3 days later...

"It's been four days," Gauri whispered.

Radhika glanced up from the menu. After their work, she had dragged Gauri to the cafe. Her friend looked like she needed a mug of caffeine, anyway.

"It's been four days, Rads. Four days since I last saw him. Neither is he calling me nor is he answering my calls or texts," Gauri rambled, looking a perfect mess of frustration and concern.

Radhika sighed and prepared to speak, only to be cut off by Gauri.

"Do you think something bad happened to him?"

"Gauri, stop." Radhika whisper-yelled.
"Aren't you being paranoid?" Radhika asked, shaking her head in disappointment.

She couldn't understand what was wrong with Gauri. Her friend had been acting strange lately and somewhere, it scared her.
What was wrong with her?

Gauri's eyes turned livid for a second.
"Paranoid? Paranoid? I'm being paranoid?" She hissed.

Radhika was dumbfounded. Never had she seen Gauri behave like this.

"4 days, Radhika. No call, no text, I don't even know his condition. He told me that he would return in two days. God forbid! If something happened to him, I won't even know of it," Gauri gasped.

"On the top of that, I feel like I am being stalked. Each moment, I feel eyes upon me. I keep turning back, looking around. Do you know how traumatizing it is? Especially, after what happened few months prior," she visibly shuddered.

Radhika bit her lip. It had been traumatizing enough for her and she wasn't even the one who got kidnapped. She couldn't even fathom, the state Gauri would have gone through.

"And you tell me, I am being paranoid?" Gauri's voice cracked a bit.

"After all this, Rads, I think I have a right of being paranoid."

Gauri's eyes shined with tears that had unwillingly sprung up.

"Hey, hey, Gauri." Radhika squeezed her hands.
"I didn't know, Jaan. Why didn't you tell me?"

"I... I don't know, maybe because I wasn't or still ain't sure myself," Gauri ran her fingers through her hair in order to calm her frenzied state.

Just as Radhika was about to speak, Gauri's phone pinged with notification.

Gauri quickly took out her phone from her bag, spilling few contents in the process.

The slight relief of hope, soon turned into a frown of uncertainty.

'Hi Gauri!'

It was from an unknown number.

'Who is this?'

Gauri frowned and waited for the texter to reveal his identity.

Her phone buzzed.

'Don't you remember me?'

Gauri gritted her teeth. Her patience was already wearing thin. She, for sure, wasn't in the mood to play the 'Guess-me' game.

'I am sorry but I wouldn't have asked you, had I remembered you.
Tell me your name before I block you.'

The next text came up almost instantly.

'Wow, really?'

Gauri had had enough. She was going to block it, but another text stopped her from doing so.

'I'm Veer. Don't you remember me?'

Veer was Rudra's brother, Gauri knew him.

'Veer Pratap Rathore?'

Veer grinned in merriment. She remembered him.

'Yes.'

Gauri sighed a little, then let uncertainty wash her face.

'How did you get my number?'

No reply.

She waited. Perhaps, he got offline. She kept her phone on the table and glanced at Radhika who had a visible question mark marring her face.

Her phone pinged again.

'Siddharth gave me.'

Gauri exhaled.

She immediately typed one question, she had been waiting to know.

'Have you heard from Rudra?'

'When is he returning?'

Veer's grip tightened on his phone. He suppressed the vehement urge to shatter his phone into pieces.

'No.'

Gauri let out a shaky breath before swiping a hand over her face. What was she going to do?

She was about to ask him few more information about Rudra but her fingers paused when his text greeted her vision.

'Gotta go. Will talk to you later, Gauri.'

Gauri tucked her phone back in her bag.

"Who's that?" Radhika asked.

A waiter placed their order on the table. Gauri thanked him and answered Radhika,

"Veer. Rudra's brother."

Radhika sipped her mocha.
"Does he... "

"No. He doesn't know, Rads," Gauri breathed out.
"I don't know anymore. I am feeling scared," Gauri whispered the last words.

Her vision turned blurry, unshed tears filled her eyes. She never knew one man could affect her so much. Or was it the situation? She didn't know.

A hand on her shoulder made her jerk. She turned around to look at its owner.

.
.
.

Siddharth's smile faltered the moment he saw Gauri's eyes shinning with tears.

"What's wrong?" He asked concernedly, his gaze swinging from Gauri to Radhika.

The latter, for the first time, was sitting like a normal human being.

"Gauri, what's the matter?" Siddharth asked whilst taking a seat near her.

"Have you heard from Rudra? Did he say when is he supposed to return?" Gauri questioned in a breath.

"Is this the reason? Were you on a verge of crying for this? Silly girl," Siddharth lightly tapped her head.

"Yes, I heard from him. He is fine. He will return in a day or two," Siddharth lied through his teeth.

The truth was, he didn't even know where his friend actually was. However, he could see Gauri's frenzied state.

"Oh god! Thank you," Gauri sighed in relief.

"I asked his brother also but even he wasn't aware of Rudra's wellbeing," Gauri said.

"Brother?"

That, snapped all of Siddharth's attention to Gauri.

"You mean Veer? How do you know him?" Siddharth questioned, furrowing his brows.

"Oh! We met at the market. He introduced himself as Rudra's brother," Gauri paused.

"Didn't you ask him?"

"Ask him what?" Siddharth asked.

"What the hell is going on?" He thought.

Why was Veer meeting Gauri? Rudra's brother had always seemed a little off to Siddharth. He did not sound like a good news.

"When you gave him number, didn't you ask him?" Gauri frowned.

"When did I give him your number? The hell is going on," Siddharth growled inwardly.

He opened his mouth to argue but was cut off by the ringing of Gauri's phone.

"Hello, Maa. What? Now? Okay, sure. No, 15 minutes at maximum. Yes, I'll reach as soon as possible. Don't worry. Yes, I have the spare keys. Okay, wish them compliments from my side. I'll be safe," Gauri cut the call and hurriedly packed her stuffs.

Radhika gave her questioning frown with her mouth full, due to gulping too much of the drink at a time.

"Relative's wedding," Gauri replied.
"No one's going to be at home, so Maa asked me to come early."

Radhika nodded, gulping her mocha.

"Sorry, bhai," Gauri addressed Siddharth.
"We need to go."

"It's okay," Siddharth said, still fazed out by the turn out of events.

Radhika proceeded towards the counter to pay. Meanwhile, Gauri gathered their stuffs.

"Gauri."

Gauri hummed at Siddharth's call.

"You are okay, right?" Siddharth asked solemnly.

Gauri's hands paused for a second. She decided against telling him about those stalker doubts. Perhaps, she might actually be imagining things.

"I am," Gauri smiled.

Siddharth did not reciprocate. He kept staring at her before engulfing her in a hug.

"Be safe, sister."

Gauri smiled wholeheartedly.
"I will, bhai."

"Call me if something's wrong. Got it?" Siddharth quipped.

Gauri nodded her head like an obedient child while chuckling softly.

They bade their byes to each other. Gauri dropped Radhika at her home.

Radhika offered to stay with her but Gauri declined it politely.

Gauri reached her home. It was getting late, anyway. The sun had, long ago, set leaving the sky to embrace the night's blanket.

Taking out her spare keys, she unlocked the main gate. In the meantime, Gauri scanned her surrounding. Nothing sort of unusual was there.

Her gaze then, settled on a silver coloured Sumo with black-tinted glasses. She frowned at the sight of it. Memories of previous incidents surfaced at an instant.

"Goddamn it."

She parked Chetak, locked the main gate and unlocked the front door at a speed of light.

She breathed a sigh of relief when she shut the front door. Checking the bolt and lock for the fifth time, she finally felt the need to relax.

.
.
.

Tying her hair in a messy bun, she was ready to crawl in her bed and give in to the sweet sleep that was knocking at the windows of her eyelids.

While moving around her room, she managed to catch the sight of the Sumo through the glass window which had not moved an inch.

Gauri bit her lip, the number plate was visible to her from the first floor. She took her phone and clicked a photo of it.

"Just for caution," she pacified herself.

Her phone buzzed with life. Maa's call.

"Hello, Maa."

"Did you have your dinner?" Savitri literally yelled on the phone amidst the ongoing celebration.

Gauri put the phone at a distance to prevent any further harms to her eardrums.

"Yes, Maa," she answered, suppressing the giggles.

"Checked the locks?" Savitri asked.
"Check it again. The main gate, front door, backdoor, terrace door, balcony door, windows too," Savitri completed without taking a single breath.

"Yes, Maa," Gauri chuckled.

"Bring it on. Hell yeah!" A guy's voice hollered from background, cracking up Gauri.

"Shut up, you. I am trying to talk here," Savitri yelled in frustration.

A uniform chant of 'sorry aunty' made Gauri laugh more.

"Youngsters," Savitri clucked her tongue.
"Okay Gauri, talk to you later. Good night, laado."

"Good night, Maa."

Gauri kept her phone on top of the night stand and prepared herself for the bed.

A sound of thump from overhead snapped Gauri's attention. It sounded as if, someone just smoothly landed on her terrace.

Gauri gulped her saliva. She recalled locking the terrace door.

Gauri looked around warily, forehead creasing in tension.

She padded her way towards the nightstand.

A loud sound of falling of utensils resounded from downstairs, making Gauri jump in air.

Sweat beads formed on her forehead. Her heart was beating wildly against her ribcage.

She squeaked slightly when the power went off, drenching the room in darkness. Her lower lip trembled a bit whereas her hands shivered in the palpable fright.

Clutching her phone, she turned the screen light on, not risking to on the flashlight.

Hoping against hope, if someone was downstairs, she didn't want to alert them with the shinning flashlight.

Quietly, she made her way down the stairs, sticking herself to the wall for protection. Her bare felt numb on the cold marble flooring.

With heart pounding in her ears and fear running through her veins, she peeked inside the kitchen.

Everything was... normal.

"This is not normal," she mused fearfully.

She heard the sound of falling utensils, if so where were the fallen utensils?

Something shifted behind her.

Gauri whipped her body around, dropping her phone in the process.

"Wh... who... is he... here?" She stuttered.

Silence followed her question.

A swish of wind and flapping of curtain drew her attention to the broken glass window. The bolt was slid down and it the frame was creaking with the force of wind.

Gauri stifled a cry that was rising up her throat.

Someone did break the glass and managed to slide the bolt.

Her eyes roamed around with a motion from her head.

That meant, she had an unwanted presence here.

She crouched down, her shivering hands wiped the floor, searching for her phone.

Her throat felt parched with fear and sweat dripped down her brows.

A silhouette standing near the curtains made her scramble back, falling on her rear end. She screamed in fright.

She dashed towards the living room, hoping to get into the nearest room so that, she could lock herself.

She heard footsteps behind her. A soft groan of pain followed it, she didn't bother to turn behind and find out what it was.

Her trembling hands twisted the knob. However, before she could open it, arms caught her from behind.

She thrashed and cried.

The scream rising in her throat got knocked when her body met the hard surface of the wall. A muscular body pinned her against the wall, barricading all her attempts of escaping.

By the touch she knew, her captor was a man. She raised her knees to kick him.

However, it seemed her captor had predicted her actions and pinned her knees with his legs.

Her throat choked a cry.
"Let me go..."

Her face turned ashen and horrified, wiggling in his hold.

"Help me," her screams got muffled soon.