75k reads on the book accomplished!

I'm delighted so here comes another update but I hope you guys don't disappoint me and vote, comment in large numbers.

Next update will be almost around Diwali but it might come early depending on the responses from the readers.

Note- Angsty, heartbreaking chapters coming up ahead.

*Warning*: This chapter includes the mention and attempt of sexual molestation of a minor.

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|Her pious existence became the centre of a scary brawl that castigated her colorful aspirations, betrayed her rocks of trust just to leave her abandoned once again|

by medicallymessedup

•past•

"Mom!"

"Mom!"

Vanya dissonantly shouted from her room to gain scrupulous attention from her mother as Ruchi had managed to squeeze some hours out of her time.

Ruchi retold Srinija about her recent achievement where she won the first prize while representing her school in a debate competition organized at the district-level. She excitedly shared her experience on the stage and detailed about their family outing planned by her BadePapa and BadiMa to visit a theater park this weekend in order to celebrate the occasion but Srinija was being the same disinterested mother who was narrowly listening to her unwanted first-born with boredom invading her eyes.

Vanya yelled again and Srinija halted Ruchi's chattering to grab a portal to avoid her. She walked away to ward for her second-born, compelling the other one to sit back along with her cousin by eagerly waiting for her mother to return.

"Why don't you eat something until she returns?" Harjot suggested, "Yeh cookies aap bachchon ke liye hi hai."

["These cookies are for you kids only."]

"No." Ruchi shook her head at Harjot and scooted closer to her brother by clinging on his arm. "Hum apne ghar se khana khakar aaye hai, Uncle."

"We have come from our house after having food, Uncle."

She wasn't fond of the man due to the ugly character description given by her detrimental father about the man who took away her mother from their happy family. For Ruchi, Harjot broke her parents' relationship so no matter how tempting the glasses of chocolate milkshake looked she won't be having anything offered by him.

"But, dear-"

"We're good. Thank You."

A fifteen-year old, Kartik who wasn't involved before in the one-sided talk being carried out by his sister with a former member of their family now politely refused to the refreshments provided by Srinija's new husband.

"Mummy chorr!" Ruchi raved under her breath which didn't go unheard. "Why will we ever eat anything from his house?"

["Mummy thief!"]

"Do not talk like this, Baby!" Kartik scolded her softly but she remained adamant on the contention she was fed. "Sorry." She mouthed. "I won't say that again but Papa said that he's a bad man. He took her away from us."

Kartik opened his mouth to tell her otherwise when the said man let it slide for it was somewhat true. He was a villain in the story of a little girl's perfect family. He was an eyewitness towards the ignorance and negligence directed from Srinija for her firstborn yet the young girl's innocent eyes always longed for a glimpse of her outcast mother.

Apart from being guilty of his own selfish choices Harjot also felt pity over the poor kid who was legally permitted to meet her own mother once in a month just for the limited span of two hours.

He sighed knowing something as trivial as a divorce or separation of one's parents can cause heavy disruptions in a child's life which sometimes becomes worse than losing them to death.

Kartik remembered, "Baby, Maa asked us to return before Sunil Chachu got back from work." Ruchi was aware of the same, she still pleadingly looked at her brother, "I want to stay a little more with Mummy, Bhai. Please! Bas thodi der aur ruk jaate hain na..." She requested back slowly.

["Let's just stay for a while, shall we..."]

"Baby..."

"Today is Friday, Bhai, Papa won't be home early. Badepapa told me that his boss gave him a lot of office work to do during the weekend and so he would be really late." She implied but still the worry lines didn't dissolve from Kartik's forehead, "Arey! Daro mat, Bhai." Ruchi thoughtfully explained. "There will be no problem because both of us will just be a little."

["Hey! Don't be afraid, brother."]

"What if they scold me?"

"Main hoon na!" She proclaimed, "Nobody would scold you."

["I am here."]

"Lekin bas thodi der aur." He tipped, "Ek minute bhi isse zyada nahi, ha."

["But just a little longer. Not a minute more than that, okay."]

"Aai Shapath!!" Ruchi grinned in delight for she was obsessed with filmy bollywood antics.

["Mother promise!"]

Kartik ruffled her hair and passed a small smile but he could only think how her own parents played with her naiveté if only she understood that her father was off away to gambling money and turning over to unhealthy addictions on the pretext to get over the burn of his scandalous divorce while shunning away from the love and responsibilities towards his touched daughter.

🖤🖤🖤

"Mom, no!!" Vanya screeched, "Ask her to get out of my house."

Srinija fleshed out, "Vanya, my darling!" She was elevated. "She is not living here for forever." She checked the time, "I will send her away shortly. Give me an hour more, my darling."

"I don't like her!!" She adduced, "Tell her to go away. She's a witch. I don't want to see her, Mom!!"

Harjot entered the room hearing the commotion created by the discord of his wife and daughter. This scenario was quite common during Ruchi's monthly visits.

He interrupted the argument to make his incorrigible daughter condone the reality, "Vanya this is not done, dear." He sat beside her, "Ruchi is your big sister. You should be nice to her."

"She is not my sister, Dad." Vanya had said this so many times before but he continued to convince her and make her see the bright side of having a caring elder sister like Ruchi.

"She is your sister." Harjot chartered. "If you can't love her then at least try to respect her."

Vanya hatefully hurled at him, "You don't love me anymore, Dad." She sniveled. "Mom! Look! Ruchi made Dad hate me."

He looked on in dismay, "You need to stop behaving like a brat, Vanya!"

"Enough!" Srinija pitched in to draw a line that would bring an end to her daughter's pigheadedness. "I'll tell her to leave in a few more minutes." She announced and Vanya couldn't help herself from basking in her insipid victory, "Are you happy now, my darling?"

"Yep! She'll go away from here." Vanya fisted her palms in the air but Harjot seemed taken aback by their puerile drill because Srinija appeared relaxed as well. He couldn't help himself from voicing out his mind. "Sri, how is it possible? It's not even a proper hour of them being here." He connoted. "All that kid gets is meeting you once a month for a few hours. At Least spend a bit of time with her-"

"What do you expect me to do?" She asked in blasé, "Shall I upset my Vanya for her?"

"Vanya has got nothing to do with this, Sri." He distinguished. "All I am trying to say is to work over your relationship and bond with Ruchi in the time being granted. She needs you-"

"If I ever wanted to bond with her then don't you think I would have had her custody with me prior divorce?" Srinija mocked in despise, "She is the venom I had to drink alongside that marriage with her useless father who wasn't even a man enough to meet my expenses."

"So what?" Harjot pointed, "The kid never had a role or say in whatever happened, Sri. Why do you go on blaming and punishing her for no reason?"

"Do not victimize her, Harjot." Srinija blew out in anger, "She is an omen. A bad omen in my life."

"You can't be serious!" Harjot goofed on, "Sri, she's a child. What will you even get by holding grudges against her?"

"You're fighting with me for her. Isn't this a reason enough about the bad luck she carries with her?" His wife went ballistic, leaving him garbled.

"Don't be heartless, Sri."

But Harjot was left hanging when Srinija's focus shifted from him to Vanya who ordered an ice-cream.

"Come with me." They both walked out to the cousins who were put on a long wait.

Ruchi saw Vanya nearing them so she waved at her jollily but was squarely disregarded by her like she was some piece of dirt. Srinija was going to tell off Kartik when she was impeded by a group of ladies from her club parties who had turned up to meet without a notice. She invited them to chat inside, forgetful about the rest until Vanya bellowed in her ears again.

"Mom, I want my ice-cream." She then roughly pulled on Srinija's elbow and got her to pay attention to her. Srinija tried to make her understand that she can't get out of the house due to the arrival of guests but Vanya was unbridled.

When her attention turned to Ruchi who was patiently waiting in line for her to get free from the others.

Srinija stipulated, "Go and buy her an ice-cream, Ruchi." She waved a crisp currency note in front of her. "Keep the change too to buy whatever you need." Ruchi obediently nodded her head at the command, unable to deny her mother even when Kartik motioned elsewise.

"I'll not go with her." Vanya had her nose in the air as soon as their mother moved to another room to keep company with her friends. "She's a bitch." She jeered.

"You!" Kartik execrated, fomented by her audacity. "You, mannerless kid! How dare you-" He snarled.

"Koi nahi, Bhai. Abhi choti hai na woh, use nahi pata na isliye usne galat bola." Ruchi coerced him to not stretch the topic further as it would upset her mother. She bent a little to reach Vanya's height, "Vanya, it's a bad word. Do not use it again." She patted her cheek gingerly, "I'm your elder sister, right?"

["It's okay, brother. She is still young, she does not know that's why she said that wrong word."]

"You can never be my sister." Vanya plagued, crabbedly, not able to raise her voice anymore under Kartik's intimidating presence.

"You want to eat ice-cream, right? I'll buy you one." Ruchi insisted. "Come, let's go." She glozed over Vanya's foul language.

"I'm coming along with you." Kartik referred to his sister. "We'll buy her the thing and leave right away."

"But, Bhai-" She tried to resist but couldn't when Vanya demoted her spirit smugly.

"Leave from here because Mom doesn't want you to stay either."

"Nobody asked you." Kartik cut Vanya out to spare his sister a choice, "Do you really want to stay here, Baby?"

She swallowed the lump in her throat precipitated by her step-sister's tangy interjection, "It's okay." Ruchi assumed. "I'll say my goodbye."

The three jogged up till the secluded street came by, just when Kartik's old Nokia cell rang with their cousin's name on it.

Kartik received the call hopeful that Prashant had reached here so that they would return home on time but when a winded Prashant filled him in about the details of his situation, he grew irked. He was told about the broken motorcycle that Prashant borrowed from one of his friends but now was stranded alone a few blocks away with it and how he needed his urgent assistance. He firstly heard Prashant's distress and then reprimanded him for pulling up the stunt when they three could've simply returned back home by an auto-rickshaw.

Kartik was aggravated, "What do you expect me to do now?"

"Help me, Bhai. Please! You can beat or even castigate me to your heart's content once I return this defective motorcycle to its owner." Prashant sponged. "Papa will kill me alive if he gets to know I was driving without any supervision."

"Stay there." Kartik mandated before turning to Ruchi. "Baby, you will wait inside the house unless I come back with Prashant." He instructed as it was getting dark. "Don't step out of here without me." She agreed and Kartik left to fetch Prashant.

Vanya who grew cantankerous by the delay caused in the fulfillment of her demand, growled at Ruchi once Kartik was gone, "My ice-cream!!"

"Thodi der mein le lenge, Vanya."

["Will buy it in a while, Vanya."]

"Nahi, mujhe abhi chahiye."

["No, I want it now."]

She screamed while fighting Ruchi to run alone and undesirably she had to give into her stubbornness. She couldn't leave her alone too as their mother gave her Vanya's responsibility.

Ruchi moved ignoring the demeaning jibes Vanya shot at her as she won't let go of the leftover relationship she had with her mother due to such a petty issue.

The sisters bought themselves their preferred ice-creams and were later heading back to Harjot's plot when some streets back Ruchi observed a group of hideous looking boys were tailgating them. Initially, she didn't react much but when they began following them up close she was flagged as their ill-boding presence loomed over their heads so she hurriedly started dragging her feet faster along with Vanya.

"What the hell are you doing?" Vanya yammered at her as Ruchi tried to make her walk faster.

She incriminated, "Vanya!" Her voice was low, "Please, walk fast."

But Vanya didn't get the hint and she behaved barbarously. "Bitch! What are you doing?" She jerked her, "My ice-cream has fallen down." The pull took Ruchi by surprise and she went tripping down on her elbows. The bloody scratches scalded her skin due to the collision with the hard concrete of the footpath.

Ruchi winced slightly but got up again to hold Vanya's hand who was hurling abuses and throwing her limbs at her blindly when suddenly the shady guys who were stalking them interceded.

"We can give you ice-cream, babygirl."

"Or anything that you like."

"We can get something for your sister as well."

One of them was going to touch Vanya by the bare shoulders visible through her dress but Ruchi quickly yanked his hands away and also hid her behind herself.

"Move away."

The burly guy laughed, "That's really brave of you, babygirl."

"Who are you all?"

Ruchi tried to not give away the satisfaction of the building fear inside her; unknown to her courageous attempt, Vanya was too tempted by them and lured into their offer to allow them closer in the name of her non-existent ice-cream.

The grown-up, hormone driven boys checked out their unattained teenage bodies. They openly eye-raped their barely developed chest and leaving Ruchi both disgusted and scared.

Their evilness was as clear as a wiped-out slate.

Ruchi helplessly held back Vanya who struggled to get near them blind to the viperous intentions, she scratched her already injured elbow and tears filled up her eyes.

"Vanya, stop this!!" She gritted.

"Oh, my!!" A guy vouched, "Your sister looks in too much pain, girl."

"Leave our way." Ruchi stated, glaring at all of them sharply.

The guys rounded them up completely making all the red signals go on in her mind. She tried to make way for them as soon Vanya too was taken aback by the way they acted lucidly. She moved close to her and clutched onto Ruchi's dress in a vice-like grip, afraid of the danger.

"Leave us. Let us go!!" Ruchi yelled as they started nearing them.

She somehow made space for Vanya to run in-between their legs. She too was going to root for a similar escape but the tall guy reeking of alcohol grabbed her arm and sharply dug his dirty nails into her porcelain skin.

She cried in pain and tried pushing him away as she searched around for help but to her extreme bad luck the street was deserted till the very end.

Thankfully, Vanya had run away. She was out of their reach but her own wailing was insufficient to reach someone in the distance.

Ruchi continued to give them a strong fight as they dragged her down a plot hidden amidst the dark bushes. They harshly pushed her little body on the soiled ground for a plangent scream that tore out of her mouth, her palms followed the lead to feel her head that started bleeding because of the damage caused by the blow of hitting a rock beneath her.

"Leave me, you.." She wept out and bit hard on the hand that grabbed her jaw until it was bruised but then one of his partners removed a small pocket knife placing it on her neck horrifying her senses to the core.

"Save me, someone. P-Please!!"

"Let me go!!"

Her unnerving bawls abruptly died as the blunt end of the knife came into the contact of her skin. It slashed the crane of her throat making her sob and whimper indistinctly in unbearable pain to get them off her. Meanwhile, one guy worked to get his hands on her belly completely but then the sound of a passing motorbike fuelled her hopes high.

Ruchi excruciatingly screamed the loudest to get some help only to be slapped iron handedly and to whinge in stark pain.

"Mumma!! Ma-Save Me."

"Keep your mouth shut, shitty bitch!!" They fisted a dirty cloth in her mouth to shut her helpless sounds along with the knife that slashed deeper on its previous spot making her moan in smithereens.

A guy groped her thighs, "Babygirl, you'll be allowed to moan in pain when I make my way ins-" An unbearable weight was put off her petite frame just then.

A second before she was losing her will to fight when the next moment she felt free of the restraints even though her muscles were painfully drained out.

"M-Mummaa..."

"Mu-m-"

Ruchi's voice was a mere whisper as she tried to collect her thrashed body and somehow stood up on her feet still shivering with the support of the ground. Tears of an agonizing battle flourished to stream down her orbs while she rockily clutched on her torn white top and loosened jeans.

Her molesters rushed away after that hand-to-hand fight with her teenage brothers and some local people who had gathered around the place by now. Ruchi distantly saw Harjot and Srinija running along with Vanya towards her.

She took a feeble step closer towards her mother to actually weep by leaning into her motherly embrace when the very woman pushed her away, appalling her quivering heart.

Srinija glared down at her in sheer hostility, "You can't even do one thing properly. What are you? Are you that small that you couldn't take care of my Vanya? You have put her life in danger." The tightening hold shook her ferociously and scathed her already injured body and soul.

Ruchi was fortunate enough to have bits of sympathy from her step-father but she was purely miserable to have had a mother like hers and have the same blood running through her veins.

Kartik urgently peeled his sister away from Srinija's maddening sight and wrapped his jacket over her, shortly after sensing her skin was as cold as ice but he was shaken up when she took a step back to get away from him due to the mental shock and cynicism.

"You're fine now."

"Baby, you're fine now."

"Everything is fine. You're fine."

"We are here with you, kiddo."

Ruchi could hear Kartik and Prashant spelt those illusionary words to keep themselves sane more than her. They're trying to make her feel anchored but the arduous waves were soaring up high to push her into the gorge of miscarriage and melancholy.

Her brothers vaguely both rubbed her callous palms for she shivered like old, pale, dried leaves that were bound to shrink on the onset of a wintery night.

Living into that moment, her exposed body couldn't guard her wariness that can think of nothing else except an empty void.

A void of love that failed to cocoon a girl in its warmth. A void of affection that failed to make her feel loved. A void of possession that failed to assure her that she belonged. A void of protection that failed to make her feel home.

Her eyes dilated slowly and swiftly as the grip of her bare feet loosened over the ground and she finally collapsed down, murmuring for her mother's love but she didn't get one.

She never got one.

Ruchi collapsed just like her slumping fate, that was entitled to nothing but her being a homeless wanderer who was out in search of a sacred destination which was nowhere in sight.

Lots of Love,

ANKITA