Veils of Time [Completed?]

Sandhya Didi's lifeless eyes look back at me, as though frozen in eternal shock and terror. Her body lay sprawled on the ground, blood dried beneath her like a dark, accusing shadow. Karthik is sitting beside me. My hand is in his.

No one dares to move and close those lifeless cold eyes, because the scarred man had warned us not to touch the body otherwise another girl will lose her life. No dared.

“I feel scared, Karthik,” I whisper to him.

“Tara.”

“I really feel scared,” tears roll down my eyes.

“I feel scared too, Tara,” he admits for the first time in thirty days, “I feel scared too. What if they kill you too?”

“I think it'll be for the good. They can't hurt her any more, can they?”

He looks at me. “Using my words on me?”

I shake my head. “No, I'm serious.”

When he doesn't reply, I ask him, “You have seen them struggle with those two men? You tell me? Was death easier for her or ..”

His eyes moves back to Sandhya Didi before he replies truthfully, “Death.”

“I don't think you need to be scared then,” I say to him, “Death will be much better, will not it be?”

“I can’t lose you, Tara,” he whispers in a broken voice, “I’ll lose myself if I lose you.”

His words seems to experienced for any ten year old, and lately, my own words seems to sound like it is coming from someone who has seen life, but I'm merely eight.

“You won't lose me if I die,” I say to him, “When my Nani-maa died, Papa told me that even if she is no more physically among us, she'll always remain alive in our hearts. And she is. Even Sandhya Didi is.”

His eyes softens as he looks at me. “Maybe you're right. My Maa is alive in my heart too.”

“Told you,” I smile weakly, “And I don't know where I'll go after death, but I'll always keep you in my heart too.”

“You will?” he asks and I nod my head.

We talk about everything and nothing. Day passes, night comes. Night passes, next day comes and he is called outside the room to cook lunch for them. He leaves me behind with heavy heart.

The only thing he didn't know was — I wasn't going to be there when he returned back.

Evening arrives, as well as the monsters.

“Come outside,” the scarred man calls looking at me.

I rise up to my feet, because he is already pointing a gun on me.

When I step outside the room quietly, it is for the first time ever that my eyes darted around the surroundings that I had only heard about from Karthik.

There's two cot in the corner, and a table in the middle. I look around for any sign of Karthik and my eyes falls on him. Everything happens so silently that he doesn't even gets aware of the fact that I was called outside by the men.

The scarred man lifts me up and throws me on the bed without putting any effort. When the cot bounces, he orders in a loud voice, “YOU SCUMBAG!”

Karthik appears in the background and his eyes falls on me. Our gazes meet and his jaw drops.

The scarred man's eyes travels from Karthik to me, then back to Karthik.