Chapter dedicated to HasitaSingh for the infinite support. Thanks yaar!

Chapter 17 - Friends Don't Kill Friends

Anchal, dressed in a bloody white shirt and black pants, trudges towards me. I examine my surroundings and am astonished to find myself in a locked room. It's the Thakur's mansion's guest room. Anchal, who I thought was dead, comes in front of me, holding a knife--the one he was stabbed with.

"Don't trust anyone," he says gloomily. "I trusted you to save me, but you were too late."

The eerie atmosphere has my heart racing. My back touches the locked door and I breathe heavily from Anchal's words. He's dead. He can't speak. He can't talk to me. He's gone. Is it his ghost? I just need to go along until someone saves me. But Anchal won't kill me, right? He helped me when I had no one. But I'm responsible for his death. I didn't reach the location on time.

"Anchal, you're d--dead," I whisper.

"Ahar, those sleeping pills did nothing," he says, giving me a pathetic look. He knows. He knows about my sleeping pills issue. "They never work on you. I have to put you to sleep myself."

My eyes pop wide as he brings the knife closer to my face.

How could Anchal do this to me?!

Friends don't kill friends!

Tears roll down my face at the betrayal.

I fight back when the knife grazes my cheek, unfortunately, my hair gets pushed back fiercely by Anchal's hand. Just like the Thakur did. But Anchal isn't Thakur. Mustering up courage, I give Anchal a swift shove and run towards the window. No other exits are available except for this route. The height is too much and the landing will break my bones, but it's either this or getting stabbed.

Searching for help, I see Shravan guarding a car with a gun.

His droopy eyes tell me he's half asleep.

Never have I ever met someone so irresponsible.

"Shravan!" I scream for help. Anchal's footsteps are nearing me. "Shravan!" I yell again and even wave my hands. He'll have to catch me when I jumped. But he doesn't give me any notice. I keep shouting his name until my throat dries out and tears burn my eyes. From the window glass, I can see Anchal is going to kill me. Shravan doesn't care!

For the last time, I scream, "SHRAVAN!"

My energy drains out and I wait for my death.

Instead of Anchal stabbing me, he begins shaking me.

"Ahar! Get up! AHAR!"

Before I knew it, reality slapped in and my eyes opened to a concerned face.

Seeing Shravan's face brought me relief, for once. Caught in the moment, I wrapped my arms around him and embraced him tightly. He was caught by surprise, but I didn't care and rested my head against his chest. He cautiously returned the hug, whispering soothing words in my ears. If he only knew the nightmare I just had. My brain had chained together a series of scenes I saw during the day in a hostile manner. Tears flowed as I realized Shravan saved me from dying.

"Anchal," I cried softly. "Anchal. Oh god. He was going to stab me. Oh my god. You were sleeping. I was in a locked room."

Shravan murmered everything was okay and I was healthy as a horse. I still cried thinking about Anchal and how awful of a person I was to not save him. He called me there only to be disappointed.

"I couldn't save him," I said feeling horrible. "I'm responsible for Anchal's death."

"No, you're not," Shravan said firmly. "I was with you. Someone just got to him before we reached the house." He gave my shoulders a squeeze before pulling his head back slightly to meet my eyes. "Take deep breaths," he instructed.

I inhaled and exhaled deeply.

It took me time to get out of the nightmare.

"What's wrong?" a sleepy voice asked. It sounded like Manan. Suddenly, it struck me that there were other people than Shravan in the room. Quickly, I separated from him and wiped my face with the back of my hand. Preet, Rahul, Shubham, Manan, and Mrs. Sethi stood in the doorway of my room with drowsy expressions. "Why do you always disrupt my Sunny Leone dreams?" Manan complained.

Sheepishly, I apologized.

"Ullu de patthe (You idiot), her boyfriend passed away. Be more considerate," Preet reprimanded. I didn't even correct her boyfriend misinterpretation. Anchal was only a good friend as well as my boss.

After murmurs of "sorry," Shubham asked, "Why were you screaming Shravan's name, though?"

I rubbed my temples and described my nightmare to them omitting the sleeping pills details. The half-awake group sympathized and bid goodbye soon. All except for Shravan. I hoped he wasn't too bothered by my hug. Everyone needed a jadoo ki jhappi (tight hug) once in a while.

"Sorry, I didn't know Anchal was so close to you," he said.

"You have no idea."

I leaned my back against a pillow.

Shravan scratched his head and said, "If you need to talk to someone, I'm here. I can somewhat share the loss or at least try to." I nodded and smiled. His compassionate side made me feel a lot better.

"Thank you."

"If you don't mind, can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead." How bad can his question be?

"What did Anchal tell you in your dream? Like some hint or message or anything," he said with a solemn look. "You know they say in dreams you can visit any worlds and people who you meet might have an important message--"

I understood what his point. Many people believed in the meanings behind dreams.

Even me.

"He told me never to trust anyone as he expected me to save him but I couldn't. Then, he said he was gonna kill me himself because the sleeping pills never worked on me and--"

"What do you mean?" Shravan cut me off. "Sleeping pills don't work for you?"

I immediately regretted opening my mouth.

Contemplating whether or not to tell him the story, I crossed my arms.

He might as well know something about me.

"When I first came to Haryana and completely lost everything, I made a stupid decision." He patiently sat listening. "My parents had already disowned me, my career was ruined, and I didn't have money to buy myself food anymore, I was desperate to end my misery. Unfortunately, I didn't even have a shelter, so I tried to overdose on sleeping pills behind the ice cream shop where I work at."

My head throbbed at the memory and I bit the inside of my cheek.

The truth was the truth. It didn't make me cry rather feel like a huge loser.

"Anchal found you before you could overdose . . . ?" Shravan asked hesitantly.

I laughed a little. He looked unsure whether to join my sad laughing or not. "He saw me taking so many pills in the store's camera and found me like a hour later after I had taken them. I was drowsy, but didn't fall asleep. The pills didn't work. Trust me, when I was found, Anchal knocked common sense into me and helped me out--gave me a home, gave me a job, and even gave me a friend to depend on."

"I'm glad the pills didn't work," Shravan said.

I was a little surprised by his response. Apparently, Shravan wasn't too insensitive.

"So am I," I agreed.

We all made mistakes and that was the biggest one in my life.

"I went through that phase one time too," Shravan said and rubbed his face. I couldn't believe he was talking to me about something other than finding his lost members. Were really conversing about our past? "My company neared bankruptcy a year ago with no chances of recovery. I had lost all hope and just wanted to die. End it all. Pathetic, I know. Then, she joined my company--"

"Sanya?"

"No, Preet," he chuckled. In shock, I blinked at him. Preet never gave me the notion of a smart businesswoman. "She might behave like a lunatic, but is very intelligent. She helped me come back to my senses and even managed to convince Sanya--a supermodel--to work for the company at a comparatively low salary for our final project--before the bank could declare us bankrupt."

"Sanya just agreed?" I wondered. If I was a supermodel, I wouldn't work for cheap.

"Another story for another time," he said expressionless. Was there more to it? "Anyways, Sanya helped us recover our debts slowly. Today, my company stands as one of the top ones in America."

"That's why you're desperate for Sanya!" I said realizing. "You need her for your company." I burst out laughing at his expression as if I had said something offensive. "I'm kidding." He got up, shaking his head.

His mood sunk faster than the Titanic.

"Goodnight," he said and abruptly walked out. The door slammed behind and I wondered what was so wrong about my words.

Couldn't he take a joke?

I thought we could have a heart-to-heart talk, but guess not. Was it offensive to say he was with Sanya for her modelling?

I guess he isn't which is why he snapped.

Laying down under the blankets, I tried to fall asleep. Sleep never came because everytime I shut my eyes, Anchal's pale and bloody corpse kept flashing before me. He felt so betrayed. Determined to get justice for his death, I couldn't wait to resume my investigation. The killer was going to regret crossing my path.

The few hours of rest cut short when Preet woke me up.

The investigating officers came to gain information. Shravan and I informed them of yesterday's events after the firing began on that highway and how we escaped Thakur Vijay Singh. Upon asking whether they found the culprit or not, we received a negative response.

Sanya and Arun were still kidnapped.

"We have the ballistics report, though," Officer Charan said. "The types of guns those bullets fit are very common, so it's hard to locate a single suspect. Does anyone in your family own a gun?" He turned to Shravan who gave his family a questioning look. They all shook their heads. "I guess we'll just have to work with what we have. I'll call and let you know if we find anything." We nodded.

"Wait a minute," Shravan said suddenly. "My phone doesn't work." Now, that was an issue. He ran upstairs and brought down his iPhone, which still had a bullet stuck in the center. "The bullets that were fired at us. One of them got stuck in the center."

"This can be of great help," Officer Charan said. He used his handkerchief to take the phone and put it in a ziplock bag.

The team of officers left quickly to get the phone to the forensics team.

As I turned to get ready for breakfast, my thoughts went to my own phone. It was still at that Thakur's place! What if he used it for his selfish purposes?

Freezing in my tracks, my eyes wandered towards Shravan. He was busy with Rahul and Preet. Still, he probably felt being watched because he glanced at me. Seeing me with a terrified expression, he questioningly wiggled his eyebrows.

"My phone," I said in a hushed whisper.

"Where is it?" Preet asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

"With Thakur Vijay Singh," I replied. "He can call my family and tell them he kidnapped me or murdered me or something--if he hasn't done so already."

Shravan registered my concern as he ran out, calling after the police officers.

I hate cell phones.

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A/N

Hey, how are you? *nudge nudge* you should check out my new story "My Amnesic Lover." It's inspired by Andaz Apna Apna. No Crime Master Gogo though :/

I know nothing much happened in this chapter except for Shravan and Ahar's past history.

Why did Shravan walk out so abruptly?

Could Anchal have a message?

Do you think the Thakur messed with Ahar's contacts?

Predictions?

--K-K-Kiran