The Mahabharat is an epic tale about two sets of warring cousins.

The heroes of the epic, the five Pandava brothers, were known for unique virtues. One was the wisest, the other was the strongest, and so on.

The brother who inspired of the name of the man lying beside her, Nakul, was the most beautiful brother. His looks and charm were unrivalled in all of India. If any human could be physically perfect, Raghu Kaka used to remark, it was the fourth Pandava brother.

Her Nakul wasn't like that though.

"What?" he mumbled, peeking at her through half-lidded eyes as he pulled her on top of him.

Tracing the white scars on his chest, countless lines criss-crossed together, Madhu looked up at him. "How did this even happen?"

"I fell."

"On what? A cactus field?"

"Burning cactus field more like." Taking her hand, he pressed the palm to his lips, before reaching for her mouth, kissing it slowly, languidly.

What were they talking about again?

Madhu couldn't remember. She didn't bother to either, not when Nakul pinned her under him, leaving a trail of hot kisses down her body. She was afraid of his intensity and even more terrified of her response to it. She shouldn't be getting so attached to him after knowing him for little over two weeks but that was impossible. Nakul's presence in her life, or rather, in this break from life she had taken, felt like the comfort of a serene island in the middle of a raging ocean. Safe. Calm. Peaceful.

So cut off from the world, it made her forget about the chaos that was her life outside of it. Outside of him.

She didn't want to think of the time when she'd have to sail away.

"What's on your mind?" he breathed in between little nips of her lips, having reappeared above her.

She was about to answer when a wail reached her ears. Her initial reaction would have been to dismiss it as Chikki being restless in the cow shed but then she heard it for a second time, and it sounded much more humane than her dog.

"Kamal?"

"That's not my name."

"No, not that." Madhu pulled herself into a sitting position as he moved away, regarding her in confusion. "I think Kamal is outside."

Still frowning, he adjusted his aid as she hurriedly put on her clothes, certain that she had heard the boy calling for her. Without waiting for Nakul to do the same, she rushed out of the room, practically running around the slippery corridor as Kamal's screams became clearer.

"Madhu didi!"

It was a terrifying screech. Helpless. All kinds of scenarios flashed through her mind. She cursed herself for not enquiring into Champa's absence. Madhulika had simply blamed the rain when she hadn't turned up to cook breakfast that day. But she should've sensed something was wrong. The woman rarely took days off.

Kamal stumbled inside and almost fell over when Madhu opened the door. His bony frame was drenched and shivering. For a second, the memory of this very same scene tens of years ago flashed through her mind. The same stormy night, the same thin boy.

Maybe Nakul drew that similarity too, for when he appeared beside Madhu with a blanket in hand, he wasted no time in wrapping it around Kamal and leading the young boy inside the kitchen, just the way Krishna Ram Thakur had done with him.

Kamal couldn't stop crying. Clutching the blanket more tightly around his shoulders, he looked up at them in earnest. "A...Amma! Th...they came and dragged her somewhere."

Tears rolled down Kamal's cheeks as Madhu was hit by the realisation of her worst fears coming true. She looked at Nakul as he steadied Kamal, rubbing his back, his own face drained of colour.

"The forest is right next to their hut," he said, voicing what she had been thinking too.

It took her a minute to collect her thoughts and Nakul beat her to it.

"I'll go look for her."

"I'm coming with you."

"No!" snapped his harsh voice, shooting her a warning look. She followed him out of the kitchen, Kamal trailing behind, as he quickly pulled on his shoes before sprinting back to his room, emerging a moment later with his handgun and a ball of clean clothes, throwing the latter at Kamal who caught it.

"Change into these and drink something warm. Take care of him."

The last words were directed at her, and she didn't take orders very well. Slamming the door shut before he could step outside, she glared at him. "I don't think so. It's dark outside, you can't go alone."

Too caught up in this battle of wills, neither of them noticed Kamal awkwardly slipping away to the bathroom. Madhu narrowed her eyes up at him, noticing the little tick of his scarred cheek. "I'm going with you; goodness knows you'll need an extra pair of eyes and ears. Not to mention you'll be outnumbered!"

"And what will you do to help?" he mocked. "Beat them to dust with your bare hands? Sculpt them out of existence? You're not trained in combat."

"I--"

"Please Madhulika." His expression softened and he stepped closer, moving his knuckles across her jaw in the gentlest of caresses. "These men are savages; you can't imagine what they'll do if they see you out and about in the middle of the night. I had assured Thakur sahib you'll be safe here."

She wanted to point out that she had taken self-defence classes. That the first time she had met him, she had punched him across the face. But with the ghost of a kiss between her brows, Nakul was gone, jogging out and disappearing into the rain.

Shakily, she stepped into the kitchen, and without really thinking about it, started boiling chai for Kamal, adding a lot of ginger. The leftover noodles from before were put in a pan and heated on the stove. Kamal appeared a few minutes later, hovering around at the entrance of the kitchen, wearing Nakul's clothes that looked way too large for him.

"How many men were there?" she asked, bringing over the food to the dining table and gesturing him to sit down.

"Three, I think. The wind had broken our door and Amma and I were lying together to be safe from the cold. They just barged into the hut and dragged her out of the cot. I tried to stop them, I think I bit one of the men's thigh because he shouted in pain and slammed my head against the wall. By the time I woke up, they were gone." His face was still ashen and when Madhu urged him to eat, he only took a small sip of his tea.

"Was Brigesh also there?"

"No, but his son was."

"Vishal?"

He nodded.

Madhu could feel a knot in her gut. Vishal had threatened her about the complaint, but repulsed by the idea of him winning, Madhu had chosen to not pass the warning on to Champa. She had resolved to keep the woman and her family out of trouble and yet here she was, trying to console the child of a woman she had endangered. The fact that Kamal trusted her of all people to help his mother only brought a fresh wave of heaviness in her head.

Was it only yesterday that Sunanda had apologised to her? It seemed like a lifetime away.

She needed to talk to Sunanda.

"Where are you going?" Kamal asked, surprised, when she pushed her chair to stand up.

"To look for your mother."

"But Nakul bhaiya said--"

"Forget what Nakul bhaiya said." She removed one of the old umbrellas from the stand in the corner of the dining room and grabbed the small pocket torch Nakul had left on the kitchen counter before they had retired to his room. "He can't search the whole village alone."

The boy followed her out to the veranda and watched her tie her shoelaces. "Can I come?"

Madhu sighed, knowing how he must've been feeling. But her empathy was not strong enough to put him in danger too. "No, I wish you could, but I need you to stay here and look after the house. Lock the door firmly behind you and don't let anyone in until we get back. Okay?"

She didn't wait for his response as she walked out.

Bhabra was drowning. There was no other way to describe the current state of her village. Her umbrella did little to protect her as Madhu trudged through the deep layers of mud, carefully stepping on the bricks someone had laid out in the middle of numerous puddles. Nothing beyond her immediate surroundings was visible to her.

Thankfully, the rain soon stopped coming down so hard and made way for moderate showers. By the time she reached the great Banyan tree of the village, it had reduced to a quiet drizzle.

Brigesh Babu's house seemed more intimidating against the thunder and the whooshing winds than it did during daytime. While Madhu's home was low rising yet expansive with just a ground floor and a terrace, this house, with two extra floors, stood imposing against the humble landscape of Bhabra. An ostentatious symbol of wealth.

Madhu wasn't sure if Sunanda was inside, but she couldn't think of any other place to look. The huge house looked dark with the exception of one window on the second floor which glowed yellow. The iron gates were bolted from inside and even if she could climb them, there was no way that would go unnoticed. The place must have an army of servants, given that wherever they went, both Brigesh and his son had at least one bodyguard. Breaking in was not an option.

She cursed herself for not thinking this through. Now she was out alone, armed with nothing but an umbrella and a tiny torch which couldn't defeat the pitch-black darkness around her, standing on a ground so wet it felt like it could dissolve any second, and nowhere near Champa or Nakul.

Deciding to ditch her plan, she simply turned back to go home, toying with the idea of looking for Nakul in the direction of Champa's house when she heard a familiar voice yell a name.

Turning around, Madhu squinted at the figure walking towards her, clad in a plain yellow sari with a black shawl draped around her shoulders and holding an umbrella over her head. Sunanda reached the gate and unbolted the heavy iron latch, stepping out of the property.

"Hey, I thought I saw someone...thought it was Vishal."

The reminder of her husband snapped Madhu out of her thoughts. "Yes well, he is indisposed right now."

Visibly stiffening at the ice in Madhu's voice, Sunanda pressed her mouth in a thin line, highlighting a few wrinkles around it that looked alien in her otherwise youthful face. Even the weak light coming from the flickering torch could not hide the dark circles underneath her tired eyes. "He didn't threaten you again, did he?"

"You're telling me you don't know?" Madhu asked, incredulous. How could this woman, who went around apologising on behalf of her husband, not know the extent of his crimes? "My cook's son arrived on my doorstep in the middle of the night, said that Vishal and two other men dragged his mother away after knocking him unconscious. I came to check if she was being kept here."

Sunanda shook her head, eyes wide with horror at the very idea. "No please, you can't go inside. Papa ji is still awake, and I've only just put the boys to bed. Vishal had an argument with him before he stormed out in the middle of the night and his father is still furious right now, I try to avoid getting in his way."

It was hard to associate this hesitant, terrified woman with the confident leader she had met the day before. The logical thing would've been to dismiss Sunanda's words and search for Champa inside her house anyway. But since time was limited and Madhu needed to get to Champa before it was too late, she decided to go with her instinct and trust her.

"Okay," she agreed. "Then do you have any idea where he might've taken her? The forest? Since that's near her hut. Nakul's already there I think."

Thinking of Nakul, all alone in the marshy, desolated jungle, made a wave of dizzying anxiety shoot up inside her, but she brushed it aside, focusing on more pressing matters.

"No, I think he might be in the general granary," Sunanda said, pulling the shawl more tightly around herself. "We own it but allow other, small farmers to store their harvest there in exchange for rent. It's the only dry place I can think of."

"Is it at the end of the bazaar street?"

"Yes."

Not wasting another moment, Madhu started towards the centre of the village, on the road which led to the weekly market, trying not to think about how each step took her further away from Nakul, who was probably still looking for Champa in the forest on the outskirts of Bhabra.

She heard Sunanda trying to keep up with her but didn't turn around, didn't even bother to keep off the mud from her jeans, which were soaked from knee down, making her feet heavier. But all she could do was continue forward.

"This is it," Sunanda announced, letting go of the pleats of her sari which she had been clutching above her ankles while walking. How she managed to remain dry was beyond Madhu.

They had stopped short in front of the granary's door. The same spot where Madhu had first met Kamal after Brigesh Babu had beaten him into a pulp. The same day when Rani had been set on fire by his son's men.

And now Madhu was back here again with his wife, looking for the torturer himself.

"Is it locked?"

Sunanda nodded, before producing a pouch from her bra. "It's safer than just being tied around my waist," she explained in response to Madhu's raised eyebrows. "I got copies of all keys made when Vishal was busy."

Like every paranoid wife. Madhu thought to herself. Though she didn't complain, for this foresight on part of Sunanda had turned out to work in her favour.

The click of the lock rang way too loud when she undid it and pulled the creaky iron door open. The wooden door after it was unbolted and she simply pushed it in.

Madhu had been expecting all kinds of things--from torture and another attempt to burn Champa like her goat, to scenes of brutal rapes one only heard about in parental warnings. But Champa didn't look like she had been sexually assaulted.

Physically though...

There was a bleeding, open gash running down her right cheek. Her hair was undone from its usual oiled bun and hung in a frizzy mess around her, but she looked okay otherwise, though Madhu knew that she must be shaken to the core.

She was sitting on the floor of the empty granary with her knees drawn up to her chest in a protective posture. Standing above her, illuminated by a single blub hanging from the ceiling, was Vishal himself, along with the two goons who had killed Rani. He whipped around at the noise of the door banging shut behind Madhu, glancing at her before fixing his gaze on his wife.

"Jaan what are you doing out here? I told you I'll return late tonight. Had some urgent work." He walked over to her side and flashed Sunanda a smile, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "But anyway, we were almost done, weren't we?"

Madhu tried to gain Sunanda's attention but like her husband, she ignored her, avoiding her eyes and looking down. A sense of dread filled Madhu at her reaction. Had she made the wrong call in trusting her?

"What was this work exactly?"

If Madhu had expected him to blow up like an angry brute, then Vishal surprised her when his smile only widened, not seeming the least bit annoyed at her interruption. "Oh, nothing major, we just arrived at a deal...mutually." Leaning away from Sunanda, he exaggeratedly winked at Champa, who was still shaking violently in her corner, before hugging his wife more forcefully to his side.

"You're drunk," Sunanda stated, finally looking up from the floor, eyes looking empty.

"Maybe a little." He chuckled, leaning further into her and nuzzling her throat, one hand slipping under her shawl, making her cry out in pain when he squeezed her breast.

Madhu felt nauseous at this display, at his unabashed mockery of Sunanda's dignity. The two goons were laughing as they watched their boss abuse his own wife in this sick game.

"Stop!" Madhu ground out, unable to witness the dead expression on her friend's face as she allowed herself to get groped. "Get away from her."

This interruption did snap Vishal, and before Madhu knew what was happening, he had slammed her against the wall, greasy fingers clamping around her neck, cutting off her air supply. "She's my wife! You get away from her. You and your precious little untouchables. Especially the deaf one."

Blue dots appeared in her periphery, just like the way it had on the day these people had burnt Rani. Her vision blurred and she flailed about, desperately digging her nails in the skin of his hand, trying to draw blood and free herself.

He released her before she blacked out completely. Leaving Madhu on her hands and knees, choking and gasping and coughing, Vishal and his men walked out.

And Sunanda went with them.

Ho ho ho! My life's a joke.

Why you might ask? Because I needed to finish this book before 2020 but that's not gonna happen and now my plans for the next 200 years are ruined.

Anyway, Merry Christmas :)