Siddharth

"Is she who I think she is?" I came out from the daze when I heard Harsh's voice. I looked at him. He seems in doubt and surprise. Sighing I nodded and looked back to where Ved and Niharika just disappeared. I was wondering what will happen between them when Harsh patted my shoulder.

I turned towards him and he was back into his cold demeanour was back. "I think we should head back to the room." He said. I nodded and we walked towards the elevator.

We both were sitting on the bed and Harsh was explaining the blue print of the ashram to me. There were four warehouses in the compound and we came to a conclusion that they might have locked her up in one of those warehouses.

I excused myself when my phone started to ring. I looked at the screen and saw a unknown number. Frowning I attended the call.

"Hello! Am I speaking to Mr. Siddharth Aryan?" A female voice asked.

"Yes, may I know who this is?" I asked.

"It doesn't matter who I am. What is important is you have to get inside the ashram by tonight if you want to save your girl. They are going to move her out of the ashram tonight and it will be difficult to save her." The voice said.

A shiver ran down mine spine. "Who are you?" I asked again.

"I told you before, it doesn't matter. Are you willing to come? If not then I am going to hang up." The voice said again, irritated.

"Ok. Ok. Fine. Tell me what should I do?" I asked trying to be clam.

"You can enter the ashram as a common devotee and stay around till the gates are closed. The ashram will be closed for outsiders by 7.00 PM. You just wait behind the main prayer hall. I will come and get you." She said.

"Ok. But how can I trust you? I don't even know who you are and what you are telling is truth or not?" I was confused whether to believe this lady or not but I had no options. I looked at Harsh and he was looking at me suspiciously.

"How many people knew that she was kidnapped?" She asked me scoffing. I went silent gripping the phone tightly.

"Look mister I don't have time to make you believe me and I don't intend to do so. So it's up to you whether you believe me or not. But you are running out of time. With each passing seconds that girl is nearing her death." She said without any hint of compassion.

I clenched my teeth and shut my eyes. "Is. Is she alright?" I asked with my trembling voice. My heart was beating like a drum. I waited for the reply in fear. My grip on the phone tightened and I bit my lips in anticipation.

The other side was in silence which made my heart beat skip even more. After long silence I heard sighing from the other side. "No." I heard her voice and my heart sank. "But the worst is yet to come and I hope you will come to her rescue before that." She said again but this time her voice was a bit soft and it almost felt like a pleading.

"I will be there." I said, this time with determination. The call ended and I explained everything to Harsh.

"This is a suicide mission Sid. The ashram has a z category security which can be removed only by a court order. And without any evidence we can't do anything about it. If anything went wrong we all will be in trouble." He said in a serious tone and I nodded in understanding.

I closed my eyes and leaned back to the head board, only if we could get a hold of the evidence. I sighed and rubbed my face and neck. I felt the chain on my neck and looked down to my chest. I held the locket in my palm. I remembered the day she presented it to me.

How I blabbered in front of her and how she tried to get us out of that awkward situation. My fingers rubbed the letter encrypted on the locket. Suddenly creases formed on my forehead. I took off the chain and looked closer. The centre of the 'S' written on the locket had a thin line on it as if the line was cutting the letter into two half's.

Slowly I held the locket in my both arms and twisted it and for my surprise the locket opened making it into two half. The locker has a hidden compartment in it. And inside it there was a small SD card. I gasped in shock.

"Harsh." I called him and turned towards me. I pulled out the SD card and showed it to him.

The same look of shock crept to his face. "Is this really what it is?" He asked with a shocked expression.

"I think so." I replied.

"Come on let's check it out." He said and took the laptop quickly.

We inserted the card into the laptop eagerly. We clicked the file at once when it opened.

"YES!!!" We both shouted at the same time. A smile formed on our faces when we looked at each other.

It was the same video clip Riya shot, the evidence we needed. I sighed in relief.

"Sid, we have to move fast now. Call Ved. You both go to the ashram and wait for the lady. I will take it to the judge directly to get a warrant. We can't trust my superiors on this since they were also included. I am sure with this evidence we can bring that bustard to the court. You both try to find her and I will be there with my force as soon as possible." He said and got up from the bed.

He pocketed the SD card and went to out in hurry. I took my phone and dialled Ved's number. He picked up after two rings.

"Ved, someone from the ashram called me now and informed that they will help us to get Aami... I mean Priya... out of there. But we have to hurry because they are going to move her out tonight." I said in a hurry without much introduction.

"Okay, I am coming." He said in his firm voice. But my next words shocked him as well.

"We got the evidences." I said with a little happiness.

"I am on my way." He said and ended the call.

I sighed in relief. I looked at the chain again. A smile crept up to my face. All these times the evidence was close to me. She entrusted it with me. Did she think that I will find it when time comes? Or is it just for a safe keep?

Both ways I felt happy that she trusted me no matter what.

Ved rushed into the room shortly, looking shocked and relived at the same time. I briefed him what happened and we got ready to go the ashram soon.

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We were sitting in the middle of a sea of people chanting mantras and singing satsangs. Most of them looked like they are in some kind of trance. The loud voice of the devotional songs playing through the speakers makes it's difficult to even speak. A long queue of people was waiting to get close to the Godman and to get his blessing personally.

I looked at the large stage set up at the far end of the hall. A man wearing a long white dress and a red silk robe was sitting on a huge golden throne placed in the centre of the stage. Beside him in a small wooden chair a lady in white saree was seated and she was passing him small cloth bags each time a devotee comes and seeks his blessings.

A scoff left my mouth when I thought how this man is fooling all these people. We came inside the ashram few hours ago and the security is quite tough to bring anything harmful inside the compound. We could see the security officials roaming around the prayer hall and the compound with their vulture eyes.

It was close to 7'O clock in the evening and the ashram was about to close its gates. The devotee's started to leave and the prayer hall was emptying slowly. Ved gave me a knowing look and I nodded at him. We both walked out of the prayer hall with the crowd of people. We looked around us once we were outside. The four securities were busy directing people to the exit and we took this opportunity to sneak away by jumping the steel pipes separating the queue from scattering to the compound of the ashram.

The sun was set and we hid in the shadows of the darkness. We made our way around the prayer hall and reached the back side. There were some unused tables and chairs and some cardboard boxes piled up in the back of the prayer hall. We looked around to see if anyone is waiting for us but only darkness invited us.

We decided to wait for a while in hope that the lady will come and find us. We sat on the ground resting our backs on the concrete wall behind us. We sat in silence for some time and my patience was running out. "Why is she taking this long?" I questioned in irritation. I looked at Ved when there was no response and noticed that he was in his own world looking into darkness.

I nudged him with my elbow which made him to come back to the reality. He looked at me with a confused look. "You zoned out." I said. "Uh-uhmm, sorry. I. I was just thinking something." He said and looked away.

"You knew right." I asked. He turned to face me with a questioning look. "What?" He asked with a frown.

"You knew she was in Bangalore right. You knew she was working in that hotel and you deliberately took us to that hotel. Didn't you?" I asked and he sighed and nodded his head looking down.

"Mmm, I thought so. I was wondering why you became so clam in the past one month. So you had found her?" I asked.

"Yes, I found her in a few days after she left." He said.

"Then why didn't you go after her?" I was curious.

"Because... She doesn't want me. She needed her space and I was respecting it. But when I knew that we are coming to Bangalore, I just couldn't hold back. I just wanted to see her from afar. I never thought we will bump into each other like that. I knew she don't want me I knew she hates me for what I did to her but when I saw her like that I just couldn't let her go. I don't know if she will be ever forgiving me. All I know is that I can't live without her in my life. And after all these gets settled I am going to beg for her forgiveness. No matter how hard it gets I want back." He said and puffed while rubbing his face. His eyes showing determination.

I squeezed his shoulder and he gave me a weak smile. With that we fell into a comfortable silence again.

After half an hour of waiting I closed my eyes and sighed in irritation and disappointment. Was the call even genuine? I doubted. Ved patted my shoulder and I looked at him in despair. "Should we go and search for ourselves? Anyway that was our initial plan right." He asked. I thought for a moment and nodded. We were about to move when we heard some voices nearing us. We hide behind the cardboard boxes and saw two security personnel walking towards where we were standing.

We pressed our backs to wall more in hope that they won't notice us. For our luck they passed us without noticing. We sighed in relief and slowly moved forward. But a voice stopped us suddenly. "Siddharth?" A female voice asked from behind us.

We turned around and saw a woman in white saree. I frowned looking at her. She was same woman who was sitting with that Godman on the stage this morning. "You?" I asked in confusion. She looked like she was close to that man.

"We have to move fast. They are gonna be here soon to take her away." She told and walked ahead without giving us any time to argue.

I looked at Ved and he nodded to me. We walked for a good 20 minutes hiding in the shadows and avoiding the securities and finally arrived in front of an old ware house. The lady in front of us unlocked the door and we went inside.

There was only a small dim light in the centre of the room and was filled with many boxes and used and worn out materials. There was no sign of any living thing. I frowned and looked around. "Where is she?" I asked.

"Follow me." The lady said and took fast steps towards the left corner of the room. Suddenly the door burst open and two men came in chattering. They stopped on their tracks when they saw us.

"Who are you?" One of them asked. He looked at us suspiciously with creases on his fore head.

That's when he saw that lady standing behind us. "Yamunadevi?!!" He asked. I saw her gulping in nervousness. Sweat buds started to form on her fore head.

"What are you doing here at this time? And who are these people?" He questioned her.

"I. Uh-uhmm." She stuttered looking at them. Her grip on her pallu tightened.

Suddenly I heard a scream. We all were startled for a moment and looked around. Then it dawned on me, it was Aami. I looked around frantically to figure out from where the sound was coming.

"Take me to her." I shouted looking at the lady.

"Hey where are you going? Why are you here?" The man asked holding my collar.

I was on the verge and instantly I punched him on his face. He fell down covering his face. Seeing what happened to his mate the other one launched at me but was held back by Ved.

"You go and find her. I will deal with them." He said. Nodding I looked at the lady and she hurriedly ran towards the left corner. She bends down and removed a sack lying on the floor revealing a iron door to the basement.

I looked at her in confusion and she gave a knowing nod. We were about to pull up the door when another bone chilling scream came from the basement. My heart stopped beating for a second. My stomach twisted in a weird way and my blood froze in fear.

Looking in front of me I saw the lady with same expression as mine. "Come fast, we can't let her die like Riya. We. We have to save her." She shouted at me and I could see unshed tears in her eyes.

We lifted the heavy iron door as fast as we could and it led us to a staircase leading to the basement. I took off immediately skipping as many steps I could. My mind was filled with all worst scenarios.

With my heart in my hand I kicked opened the wooden door at the end of the staircase and the scene in front of me made my heart stop beating.

There was lying my Aami in a pool of blood and a half naked man was hovering over her. The sound of the door breaking might have startled him. He stopped what he was about to do and looked at us.

It was him, the same man who took Aami away from me on that unfortunate night. I looked over to Aami, she was lying there unconscious, her shirt has been ripped off exposing her white lacy camisole to his preying eyes. Blood was oozing out from her leg and I could see scratches all over her delicate skin. One side of her face was a mix of blue purple colours and her lips were cut and swollen. There were slap marks on her cheeks and her forehead was bleeding.

My eyes sting and I gasped seeing her like that. But then reality hit me and my blood started to boil. I gritted my teeth, the rage in me just exploded with all the force. Red, is what all I could see. My fingers formed into fists and I stalked towards him with a beastly anger.

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