Dated: 3rd June, 2025
Word Count: 3k+
Target: 60+ votes and comments

Reach ho nahi rahi, update kya karu😭
Inline comments karo yaar please
Itna kam reach kyu😭

Warning ⚠️: Extreme violence. Do not move ahead if you are sensitive. Merciless tortures ahead!

19 | Family |

Urvi:

F A M I L Y

Six letter words but holds a different meaning to each one of us. For some, it's the source of unending happiness and memories, while some thrive in the despondency of spirit. Their own self.

Thirteen year old me defined the meaning of this word as a source of income and stability. As the years went by, the definition became reality, thus blending the lines between reality and imagination.

The stark difference between reality and thought process, which was eradicated, became much clearer.

"Here." Saying so he fed me another piece of apple. My eyes stayed at him. Witnessing his each and every movement. When he sat beside me on the bed wordlessly. When he sliced the apple by himself. Peeled the oranges and removed the white fibers very carefully before feeding me.

The fact that he remembers evoked something in me. He did not leave my side. It's evening, and not for ones he has budged from the room other than having a small conversation with the doctor, which I can predict what it would've been.

His brothers were here, too. They left a few hours ago, not before making me laugh to my heart and lightening up the atmosphere.

He fed me the last morsel of orange and discarded the plate. Swiftly picking up a glass of water, he slid his hand down my nape and helped me to lean forward to take a sip. He then picked up a tissue and gently wiped my lips. A spine tingling sensation gripped me. He was close.

So close that I could practically listen his heart thumping at an abnormal pace.

His eyes, finally, after this whole day came to mine. I was adamant enough not to let it slip away.

"You haven't spoken a word since then." I said in a low voice, gesturing towards the last encounter.

I felt a change in the intensity of his gaze. It went deep. As deep as I could feel it in my core. Every cell of my body could feel it.

"Why?" Just a word from his lips. A question. I blinked in confusion. "Why did you take the bullet?"

I felt my heart dropping at his question. I swallowed down the lump and averted my gaze, "What did the doctor say?"

"Why did you take the bullet?" He asked monotonously.

Chilled raced down, "When am I getting a discharge?"

"Why did you take the bullet." He repeated, yet again.

Exhaling shakily, my eyes again reached out to him, "Kaise chod deti yeh jaante hue ki you are going to get hurt?"

He nodded instantly, "You could've informed me. This," he pointed towards the bandages across my back, reaching down to my hands, "This is hurting me hundered times more." His eyes went red. He gripped my nape and pulled me closer, touching his forehead to mine, "Ek hi jaan hai. Kitni baar uss jaan ko dard dogi? You want me to die, Luna?"

I shut my lashes at the severity of his words. Gathering some amount of courage, I spoke up, "Meri bhi ek hi jaan hai Ridhit. Kaise dard hone deti?" I felt his grip loosening. Opening my orbs, I found him looking at me. He pushed himself back and sighed, looking here and there. He ruffled his messed-up hair. I could see his jaws clenching and wrist tightening due to his fist.

Next, what I saw was that he was on call with someone, "Yaha aaja. Aur dusre ko waha bhej de." He ended the call instantly and turned to me. He rested me against headboard, stuffed pillows around me, and kept everything, including water, fruits, and my phone in the table beside me to reach easily. And then he left the room the very next second.

I frowned at his sudden actions. In no time, Ashrit entered the room with his big grin and a huge packet.

"Hello, bhabhi." He pulled the stool and sat beside me. I greeted him back. "Look what I got for you." He passed me the packet.

I raised my eyebrows at him. He simply gestured me to look into the packet. I obliged, only to widen my eyes in extreme joy and snap my head back at him.

"Oh my god." I squealed and immediately pulled out the things. Books, brownies, and pastel highlighters. "This..." I went blank for a moment. "You guys didn't have to."

He shrugged, "Bhai instructed me these. And besides, I'm sure I'm a better company than Advaith. I'm telling you, he's so boring."

"Really?" I mean, the encounters with him were anything but boring.

He sighed, "For family, he's the most funny and happy guy. But it's only him who knows what goes on inside him." I stayed silent.

I felt as if all the three brothers buried some deep secrets inside them. Ridhit has me. But the other two?

"All of you are single?" I asked senselessly and face palmed myself.

Ashrit chuckled, "With utmost sincerity, yes. Of course, except Ridhit Bhai." I nodded in information. "By the way, what did you even see in Bhai?" I laughed at his question.

"Honestly, even I'm unaware." I shrugged. "But where did he go?"

"Uh, I'm not allowed to speak about that." He replied, and I chose to respect his words.

I felt as if it wasn't necessary for Ashrit to stay here. He isn't obliged if he doesn't want to. I bit my lips, "If you wish, you can leave, Ashrit. I mean, I won't mind. I understand you must be busy."

"What?" He chuckled. "If you say this to my brothers, they'll believe it to be the joke of the millennium. I'm never busy for the family, bhabhi. Chill!" Family.

"Family." I whispered, looking practically nowhere.

"Yeah." He shrugged. "We brothers have been the only family for each other since childhood. Ridhit Bhai is the father figure who fulfilled all the duties our father should've. The amount of hard work, soul, and sweat he has put in Formonix to provide me and Advaith the life we deserve is unwavering. He's everything to us. Our life. And now, since you are his life, you are ours too." I went numb. "We have a little family, Bhabhi. And you are a part of our little family too." A heavy lump clogged my throat. I exhaled shakily and looked at him, who now looked a little down.

Wetting my dry lips, I spoke up, "He loves you both too. A lot, in fact." No lies.

He smiled and nodded, "But...Bhabhi." I looked at him, expecting him to continue, "Do not tell any of my brothers that I have spoken so good about them. Sar par chadh jayenge." I giggled at his statement and nodded. "You read the book, I'll sit there." I nodded, and he walked off to the couch with his laptop. I happily spent the next few hours completing the queue of books and having brownies.

Something else, too, among a lot of other good things again, felt good.

Ridhit Merhotra

Mi sto innamorando di te

End:

Ridhit:

"Is he in there?" I walked in, rolled the sleeve of my shirt, and unbuttoned top two buttons.

"He's there. Our men are taking care of him." Advaith spoke up, walking behind me. We stepped into the warehouse located in the extreme periphery of the city in an isolated corner of a ground. It was dark, illuminated with a few bulbs at each corner. Blocks laid here and there, along with several other weapons and equipment.

My eyes reached up to the man tied up on the chair. His face brutally damaged, almost hanging on his body, eyes shut in extreme pain, and chest arching due to the continuous source of discomfort.

Did it satisfy me?

It's probably a little

Will I not lay my hand on him?

Absolutely-fucking-not

Putting on the gloves passed by Advaith, I reached out for the man. His eyes flickered a bit and eventually opened at the sound of my steps. I gently caressed the scar on his temple and looked at him softly, "Is it paining?"

He sniffed and nodded hastily, "It is. Badly. Please save me."

I chuckled and stepped back to look at my brother, "Did you hear what he said?" I gazed back at that man, "Save me? Paining, is it?"

He went still, probably realizing my intentions with him.

"Pour vous, toujours."

I clenched at the distinct memory and stepped ahead to grab his hair harshly and pull him back. "Which finger?" He blinked in confusion. "Which finger did you use to pull the trigger?"

His face went blank. Shivering endlessly, he nodded, "No, no. Please, sir, I didn't do anything."

"I ASKED WHICH FINGER!" I loudly asked again. He pointed towards his left hand index finger. I nodded and turned towards Advaith. He nodded and passed me an equipment.

I bent down to his level and held his left hand, "Lemme tell you a secret." I slowly muttered. "I absolutely dispise her tears. It kills me." I brought the equipment closer to his finger. "The girl whom you shot. She's my life. My breath. You challenge my breath, I challenge your existence." And with that, I chipped off his finger.

Entire warehouse, probably area ahead of that shivered with the scream that escaped.

The sound of the bullet rushed through the gush of wind, and she gasped audibly as it hit her.

I shut my eyes in fury and clenched my fingers on the nail deep wound on his face. His scream echoed in the entire warehouse. I stayed unaffected.

My girl was in pain, too

Bullet

Operation

Injections

Medicines

Everything I did to keep her away from anything that harms her, reached for her. Because of this man. I destroyed her own father for harming her. And he thought he'd escape after fucking shooting her. The bullet. That bullet touched her skin. Made her bleed. My shirt still had the stains of her blood. Her cries. Her sweat. Every breath she struggled for.

Ridhit Merhotra is an untamed monster. And this guy in front of me chose to elicit the demon. The devil.

The devil who shall leave no stones unturned to protect his angle.

My breath turned furious, "How dare you." I roared and turned around to pick up a bottle of alcohol and threw it on his scarred face. He wailed at the burning sensation wriggled under those ropes.

I kicked the chair, resulting him to fall down above the chair, "She must be waiting for me there and I'm here." I gritted and kicked his face. "Open him." Men were on their toes on my order.

I caught hold of the armrest of the chair from on side and turned it over with a huge force only for him to fall on the scattered acid drops.

"AHHHHH." His clothes withered due to strength of the acid, followed by his skin.

Veins popped on my neck and veins at the clasp, "Pick him up." They brought him to me. I knelt down on one knees and glanced at his clothes. Something was missing. "Knife." A man passed him one. I turned him on his stomach and ripped of the remaining pieces of his shirt. His burned, scarred chest had no place for any other scar.

Who gives a damn.

I placed the tip of the knife on his nape, piercing it in him only for him to scream out loud. So loud that his vocal chords would damage, "Who was it." I asked slowly, yet dangerously, dragging the knife to his upper back. "This is where you shot her." Placing the tip on a particular place, I pierced it inside him, deeper than before. "You aren't smart enough to execute this alone. Breaking into Mr. Goenka's party isn't a child's play." I said, dragging down the knife to his lower back. "You better speak for a quick death. Or else I'd rip of your skin mercilessly, painfully, making sure that every inch of your body familiarize itself with who Ridhit Merhotra is, and what he can do for his girl."

"Ridhit.." Advaith stepped beside me and knelt down to my level. "Listen.."

I was deaf to anyone else's words. The man whimpered at my merciless warning and nodded rapidly. "SPEAK!"

"He.." His voice was barely audible. I rolled my eyes and gestured my men. We stepped back, and they helped the man to get on the chair.

"You have twenty seconds."

"I'm.." He was breathing heavily. "I'm suppose to..give you that.." He pointed towards a particular direction. My eyes didn't budge from him. One of my men passed whatever it was to Advaith. I waited for him to unfold.

"It's a riddle." Advaith spoke mindfully.

" The one you'd never expect
Yet I'm here
It is the future that the past reflects
A sleek of your inner fear
Somewhere, we are on the same page
The one your heart holds
The happiness that is dear. "

"Burn the warehouse." And I left the place with Advaith. The pleads of the man behind trailed off as we moved far away. I took the paper from him and shoved it inside my pocket.

Walking up to our car, leaning against it, we turned towards the warehouse.

"1" I counted

"2" He repeated

"3"

BOOM!

End:

He'd rip the world apart for her.
One should be terrified of the depths he'd go for her.