"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger."

Emily Bront, Wuthering Heights

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2015

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As he closed the door of the studio behind him, Cabir's phone chimed indicating someone was calling him; thinking it was Manik, he responded, only to find it was someone else.

"Nandini, everything okay?" he asked her.

"No, Cabir, I am worried about Manik. He hasn't called yet. It has been almost 24 hours. Do you have any news from him? Anything?" he heard her voice trembling with worry.

"Nandini, don't worry. He never calls when he is there. And by now he must be on his way back," he assured her, looking at the watch wrapped around his wrist.

"Something is wrong, Cabir. I can feel it...I have to know. Please, tell me if you know his father's contact number, I have to call him," Nandini asked him as her hand made its way to her aching heart, something was wrong, it said.

"Wait, I will call Ramchand Kaka to ask him. I will let you know," he told her as a strange fear settled in. It was her worry and fear, or perhaps his own, he didn't know.

"Okay," she whispered as she closed her eyes.

Opening her eyes, she walked towards the window, throwing it open in urgency, she tried to take in the fresh air in an attempt to end the suffocation she was feeling. But it didn't go. Looking up at the sky, she thought to call out to her Aaiyappa for help. Holding her mobile phone between her hands, she intertwined her fingers and prayed for Manik's safety.

She didn't know how long it was, it felt like years had passed when she saw Cabir walking in her room, with an expression on his face that she had never seen on him. He looked worried, or was it pain? As she looked at him, her trembling heart knew that whatever it was that he has found, it wasn't good.

"Where is he?" She whispered.

"His car was found at an accident scene, near the highway. But what is more worrying is that they haven't found him. Mr. Malhotra's men have personally looked over the investigation, but...Let's pray they find him soon," Cabir stammered, his heart heavy with worry.

Nandini blinked her eyes a few times, trying to stop her eyes from watering as he repeated whatever Ramchand had found out by calling on Mr. Malhotra's PA. Remembering the old man's trembling voice, Cabir had felt worry consume him as nothing else has.

Where was Manik? How was he? Questions he had no answer to...

"No, no...What are you saying, Cabir? It can't be like that," she told him, denying every word he had said.

"I have to go there. If these incompetent police officers can't find him, I will," she decided, walking on her shaky feet, she looked for her bag, ignoring whatever Cabir was saying.

"Nandini, you can't go there, I don't think they will let you anywhere near the crime scene," he tried to reason with her.

"I will find a way, don't worry." she snapped in the hurry. Putting the money and whatever she thought needed in her bag, she made her way to the door.

"Nandini, you don't understand, there is nothing you can do other than pray..." Cabir told her as he held her by her elbows.

"Cabir, I can't sit and wait, I will go crazy. And even if they find him, Manik is too stubborn for others to force him to treat himself. I have to be there, by his side. Please understand," Nandini pleaded him as she pulled her hands away from his grip with all of her strength.

As he looked at her, he knew she was right. In whichever condition Manik would be found, there was only one person who could handle the wild creature that his friend was.

"Let's go then, I will come with you," Cabir decided.

* * * * *

"You want to see what happened, fine by me, Miss Murthy, let me take you there," inspector Rajvir finally snapped at the stubborn girl standing in front of him. Indicating her and her friend to follow him, he started to walk on the old road near the renovated highway.

"It took a long time for us to know about this accident because this side of the road is very isolated. People rarely take this road ever since the new roads of the highway were made," he informed them.

"It was good in a way as it means that we may be the first ones to reach the crime scene, not many people had been there to manipulate the pieces of evidence. And it also made it convenient to investigate the scene as it is, which means we didn't have to move the car," he continued as he walked them to the area which only reserved for police officers.

"But it also means the poor victim died without any medical help," Sub-inspector Singh chimed in a low voice, making his presence known.

"Singh," Rajvir growled at his insensitive junior.

Ignoring his senior's unsaid command, Sub-inspector Singh walked in front of them, blocking their view.

"I will say you are unlucky to witness a scene which will haunt you for a very long time," he declared, looking at them with pity.

"Shut up, Singh," Rajvir snapped at his junior.

"As you say Sir-Ji. This is the car," Sub-inspector Singh nodded. Taking a few steps away, he indicated the car in front of them with his right hand.

A car whose every glass was broken into pieces. The passenger side of the car was crushed in such a way that it looked as if the car hadn't had it to start with, while the door of the driver's side was torn out, by force it looked. What they had in front of them couldn't be Manik's black car, for sure, Nandini thought. Because the car was distorted, damaged, and destroyed.

"Now imagine what would be the condition of the person who was driving it," wondered a voice near her ear; she didn't know who it was, but it made her imagine the blood, the death...Her father's car...

"No, it can't be. This isn't Manik's car," Nandini denied. Manik loved his car, he wouldn't have let anything happen to his black beauty.

"Nandini, look at the number plate," Cabir choked.

As Nandini looked at what Cabir was indicating, she felt her heart stop beating, she drew a shaky breath, and for the first time, she felt fear overwhelm her hope, overpowering the side of her which was denying the truth in front of her.

"Where is he?" She asked as she turned to Inspector Rajvir.

'With a pale face and stuttering words, she looks like a corpse herself,' Singh thought with pity as he looked at the girl. Not hearing the answer to the question she asked his sir-Ji, he knew they had no answers...

"We don't know yet," Rajvir answered the broken girl in front of him, he felt guilty for not having the answers to the questions he had been posing himself ever since he had walked in at the crime scene.

"The truck driver is yet to be found, he must have run away, maybe after pulling out the victim? Taking him away with him? For medical care or for disposing the body nearby? We don't know. You see the driver side of the door looks torn as if someone has pulled it out of his way with force, it must be the case," Rajvir theorized looking at his junior.

"But sir-Ji, what I can't understand is the angle of the car, the angle in which it must have been when it was hit by the truck. The passenger side of its crushed, so the truck must have had impacted with that side, throwing the car out of its way. But why had the victim pulled his car in the horizontal angle?" His junior asked him.

"His name is Manik, not the victim," the young girl snapped at them, a protest which went ignored by the two inspectors.

"This is what I can't understand. It looked like something was wrong with the car. Let's see what the mechanics and lab tests will say," Rajvir said closing the discussion they both were having ever since they came at the accident scene. His instincts told him it was much more than a hit-and-run case, but what it was, he couldn't tell, at least till the Lab test didn't come.

Walking near the mechanics who were bending down near the car, Rajvir asked one of them something, and then they started to have a conversation that couldn't be heard by the rest of them who were standing too far away. All three of them let out a collective sigh of relief when they saw Inspector Rajvir walking towards them.

"Was someone trying to kill your friend?" Rajvir inquired as came to stand near them.

"What?" Cabir asked him confused while Nandini could only stare at him with her eyes widened in shock.

"Someone must have messed up with the car's brake wires. The victim, I mean, Manik, must have known it and that is the reason why he chose the isolated road," Rajvir observed.

"Sir-Ji, he did succeed in stopping the car, didn't he? But as my mother says 'Jis ka time aagaya ho, usse jana hi hota hai'," Singh exclaimed, feeling sorry for the guy who couldn't escape his fate.

"That's means, when it's time to die, you die," he translated when he saw both young duo glaring at him.

"He is alive and if you do your job properly you will find him. Don't make excuses to run away from your responsibility," the young girl finally snapped at the sub-inspector. Her face red with rage, fingers curved in a fist. It looked like If it wasn't for her friend holding her back, she would have hit him.

"You have to find him, please, Sir...Check in the hospitals. Someone must have seen him," said the distressed boy, with a pale face, choking out the words.

Looking at them, Rajiv could tell his junior was getting on the girl's nerve and her patience was running thin. While the guy looked as if he was about to fall sick. Deciding to separate them, he came to stand in between them.

"We are doing our best, let me assure you both that we too want the victim, I mean Manik, to be found," Rajiv said gently, understanding the condition of the two teenagers.

Then turning back, he looked at his junior, deciding to send him away, he chose Singh to be the one to research the victim in the hospital of the whole city.

'Time to put that sharp tongue and brain to good use,' he thought.

"In fact, Singh will be leading the search team to look out for him in the hospitals," Rajiv ordered Singh while looking at them.

Nodding at the two teens, Rajvir walked away to his team, with Singh in tow. When they were left alone, Nandini and Cabir could do nothing but stare at the car that belonged to the person so dear to them.

Clutching her kurti in her hand, Nandini tried to make her violently beating heart stop hurting so much. Consoling it that he was going to be fine, but just the thought of Manik being out there, hurt, bleeding, alone was enough to make her heart restless with worry. He must be in so much pain, so hurt...

"Blood... there is so much blood," a shaky voice whimpered near Cabir. Coming out the trance he was in, he looked down at his side, sitting on her knees there was Nandini.

"Nandini," he called out, again and again, with no result. Bending down he placed a hand on her trembling shoulder, but she was somewhere else. Her eyes were crying while she was lost to the world around her...

"Amma, Appa, and now Manik? It can't be. Another car accident can't take away my world from me, I won't let it. But there is so much blood...So much blood..." she muttered, whimpering as she looked around, stuttering the words out loud. Her gaze was fixed on the red spots on the road, blood...Manik's blood...

"Nandini? Come on, snapped out of it!" Cabir yelled at her, sitting in front of her to block the vision of the blood, urging her to come back.

With trembling hands, he shook her, desperately trying to get her to respond to his words, but he was left disappointed. He shook her with more force, praying that she would, at least, register the motion. She didn't. Her eyes glazed past him, her head unable to support itself as he shook her.

"Nandini?" He yelled, patting her face with such force that it almost seemed as if he was repeatedly slapping her.

Cabir shivered when Nandini's blank eyes stared back at him, looking past him like he wasn't even there. She barely even moved when he warped his arms around her shivering self.

"Cabir?" she called him out after what seemed at a long time. As Nandini looked around, she found out that the sun had already set, coloring the sky around it in pink and orange. But all she could see was red; the crimson color of blood as she looked around her, blood and darkness...

"Yes, Nandini?" he asked her, gulping back the tears that threatened to flow.

"He is here, somewhere. We have to look for him in the hospitals, everywhere, someone must have taken him to the hospital or somewhere to treat his wounds," she murmured, trying to stand on shaking feet that looked as if they were about to give up, making her fall anytime.

Cabir swallowed and breathed in deeply, before finally nodding back to her, not wanting to upset her even further. Holding her by shoulders, he helped her in walking, making Nandini respond with a watery smile, grateful to have him by her side.

* * * * *

"I don't know what to say, Mr, Dhawan, we have already looked for him in every hospital of Pune. While there have been a few cases of car accidents last night, no victim went unidentified. But still, if you want to, I can give you the list of the hospitals around the city. The address and the numbers, everything is written down in here," Inspector Rajvir informed them as he walked them out of the police station.

"That will be enough, Sir, thank you," Cabir told him, looking at the inspector with respect.

"I wish you both a lot of luck and I pray that you will find him soon while we too will continue searching him till we find something," Rajvir told Cabir as he looked at the fragile-looking girl whose's hope had the strength of the rock.

As he looked at Cabir who himself looked sick but was holding the girl upright, standing tall, Rajvir felt helpless and guilty for not being able to help them out.

"Thank you, sir," Cabir said while Nandini looked up at him for the first time ever since they had walked in, nodding at him gratefully. Nodding back at her, Rajvir looked at them until they walked out of the gate of the police station. Looking at the sky, Rajvir prayed all the Gods to help them in finding the lost one.

Walking in the dark, they both felt tried as if ages have passed by since the moments of peace.

As they walked to the nearby taxi stand, they found no one around. The whole road was isolated, merged in the darkness and it felt as if it was manifesting the disappearance of the light in her. Ironically, for the first time, she could understand why Manik feared the darkness so much.

"I thought that the night when my parents died was the worst one, then Musicana night happened, and the naive person that I was a year ago, I thought it could rival the previous night. But that night when Pandit kidnapped me, I actually got to know which one is the most horrible night of my life," she thought out loud, breaking the silence around them.

Turning around Cabir looked at the girl walking by his side and tried to understand the meaning of her words.

"But you know what, Cabir? This day beats those nights and so many more..." she whispered looking at the darkness in front of her.

"You know why?" she asked him as she craned her neck to look at him but couldn't; because to her - he, everything, the whole world was immersed in darkness.

"Because apart from the night when my parents died, Manik always was there with me on those nights, to guide me in his own way, to save me. But now as I stand here, without him, I am getting to know the darkness in its purest form," her voice trembled as tears slipped from her eyes.

Looking at her, hearing her words, Cabir couldn't stop his tears. At the back of his mind, he wondered if Manik's some hours disappearance could break them to this point, losing him wasn't a possibility either of them could afford. Manik had to be found, no matter what.

But was he even there to be found?

As they walked on the road leading them to the taxi stand, Cabir's heart shook with all the wrong possibilities his mind came up with, while Nandini tried to prepare herself to walk on the long path in front of her. There was no doubt, to find Manik, no matter how and what had to be done, she will. To find him, she decided that she would, and could, do anything and everything...

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A/N:- Here is the first chapter of the "Past", the story from now would cover all the past events ever since Manik's disappearance, the mystery behind it and to their meeting, I hope you will stick around and enjoy reading... :)

Leave a comment or two to let me know your thoughts, please... :)

Thank you! :)

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