chapter 15
Flashback of 2 years
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t speak.
But even as my body gave out, a single thought echoed in my mind:
You’re not dying here. You’re not ending like this.
You’ll rise. Even if they bury you, you’ll claw your way out.
I wasn’t ready to give up.
Not yet.
Not like this.
Through the blinding pain, through the blood trickling down my temple, I looked at him and said—barely able to speak but with fire still flickering in my voice:
“Karan… remember this day.
You will pay.
You will.”
He sneered.
SLAP!
Another blow.
My head whipped to the side.
Then his fist gripped my hair—viciously—and yanked me down to the floor.
I screamed.
“I’ll show you your place, bitch!” he growled.
And then—he dragged me.
Across the floor.
Like trash.
Like I was nothing.
Every part of me ached—
My skin bruised, my soul torn.
I walked.
Not because I had somewhere to go.
But because lying there meant accepting defeat.
And even in that moment—I wasn’t ready to surrender.
I walked like a lifeless body,
Each step a silent scream.
The street was empty.
No cars.
No people.
Just me... the rain... and the kind of darkness that felt like it was inside me too.
---
“Maybe now… maybe this is finally the end…”
I thought as the storm swallowed my breath.
But life wasn’t done punishing me yet.
---
From the shadows ahead,
I saw them.
Figures.
Men.
Laughing.
Not the laughter of help—
The laughter of hunger.
Predators.
“Areey dekho… kya maal hai yaar…”
“Raat mein toh kismat jag gayi…”
“Kya hua baby? Husband ne nikaal diya kya?”
Their eyes undressed me.
Their hands itched.
And my legs… trembled.
I backed away, breath stuck in my throat,
“No… please…”
One of them whistled.
Another stepped forward.
Help me…”
I wanted to scream.
But all that came out was a whisper.
I couldn't see their faces clearly—
The streetlights were dead,
and the night was too cruel to reveal their identities.
But I felt them.
Their footsteps.
Their breath.
Their sickening laughter echoing behind me.
I knew one thing—if I wanted to live, I had to run.
So I did.
With blood on my lips, rain in my eyes,
and pain stabbing through my ribs
I ran.
They chased me like predators,
hungry for a kill,
for a moment of power over someone broken.
“Ruko na baby, hum sab milke sambhal lenge…”
“Why running, this is your place na?”
Their voices pierced my ears like knives.
My feet burned.
My lungs screamed.
But I kept going.
Because death would’ve been kinder than what they wanted from me.
And then…
My legs gave up.
“Ahhh!”
I fell.
Knees scraped.
Palms bleeding.
Face crashing against the cold, wet road.
I turned, trembling,
My soaked body barely moving.
They were coming closer.
Eyes glowing in the dark like monsters.
Four of them.
One licked his lips.
Another cracked his knuckles.
I tried to crawl.
But my body refused.
Tears mixed with the rain.
I whispered,
“Please… someone… save me…”
They circled me like a pack of wolves,
hungry eyes fixed on their prey.
I dropped to my knees, trembling,
hands clasped tightly together as if prayer could shield me.
“Please… please, don’t…”
My voice cracked, desperation spilling out like a shattered dam.
“I beg you… let me go…”
But they didn’t hear the woman.
They didn’t see the person.
To them, I was nothing but a broken thing a toy for their cruelty,
monsters wearing human faces.
Their cruel laughter echoed all around me.
The rain couldn’t wash away my tears.
The night swallowed my screams.
They closed in—hands rough and merciless—grabbing me like I was nothing but an object.
I fought, slapping one of them hard.
His eyes burned with fury as he slammed his palm across my cheek.
“Bitch,” he snarled, “let us show you your place.”
Before I could react, the four of them pinned me down.
My hands were tied cruelly behind my back,
my legs bound tight so I couldn’t move.
Dragged like lifeless garbage,
they hauled me toward a dark, shadowed place—
far from any hope.
My heart hammered in my chest,
each breath a struggle.
Tears mixed with rain,
and I screamed silently inside—
“Please… someone save me…”
And then… the cruelty began.
Hands that didn’t belong to me started roaming where they had no right.
I begged.
I screamed.
But my cries were swallowed by the dark, by the cold night, by the emptiness around me.
One of them began pulling at my clothes.
Tears spilled uncontrollably down my cheeks, mixing with the rain and dirt.
Is this the end?
The thought shattered me—
a cruel, bitter truth I wasn’t ready to face.
All because of Karan.
His betrayal.
His hatred.
The poison his family had poured over my life.
I closed my eyes, hoping, praying, for anything—
maybe this nightmare would finally be over.
One of them lunged forward, pinning me down even harder.
“No… no… please… no…”
I begged, my voice trembling, breaking—
a desperate plea lost in the darkness.
My heart pounded like a drum in my chest,
every part of me screaming to fight, to run, to survive.
But the night was merciless.
And so were they.
The other three laughed cruelly,
their voices cold and merciless like the night itself.
My eyes widened, drowning in pure, raw fear.
Is this what cruelty truly is?
Was this the darkest moment I would ever face?
Then—just as the man reached to tear the last piece of cloth from me—
A sudden, fierce ROAR shattered the silence.
The sound echoed from the nearby hut—deep, powerful, and alive.
The men froze.
Their laughter died.
A chilling tension filled the air,
as if something fierce had arrived—
something that wasn’t ready to let this horror continue.
The men scoffed at first—
thinking it was nothing but an illusion, a stray animal, maybe a joke from one of them.
But then—
The roar echoed again. Louder. Closer. Wilder.
One of them stepped toward the darkness,
lifting a stick as if he could fight what was coming.
A second later, his voice broke the silence—
“T-Tigers! Run! Tigers are coming!!”
Panic erupted.
The arrogance vanished from their faces.
Their laughter turned into screams.
They ran.
Like cowards.
Like the prey they truly were.
And me?
They left me behind—
a broken body on the muddy ground,
rain pouring over me,
but for the first time…
The sky didn’t feel cruel.
It felt like it had answered.
Through my blurred, rain-soaked vision…
I saw her.
A woman—draped in white, glowing in the darkness.
Fierce.
Calm.
Unshaken.
Beside her… a tiger.
Majestic. Silent. As if it belonged to her.
As if she was never afraid—because fear itself obeyed her.
She looked at me.
Not with pity.
But with power.
Then everything went black.
--
When I opened my eyes…
The scent of antiseptic, the softness of cotton sheets…
The quiet hum of a ceiling fan.
I blinked slowly.
And there she was.
Preeti.
My best friend. My only family.
She was sitting beside me, her eyes swollen from crying, but her hand never left mine.
“You’re safe now…” she whispered.
“You’re home.”
I wanted to speak—
but my voice broke before it could rise.
Tears rolled silently down my cheeks.
But this time… they weren’t from fear.
Days passed…
but the pain stayed.
The bruises on my skin faded—
but the ones in my soul?
They haunted me like shadows I couldn’t run from.
Every night when I closed my eyes…
I saw them.
Their faces.
Their laughter.
That moment when my screams were swallowed by the rain.
I would wake up—gasping, sweating, crying.
Sometimes screaming.
Preeti would rush to me, hold me,
but nothing could calm the storm inside me.
I couldn’t sleep.
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t forget.
“It wasn’t just my body they tried to break…
It was my will. My voice. My fire.”
And then…
I saw him.
Karan.
Smiling. Laughing.
Getting married. Again.
Like nothing happened.
Like he hadn't destroyed me, my dignity, my soul.
The world celebrated his “new beginning”
while I was still healing from the wreckage he left behind.
I looked at the screen,
at his smug, undeserved smile—
and whispered through clenched teeth:
I’m coming back, Karan…
Not to beg. Not to cry.
To ruin you—like you tried to ruin me.”
This wasn’t the end of my story.
It was the beginning…
of my revenge.