"Wha... what did they do with her?" Radhika shuttered.

She carefully picked the broken bangles. All sort of bad thoughts and possibilities of what would have plausibly happened, ran wild inside her mind. Cupping her face, she cried hysterically.

"My... my fault. I shouldn't have ran, ah... ran like a coward. We should do something. What should we do huh? Yes, police. Oh! Stupid me. Why didn't I... I call them... God! Gauri must be... oh!" Radhika rambled deliriously.

Rudra, who hadn't been speaking anything, snapped at her.

"Quiet! Quiet Radhika. Nothing will happen to her."

"Go home," he said.

Radhika came out of her stupor.
"But..."

"Do you think I am requesting? And please, it wasn't your fault," Rudra intervened.

Rudra walked forward and held her wrist, bringing it upto her line of sight.

"8:00 p.m," he said, tapping her wrist watch.

Radhika stared at him, not able to comprehend anything.

"It's 8 now. Gauri will be home before midnight. You have my words," Rudra stated.

Radhika wasn't supposed to believe it. Strangely, his words comforted her, assured her. Why? She didn't know.

However, one thing became clear to her frenzied state, her friend would come back safely; Rudra would make sure of that.

She nodded positively. Rudra gestured one of his guards to accompany her.

"On second notes, Radhika," Rudra called from behind after contemplating for few seconds. Radhika halted and waited for him to speak.

"I want you to do something for me," he said.

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.
.

Rudra's car was moving towards the desired destination, followed by two more cars. Bhairav was sitting on the passenger seat beside the driver.

Rudra was in the backseat, his one hand splayed over the headrest of the seat and head was reeled backwards while he stared at the roof of the SUV.

His other hand, however, unconsciously twirled the pieces of broken bangles.

"Pardon my audacity to question you, your highness but why did you ask Miss. Radhika to do such a job?" Bhairav asked.

Rudra smirked.
"That's for me to know and you to find out."

Bhairav looked out of the window which was blurred, given the rainwater was harshly slapping against it.
How ironical, his state of mind resembled the window screen; thoroughly blurred.

.
.
.

Gauri's eyes fluttered open.

She winced quite audibly. Her cheek and lips throbbed, terrible pain shot through her skull as if someone was nailing it and not to be mentioned, the hollow ringing sound in her ears.

Her eyes roamed across the space of what appeared to be a dusty room. The walls were cracked up and covered with mosses.

She wriggled only to wince again. Apparently, the ropes dug in her wrist with which she was tied.

"Damn it, I need to undo the knots, somehow," she thought.

She tried to undo the knots which seemed to be a whole lot of difficult than she thought. Meanwhile, her mind geared up.
Why her? Why was she kidnapped, in the first place, to speak of? Those goons, they said that they were ordered to do so. The question was who? Who ordered them and what purpose did her kidnapping serve to him?

Gauri's thoughts were cut off short when she heard cackling of the men. She immediately closed her eyes and pretended to be unconscious.

The goons returned back to check upon her.

Gauri felt a rough touch on her cheek. She swallowed the urge to throw up, right then and there.

"Do you think she is seriously injured? I mean, she is still knocked out cold," one of them whispered.

"We were given strict instructions to not harm her. What will we say to master, boss?" Another one asked.

The leader whose palm had been moving down Gauri's cheek, stopped in mid way.

Even though he was aware of consequence of touching and harming her, his hand probably had a mind of its own.

Each one of them, was leering at the girl lying on the ground, securely bound. But they knew better than to disobey their master. He had been discrete enough to mention the consequence, they would suffer if the girl was harmed. Speaking of which, they had already overstepped the line by marring her face.

"Stop blabbering idiots," the leader spoke.
"Let her be, she will come around."

Relieved by the idea, all of them walked out of the room.

Gauri opened her eyes.

"Just who the hell is their master and what did I do to him?"

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.
.

"Stop the car. We don't want them to notice us now, do we?" Rudra said.

The driver complied to his words and stopped near the dense tree lines. The cars in trail followed suit.

Rudra searched for something.
"Wait for my instructions. No one will cross my way unless I ask to. Understand?" he spoke.

"But my lord, we must accompany you," Bhairav stated hesitantly.

Rudra paused in his activity.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you. Did you say something, Bhairav?" Rudra asked smiling slightly.

"No, your highness." Bhairav gulped.

"That's what I thought."

Rudra opened the door and stepped out in the rain. In no time, he was drenched completely. He walked undauntedly with hands tucked inside the pockets.

His gaze unconcernedly scanned the ruins of the building which appeared to be best place for goons' shelter.

"How long had it been? Pretty long I guess," Rudra muttered.

He counted some digits and pouted a bit.

"Ya, it had been quite some time," he exasperated.

His face broke into a devilish smile.
"I get to play tonight. My game, my rules, my way."

He pulled out a piece of black cloth and tied it over his face such that it veiled half of his face.

He moved his fingers through his hair, brushing away the wet strands.

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Finally, after her umpteenth attempt, Gauri successfully undid the knots. Though too much of movement scrapped her wrists. She rubbed her wrists and looked towards the only exit of the room.

She sneaked out looking around every now and then.

She became more aware of her surrounding under the dimmed lights. For what she assumed to be some old abandoned building, was actually some sort of tunnel.

She sauntered over briskly, ensuring that she didn't make any sound that would draw their attention.

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.
.

It had only been few minutes since she escaped the room she was kept in. She was searching for an exit to get out of the godforsaken place but to no avail. It seemed like fate wasn't with her tonight.

Suddenly, she heard sound of footsteps.

"Oh no! This couldn't be happening"

She immediately hid her body in a dark corner of the tunnel, praying that the darkness would somehow swallow up her very presence.

Gauri's breathing was heavy. She could hear the sound of water drops leaking out of the broken pipe and her laboured breathing.

She quickly closed her mouth with her palm to stop the sound of her breathing.

The men, now fully equipped with weapons looked around.

"Damn it, that girl, sure is a trouble. Only few minutes, few minutes of distraction and we lost her," one of them snarled.

"Don't worry. She underestimated us. This time I'll teach her a lesson worth her rememberance for a lifetime." 

All of them cackled in laughter.

Tears sprang to Gauri's eyes. Was it supposed to be like this? Her end. Would she succumb to her fate tonight?

She wiped off the tears. No, she definitely, wouldn't go down without a fight. She had been a fighter, always. If god had written her demise tonight then she would accept that but not without a fight.

.
.
.

Somehow.

Gauri didn't know how but
somehow, she managed to find the exit and now, she was running for her dear life.

She was drenched to the bones in rain but the fact did nothing to stop her.

"There she is. Get her," someone yelled from behind.

"Darn it." Gauri couldn't help but yell.

Laughter echoed everywhere, those men were chasing her.

"Lookie, lookie. Are you really that stupid to think you could, by any means, run from us... girl," the leader spat out.

Soon they surrounded her, blocking her every possible way of escaping.

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.
.

"I found them. Scan the area and take care of anymore men present," Rudra ordered Bhairav.

He cut the call and looked ahead.

"Playtime."

He cracked his fingers.

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.
.

The leader started moving towards her with an evil smirk.

Gauri closed her eyes in fear. Strange enough, the hand never reached her. Something hot and viscous splattered over her face.

Her eyes flew open. She touched her face, her palm was painted in red, blood. She looked ahead, only to let out an earth shattering scream.

A knife was deeply embedded through the leaders' hand, cutting through the tissues and probably damaging the ligament of the joint too.

He wailed hysterically, dropping down on the ground. He twisted and thrashed in agony, begging all of them to stop the pain... in vain. He was profusely crying in anguish.

Gauri stared at the back of the man who stood infront of her like a shield. Apparently, he was her saviour or that was what she thought.

Half of his face was covered with a wet black cloth. Gauri's vision blurred with both blood and rainwater mixing together.

Without any further delay, Rudra moved towards them with a lightening speed.

They didn't even get the chance to use any of their weapons.

Groans and cries resounded loudly.

A man tried hitting Rudra from back. Rudra effortlessly caught his arm and hit him. The latter cried in pain. However, it seemed Rudra wasn't satisfied.

He cupped his ear and bent towards the goon, imitating to listen something. He twisted the man's arm to an abnormal angle. The inevitable sound of crunching of bones made Rudra smile from behind the mask.

"Better," he muttered.

Out of no where, a goon caught his mask and tore it off.

Something snapped inside Rudra.

Roaring in rage, he caught the man by his hair and kicked him on the shin, making him drop on the ground.

Rudra, rigorously and constantly, slammed the man's head on the ground making it a bloody mess. He totally seemed out of control.

Gauri couldn't look anymore. The gruesome image was too much to take in. She felt an immense urge to throw up. Unconsciously, a whimper escaped her mouth.

That, particular sound, brought Rudra back to earth. He stopped and stood up, his was face covered in blood.

Sounds of footsteps resumed but they felt safe. Men who appeared to be guards surrounded them. One of them dropped on his knees.

"My lord, all is clear"

Gauri cautiously walked ahead to get a glimpse of the man's face who had saved her.

She gasped loudly. She couldn't believe her eyes. Rudra.

Rudra stared at her.

"Oops," he smirked.

Gauri surveyed the damage caused by him. Bodies covered the ground around them. The blood and rain was puddled around, so homogeneously mixed, it resembled eternal broth. She didn't even know whether or not the goons were alive.

This was too much for her to take in. She lost her consciousness. Before going limp in his strong arms, she whispered his name.

"Rudra"