9 The Thugs

As usual, the party was lame. Different groups of people enjoyed the party in their own way. The only person standing out was Alex himself. He stood there in a corner and observed the party having slow sips from the cup of cocktail, which he took at the beginning of the party. A good-looking lady invited him to dance, but he rejected gently. He still remembers his first experience at dancing. That was at his post wedding party. He was forced to dance with Treesa, which ended up in some terrible moves and finally in a bad fall for both of them. Treesa was Austin's wife Stella's cousin.

Alex got out of there after an hour, waving goodbyes to important people. It was only 7'o clock in the evening, and the party is said to go on till 9 at night. He hired a taxi and took off for his home. As he was passing by, Alex noticed that the library was open. It should've been closed by now, according to usual timings. Alex asked the driver to stop then and there, and jumped off the taxi. He payed the driver and went to the library. He expected to see Catherine, and there she was. Catherine notices Alex as he approach her. She gave out a smile of relief. Alex sensed something to be wrong. "Why are you open, so late? ", Alex intrigued. "We have some late readers up there", she replies, her eyebrows furrowing in tension, while pointing to the literature section. "Who are they? You should've asked them to go out. Where's the security? ", Alex became concerned. He looked over to the literature section. Nobody could be seen there. Maybe he's a bit too far inside the section. "The security took a half-day off. He had to attend an unexpected funeral. And the two other staffs left as per the usual timings. I was supposed to shut this up and go home", Catherine told him. "They came in as I was about to close it, and asked for two minutes to browse through some books in the literature section. Now, it's been an hour. There is no sign of them. I've been calling out from here for sometime. All of this is too creepy for me, and I thought it would be safer calling them from here, rather than going in there", Catherine blurted out everything, trying to keep her voice low. "I was about to call the cops, just before you came in", she said. "Them? How many? ", Alex asked.

All of a sudden two men emerged from the literature section. Alex turned around and asked "Them? ". "Yes, the two of them", she replied. They were two moderately built men wearing the same caps and furrowed eyebrows. They were not having any good intentions and it was pretty clear from their face. They doesn't even seem like readers at all. "Hey fellas! I think you should be heading home. Reading time's over about an hour ago", Alex spoke out to them. "Sorry, we have some unfinished business here", one of the guys said as he folded his fists and went for a punch straight in Alex's face, almost as soon as he finished the sentence. Alex's quick reflexes helped him to duck the first guy's punch, but the other guy got hold of him and he took Alex by both of his collars. He dashed with him onto Catherine's desk. Alex was hurt badly on his back. His glasses flew off in the impact. Alex managed to push off the guy and threw himself to front to grab his glasses. The first guy was ready to get him from the back, and grabbed Alex by his neck just before he took the glasses from the floor. "CALL THE COPS", Alex called out to Catherine as he struggled between the guy's elbow. Catherine was already dialing, when he said. The second guy, then went for Catherine. But, Alex threw his left leg in front of him and he tripped on the leg to hit his nose on her desk. He was bleeding from his nose. Now, the first guy tightened his grip and moved Alex away from the second guy. But, the second guy was so pissed off that he came for Alex rather than stopping Catherine. He sarted giving heavy punches on Alex's face and made him very dizzy. Alex almost lost his consciousness, before the first guy helped him get away from the punches as he asked his friend to stop Catherine rather than hitting him. But, Catherine finished the call by then and the second guy dragged her out of her desk. The first guy threw Alex on the floor and went for Catherine too. The second guy threw Catherine onto the nearby wall and she hit her head on it. The first guy then went to stop his friend as the cops can come in any minute now. Both of them scooted from there, leaving Alex and Catherine on the floor. Alex was bleeding very badly on his brows and nose.