"Please tell me you guys had it well planned!" Sengupta screamed at the top of his voice. "Please tell me that she is alright...at the very least...alive!" The last sentence came out slower and calmer with a hint of despair in Sengupta's voice. Two days had passed, Sharmishtha was still nowhere to be found. Arjun had just gotten back to his senses. No one dared to send him into trauma by informing him that Sharmishtha was still missing.
Sengupta was sitting in a corner with a cup of tea, glancing at the monitor. With a furrowed pair of eyebrows, he seemed to be in distress. He had screamed at seven different people in the last thirty minutes including Saraswati. Annoyed with Sengupta's constant grunts, Saraswati went outside to get some fresh air.
"It's getting cold," Roy spoke softly. Sengupta, who was in a daze, looked around. "What?"
"The tea...it's getting cold," he replied.
"Oh!" Sengupta uttered softly as he took a sip. "I am sorry," he suddenly spoke to Roy.
"It's alright. I had misjudged you. You are the only one who hasn't shut his eyes for a second. I thought you didn't care about her! I was wrong. It's my place to apologise."
"No," Sengupta replied. "It's all my fault. I should not have agreed to her plan. I should have never! But then again Shyra never listens to anyone."
"Shyra?" Roy seemed a little confused.
"Oh you may not know this but she was awfully shy so we named her Shyra!" he chuckled. "Can't believe she became this fiery. I still remember the first day I met her. She was looking down at her shoes holding the hands of her father," his smile had faded away. The corner of his eyes glistened.
"We will find her," Roy placed his hands on Sengupta's shoulders. They nodded to each other.
Rohan was sitting by the side of Arjun. Arjun glanced at the pitiful site of Rohan. The dark circle under his eyes, his tired face, in three days, Rohan had turned pale. "You alright?" he asked.
"Yes," Rohan replied.
"How's Roy?"
"He is fine." Rohan tried to keep it as casual as possible.
"And Boss?" Arjun kept on querying.
"Roy is with her," Rohan lied. He was only saying what Roy had instructed him to say.
"How about the girls?"
"They are under treatment. Doctors are assured that they will be in sound health by tomorrow," Rohan replied.
"I am glad that all eighty of them are alright," Arjun stated with a smile.
"Hmm," Rohan hummed. Suddenly he felt thunder-struck, "Wait, eighty?!"
"Yes...eighty. Didn't you count?"
"Oh yes yes! My head's spinning. I haven't slept. Will you be alright if I leave you alone and take a nap? There are guards outside. Call me if you need anything," Rohan was trying to get off as fast as he could to inform Sengupta of this crucial piece of information.
"Sure. You need to get some sleep. Don't worry, I am fine," Arjun replied with a smile.
Rohan rushed out of the room and dialled Sengupta, "Hey, this is Rohan. How many girls did you rescue two days ago?"
"Sixty why?" Sengupta asked from the other side of the line.
"Damn it! We missed twenty girls!" Rohan grunted.
"What? What are you talking about?" Sengupta was confused.
"Arjun Sir just told me that there were supposed to be eighty girls in the mansion! If we only rescued sixty where did the other twenty go? Vanished into the air?!" a hint of sarcasm in Rohan's voice.
"What? Wait a minute...how did Arjun know about how many girls were there? I thought you guys went to investigate whether it was paranormal or not?" Sengupta asked Rohan.
"Well...I did not ask about that..." Rohan did not think this through.
"Well then do!" Sengupta ordered.
"I can't," Rohan replied quietly.
"Why not?"
"I already told him that we found Boss!" He blurted out.
"Alright...he will stay under surveillance...you come back...looks like we found a lead!" Sengupta stated.
"Alright."
Rohan got into a car sent by Sengupta and reached him in thirty minutes. He rushed inside the hut, "So where do we start?"
"Actually about that we were thinking Sonapur?" Sengupta seemed a little unorganised with his thoughts.
"I thought we had a lead!" Rohan was a bit baffled.
"Well seems like we don't," Sengupta spoke quietly.
"Listen Boss is missing for over three days along with twenty other girls...they have got to be somewhere inside this state unless they are already trafficked...in which case say goodbye to your friend!" Rohan was losing his patience with Sengupta.
"Calm down. There is already an investigation going on statewide!"
"So?"
"But still there's very little chance of finding her and those girls..." Sengupta sighed.
"Then we have got to do our best. Listen please have a chat with Arjun Sir...maybe he knows something more regarding the plan."
Sengupta nodded. He then turned to Saraswati, "Did she discuss something with you? Something that might help?"
Saraswati nodded in denial.
Sengupta sighed. "Well for now I will try to get some information through Arjun. Rohan, feel free to return if you want...your job is done!"
"NO!" Both of them screamed out at Sengupta.
Sengupta was a little taken aback. A moment later he addressed this response, "Excuse me? This is now completely a criminal case. This is not something two journalists can handle! Please return! I don't want any more people to..."
Rohan interrupted him, "We will stay even if we die...we will find those girls and Boss. We can handle the situation of media and help you in some ways or the other...this is not the time to save our arses!"
"It's bigger than our life!" Roy stated firmly.
______________
It had been more than three days since Rey had spoken to Sharmishtha. Even Ruby's phone was switched off. "Did something happen to her?" Rey was growing more anxious by the second! He couldn't sleep or eat. "Everything that I have been doing for her! And yet she is not answering my calls! Once I get back. I will surely show her how much she means to me! Everything, everything is for her. I promise Shyra...you will never feel lonely or abandoned! After I am done with this...you will never have to deal with these kinds of things ever again. I promise!"
Even though Rey never let anyone hurt her the slightest, it seemed like his wife had a hold on his heart that he couldn't resist. He never thought of hurting her back. Never once in his life, he ever thought of getting any sort of revenge from her! All of a sudden, she became the only thing that mattered in his life, something more than his own life! All these days, he knew that he had been hurting her even though he was just trying to protect her. Sitting far away from his love, little did he know about her condition! He always had this uneasy feeling going on that something was wrong!