She saw a shadow in the kitchen. She tiptoed downstairs and went to the kitchen, there was a man standing with his back towards her. He turned, it was him again. She froze on her spot as he neared her. She gasped as he kept appearing and disappearing. She panicked and ran upstairs to Kunj and shook him. “Kunj! Kunj!” She said in panic and he woke up. She pointed at the entrance and shivered. “He is very scary, he kept appearing and disappearing,” she said panicking badly and hugged him. “Relax, let’s go downstairs, we’ll face him,” he said and they went outside.
She held Kunj’s bicep hiding behind him as they went downstairs. As they were fully down, he looked everywhere and then rose his eyebrows and let them drop. “Where is he?” He asked and she too looked everywhere. “He was there in the kitchen,” she said pointing at the kitchen and he made his way there. She followed him, they both saw absolutely nothing. “Twinkle, no ones here, please just leave all this and sleep? Hmm?” He asked and she looked down getting disappointed that this mysterious man always manages to make her feel like a lier.
He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her along with him, she looked back and saw his glimpse, she turned away her gaze and didn’t said anything and continued walking. As they were just outside the room, he got his arm off her shoulders and turned her towards him. “Now please just stop thinking about him and go to sleep. Even if you’re not saying anything, I can tell from the look on your face, I m trying my best to get information about him, why are you getting stressed because of him? Just leave it behind,” he said calmly.
“Yeah you’re right, I should stop thinking about him and go to sleep as if nothing happened. You’re trying your best but you don’t see him when I do, why won’t I be stressed? You and I both are trying to find about him but nothing has been found, he’s taking people’s lives and you’re saying to leave it behind. One day, our closed one would be killed by him but how does that matter to you? Just go to sleep as you said before, but I can’t go to sleep, I have trouble sleeping,” she said and went in the room and sat with her back towards him.
He held his head and then went downstairs to the kitchen and sat on the slab crossing his ankles placing his palms on his temples. “I will need to do something to cheer her up and also to make her sleep else she would become depressed and insomniac like this,” he said and got an idea.
*************SPLIT**************
On the other side, Twinkle was sitting lost in thoughts. “Ab vo aadmi kiun aya tha? Kya ab vo mera kissa khatam karna chahta hai? Kya ab vo mujhe maarne wala hai?” (Now why did that man come again? Does he wants to end my chapter as well? Is he going to kill me next?) She said to herself.
Just then, she was jerked back to reality by clicking of fingers right in front of her face. It was Kunj with something hidden behind his back. He got it back in front of him and presented it before her. “I know hot chocolate can cheer you up at any hour of the day,” he said but she refused. “Okay, then I will try the other way, will you listen to my poem?” He asked and she didn’t respond. “Okay listen,” he said. She sighed and glared at him and then turned her face again.
“Iss tarah sataane ki zaroorat Kya thi? Kameeni, dil ko jalaanay ki zaroorat Kya thi? Jo nahi tha ishq, toh bhonk deti! Apni aukaat dikhanay ki zaroorat Kya thi? Maloom tha ke yeh khwaab toot jayega, O manhoos! Phir neend mein aanay ki zaroorat Kya thi? Maan lo agar yeh ek tarfaa’n mohabbat thi, toh phir choohi ke munh waali! Mujhe dekh kar muskuraane ki zaroorat Kya thi?” (What was the need to irritate me? What was the need to burn my heart? If you didn’t had love, you should’ve barked out loud! What was the need to show me your price? I knew already that this dream will break, oh ominous! Then what was the need to come in my dreams? If this was one sided love, so then mouse faced girl! What was the need to look at me and smiled?) He said and laughed while she glared at him. “How dare you! How dare you call me a mouse?” She said beating on his back with her fists. He stopped her and sighed.
“Okay, if you say then let me think of another one,” he said and she sighed. “Biwi ko apni palkon par bittha lo, De kar khushi saare gham ko chura lo, Pyaar aisa karo ke sab dekhtay reh jaayein, Parosan bhi kahay ‘mujhe apni biwi bana lo’,” (Make your wife sit on your eyelashes, steal all the sorrows giving her happiness, love her in such a way that everyone just keeps looking on, even the neighbor says ‘make me your wife’) he said and laughed receiving one more glare from her. “Oh? Neighbor? Which neighbor do you like? Tell me? When I will see that man the next time, I will assign him to kill that neighbor of ours,” she said angrily and he sighed. “This one also didn’t go well, last, please?” He asked and she didn’t respond again.
“Okay,” he said and got thinking. “Jahan dekho ishq ke bimaar baithay hain, Hazaaron margaye laakhon tayaar baithay hain, Barbaad karke apni taleem larkiyon ke peechhe, Phir kehtay hain ke pundit jee, praarthna karein, berozgaar baithay hain,” (everywhere are people sick in love, thousands have died and lacs are sitting ready to die, ruining education behind the girls, they say that Pundit Jee, pray for me, I m sitting unemployed) he laughed, this time along with her. “You’re mad, you do endless efforts to cheer me up, for the first time I’ve seen such a husband who cares more about his wife and puts her first before everything, thanks Kunj, I m more than lucky to get you,” she said and he smiled. “Me also, more than lucky,” he said and then gave her the cup of hot chocolate. She began drinking it and then gulped it all. She began to feel light-headed and held her head. “What did you mix in it that I m feeling so sleepy?” She asked. “Sleeping pill, now sleep,” he said laying her back. “But why?” She asked. “To make you sleep,” he said and she got irked. “I thought we would cuddle and romance and make out,” she said and pouted. “Hmm, you’re right, I should’ve mixed Viagra instead,” he said and she giggled. “That is for men,” she said. “Oh, so then next time you make it for both of us, mix wine in yours and Viagra in mine,” he said and she laughed. “Deal, now goodnight,” she said. “Goodnight,” he said and laid facing her. “We can still cuddle if not romance,” she said and he smiled and they moved closer and cuddled to each other and slowly dozed off to sleep.Next day, as Twinkle saw him outside the hospital, she didn’t dare going inside and sat again in the car and drove off and shortly after, she got stuck in a traffic jam. She looked back to make sure he wasn’t there. She looked at front again and just then, that mysterious man sat in her car from the back door. The road was too noisy for her to notice the door sound. She received a phone call. It was Kunj. She received it immediately. “Hallo Twinkle where are you? I m outside the hospital,” he said. “He was there and so I m not going there,” she replied and looked back. As she saw him, the phone dropped from her hands and she got scared. She rang the horn again and again. The traffic didn’t move an inch. She laid her head back cryingly holding her head. She looked back to see him looking directly at her. She rang the horn more and more getting tensed and then looked at her phone and picked it redialing Kunj’s number. He picked it immediately. “Kunj, he is behind me on the backseat, what should I do? He’s looking at me strangely, I m very scared, please do something,” she said looking at the man. “You get out of the car and run from there, I will bring the car later,” he said, she agreed.
She unfastened her seatbelt and saw the man coming closer. She shrieked. “Chill, I want to tell something,” he said and she shook her head. “Please just let me go, what wrong have I done to you? I don’t even know you,” she said and reached for the door but he held her wrist. “Please just listen for once,” he said and she bit his hand, he left her hand and she opened the car door and ran for her life but he appeared right in front of her. She didn’t dare to look in his eyes and ran the opposite direction.
He appeared once again in front of her. She ruffled her hair in stress and ran to the different direction again, he once again appeared in front of her. She panicked and then ran in front of a truck, before she could move, the truck hit her and she rolled on the road and clashed with a wall meeting with an accident. She looked at the man standing at a distance from her. He just kept looking at her, her vision blurred as she went unconscious. “I hope that her time hasn’t come yet, I just hope so,” he said seeing people gathering around her.