04— Unexpected.

04— Unexpected.

“No doubt the future is unexpected. But the present stays in our hands. Decide wisely because every action is reflected by what you chose.”

— Saumya Tripathi

The future has always been unexpected. Yes certainly. No- one knows what could happen next. Nor anyone will. What the prospect beholds, still would be surprising to all humans. If anyone had known, there never would have been anything done wrong with anyone. Never— with anyone in any situation. Wouldn't it have made life so easy if that was the case? 

My throat suddenly felt tight and constricted. Breathing came out small and shallow. I was scared. Who wouldn't be?

My knees began to shake slightly, and I was afraid— afraid because I thought I was going to fall. I curled up my fingers into tight fists to make them cease trembling too.

I was trembling, visibly.

He began to walk towards me, I could perfectly hear his heavy shoes across the room, hitting the marbled base under his very weight, loud and clear in the empty room, echoing through the walls.

Fresh tears of unknown terror pooled up in my eyes yet again with terrifying swiftness. Despite my indescribable fear, I stood frozen in the same place, trying very hard to fight back my tears from flowing and my emotions from flaring. 

To my consternation, he came and stood in front of me just a few feet away, paralleled to the bed. Observing me.

Glazing down at me, straight into my eyes, his two obsidian eyes. Eyes— which were as dark as midnight without a moon in the firmament. 

I stared without breathing into his obsidian eyes. The minutes tickled rather slower than usual like a dying fish without its water. My heart pounded through my chest wildly—that wildly which left my ears numbed by its own loudness. I blinked: once, twice, thrice. 

Staring up into his almost black-midnight-coloured eyes. I stood appalled about what was going to happen next.

We stared at each other for a quite long movement and since of the intensity that they hold within them, I had to cast my gaze down to the floor. I was not able to look again at him. With my heart in my mouth, I took a step back.

"Is the clothing comfortable?" He inquired seriously, breaking the silence from his deep manly tone.

I didn't raise my eyes from the floor at his unexpected inquiry.

I kept quiet, still wondering if I was stuck.

"And if you want something, anything you can tell me, you know," he added, trying to chase my eyes.  

I stayed quiet. And the brute of a man in front of me continued, "And I am sure as heaven, I really won't mind bringing a high stool for you where you can stand on it comfortably without craning that little thin neck of yours to look up at me while we talk," underlying amusement could clearly be detected in his voice as he said that. 

He was mocking me! Like he was suppressing his laughter. Wasn't he?

My temper flared up with the sudden realisation of him making fun of me.

Yes, I looked tiny in front of him but it was not my fault that I was short. 

Everyone had their own flaws in them and mine was being short. No- one needs to make fun of it.

On impulse, I craned my neck to look up at him. My eyes were ablaze with accusations. He looked back at me with the same astonishment as before along with a twinkle in his coal-black eyes, staring intently at me— at my soul.

Albeit staring at me, he veered his face slightly up to the bed. Gazing over with a peculiar expression marring on his visage.

I followed his gaze confusingly then, stood bewildered.

I breathed, stunned.

"You both look almost alike," he said out of the blue, looking down at my brother with a ghost of a smile present on his lips.

Apart from feeling confused and dreadful, I frowned at his absurd statement.

Huh? Indeed we will look alike because we are siblings, after all. I thought about looking at my brother too.

After a few seconds of silence, he derided,

"Except, he seems to have some muscles with him. Unlike you," he added, his upper lip upwards in a mocking gesture. "Who could have mulled over an eight-month-old kid who could be stronger than a kid of seventeen years? Since I would've never," he said eyeing me, explicitly, like he had been examining a sculpture.

He was laughing at me yet again.

I felt his gaze on me but I did not presume to look at him. I strayed my eyes away from him. Staring straight towards my brother who already was buzzy staring curiously at him whilst drinking his given milk from the nipple of the milk bottle.

Behind me, I heard the brute say something under his breath which was too low for me to discover. I observed him from the corner of my eyes in a daze and fear..

He was looking at my brother with a smirk plastered on his lips.

Despite my trepidation, I frowned slightly.

Taking a deep breath and trying to muster up all my courage to ask him the question I was dying for, I reluctantly turned my face slowly in his direction.

A ripple of hope struck me when I saw him, grinning at my brother, vividly.

He looked younger and brighter when smiling. The beards looked scruff but soft. 

For a movement, I thought if I could make him see the wrong misdeed he'd done, hopefully, he'd let us go before it gets too late. With that thoughtful hope in my head, I convinced myself. And, if I shall ask him politely while making him understand that keeping someone forcefully is a crime. He'd see the wrongs he did. Surely and let us go. There was nothing wrong with trying. Was there? 

Mustering up all my courage, I faced him.

"W-when we can leave, Sir?" I asked him in a small voice, staring up at him with a respective tone of my own to gain his attention. 

Suddenly, his smile vanished and was replaced by a snarl. 

Turning his face my way, he glared down at me from his penetrating dark eyes with both jaws set in a hard line.

I gnawed at my bottom lip looking down at his hard gaze, feeling more distressed all of a sudden. 

"What's with the question? Didn't I tell you yesterday regarding the same matter?" I kept quiet. He continued: "You do really love your brother, no? Or was it just a showoff to other people to attract their attention?" He asked me caustically with a bit of calmness in his voice. His face was blank and void of any emotions.

My heart was trapped in my chest and the world turned upside down at his choice of words. 

"Huh?" He demanded in his low vicious voice, stepping closer to me.

My dried eyes welled up again with hot water. How could he say such crucial words?

Glumly, I stood there silently, before I could move, he in his two long strides walked towards me swiftly, standing close- quite close to me. My breath escalated. 

Narrowing his obsidian eyes, he glared down at me.

I gasped loudly watching him wide-eyed as he ventured to even get closer to me even after all those things he'd done.

I was almost about to back away but stiffed and then, I yelped when his arm slowly circled me to the other side of my waist holding me tightly, keeping me in place.

I was too stunned to react. I couldn't even breathe. I stood frozen.

With a dishevelled state, I could not help myself from looking up at him with my mouth agape opened with wide- frightened-open eyes.

Gazing still, he bent down until he was at my level just a few inches apart from my face, peering at me with his stoic, dark eyes. They were so cold, so hard.

I stood afraid and stiff watching him with my frightful eyes as he turned his face slightly near my ear.

"Close your mouth, kid," he murmured just outside my external ear.

Just after completing his sentence, he blew hot air into my ear all of a sudden through his mouth. An abrupt scream escaped me unknowingly. Immediately, I cupped that blew ear from my hand, and my already wide eyes widened even more. 

"Oh kid, for a girl like you— you definitely have quite a scream," he chuckled, his roving eyes never leaving my face. 

Bringing his long-callous thick index finger under my chin he closed my mouth.

I shivered, involuntarily.

"I'd love to teach you many things. And, we would, you know, have to indeed work out regarding how to keep you still," he decided, peering with a small visible smile on his lips.

"You know, what?” he calculated. “That you are so- naive as even for once you thought I could allow you to leave," he again whispered into my ear, coming closer. 

Instantly, coming out of my daze which I was in from his unseen move and proximity, I shuddered at his said inclination about not leaving us free. I was confused, afraid and furious. I wriggled in his arms with all the strength that I could muster up. Bringing my limped hands from my sides and twisting them behind me, I grasped his thick muscular hand which was on my waist and I kept on tugging at it downwards to make him leave me. But his bulk arm didn't even budge an inch. Not even for once to free me when I struggled in his arms, continuously. 

"No!" I moaned loudly, trying harder. 

As weak as I felt, panic took over me completely. 

Eventually, I couldn't come to hold back my tears anymore which I had been holding for quite a long time, it fell incessantly from my eyes as I cried silently in the brutal hold.

"Let go! let go! Please!" I pleaded with him, my voice croaking at the end of every word.

Promptly, he let go of me almost immediately as I stumbled back as far as I could have from him, staggering in the steps. 

Now, I was more frightened of him than I had ever been.

"Hey, ssh! Don't be scared," he sounded panicked, literally. His eyes looked crazed. 

Panicked? Seriously? Even in my aghast state, my mind seemed to question his sanity. Was he bipolar or what?

He stepped closer wanting to come close. Instinctively, I stepped back farther and farther away from him.

"Please don't be afraid," he whispered again as he took another step closer.

"Hm? Come here little one I wasn't going to hurt you. I promise. I won't even touch you now," he said softly as if talking to a child.

I shook my head slowly but rapidly in negative. 

Pausing in his steps, he comprehended me for a few seconds prior to turning his face slightly diagonal.

Moving up to the bed with a deliberate unhurried pace, still staring at me. He went where my little brother was. And to my dismay, he went up to him and with a swift pace took Shaurya up from under his arms, carefully. Cradling him to his broad chest, then placing his bulky arm under his bum to steady him in place. Securely holding his milk bottle with another hand helping him in drinking.

I stood, nonplussed.

“I will not hurt him. Now would you prefer to come, little one?" He asked tenderly, his dark obsidian eyes soft. "Besides he is too soft to cuddle," he added, slightly smiling as his dimple deepened.

I stood stiff and stunned. Fear crept inside me, up to the roots of every single hair on my scalp.

I bobbed my head up and down vigorously at him when my daze got cleared and the situation seemed to revolve in my mind that— my baby was in the arms of a brute.

Shaurya looked too tiny in his arms.

"Come," he said softly, nodding, assuring me. Only if he knew he was doing the exact opposite. 

This time I obeyed him without hesitation, eyeing my brother.

"Y-yes, sir?" 

"It wasn't that difficult. Was it? And, please don't call me Sir."

Ignoring his question instead, I asked,

"Can I t-take him, Sir?" 

Ignoring the part of my question too, he asked his own: "Why?" He asked suspiciously, eyeing me.

"It's his b-bedtime, Sir." My lips wobbled yet again at his sudden impassive visage.

"But he does not look sleepy at all to me," he said after examining my baby, minutely. 

"B-but it is his sleeping time, Sir, if he will n- not sleep now, he is going to catch a mild cold t-tomorrow."

"Hmm. Therefore, should I give him to you?”

I nodded. 

“I guess that's what you're trying to portray, doll. Is that a nod for me to hand over your brother to you?”

"Yes, S-sir."

"Do I really have to give it to you?" He inquired again. "Because he is way too warm to give," he completed.

"Please Sir," I pleaded with him, my tears of anxiety already blurring my vision.

"Alright! alright! But you have to promise me something. Would you do that for your beloved brother? And I could ask anything?" He asked icily, suddenly. All the humour was gone.

I nodded at him willingly despite the tears..

"Hmm. . .Good girl. Okay, take him.”

I went closer to get hold of Shaurya.

But instead of giving Shaurya to me, he laid him down on the mattress of the bed, tugging him gently with a thin blanket over him.

Then I noticed a soundly sleeping baby on the bed with a bottle in his mouth.

Did he sleep? When did that happen? And how? He never sleeps like this, not before having heard the lullaby, that was.

Peculiar.

"So?" He said while sitting down on the edge of the bed, facing me. Facing him, I unconsciously took a few steps back.

"Yes, S-sir?" I asked timidly, glancing at the sleeping form of my brother.

"Still afraid of me, little one? Hmm. I see,” he nodded. "But I won't ever hurt you as I already had told you."

I gulped, Looking down. 

Says who? A stranger who took us away from our home with him in the first place and here he talks about not hurting us! I wanted to say that to him but kept quiet. 

"Come here,” he ordered, his tone stern, his stare intense. 

I froze at his demanding voice. My hands started to shake again.

"I said come here. Will you?”

He paused.

“There's no need to be afraid, doll.”

I heaved a breath.

“If I really wanted to do something to hurt you in one way or another why wouldn't I have done it already by now?" 

I took a shaky breath, before strolling with measured steps up to him. I did not have a choice. 

My legs wobbled but I stepped closer to him, nevertheless.

When I was at arm's distance, he suddenly yanked me to him by grasping my forearm. I stumbled but didn't fall.

"Why don't you listen to me at once, hmm?" His tone was gentle, however, the shiver which went through my ribs was terrifying. 

When I didn't answer him, he made me sit on his lap, sideways coercively. Alarmed, I yelped and tried to move but he crossed both of his arms on my waist, gripping it tightly. 

"Ssh, calm down! Just sit here for a while then, I promise I will let you go," he compromised. Neglecting his words I still fought hard though, attempting to get free from his grip but it was useless. He did not let me by tightening his hold.

Accepting defeat, I sat stiff and wondered, stuck at his audacity. And I felt distraught. 

Stilled with distraught, I stared in front of me as a tear rolled down slowly through my cheek up to my chin, unhurriedly.

"You're such a baby. Do you know that? How can anybody cry this much as you do? Hmm? You are worse than a child," he grumbled in my ear, wiping my tears gently from his callous pad of the thumb, his movement unhurried. 

Whatsoever, I sat there frozen with mortification. Promptly intimidating me, he slumped his face onto my shoulder, sniffing me, slowly. Visibly shuddering, I stilled as he nestled my neck.

"You're still so small and way too fucking cute," he murmured softly in my ear, tickling me. I flinched at his certain vulgar words. Nonetheless, he executed further. "With enchanting beauty of yours so soft—too soft. And you are too pure. Far too pure to be existing in a world like this; too innocent— so damn innocent with the innocence of a born baby. Hmm," he sniffed at my hair yet again scaring me to no end. "You still haven't changed, Radhika,"

A sob escaped me. My shoulder shook tremendously, my whole body was shivering. 

AFRAID- I was very afraid. I didn't even understand or seemed to hear what he had been saying since I was in my own terrifying illusion. I just wanted to go home. Away from here- far away from him who scared me to death. 

I was confused and terrified at the same time. I did not seem to understand any of the sentences he was trying to portray. Everything felt like a movie. A strange, uncanny movie.

I didn't want to be touched by anyone anyhow in any circumstances like he had been touching me. I did not like it at all. Not for even once.

I felt assaulted. His touch was something I wanted to crawl away from. 

"Ssss...Don't cry little one. You are safe. No one is going to hurt you and I will very much make sure of it. There is no need to cry. Go to sleep, my peanut. I will watch over you and your little brother. For eternity." He whispered very lightly into my ear, forcing my head to stay still on his shoulder while he continued to pat my head with tenderness.

His touch disgusted me but the same protective embrace of his, allured me, perhaps it was my orientation and fatigue that was making me feel relaxed and protected after a very long time since the lack of protectiveness from my parents.

On the contrary, I immediately felt a sudden urge to weep loudly— that loudly which could get the pain away from my already heavy heart. To make myself pain-free from the agony, for once which I have been withstanding for a great deal of time.

At last, I did. Without thinking much of it. 

I wept.

I wept loudly, pouring all my sadness, anguished suffering, devastation, loneliness and whatnot into them.

I wept.

Wept.

And wept, incessantly.

Without any care in the world.

I wept until I felt my eyes get heavier and heavier with every passing movement.

The gentle caress on my hair and light patting on my head did not stop even for a second, and I found myself drowning in an unknown realm.

So, I drifted into it.

Drifted into the world of dreams with an unknown heaviness still lingering somewhere in my chest as I seemed to be lost in the offered realm. 

“Sleep tight, doll. You are always protected with me by your side. That's my promise to you,” with a light kiss on the head, I thought I had imagined him caressing my hair as he said something incoherent. “Finally when I have you by my side, there is no option to let you go. The situation might be wrong but the outcome isn't.”