6. Ratha?

Chapter-6

Author's POV

Parul unwrapped the gift box, there was no name or clue whatsoever on the wrapper. Thinking that it must be from someone who knows her or whom she knows, she didn't mind the black box or the black wrapper.

Inside the black box was a letter wrapped in a black envelope, and a single dark red Rose. She took the envelope in her hands and inspected it closely.

There was a waxed stamp on the envelope. She looked deeper into the stamp.

It was a stamp of a sword engulfed in flames.

For some reason, she felt chills looking at the stamp.

Tracing the stamp slowly, she peeled open the wax.

Inside the black envelope was a neatly folded vintage letter.

"𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒐 𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆. 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓. 𝑰𝒕'𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒐𝒇𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓. 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏'𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕. 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒎𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄. 𝒀𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒘𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒓...!"

~ 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒂

She read the letter, her hands slowly began to shiver. She read it again and again, she didn't understand who would write such a letter to her.

The message was clear. It was written by someone who is admiring her or worse, stalking her.

Ratha......she mumbled the name, her brows creased as she tried very hard to remember if she knew anyone by that name. But, nope. She didn't know anyone by that name.

It was the first time she ever heard of such a name.

Her first thought was to ask Aditi about this person but then, she remembered her worried expressions. She didn't want to bother her.

Although it seemed stupid, she decided to hide this thing from Aditi.

" I should probably talk to Arya" she thought to herself looking at the letter.

She placed the letter inside the box and secured it inside the wardrobe, at the farthest corner.

" Who are you Ratha?" she spoke to herself, leaning against the wardrobe.

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Days passed since that incident and her worry only increased tenfold. She felt like someone was watching her and following her.

She knew the right term was Stalking. But she was afraid to acknowledge it.

Stalking was not only limited when she was out, she felt someone's eyes even when she was in her room, sitting on the balcony or casually strolling in the veranda.

So many times she looked around to catch that person in the act but she couldn't. Whenever she looked around, there was no one, as if she was hallucinating things.

But she knew she wasn't hallucinating. Someone was following her and she didn't know who that sick person was.

She wanted to talk to Aryan but he seemed quite off lately and instead of him, it was Aryan's housemaid/nanny that was picking up Manav from school. She didn't see him for a week.

She asked Manav and the kid didn't know what his dad was up to. When she asked Aditi, she told her that he might be busy with some work since he runs a company of his own.

Parul thought it was reasonable and didn't try to bother him. She was thankful that she didn't receive any letters or gifts again.

It'd be difficult to explain this to Aditi then. She asked Parul about the gift and Parul lied about it. She told her that one of her colleagues sent her a gift and it was some accessories. Aditi believed it. She didn't notice the growing worry in Parul.

She had no idea who would stalk her or send such a gift. She had no idea if the person who sent the letter was the same one that's stalking her. She didn't know anything. She was in the dark. She didn't know so many things about Amaravati and only time would answer her questions.

One thing is for sure, when she learns the truth, there is no escaping from it.

As worried as she was, whenever she was in class with those innocent kids, she forgot everything. This bundle of joy relieved her stress in many ways. It's been two weeks since she came to Amaravati and compared to last week, her opinions about being here changed drastically.

Stalking was the reason. Someone was stalking her. She worried that it might be a killer on the loose or worse a pedophile or a sick psycho pervert!

Every time she spoke with her grandparents, she acted strong. If they learnt that someone was stalking her, they'd be worried about it. They're old and she didn't want them overthinking about her safety. Their health was her priority and so, she didn't even tell them anything about the creepy letter or the stalking of someone.

No matter how hard she tried to ignore that constant feeling of being watched, always managed to send creeps up and down her body.

Although she was getting ready to go out with Aditi right now, she was still thinking about that letter and the person named "Ratha"

" Wo.. Heroine...come soon!" Aditi's sharp voice brought her out of the trance. She was knocking on the door hard.

Aditi asked her to get ready soon and it's been more than an hour, Parul didn't go downstairs. So she decided to check on her.

" Done!" Parul shouted, pulling the denim jacket over the black slips.

After she was done, she opened the door and Aditi was standing there, waiting for her.

" Sona..you are so beautiful!" Aditi said, winking.

Parul grinned, " Thanks Adi..you are the gorgeous man" she patted, walking down the stairs.

After a short giggle, they left for shopping. They were going to the same shopping street. Aditi wanted to buy some dresses too. So she dragged Parul with her.

" Park it! It'll be crowded soon" Parul said, pointing at the small space to which Aditi nodded and proceeded to park her blue scooter.

.⋆｡⋆☂˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆.

Parul huffed for the hundredth time within the gap of an hour. Aditi looked through the pile of dresses and still, didn't select one.

" This...or this" Aditi held the pink dress in her right hand and the yellow dress in her left hand, dancing her brows at Parul.

" Pink is really good" Parul said.

" I think yellow is also good..." Aditi bit her lips looking at the yellow dress keenly.

Letting out a tiring groan, Parul gave her a stern look.

" Aditi Rao!" she almost screamed, bystanders looked in their direction in awe.

Aditi started giggling.

" Fine Sona...pink one!" she bowed her head, Parul heaved a deep sigh as the store owner proceeded to pack the dress.

" I'm so damn hungry...Adi...let's grab something now" Parul said looking for a food shop.

" There's a juice centre here... come" Aditi led her towards the juice centre. Five minutes of walk and they were standing in front of a small juice centre.

" 2 Chicoo and add more ice" Placing the order, she waited near the table to get the order.

" Ma'am two chicoo" The guy passed her two glasses of juice. Aditi passed the glass to Parul and sat next to Parul, enjoying the juice.

" Oye... beautiful..." Parul looked at the guy who was standing behind Aditi. She was talking to her Grandparents, standing a few feet away from the juice centre.

Aditi was Google paying when some random guy commented on her.

Aditi didn't mind the comment and proceeded to pay.

" Oye...talk to me Beautiful.."

" Oh, Attitude huh?"

" Nothing like I've ever seen!"

" Come on girl...talk!"

Aditi ignored these comments and tried to walk past the guy but he held her hands and pulled her back.

Aditi shrieked as she didn't expect this. Parul noticed the commotion and walked towards them.

" Hey leave her..." she tried to sound calm.

He looked like he was high on some cheap drug. His unruly long hair and beard gave all the dirty negative vibes.

" Should I grab you then...you are a hottie...I won't mind grabbing you!" he laughed like a maniac after spewing nonsense.

Parul gritted her teeth. She was so angry.

" You bastard" She slapped him right across his face and he immediately let go of Aditi.

Parul was raging by now.

" How dare you..!" the guy took a step towards her. Parul looked at her right and there was a glass filled with Apple juice. She grabbed the glass and splashed it on his face.

" Don't you fucking try this with me! You perverted asshole!" she spat angrily, throwing him an angry look.

" Sorry yar!" she looked at the juice centre guy and opened her purse to pay the money.

" Touch her again!" she looked around hearing a familiar voice, followed by a hard punch.

It was Aryan.

He was raging.

He punched that pervert again and again until his nose and lips were bleeding.

Aditi tried to pull him back but failed.

Parul watched him with widened eyes. She had never seen this version of Aryan so far. He looked unusually calm and was always gentle. But what she was seeing right now, was nowhere close to gentle or calm.

He was raging.

He looked furious.

" Arya..." she grabbed Aryan's shoulder and he stopped hitting the guy immediately. He looked at Parul who was looking at him with concerned eyes," Let him go..." she whispered, slowly.

He nodded involuntarily. As soon as Aryan let go of his shirt, he fell to the ground, and the crowd didn't dare to call an ambulance or police.

Parul didn't take note of this.

" Are you okay? Adi?" he looked at Aditi, and she nodded her head, looking slightly worried.

He patted her head softly.

Parul watched the brother-sister duo adoringly. He then looked at Parul and then,

" it won't happen again" he said, holding her hands in his, squeezing it in an assuring way.

" Hmm...." She smiled genuinely at him.

He was watching the whole scene unfolding from a little afar. Jealousy ran through his veins as she smiled heartily at Aryan.

He saw them in the dress shop and followed them to the juice centre. He was on an important call and missed the scene where that guy tried to misbehave with Aditi and didn't hear any comments that the guy passed to Aditi or Parul.

He saw Parul slapping the guy and was about to step in between the fight, but Aryan was literally running towards them and he stopped there immediately.

Aryan dropped Manav at his maternal grandparent's house and he was going back home when his uncle called him and informed him about these two girls. He was very worried as they didn't come home since it was quite late and he knew the horrors of Jivapur very well.

So Aryan assured his uncle and decided to pick them up himself.

The dress shop guy saw Aryan and informed him that he saw his sister and the other girl walking towards the Ganesh Juice Centre and that's how he ended up there.

What he saw next, made his blood boil. It's been years since he lost his patience or even hit someone.

When the guy said nasty things about Aditi and Parul, he couldn't contain his anger anymore.

He knew he broke the promise by raising his hands on that guy but he didn't regret it.

" I thought you promised not to hit anyone!" Shiva stated making his way towards the trio.

His deep voice sent shivers down her spine. She visibly flinched seeing his dark brown eyes intently staring deep into hers.

For some reason, she felt that he was angry with her.

Aryan looked at Shiva who looked pissed off and then,

" Rat---"

" Don't you have sense, Aditi!" Shiva's sharp voice made Aryan stop whatever he was trying to speak abruptly.

He used Aditi's name but his eyes were still on Parul. She knew he was implying this to her. She was kinda sure about it.

" I'm...I'm... sorry bhai" Aditi looked down, apologizing to Shiva immediately.

" Do you think it's Bangalore?" He spat, his jaw muscles ticked. He was angry.

Parul widened her eyes. She didn't expect him to question her like that.

She looked at Aryan and then shook her head slowly.

" Aditi...tell your little friend about the horrors of Jivapur when she is free. I don't want you both hanging out alone next time! Got it?" he looked at Aditi and then at Parul.

She didn't nod at first but when he arched his brows, she immediately nodded her head.

" Leave... Right now!"  his voice boomed in the now silent street.

She also failed to notice how the murmurings and bustling chaos of the people stopped immediately after Shiva approached them.

Aditi nodded her head and held Parul's hands, slowly dragging her along. Aryan was unusually quiet.

After taking five to six steps, she turned around and looked back. Shiva was standing there, his eyes solely fixed on her. Parul's eyes widened seeing him intently watching her. She looked back quickly.

He smirked watching her disappearing back.

The guy was still lying on the same road, crying in pain. Nobody cared to give a damn about his pathetic condition.

After all, they knew what he did just now.

Shiva dialled a familiar number and after a ring, he picked up the call.

" I need someone dead!" Shiva said, not giving him a chance to respond and hung up the call.

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How's the chapter?

Why do you think the people didn't call the police when Aryan was hitting that guy?

Take a wild guess.

Do you know who Ratha is??

Let me know your views in the comments section.