sas chp 7

 CHAPTER 7 - Tiara and Armaaan
The thought of Tiara being in danger made me even more protective of her than I already was. God knows why. Maybe because Armaan was making her a victim, like he’d made me. She was just a child for crying out loud! I decided I’d wait till we reached our room. We had the day off anyways. Kumar sir cut my thoughts with “Come on people get into the bus, it is time to head back to our hotel”. Everyone started  moving and wheeling, it made me a little dizzy. Maybe I just had a lot to take in today. That’s when another thought struck me. Where would I sit in the bus? I’d blown my chance to sit with John and Aksha was mad at me too. I entered the bus before everybody and made myself comfortable at the back. Okay, maybe not so comfortable, but it was better than facing my friends. I was ashamed of my actions, and I wasn’t ready to give any of them any answers. Yet.

Aksha eyed me suspiciously when she entered the bus. Thankfully, she thought better than to talk, and let go of the topic. She chose to sit alone, I’d thought she’d sit with Adhiraj. That just showed me exactly how high her temper was. I felt guilty, again. The trip back was silent and boring. Once we entered the hotel, we walked to our room. To make my day worse, Martika was already there. Uhm, on second thoughts, she just made the day lucky. Aksha would never talk about it with her in the room. Aksha looked disappointed and irritated when she saw her. Somehow staying away from Aksha felt right. I didn’t know if this soul thing was contagious, but I didn’t want any of the furious-driving evil spirit linger anywhere close to my best friend. It was a cue for me to leave, when Aksha went in the bathroom to change. I tiptoed outside and asked directions for the cotton mill. I didn’t know Tiara’s residence but I’d find the way. It was a small village. People would know her and she sure lived near the mill. I recognized a few kids still playing on the ground. That was easy, one of the kids took me to her house.

            Tiara’s house was a little freaky, frankly. The few shrubs in front of her house were dead already. They’d burnt in the sun, like nobody had taken care of them in ages. The house looked dusty and worn. Tiara seemed to be too adorable to stay in a place like this. She deserved better. She deserved a palace. Looking at her rural styled yet freaky yet roomy house made me wonder how beautiful it would look if it was actually taken care of. I thanked the kid who bought me here with a chocolate. Luckily I had one in my purse. I rang the bell of the row-house kinda home.

            It was a middle aged man who answered the door. “Yes?” he asked. He had hair similar to Tiara, and his eyes. Yep, definitely her father. “Can I talk to Tiara sir?” I asked. I had no idea what to talk to her, I just needed to see she’s safe and away from Armaan. He invited me in. I sat on the floor, avoiding a very rickety fiber cot.  I wasn’t really tired, but I wanted to sit and relax. Perhaps I was mentally tired. I looked around. Every wall was covered with photographs and a family tree which I guess Tiara must have made at school. Every framed picture had three people in it. Tiara and her parents, I assumed. One of it even had a dog. I got up to take a closer look at one of the photo. She was right. I did have a lot of resemblance to her mother. Her face cut and stature was similar to mine. Looking at her made me shiver. Unknown emotions started whirling up in me. What was it? What was I feeling? It was strange, so strange… I can’t even describe it. Agony, guilt, love so many things.

            Tiara’s father’s voice cut my thoughts sharply. “Tiara told me that she met someone today. Someone who looked similar to my wife. I thought she was imagining this since she misses her mother so much. But now I see she wasn’t. You really look a lot like my wife”. All the while he spoke to me, his eyes stayed on his wife’s photograph. There was so much longing and love in his eyes. It made his already black eyes turn even more deep, more black. “If you don’t mind, may I ask you something sir?” He nodded and I continued, “Where is she now? Your wife?” He took a deep breath and then exhaled sharply. I immediately regretted asking that question. “She died last year” he managed to speak with a choked voice.” “I’m sorry” I said, that was all I could do. That explained the condition of the house. He’d probably be sulking all the way, too engrossed to take care of his surroundings.

            Tiara entered the room breaking the awkward silence. “What are you doing here? Seriously, are you spying on me? If you are you better be ready, I can crush you down and fight you and win. I am pretty strong” she beamed proudly. It made me smile a little. She seemed like a small fragile rabbit threatening a tiger. I played along anyway, “Oh! I’m so sorry. I don’t mean to meddle in your affairs Tiara. I just needed some company. Can you walk with me? Please?” I wished she would. “Fine. Just this one time” she said keeping her guard up all the time. It felt better that she was so cautious and I hoped she was strong enough. We walked out the door and now I was wondering what to say to her. Stupid me! I hadn’t planned on deciding what to talk. I was just so overwhelmed to find her safe and back home.

            I started talking nonsense with her afterwards, talking about school and her friends. After answering some of my questions she took a long step and stood ahead facing me. “What is it Sana? What do you want from me? You’re talking gibberish you know?” Yes, I knew that. So I had to get to the point before she got bored and turned away. “That guy Armaan. Do you.. uhm.. still remember any of the stuff that happened when I confronted him?” She enlarged her cute eyes. “Ofcourse, what do you think I have? alzheimers? You made a fool of yourself by assuming that he was kidnapping me. He’s a really nice friend. Even dad says so.” Apparently Armaan had also hypnotized her father. Damn, this was going to be tough. “Look Tiara. I need you to know something. Stay away from Armaan. He’s not as nice as you think.” For the first time, I saw Tiara laugh. She looked like an angel, but this was not funny. “Sana, everyone has that impression when they first meet him. But he’s really nice.” She held my hand and pushed me forward dragging me to his house, to meet him.

            Boy, this was bad. So bad. Ok, so just in case he was in there, I’d confront him. That was for sure. And do what? Punch him? I didn’t even know how to fight. I’d trained in self defense a long time back, but offense? Urghh I was so messed up. We stood outside his so called house. Tiara didn’t bother ringing the bell. She walked in as if it were her own residence. I followed her, not wanting to be polite to an evil spirit by banging on the door first. He was on the phone with someone. He didn’t even realize we were barging in. I shooed Tiara and held her down to get some inside knowledge. I heard him very angry on the line with someone.

            “That is simply absurd! We have to take the girl down. She shouldn’t be allowed to roam about like that. I have to start our thing. NOW!” he was arguing with someone. The rest of the conversation was mostly ‘hell no’ or ‘no freaking way!’. The only line of his that made me freeze was ‘We have to take the girl down’. No force could ever stop me from protecting Tiara. No way I would let her be anywhere near him. He slightly turned in our direction and we hid behind a jute chair. He suddenly kept the phone down and stared somewhere at the back. Behind the place we were hiding. I covered Tiara’s mouth even tighter, she couldn’t move. I turned to where he was looking and saw a mirror. Crap! He’d seen us through the mirror and came running to where we were.

“Stop Armaan! Stop right where you are. Don’t come closer to her. You might have ruined me and my soul but I’m not gonna let you hurt her. Leave her alone you monster!” I don’t know from where I gathered that much courage to yell at an evil presence, in room confronting him alone. I was so dead. He started glaring at me, confused at first and then tightening his glare. “I see” was all he said. “What are you going to see? You listen to this. Stay the hell away from Tiara you evil spirit.” I hoped he’d already known that I’d guessed what he was. After a long pause, Tiara managed to free herself from my grip and ran straight to Armaan. What the hell? He had so much impact on her. When I looked at her again, she was scared. She looked at her arms where I’d caught her. They were slightly red. “I’m sorry, but come here Tiara. I won’t hurt you again.”

She tucked herself behind Armaan. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought Armaan was actually protecting her. I took a step forward. That’s when he came forward too. Not just one step, he came and stood right in front of me. Like Dravya had said, I kept my mind open and didn’t resist. Nothing happened. Before I could say anything, he took me by surprise. He punched me in my face and twisted my neck a little. It pained so hard it sent unbearably cold chills throughout by body. It throbbed. And soon, everything went dark.