Hey guys! Hope you’re doing good!
Those who missed the previous part, or in case forgot it, just go through the previous part: https://www.tellyupdates.com/mareez-e-ishq-chapter-14-calmness-before-the-storm/
Let’s start with the story…
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You have got the arms I want to be wrapped in.
You have got the eyes I want to get lost in.
You have got the smile I can never resist.
You have got the voice I want to listen for hours.
I decided on you, and I want you and only you.
~Vansh
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Author’s POV
Sun rays come as nature’s easel, giving brilliant colour to what was hidden even under the passing starlit night. The clear sky is filled with the chirping sound of the birds and the smell of the petrichor.
Riddhima stood by the watching the sun casting its vibrant rays over the city. She wandered how the golden light softly caressed the land and ignited the birds into a chorus of melodies. How the greens and blues were risen into a new and vibrant glow by the sunrise. How the cool breeze made the treetops dance here and there.
She noticed the birds flying over her towards their destination, people rushing towards their work and children dolled up in their school uniforms, all ready to go to school. A smile crept on her face witnessing the glory of the nature.
Had it been any other day, she would have been rushing to work, but today was a leave for her. Not having any other work to do at home, except for sleeping and eating, she decided to do shopping today.
Having had her breakfast and cleaning the dishes, she marched towards her room to get ready.
She went for a white floral kurti with blue denim jeans making her look decent yet elegant. Tying her hairs into a messy ponytail, she lined her eyes with kohl and after coating her lips with a lip balm, she grabbed her bag and left for the mall. On her way to the mall, she texted Sarah about her whereabouts as she did not want to stress her.
It was a pleasant day today. The air was filled with the relaxing smell of the petrichor because it had rained yesterday. Riddhima was enjoying the weather, but deep inside she was feeling uneasy, as if something wrong was going to happen. Nonetheless, she dismissed the feelings and continued to walk towards the mall.
In two hours, Riddhima was done shopping. She has brought herself and Sarah a few dresses. Although, Sarah was not with her, but she knew her choice, so shopping for her wasn’t a big deal.
Walking over to the billing section, Riddhima paid off her bill and started to walk towards the exit. Don’t know why, all the time she was busy shopping, she felt as if someone was keeping an eye on her. Turning around when she would get none, she would dismiss her thoughts stating it as over thinking.
Riddhima was walking towards her home, when all of a sudden she felt someone grabbing her arm. Turning around, she saw that it was a man, but his face was not visible as it was covered with a cloth.
Thinking of him as a thief, she tried to free up her hand, but it did not help. Looks like the man was very strong and she needed to show him her strength. She tried to hit the man with her other hand, but felt someone grabbing her other hand as well. It was an another man, followed by a few more.
Realization hit her hard that they were not thieves, instead goons. Had they been thieves, they would have snatched her bags and run away, but here they were trying to catch her.
Riddhima’s heart began to pound loudly thinking of all possible things they could do to her; but she wasn’t a weak girl, who would loose hope this soon. She began to struggle in their grip.
Fortunately, one of her hand reached her phone and cleverly, she tried to call Sarah, but due to sudden jerks, it resulted on Vansh’s name.
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On the other hand, Vansh was busy with his meeting when all of a sudden his phone went off. A smile crept on his face seeing the caller id. It was Riddhima. But why was she calling him at this hour, when she very well knew he would be busy in meeting. Howbeit, keeping his thoughts aside, he excused himself to pick up the call.
Had it been any other person, except for his family member, he would have cut off the call, but it was Riddhima. Sliding the green button towards the left, he put the phone across his ear.
“Leave me! I said leave me!”
There was no doubt that it was Riddhima’s voice, rather Riddhima’s shouting voice. But why was she shouting and on whom? Was she shouting on Sarah? If yes, then why did she call him?
Keeping patience, he decided to listen in further before hanging up, but what he heard on the other side made him go numb.
“If we were to leave you, then why would we kidnap you.”
Kidnap.
“Lea-” Her sentence was unable to complete and the call got disconnected.
All sorts of negative thoughts came into his mind, but he dismissed them saying nothing would happen her. But deep down he was scared, scared to loose her.
Vansh felt his heart pain. He felt as if someone have snatched a very important part oh him. He felt an uncalled shock and surprise dawn on him, and two things were very clear right then. One, Riddhima was precious, and if he lost her, he’d die. Two, he loved Riddhima, more than he could imagine.
Yes. He loved her and would do anything to save her.
“Angre, track Riddhima’s phone number. NOW!”
“Boss, but the meet-”
“Do hell with the meeting. Just do what I told you.”
He was in no mood to listen anyone’s talks. All he wanted to do was to find Riddhima safe and sound. Grabbing the car keys from the table, he marched towards his car, followed by Angre. Thanks to Riddhima’s therapy that Vansh was now able to walk properly.
The car engine came to life and in no time Vansh’s car was on the highway, not to mention at a very fast speed. Vansh did not care about the rules at the moment, all her cared about was Riddhima, his Riddhima, his love.
“Boss, her last location was Infinity mall,” Angre said looking onto his laptop, “But after that her phone got disconnected. We’ll come to know about her whereabouts once we reach there.”
“How much time Angre?”
“The mall is at an hour distance, but the speed you’re at, it will take us half an hour,” Angre tried to ease the atmosphere but Vansh was so lost in his thoughts that he didn’t pay heed to his words.
I don’t know why but whenever I saw your eyes, I felt myself drowning in it’s depth. Whenever you got hurt, I could feel your pain. Your smile made my heart skip a beat. I never knew what those feelings were, but now when I’m very well aware of these feelings, I’m at a verge of losing you. But I can’t… I can’t loose you, not when you mean the world to me, Vansh thought as a lone tear escaped his eye, which he quickly rubbed.
It is rightly said that ‘True realization of love comes when the threat to loose it looms.’
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Riddhima felt a sharp pain on her wrists. She tried to move her hands, but the pain increased. Stopping her futile attempts, she struggled to assess her surroundings, but when she did so she saw darkness everywhere.
Where am I? she thought to herself. Last thing she remember was her struggling to free herself from the goons, when she felt an acrid smell and she fainted.
Tears welled up in her eyes as the realization hit her hard. She got kidnapped, and the worst part is that there was no one who knew about her whereabouts, who could rescue her.
Tears started rolling down her cheeks thinking about her helplessness. Little did she knew that there is someone who is searching for her like a mad person.
Riddhima silently prayed god to send someone who could save her from this situation.
How sarcastic! The girl who never needed a knight in shining armour was now praying for one. It is truly said that circumstances make us do some things we never wanted to do.
Her stomach retched when she heard the sound of footsteps echo across the cold, hard floor, ricocheting into her ear. Someone was coming. All sort of negative thoughts came into her mind, but she tried her best think otherwise.
Once again, she peered around the eerie room, trying to find an escape. Dust dulled each and every ornament, just adding to the clutter in the already paltry squalor. The lighting was poor, indeed very poor. The only light came from the vent, that was probably at the wall behind her.
The sound of the footsteps became louder and louder, followed by some muffled voices. This was enough to alarm Riddhima and she stayed still.
The door creaked open, followed by the sound of few footsteps. Riddhima closed her eyes, and pretended as if she was still unconscious.
“Ranjeet, how much chloroform did you use? The girl is still conscious,” came a croaky voice.
“Bhai, I just used the normal dose,” came an another voice.
By the way the moving specks of light came to halt, and at last became dark, through her closed eyelids, Riddhima could make out that the man was now standing in front of her.
Her heart began to beat at a fast speed when she felt a hand brushing her hairs. She was about to make some movements, but stopped when the phone went off, indicating that there was a call. Riddhima thanked her stars when she felt the hand withdrawing.
“Who’s it?” the same croaky voice asked.
“It’s boss,” replied the another voice.
“Put the call on speaker,” the man with the croaky voice ordered.
“Yes boss.”
“You morons, I just gave you one work and that also you’re not able to do properly,” came a raging voice from the other side. Riddhima felt the voice familiar, as if she have heard it before, but could not make it out whom it actually belonged to.
“But what happened boss?”
“What happened? You duffers, Vansh have got to know about this kidnapping and anytime he’ll be there. Just do one thing, shift her to another place. And yes, be careful this time.”
Riddhima felt a ray of hope listening the latter statement, but what confused her was that there was someone who have ordered his men to kidnap her.
As far as she could remember, she did not have any enemy, nor did she do such things to have one, then who was the one who was behind her. But one thing was very clear to her that whomever was the person, he knew her and Vansh very well.
“One more thing… After you leave the place, don’t forget to place a bomb there,” saying this the man on the other end started to laugh evilly.
Riddhima felt her heart racing listening the words of the person from the other end. As far as she could run the horses of her brain, she came to a conclusion that the man on the other end was Vansh’s enemy, who wanted to hurt him. To be more appropriate, he wanted him dea-
Don’t know why, Riddhima felt a sudden pain in her heart on the latter thought. But why did she feel so and from when did she started to feel this. This wasn’t anything she felt before. Howbeit dismissing her thoughts she thought a way to escape from the creepy place before someone could get hurt.
Riddhima felt the ropes on her wrist loosening and she knew that it was the best time she could make an escape. Though she knew that Vansh would rescue her, but she didn’t want to take the risk of someone else getting hurt because of her.
When she felt her hands free, Riddhima kicked the person in front of her where the sun doesn’t shine. The man groaned in pain and fell on the floor.
“Serves you right,” she mumbled and got up from the chair.
Though her legs crippled with pain, but she could not afford to fall weak, not at the moment.
The another man came to his rescue, but Riddhima easily tackled him. Perks of being a karate expert.
Riddhima was busy fighting the two men when she felt someone grabbing her from behind. She tried her best to escape his hold. The man was strong, but she was not less.
She swung her elbow backwards to strike his head, and it did work. The grip of the man around her loosened and taking it as a cue she kicked him in the groin, followed by several punches.
All of a sudden, she felt a sharp sting on her neck. Turning around she saw a man injecting her with something and the way her body became weak, she could make out that she has been drugged.
Within no time, she felt her legs going weak and eyelids dropping. With wobbling legs, she tried to defend herself but she knew that in no time she’ll become unconscious.
All her surroundings started becoming blurry and feeling her legs not able to support her, she fell on the floor. The men laughed seeing her helpless, but their laughter was short-lived.
The door creaked open and in entered a furious Vansh, followed by Angre and his men. Having a well-built body and being well-trained in fighting, it was very easy for them to tackle the kidnappers.
“Vansh,” Riddhima whispered and then the darkness consumed her.
The moment Vansh’s eyes fell on Riddhima’s unconscious form, his eyes softened. He took long strides towards her and patted her face in order to wake her up, but his attempts were futile.
“Boss looks like she have been drugged,” Angre said showing him the empty syringe. Vansh’s jaw clenched and the way his eyes went red were enough to tell how angry he was at the moment.
“Angre give them a special treatment,” Vansh gritted turning towards the goons. He wasn’t going to leave them this soon, not when they tried to harm his Riddhima.
Turning towards Riddhima, he picked her up in his arms and marched outside the eerie room.
“Whoever tried to harm you, will have to pay for their deed,” Vansh whispered placing her fragile form delicately on the backseat of the car.
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{Word count: 2472}
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Here’s the next update. Do tell your views regarding it.
Vansh have realized his love for Riddhima, but Riddhima is yet to realize it. With a new enemy approaching in his life, will Vansh be able to protect his loved ones and make Riddhima realize her love?
To know more, stay tuned!
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Please comment and motivate me to work harder.
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Till then, take care!
Stay safe, stay healthy!
Au revoir!