Sensitive content ahead. Reader's discretion is advised.
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Nandini
“Finally, we are here in this room alone, after so long,” Rishabh says as soon as everyone leaves.
He traces my face with the tip of the gun while I ball my hands into fists, trying my best to control my fear as well as my urge to push him away.
“I can see you cringing due to my proximity, but this will change soon, Sweetheart,” he says, the tip of the gun now tracing the skin over my neck, going down toward my chest.
Angry tears fill my eyes as I feel it approaching my breast, the urge to push him away increasing with each passing second.
Thankfully, he stops, and I don’t push him.
Closing my eyes, I deliberately let those tears pour out.
I want him to see them as the tears signifying my helplessness. I want him to perceive the angry shake of my body as me trembling in his fear.
“This is what I like, Sweetheart,” he says, tracing his thumb over my cheek. “I love when you cry.
“That is why there are going to be more tears when we get out of here. Once we are finally alone in my lair, I will do such things to you that you will not only cry, but shout and scream in pain. Those painful whimpers and cries coming out of your mouth will be music to my ears.”
I say nothing, do nothing, only wait for him to take his finger out of the gun’s trigger as he continues to stroke my cheek.
After a few seconds, he lies down on the bed, pointing the gun to my head.
“It’s time to start servincing me, Sweetheart,” he says, smiling creepily. “Begin by pressing my feet like how that other slut was pressing earlier.”
Although I would like to break his leg, I resort to pressing it as I eye the gun in his hand, disgust whirling within me as soon as I touch him.
Lower your finger from the trigger. I silently will him to do so as I continue pressing his legs.
“This feels so good. Your trembling hands on my legs. You will be doing so every night from now on.” He sighs, closing his eyes.
This overconfidence is what will take you down, Rishabh.
I smirk, taking my chance when I look at his closed eyes.
Taking care to be subtle, I slightly bend down, moving myself away from the line of fire of the gun.
Then, bringing my hands up, I harshly clutch his crotch, making him scream.
Due to the suddenness of it, he accidentally presses the trigger, but the bullet gets shot to the wall behind me.
With him distracted, I immediately snatch the gun from his hand, quickly climbing down the bed, looking at him curled up on the bed, his hands over his crotch.
The door also opens and the officers and Manik come rushing inside.
The officers immediately go to Rishabh was, pointing their guns at him, while Manik comes to me.
“Are you fine, Nandini? We heard a gunshot,” he asks, concernedly looking at me.
“I am fine, Manik,” I say, blinking my eyes reassuringly at him.
“You fucking bitch!! I will not spare you,” Rishabh says, and I turn to him, noticing him still curled up on the bed, groaning in pain.
“You are going to jail, Rishabh. You won’t be able to do anything to me from inside the prison,” I tell him, but he scoffs at me.
As he starts sitting up, the officers gathered around him grip his arms, not letting him climb down from the bed and come near me.
“You think they will be able to keep me in that prison for long?” He huffs. “I will get out soon with the help of my lawyers. Mark my words, Nandini. I will make you pay for the stunt you pulled earlier. I won’t spare you. I will break you one day and make you my slave as I made that other slut.”
His arrogance further fuels my anger, and I start walking toward him.
“You think you are high and mighty because you beat up girls, force yourself on them, and make them surrender to you, right?” I tell Rishabh. “Let me give you the taste of your medicine then. Let me make you realize how it feels.”
Rishabh shakes his head. “The police is here, Sweetheart. You can’t do anything to me while I am in their custody.”
I frown, pretending to look around. “Police? What are you talking about, Rishabh? Only you, Manik, Aastha, and I are in this room.
“Right, Manik? Do you see any officers here?” When I turn to Manik when asking that question, I see confusion marring his face for a few seconds, before he finally understands.
“Ah, right. I had called the officers before coming here, but they have not reached here yet,” Manik says.
“We apologize, Mr. Sisodiya,” one of the officers holding Rishabh’s arm starts speaking. “Traffic has gotten so bad these days that we usually get delayed while getting to the crime scene.”
“What the fuck are you idiots talking about? Have you all gone mad?” Rishabh’s starts shouting, glaring at all of us.
“Now, now, Rishabh,” Manik says. “Do not get so angry. You are already going to be injured in the fight that we are going to have while trying to get Aastha from you. If police came between that fight and saw you being a danger to us, they might even shoot you to protect us.”
I notice the expression of fear flitting across Rishabh’s face when he hears Manik.
He opens his mouth to say something, but I begin speaking before he can.
“I will now request the officers to leave your arms for a while. But don’t you dare move from that bed, Rishabh. You don’t want to die in an encounter, do you?”
Saying that to Rishabh, I request the inspectors to lave him, which they do.
I wonder why they are going along with this, but then, Aastha’s earlier condition flashes in my mind.
Everyone must have seen the way he was treating her. That is why they must be helping me give him what he deserves.
Rishabh stays on the bed when the officers leave his hand, probably because he has understood the consequences of him not doing so.
Satisfied by him staying put, I turn and walk to the cupboard.
Opening the cupboard, I see his clothes are still there.
When he had told me about bringing his things here in this room, I had told Mrs. Iyer about everything he had been doing to me.
But her, instead of believing me, had berated me, and had allowed it when Rishabh’s driver had brought his things the very next day. Not only allowed, but she also made me arrange all these clothes in the cupboard.
“You said very nasty things about poor Risabh yesterday. So, this is your punishment, Nandini. Organize this cupboard and clean this room properly. Rishabh had called me earlier to tell me that will be coming to stay with us soon,” she had said, breaking my heart.
Shrugging myself out of that painful memory of me organizing this cupboard, I run my hands through the belt hanging inside.
“Hmm, which belt should I choose to make welts on you today?” I say aloud, the exact words that Rishabh had uttered before whipping Aastha. “I think this thick leather one will do.”
Taking the thick black leather belt, I walk toward the bed where Rishabh was still seated.
“What are you—”
He was unable to complete the question because his scream interruptted it when I slashed his body with the belt.
“Count each strike, Rishabh,” I say, bringing the belt down on him again.
He groans in pain, painful hiss coming out of his mouth.
“What did you say earlier?” I ask, slashing his skin one more time. “That the painful cries you will hear from my mouth will be music to your ears?”
I whip him again, this time eliciting a painful scream from his mouth.
“This is indeed the music to one’s ears. The screams of pain from the mouth of the monster who deserves the pain,” I tell him, continuing to whip him.
He begins to slide back on the bed, away from me, and I feel the satisfaction rising within me when I see him trying to curl his body, his eyes red due to unshed tears.
“STOP IT. STOP IT,” he shouts.
But I do not stop.
I continue whipping him as I remember the way he had treated Aastha that night.
Aastha kissing both his feet, rubbing her nose on them.
“You will keep receiving whips on your body until Nandini comes to me.”
“Count each strike, whore,” he had said to Aastha before battering her body by slashing it with his belt.
CRACK! CRACK!
I shower on him another two whippings as I recall how Aastha had begged him to stop beating her.
“I am sorry, Sir. Please, please. It hurts so much. It hurts,” she had wailed.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The way he had treated me countless times in the past.
“Get naked right now, Sweetheart, if you don’t want me to tell everyone how much of a slut you are.”
“Come here and unzip my jeans.”
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
“Don’t shy away, Sweetheart. Let me squeeze those sinful looking twin peaks.”
“Spread yourself properly and show me.”
Tears fill my eyes as I remember those humiliating moments he made me endure.
CRACK! CRACK!
With him now trying to stand, I rain the whips over his back.
“WHY THE HELL ISN’T ANYONE DOING ANYTHING? YOU ARE THE POLICE. YOU NEED TO PROTECT ME,” Rishabh shouts at the officers, but neither of them say or do anything.
When an officer takes one step toward Rishabh, another officer beside him signals him to stop, letting me continue.
“Police protects the victims, Rishabh. Not the criminals like you,” I say, and when he turns to look at me, I slash the skin over his chest.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
I remember Vivek’s battered body brought to our house in a stretcher.
CRACK! CRACK!
Vivek’s swollen face almost unrecgnizable when I took off the white sheet covering it.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The doctor telling us after the postmortem that Vivek had multiple fractures as a result of severe beating he must have received right before someone cut open his jugular vein, making him bleed and die in just a few seconds.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
All the tears I cried, all the pain my brother endured, all the hurt and humiliation Aastha suffered.
Rishabh sinks to the floor unable to take the beating and keep standing anymore. I see him unable to even move to protect himself from the whippings.
But I still don’t stop. I continue slashing him, continue to do it even when I see his eyes close, even when he is no longer screaming in pain.
I begin crying and screaming as I continue whipping Rishabh, my pain pouring out of me as I give him what he deserves.
When I feel Manik wrapping his arms around me, I stop for a while.
“That’s enough, Nandini,” Manik says. “If you continue, you might seriously injure him and he might get to the brink of death. I am not saying he does not deserve it. In fact, he deserves more than this easy death. He deserves to rot in prison his whole life.”
Realizing Manik is right, I loosen my hold on the belt, letting it fall to the floor.
“Please take him away,” I say, my voice a hoarse whisper.
I wait until the officers carry unconscious Rishabh out of the room.
Once they are gone, I finally let my body loose, letting Manik hold me as I slump to the floor.
It is then I cry, breaking down in his arms.
“Cry it out, my love,” Manik says, running his hands up and down my arms soothingly as he holds my shivering body. “Let it all out. All the pain, every anguish you had compressed within you. Pour everything out.”
My wails increase and I scream too, doing exactly what Manik said.
The pain I felt all these years when my parents made me feel unwanted, Rishabh’s revolting touches I had to bear, the disgust I felt when he forced me to touch him, the angst I felt when I lost my brother, the hurt I endured when I was blamed for his death.
I let out all the angst I had kept hidden within me. My whole body clenching, raw pain washing through me as my entire body racks in sobs.