The future itself is way too uncertain to scare you. The past on its own is way too certain to daunt you. But sometimes, the uncertainties of the future combine with the certainties of the past, drenching your present with an unconquerable, unknown fear.

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The luxurious automobile swiftly entered through the large steel doors, as they were pulled open by two uniformed men standing on either side of the door near the guards' cabins as soon as they heard the roaring of the engine.

The shining black vehicle moved expeditiously through the wide straight metalled track, before following it as it bent around a tall structure of elegant stones through which a jet of water spurted out, it's sound of falling back into the fountain being the only noise apart from the whizzing of the engine. The blackness of the night had enveloped the entire area, the heavenly bodies stitched in the night sky being the only source of light on the mansion below. Zooming along the driveway, the car came to an abrupt halt right before the middle of the house. As the engine cut off, the entire area got covered in a blanket of sheer silence, the sound of the splashing of the water being too low to be heard at such a distance.

The bungalow was situated at a silent corner of the busy city. Though the place was not entirely secluded from the rest of the town, it was surrounded by no more than a few buildings, for this area had been solely dedicated to the elites, marked by invisible boundaries. The mansion was still located at an isolated area from the rest of the houses there. It was a contemporary, magnificent building covered in shades of white and grey with a blackish brown flat roof mounting it, and was spread across a great width.

The broad cemented pathway was spread widely in all directions, seeming to merge horizontally with the base of the lavish bungalow. Clutching the edges of the track were neat patches of greenery spreading to acres, and giving the path a circular view.

To the left could be spotted a large plot of metalled track placed on the large green floor at a distance, on which numerous expensive vehicles were parked. While the right part of the view had embedded in itself a large rectangular pool.

The numerous expensive vehicles to the left were parked in an organised series, facing the pool, while their backs faced the large garage that had been almost completely filled by another set of luxurious vehicles. Beside the garage was the outbuilding, two-storeys high.

A simple yet stylish fountain at the centre of the widely spread metalled track adorned the view. Amidst all this stood the three-floored elegant house, flanked by tall trees on either side which shielded the concealed greenery spread behind it.

Another metalled passage towards the left through the building connected the backyard to the front of the house, which was now drowned in an ocean of complete darkness, only some streaks of the golden light from the inside managing to pierce the dark blanket.

The entire sumptuous view was imprisoned in beautifully carved walls of white, brown and black with a lavish, black striped metal gate complemented with alternate belts of glass, fixed to it at the centre, caging the front portion of the house. Armed men marked every few feet of the strong boundary.

The luxurious house was drenched with a melancholic silence at every section. The pitch blackness of the night had settled at every corner of the place. Silence was all that had draped the complete picture, silence that seemed satisfying yet strange. The moon, now hidden behind the clouds, helped the darkness spread its wings even more, the dark silence carrying a strange discomfort.

Turning off the engine of the expensive car, the figure of the man inside remained still for a minute, one hand still clutching the steering wheel, while the other one placed on the key beneath it, before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath once, huffing resignedly, head bent low. He sat still for another minute, before slowly opening his lids, lifting his head simultaneously, the cold expression clearly visible in his gaze once again as he stared at the front.

Pulling the key out of the ignition, RK unlocked the door, coming out of the vehicle, standing right in front of the three steps, staring at the house for some time, before advancing his steps towards the door. As his feet left the steps, touching the floor of the porch, his ears could make out voices coming from inside the building. Well, particularly one voice, which appeared to be yelling with all its might. It didn't take him a minute to recognise the familiar voice, and as he did, he shook his head once lightly in slight annoyance, for he knew what lay ahead of him.

Entering through the half open doorway, RK could make out the familiar figure standing at the centre of the dimly lit grand hallway, with four other figures standing close to him, with their heads hung low, as the first person shouted at them with all his anger pouring in the form of his harsh words.

The five of them were standing almost at the centre of the room, the faint golden light emerging from the grand chandelier above them being the only source of illumination in the entire bunglow. Approaching closer to them, the voices were gradually able to arrange themselves in the form of meaningful words in his head, as he stopped at a distance, watching them with curiosity.

"What 'Sir'? Don't you dare give me those excuses. DON'T YOU DARE, do you hear! What is your job? WHAT ON EARTH is your job here? To follow him, right?!Then why are your stupid faces in front of me right now when they should be behind him all the time?! Don't you know how dangerous..?!" He gritted his teeth, closing his eyes, as a familiar fear engulfed him.

"But sir, RK sir had sent us away himself. We didn't know he will go somewhere without informing us." Replied one of the four men with all his courage, as sweat beaded on his forehead seeing the rage of the man in front of him.

"Are you f*cking kidding me?! HE will inform you?! And what was your work? To sit and wag your tails till someone shoots him waiting for him to inform you?! You guys are paid to be with him everytime no matter what! Do you have any idea how long has it been since he had left?! It was all my fault. I shouldn't have let him go without security. I should've known that you losers won't ever be able to track him down if he left without you!" Yelled the man, closing his eyes once again, placing his fingers on his temples, with his other hand placed on his waist, as the four of them gulped, their minds already knowing his next words.

"You ALL are fired! Just get lost before I do something worse!" Threatened he, as the men exchanged a worried glance, keeping their rifles on the table beside them, before turning to leave the building.

As they turned, their gaze met RK's, who was standing close to the entrance, head tilted to the side, with his hands crossed across his chest and a stern expression as usual plastered on his face. The men approached the door, stopping to stare at him with a shocked expression, soon replaced by a pleading glance, silently begging him to return their jobs. RK, however, just stared at them with the same hard face, before closing his eyes once, gesturing them with his head to continue their walk towards the main door, as they followed his instructions resignedly.

As the men could no longer be traced in the view, RK slowly came closer to the only person present in the room except him, well, the only person present in the entire mansion except him. As he heard the footsteps coming closer to him, Aryan's head snapped up, the worried expressions on his face immediately replaced by one of profound relief, finally seeing him before his eyes.

"Where the heck have you been?! Do you have any idea how concerned I had been?! It's been four hours since you left! No calls! No messages! No answering calls and no replying to my messages! Are you insane?!" Aryan almost yelled at RK, hugging him at the same time, as the fear gradually subsided.

"Woah! Easy! You'll damage my sense of hearing soon if you don't change that habit of shouting near my poor ears!" Replied he, with a slight change in his cold tone, patting Aryan's back. Aryan punched his back lightly, still hugging him.

"Shut up, you idiot. Is this a time to return?" Aryan finally pulled away from the hug, gesturing towards his watch which showed four in the morning.

"Aryan?" RK asked, pretending to be concerned, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder, while Aryan looked at him, confused.

"You do realise that you're not my mother, right?" He raised a brow, pretending to be serious, to which Aryan frowned, jerking his hand away from his shoulder.

"And you do realise that you're my entire family, right? You're the only person I have in this entire world! You do realise that if anything happens to you then I'll have no one to call my own? You do realise that it is not safe for you to roam like that without your guards? You do realise why I am saying this and how tensed I had been? And still you are acting as if all is normal, 'R-K' ! Guess I was never more than a manager to you! Why will you care about me?" He yelled once again, placing his hands on his waist.

"Being melodramatic will only make you look more like my mother." RK pointed out.

"Ranbir!- " Aryan raised a finger at him.

"Okay, fine. Calm down, bro! I am fine. Just went for a long drive. Wanted to spend more time with her." Informed he finally.

"Who?" Aryan raised a brow.

"My car, of course. No need to be jealous." RK winked, to which Aryan shook his head in disbelief.

"I really think you need a girlfriend, you know. So that your over protectiveness which is all aimed at me right now, finds a new direction." RK patted Aryan's shoulders.

"And you too, so that you don't find lame excuses to run from your house roaming around the unsafe streets for hours without your security at nights." Aryan replied, patting RK's shoulder now.

"Never gonna happen." RK retorted, with his hardened face once again, while Aryan sighed.

"Well, you are gonna stay in the house till the time I find a replacement for those foolish guards. And that is gonna happen." Aryan instructed him strictly.

"When exactly are you going to listen to me? I don't need those foolish bunch of people to save me. I'm enough for all of them." Replied RK.

"Never. I'm sorry, dude. But you're not even the last person I'd listen to when it comes to my brother's safety." He shrugged, while RK's gaze hardened even more, a long silence following Aryan's words.

"Till when, Aryan?" RK raised a brow at him, finally breaking the silence, eyes staring at him with a strange emotion. "You've changed the entire security thrice within two months due to different excuses. Till when are you planning to protect this little kid of yours this way?"

"Till time requires it." Aryan replied immediately, as RK huffed. "Now go. You look as if you'll pass out right here. And I'm not gonna carry you to bed." Aryan tried to lighten the mood.

"Hey, I thought mother's were supposed to do that." RK complained, cocking his head to the side, earning Aryan's glare.

It was then that he noticed the dried blood on RK's neck, which the dim lights had managed to hide successfully. Fear once again got him, as he found another mark on his forehead, one appearing to have been caused due to a hard object striking his forehead with a great force, surrounded by faint streaks of blood oozing out from the wound.

"What the heck, Ranbir! Did you have a break up with your car? How the heck did you get these wounds? And blood?!" Aryan examined him worriedly.

"Well, it's.... "

"Truth." Aryan demanded.

"You need to listen for that." He reminded him. "It's just a small cut. Met some clowns on my way who thought that they had the power to rob RK. Well, they met their fates." RK smirked.

"You're totally insane! You should've called me at least once. What was the need to fight them alone?" Aryan sounded angry.

"Right. A black belt in Karate should've called a saint like you to fight for him, and that too while the clowns never left me alone." RK chuckled, making Aryan frown again.

"Shut your mouth! You haven't seen all of my fighting skills yet. Times can turn even saints into hostile beings. You might be shocked someday." Aryan defended himself. And he was right. At least about himself. For he might be a peace loving person, but whenever the question was about his best friend's safety, his temper even made the worst shiver, like it did only moments before.

Aryan's words brought flashes of a recent memory across RK's mind, as his mind almost appeared to play the familiar scene once again before his eyes. That black jacket. That strange logo. That black helmet. Those fighting skills. That unexpected shock when the identity of the mysterious person dawned on him. That long dark hair. Those fierce eyes staring straight into his cold ones. That bitter tone. That insolent woman.

RK's expressions unknowingly hardened, eyes staring in a far off direction. However, Aryan's voice shortly interrupted his chain of thoughts.

"Where are you lost? Come with me. You need a treatment." He pulled RK by his arm.

"Are you serious? It is nothing. I am completely fine. Besides, I'm immune to all of it now." RK removed Aryan's hand from his arm.

"I just think I should rest, Aryan. It had been a long day. And so should you. And relax, I am completely fine." He patted Aryan's shoulder twice, who looked at him with a dejected expression.

"And for the last time, you're not just my manager. You're my friend. My best friend. My only friend. The only person I can call my own. You're a great brother to me, Aryan. And a great mother too." RK hugged him, chuckling a bit at the last phrase, as Aryan soon joined his laughter, hugging him back.

"Good night." RK whispered, pulling away.

"Take care." Replied Aryan, as RK jogged through the grand staircase, before disappearing into the dark floor, staring fiercely at a slightly copper object laced with his fingers. Aryan stared at his retreating figure for a second, before turning his gaze to the table beside him, which was covered by four large rifles placed on top of some files scattered all over the giant table.

He stared at the things once, hands on his waist, before sitting on the large sofa nearby, flipping through the files one by one, lost in deep thoughts, for sleep had always been far away from him since the day he had discovered the dangers that surrounded the person he loved the most every time.

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The door to the giant walk-in closet unlocked, RK coming out of it dressed in his casual T-shirt and a pair of trousers, hair somewhat dripping with water, with a white towel hanging round his neck. As the door to the brightly lit closet was shut again, the only thing visible in the large room was darkness. RK's hair was slightly ruffled by the cold breeze coming in from the open window, which turned his attention towards it. Approaching the window, he stared at the dark sky for a moment, before pulling the window panes tight shut, stopping the flow of the soothing air into the uncomfortably dark and silent room.

He sat at the edge of his bed, outstretching his hands at his sides, before falling on the giant bed, facing backwards, as his back collided with the soft mattress. He stared straight ahead at the dark ceiling for sometime, lost in some familiar thoughts, with his cold gaze as well as the same expressions returning to his face. For a change in his behavior and his visage, even a slight change, could only be seen at times he was with Aryan, not even at times he was with himself, alone, like he was now.

His mind got occupied with numerous thoughts, numerous questions, familiar ones, which shouldn't be part of his thoughts anymore, yet which never left him alone. Still lost in thoughts, his head unknowingly turned to the side, and as soon as it did, the former thoughts immediately got replaced by another ones, as his now narrowed eyes caught a glimpse of the object in his hand.

Wrapped around the palm of his hand that had been outstretched on the bed beside him, was the familiar slightly copper neck chain that he had found lying on the road earlier tonight. He stared at it for a minute, before opening his fist, as the elegant piece of metal that had unknowingly been clutched in his palm revealed itself once again, his eyes once again witnessing the stylish piece of writing spread across the centre.

'Prachi'.

Staring at the name for minutes with strangely no particular thoughts roaming his mind, not even the ones that supposedly never left him, RK slowly fell unconscious as the tiredness of the day overpowered him. His mind drifted into an unusually dreamless slumber, while his palm remained entangled with the feminine piece of jewellery for the rest of the night.

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That's all for today.

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Waiting.