Aarav's POV

It has been one week since the horrendous incident, I am still struggling to accept the reality. It breaks my heart whenever someone mentions to me the attack. The four criminals are currently remanded in the custody till the trials. The names of the accused are Ram, Pawan, Sunil, and Mukesh. Ram is a 19-year-old engineering student, and Pawan is a 45-year-old goon who has involvement with the drug mafia. Sunil is a 35-year-old taxi driver and finally, Mukesh is a 32-year-old salesman. Most of them who are accused have a family and children, honestly, I have no idea what goes in inside those bastards' minds but one thing I am confident is that they aren't humans but some other nasty type of species. Wish and pray that the four of them rot in hell. 

 When I explained my situation to my employer Mr Kumar  extended my leave to another four weeks. I was extremely thankful to Mr Kumar who I believed had no compassion. By 8:15 I was ready and through with my morning prayers for my Sakshi, last night Keshav offered to stay as the bystander in the hospital. He must be extremely tired now after spending the whole night there therefore, I'm going to the hospital to relive Keshav. Meera was accompanying me today to the hospital as well, so we set of at 8:30 and reached the hospital by 9:00. On the ICU floor I saw Keshav half asleep in a corner chair in the hall. Me and Meera straightaway went to him.

"Morning Keshav" I said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Keshav slowly woke up and looked up. He was tired and I could sleep in his eyes.

"Morning Aarav and Meera" Keshav said, getting up from his seat.

"Did the doctor see Sakshi?" I asked 

"No. He'll be coming for rounds in half and hours time"

"Ok Keshav. You go home and take rest, I will call you if an emergency arises" I told Keshav to which he agreed and soon left. Once he had left me and Meera occupied the vacant chairs. The ICU door in front of us was scaring me an awful lot, to distract my attention I started looking at the people around me. Some were talking to their dear ones on the mobile phones, some were chanting prayers whilst wiping their tears and some were talking to their dear ones on the mobile phone. Deep in their eyes was a fear they were fighting against. So much was happening around me. Every few minutes the elevator door opened to take patients in and out of the department. This was a very different atmosphere for me or, probably, for everyone on this floor. 

Half an hour later I saw Sakshi's mother slowly walking towards us. The lady looked a lot more pale and thinner over the span of seven days. Slowly I stood up and greeted Sakshi's mother. "Aarav has the doctor seen Sakshi today?" she asked me. "The doctor's just gone in for his rounds. Hope we will get some information once he finishes." Exactly ten minutes later (yes I counted) the doctor came out and asked us to see him in his office. So we followed Dr Arjit to his office. 

"Please take a seat" Dr Arjit politely asked us. Me, Meera and Damini aunty slowly took a seat and waited patiently for the doctor to start speaking. 

"I don't want to hurt you all any further but I have no choice other than to inform you about Sakshi's condition." Dr Arjit began.

"What is it doctor?" Me and Meera asked in unison, we had started panicking.

"There has been no improvement to Sakshi's condition over the last seven days. As you all know Sakshi is breathing with the help of life support, after having a discussion with the lead specialists we think it will be beneficial if Sakshi is transferred to the City Hospital in Chennai. As a hospital there is nothing else we're able to do. However, City Hospital is a lot more advanced therefore improvement may be seen in Sakshi's condition if she's transferred. Even though it is beneficial transferring her will involve many risks, taking the patient out from the atmosphere of a protected ICU into the open air full of bacteria and viruses does involve a lot of risk but personally I think it is better if we transfer.  This is just our opinion however, the final decision will be yours" Dr Arjit said.

"But how will she be transferred doctor?" Meera asked curiously.

"We can arrange a air ambulance, Sakshi can be taken through the air ambulance." Dr Arjit replied.

After weighing the pros and cons we decided that it is better to move Sakshi to Chennai. 

Around 5 o clock that evening an air ambulance was arranged for Sakshi to be transferred. Now the big question was that who will accompany with Sakshi to Chennai. Of course Damini aunty and Sakshi's niece Shreya was going along however, I very well knew that they won't be able to manage by themselves so I volunteered to go along.

 Nikhil and Shradda came along to the hospital when I informed Nikhil that Sakshi was being transferred to Mumbai. Soon a nurse came around and told us that they needed help transferring Sakshi. I looked at Meera, Nikhil and Shradda and then the four of us rushed towards the door. By now, none of us had seen her properly and I don't know what was happening to them, but I was shaking. I felt Nikhil's hand on my shoulder trying to comfort me as we approached the door. 

And, finally, I was standing beside her. Seeing her, my heart melted inside me. Never in my worst nightmare could I have seen her this way. Even though I've never confessed anything about my feelings to Sakshi I fucking love her so much. Its crazy how one day you randomly meet someone and then a few months down the line they've become a huge part of your life and you can barely imagine a life without them in it. Fate does really bring the right people together when it's least expected. 

My Sakshi was right in front of me now and her body revealed what she had gone through, they had covered most of her body in a white bed sheet. However, a lot of injuries were visible on her face, her swollen left eye had blood clots. There were multiple scars big and small on her face. A thick ventilator tube ran down her face, many tubes of different sizes and shapes were pierced through the different parts of her body. 

On her bed she was surrounded by numerous medical equipment including, a monitor to read the heart-beat, an oxygen cylinder extension, medicine bags with injections and medicine in them and a ventilator which was constantly beeping. Just then I saw her hand, coming out from under the bed sheet at my side, the soft skin of her right arm bore the marks of so many injections that it had turned blue. Gently I held her hand and stroked it, it was heart breaking to see my love bearing all that pain alone. I felt a hand on my shoulder once again. It was Meera, regaining my senses. I looked back to see Meera standing behind me. And behind Meera was Nikhil and Shradda. Nikhil was observing Sakshi with love and warmth in his eyes. Indeed, it is hard for Nikhil to see Sakshi in this state not just Nikhil but I could see how much Meera was struggling as well. After all it is not easy seeing your friend breathing with the help of a support system. And there I was holding Sakshi's hand. The four of us, including Shradda, stood beside our dearest Sakshi and prayed hard with all our heart and soul for her recovery. 

Soon we all helped in shifting Sakshi to the stretcher, a little later the time came for us to leave. Plans changed slightly, it was Meera who was coming with me now, Damini aunty and Shreya are staying in Bangalore itself for now as the ambulance crew is not willing to travel with a child. Before settling myself in the air ambulance I hugged Nikhil one last time.

Until this very moment I did feel confident that Sakshi was gone to be all fine and the transition process will be fine, but, when the nurse made Damini sign a few documents all my confidence went down the drain. The document read:

'The patient is in a serious condition. Even though the transition process is suggested by the accidents and emergency specialist Dr Arjit the transition is being done on the wish of the patient's family. Therefore, In case of any further damage which may/may not lead to the death of the patient, the hospital will not be held responsible.'  

After that, the air ambulance set of with no further delay. Throughout the journey to Chennai I kept saying God's name, the whole situation was ever so frightening. The siren kept on torturing me. The Dr and the nurses who was with us kept on monitoring Sakshi, the only relief was that the doctors kept on assuring us that Sakshi's fine. 

Almost forty minutes had past, we will be reaching Chennai soon. I was feeling a lot more relieved but once again everything went in the drain when suddenly Sakshi started showing symptoms of uneasiness, things weren't right. Something heavy struck my heart when I saw the doctor panicking. After a couple of seconds he informed the nurse that 'looks like the patient is going into cardiac arrest. Start CPR immediately...' 

Meera buried her face in her hands, she was crying. But I remained calm . Or maybe I was just numb. Nothing seemed to register in my mind. I watched my Sakshi fighting for her life once again.

                                                                                   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

Hello Everyone, 

Hope you are all doing well. 

I am extremely sorry for making the previous few chapters depressing. I can tell my readers are not happy as the votes and comments have reduced drastically. Not everyone has their life sweet right? There are many among our society who has suffered like Sakshi, or even more. Let's reflect for a second and remember those who have became victims of sexual violence. 

Will Sakshi survive? 

Thanks for reading this chapter, apologies for any grammar mistakes.