It had been only twenty minutes, yet Giri felt like hours had passed. He sat quietly in the car, contemplating what to do but so far, there was no hope whatsoever. Every passing minute, he felt the urge to just leave and put the incident behind, but his conscious would allow him to do that. He never considered himself pragmatic but when the moment came for him to make a decision, he simply couldn’t walk away.

He took in a deep breath and steadied his nerves before finally taking a step out of the car. The lights at the restaurant were still burning, if he had to act this was his only chance. Every step he took towards the restaurant raised his heartrate. He felt like certain death was watching over him as walked towards the gates of hell.

Sweat poured down his forehead as stood before the gate, looking inside. Two young boys were at the tables turning the chairs upside down, they saw him standing at entrance but pretended they didn’t see him. The cashier finally exited the door beside the counter. Keeping calm face, Giri took one step forward when two men walked past him and into the restaurant. He stopped dead in his tracks and observed the two new strangers. Both were tall and bulked up. They had a shabby attire and a mean look on their faces. Neither of them appeared to be any good news. They greeted the cashier with a smile and began to chat like they were good friends.

Giri swallowed hard. He knew very well he was doomed. However, rather than discouraging him, this made him fearless. Throwing caution to the wind, he walked in.

The cashier’s smile turned upside down seeing the cab driver walking in. His two friends took notice and tuned around to see a short man walking in with a serious face. ‘I told you the girl isn’t here,’ said the cashier.

‘And I know your lying,’ replied Giri.

‘Who is this girl?’ asked one of the friends.

‘No idea. Says a girl came to my restaurant. We haven’t had a customer since an hour,’ the cashier replied.

‘Cut the bullshit. I know she came in!’ Giri said gritting his teeth.

‘So, what if she did?’ replied the friend, ‘do you see her? No? Then she left.’

Bile rose to his throat. ‘Where is she?’ Giri asked again.

The man before his had a huge smile on his face. He grabbed Giri’s shirt, lifting him up a little and said, ‘trying to be a hero? What are you going to do? Call the fucking police?’

‘Ugh! Too much trouble. Let’s just get rid of him,’ said the other.

Shiver travelled up his spine on hearing those words. His hands shook uncontrollably as he grabbed onto his assaulter’s arm. The man’s grip tightened as his eyebrows furrowed. Giri felt a solid punch come his way and embraced for it mentally.

‘Giri,’ a woman called out. He recognised that soft voice immediately. All the people in front of him looked past him with their jaws dropped. He slowly turned around to see his client standing behind him.

The assaulter pushed Giri away, causing him to nearly trip and fall over but he was saved by Monica who grabbed on to him.

‘Is this the girl you were talking about?’ the assaulter said as he stepped forward, ‘he caused a lot of problems for us, you know?’

‘He was just being a little protective,’ Monica said.

‘Yeah? Now he has ruined this hotel’s repuation,’ he replied.

‘What reputation?’ Monica asked looking at him with a cold stare. Giri was back on his feet. He looked visibly shaken. ‘Let’s go,’ Monica said. Giri simply nodded in response.

The tension could be cut with a knife. Giri and Monica felt terror as they walked back to the car but neither showed this in anyway.

The men at the restaurant quietly watch them get in their car and leave. The assaulter turned back and asked, ‘Pandian. Is that her?’

‘How the hell did she escape?’ the cashier asked.

‘No clue. Mallesh and Gana are knocked out. Could she have been with them?’ he wondered out aloud as he walked back in.

‘Nayar, this is bad. She could go to the police,’ Pandian said.

‘So, what if she does?’ he replied.

‘Then why the fuck did you guys let them go?’ the cashier asked.

‘Something is odd about the girl. Mallesh maybe young, but Gana isn’t someone you take lightly. If she did take them out…’ Nayar said.

‘She also broke through a steel window,’ Pandian interrupted, ’no one I know is remotely capable of anything like that.’

‘What are you idiots saying?’ the cashier asked. But neither of them replied, instead they watched the car disappear down the road with a serious look on their faces.

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***

Monica and Giri couldn’t have been more relieved to leave behind the dark streets of Kasipuram. The place had etched its mark in their minds that would take long to get rid of. They returned to the busy highway, which was still buzzing with traffic, just as they had left it. Their journey once again slowed down to a crawl but neither of them had any complaints this time.

They quiet sat through the next half an hour as they entered the city of Vizag before coming stop at Monica’s destination, a small logging nestled in the quiet part of the city. The driver proceeded to unload Monica’s suitcase before taking it to the reception. Monica took her room keys from the reception before turning to see Giri quietly standing beside the door of the lodge. ‘Thank you,’ Monica said in a lifeless voice and Giri simply nodded before walking out the door.

***

It was close to midnight and Monica had to be at the office first thing in the morning, yet she found it hard to get any sleep. Finding herself back in a small yet comfortable hotel room did alleviate a little weight off her heart, but it wasn’t enough. So much happened in one short evening that it was hard for her keep track of her thoughts.

She wasn’t sure what hurt more, the arrogance which made her blatantly ignore all warnings, or the pride that she is untouchable, and no living soul can lay a finger on her, or the thought of lying naked in a room with men ready to molest her, or the image of the woman she promised to save, laying on the bed with lifeless eyes. All that could have gone wrong, went wrong and she had no one to blame but herself. It didn’t matter to her that the woman would have taken her own life regarding of Monica’s intervention, she couldn’t save a soul that was right in front of her, and it felt like someone stabbed her in her chest.

She curled up while lying on the bed, grabbing onto her chest, and letting her tears flow out. There wasn’t much else she could do but live through the pain of the night that nearly destroyed her integrity.

***

Morning came by soon but not much had changed. The room was almost windowless, say for a tine vent just beneath the ceiling that let me a small amount of light. The dull morning atmosphere did not help much to improve her mood. She felt hollow, something she hadn’t felt in quite some time. It was a mix of emotions that had overwhelmed her and over the night had slowly eaten away at her heart. She stopped thinking and quietly went through the motions of a daily life.

Her new workplace was a small square building sitting on the outskirts of the city. It was just three stories tall and quite small compared to the giant warehouses she had visited before. However, the key feature of this warehouse is that it sits on a highway that is essentially the aorta of the road network south of the country. Its main purpose is to act as resting place for goods and trucks in between journeys. This also makes it a great place to keep a check on the logistics of the traffic passing through the highway.

Isha felt a little anxious thinking about the new girl. She had been the only girl in her team ever since she joined three years ago. While the other boys did their very best to make her comfortable, they couldn’t fill the void of having another woman as a companion. So, when they told her that a new member would arrive, she couldn’t help but feel excited, even if it was for a short period of time.

However, after the first interaction with the team, Monica’s personality seemed to have completely changed. All the energy seemed to have vanished leaving her looking dull and lifeless. She had heard a lot about her from her colleagues in other offices, many described her as an energetic but shy person. But when the first day came to end, Monica did not appear to be anything like what their peers described her to be. Isha felt that something awful had happened to her. She could see the sadness in her eyes, looking as though she would burst into tears any minute.

But she did not know what to do about it. Ever now and then, she would try to prod Monica to speak up, but she could not break through the shell that Monica had retreated herself into. It was Thursday already and the week was soon coming to an end. By Saturday, Monica would be on a bus and on her way to her next destination. Isha couldn’t help but feel disappointed if her short time here ended like so dully. She wondered if perhaps she should just let it go and hope things turn out okay for her.

‘Any progress?’ her manager asked.

‘Well, I got through a few files from yesterday…’ Isha began but was quickly interrupted.

‘No. Not about that!’ he said, ‘I meant about our temporary member.’

Isha shook her head and sighed. ‘No. She still won’t say much. I don’t know why but I have a bad feeling about her,’ Isha said.

‘What do you mean?’ he asked.

‘Like something that isn’t supposed to be happen, happened,’ she replied.

‘Well...’ he began with a hesitant tone, ‘she is a girl who is travelling alone all the time…’

‘And…?’ she said with pout.

‘Come on now. Even men face troubles when travelling,’ he said defending himself. ‘You are best option to find out what happened to her.’

She remained silent for a few seconds, pondering on what she could do. ‘I can try. They told she was a shy person. Maybe it is something she doesn’t want everyone to know,’ she replied.

‘Well, there is not much we could do about that. The least we can do is make her last two days a little better,’ he replied.

Time healed Monica’s heart, albeit slowly. Her chest did not weigh heavy anymore and she was now able to stop thinking about the events of that night. It still sent shivers down her spine every once in a while but it wasn’t something she couldn’t handle. She had pretty much blocked out the outside world, unwillingly to interact with it any more than that was needed. But now, she began to think more about her new colleagues. She felt terrible that she had to shut them out like the way she did. She remembered their names, or at least she hoped that she did. There were only two more days left before she would have to leave once again and one of those days was coming to an end.

Monica began to feel anxious. She felt like she owed them at the very least an apology, but she had no idea how she would approach them. However, it was like the gods were listening to her, as one of them approached her on their own.

‘Hey… busy?’ Isha asked.

Monica had been couped up in her small cubical, staring into the monitor all day long. She looked at Isha’s face a second, completely dumbfounded, but quickly shook it off and said, ‘oh no! It’s fine.’

Isha felt a bit relieved. She wasn’t really an outgoing person and making small talk was always an uphill task for her. So, she felt anxious when she was asked to bother someone who was completely closed up. She smiled softly and asked, ‘you want to go out for a cup of coffee? The others have left for the day.’

‘Really? How late is it?’ Monica asked, looking at her watch.

‘They had some work outside. It is okay if you are busy,’ Isha said. ‘No! Don’t say that!’ she screamed at herself for she knew she just might have shut down the opportunity to talk to her.

‘I am free. Where do you want to go?’ Monica replied.

Isha sighed out loud in relief.