" she asked again trying to make sense of what he was saying. She glanced at the man again. There didn't seem anything out of the ordinary about the man who was probably in his late thirties.

"Bade Papa put a security cover on me once he found out I was staying at your place. He was worried"

"So why was he here? Why didn't he help us back there at Kumartulee?"