2 Chapter 2 The Memory of his touch
Erica
I must have been removed from there but only if there was any ground left to walk away.
Before I could think of any better idea to escape. Mr. Smith's voice resonated in that silent area of office reception, taking all that man's attention.
"Sir, keep this file along with you, and pls never mention my name." He requested, and without listening to their conversation further I moved outside.
" Hey! Where were you?" A whispering sound jerked me out from the events I had encountered inside.
"Lauren..." I showed her the file and was about to tell her about Mr. Smith when we heard the sharp sound of footsteps behind us.
I was ready to turn around and face the man but Lauren stopped me," Idiot, your scarf's almost loosened." Let me fix it."
As she was busy fixing it, I lowered my head, just then my eyes fell on the same "yellow" file that was the subject of mystery for half of the day. It was making me curious.
I didn't know what got into me when that man was moving aside from me, I snatched the file, to which he lost his balance giving me enough time to run in the opposite direction.
By the time I was moving faster than a gun, faster than the rat who was going to be trapped in any next moment.
"Stop. You have messed with the wrong person this time. I will ruin you." A bolted voice came from behind.
But I wasn't stopped. I knew that it was the straight lane behind the office, and it will come to an end sooner or later. There was no ESCAPE.
While running and thinking, I stumbled upon my steps and fell to the ground.
I didn't look over my side, there wasn't a sound behind me but I knew somebody was coming slowly after me.
They crawl on my skin and wander down my back. Little pinches of warning gathered at the back of my skull they told me he was there.
" This is not the end," I whispered.
I tightened my hold on the file and closed my eyes. That's when I felt the touch on my arm.
My heart was hammering out of my chest. It was beating so hard that I felt like I had turmoil inside of me.
It was weighing me down and my hands were covered with sweat in the need for safety and comfort.
But it was NOW or NEVER. I immediately turned around and pushed him with all my power.
But his hold never left me but got more tight.
"Do you think it's that easy? Huh? ", he said sternly.
When I saw his face, his eyes caught my attention. They were so intense, I wanted to look away...or never looked away, I couldn't decide.
" Leave," I yelled.
"Not yet. Give it back to me." He demanded.
I kept struggling in his hold and with a final push, I was free. He lost his balance with the sudden event and stumbled down on the ground.
But in the process of reaching back to me, he held the corner of my scarf but I moved with so much power that it freed me from my face and became the adorning beauty of his hands.
I mentally cursed myself for being careless but thank God! I wasn't facing him. It was my back that was visible to him.
Without looking back, I ran, very fast and collided with someone.
" Ah!" We screamed together while rubbing our heads.
"Are you mad? Who was that man running behind you?" Lauren yelled in a teary voice
That was it, I breathed all the air that I held and hugged her.
After 30 minutes
" What's the time Lauren?" I asked her while facing up towards the sky and opened the main gate of the house.
She instantly forwarded her wrist tapping at the outer glass of her wristwatch.
Although it was half-past six, the sky was already dark. The fog had made it thicker by its proximity to the seine, blurring every detail of the house with its ragged veils.
The reddish glow of lanterns in the verandah was giving a perfect view of a gathering of some people in the garden area.
"How is it possible that nobody had seen her?" A threatening harsh voice came.
" Calm down! She must be somewhere around only." The other low voice followed it.
It took me no time to calculate the tension in the atmosphere.
"Please don't go there." Lauren pleads but I ignore her and move there.
I was standing at the corner of the entrance of the garden area. The bitter wind heavy with icy particles whipped at my face.
"Bloody hell. Can't you all find a single girl since morning?" Daniel screamed at the bunch of people standing in front of him.
" Maybe she had run away." Somebody said and before he could have completed, in no minute a gun had gone off and broken that glass table placed there.
It wasn't the first time I had heard the pop of a gunshot but still, the sound meant the worst.
Then unholy laughter bubbled up- and Daniel with the truck jolts, in the same man who had commented on me, had loaded his mouth with the metallic hard on.
My head pounded before he pressed that trigger. I screamed but he couldn't hear.
Mom instantly came running towards me and hugged me tightly. She inspected me from head to toe and I blinked her in an assurance.
" Erica," Dad said in a cracked tone, "I was scared that they might have harmed you."
I directed him towards Daniel and he understood what I was trying to say.
"Do you want your sister to witness the murder then shoot him right now?"
"How dare he speak like that for my sister, about Erica-Wilson?" He yelled but pushed that man down.
" Take him in the basement, I will deal with him there," Daniel said and moved towards us.
"Where were you? Who allowed you to move outside alone?" he asked me.
I knew whatever they did, but Daniel & dad could go to any extent if it's about me. Even they would never hesitate to kill anyone for me, no matter who the other person was.
" Nobody will ask her anything now. Don't you see how scared she got after seeing this?" Dad scolded Daniel who was suspiciously eyeing me and the file in my hand.
"Mr. Wilson, he has finally arrived. Only he can help us now." Mr. Smith interrupted us.
Such a snake he was. Let me get proof I would ask him who was going to help him then?
" Don't forget it's two ways around. It's only us who can help him too. He is doing no favors but signing a lot of benefits."
He started moving inside and Daniel followed him too.
"I was so scared, never do this again." Mom caressed my head.
Just then somebody entered. There was a sound like a marble dropping on the floor- bouncing slowly and gradually getting faster as it dropped lowered and lowered.
The dim light was enough to reveal the person, or I should say the same man.
When my eyes met his gaze, they were piercing mine, and I could swear at that moment he sensed the fear in my eyes.
" What if he told everyone?" I whispered.
"But he has not seen my face, there was a scarf," I whispered back.
" Who has not seen your face and yes, where is your scarf?", mom said in a loud tone, gaining all the attention around.
That question made him stop in his tracks, "Where had you gone and what's in this file she asked?"
That time I realized I didn't need any enemy right now when my mom was doing their work perfectly.
I waited for him to exit but he never made one. He was still standing there waiting for my answer and eyeing that file with arrogance.
"I. I went with Lauren to her house for some project." I stuttered.
All of a sudden, she realized there was someone else present there and she apologetically said," I hadn't realized you were here, come inside everyone was waiting for you only."
He nodded and when I was about to follow mom, something came in my way, and I realized it was Daniel's gun, I bent down and picked it up.
Till then mom was nowhere to be seen but that man was standing right in front of me.
"The elegance of women remains untouched when they are at their house not then when they are roaming and snatching the files around the city." He said bluntly.
His voice was deep and gravelly dangerous.
" Now...now are we scared? "He said. I gulped down the saliva down my throat.
This time I was closely observing this man. It seemed he hadn't shaved recently, and he looked rumpled, dissolute but handsome.
He tried to cover one more step of the two that were between us. He was close, dangerously close. This was not right, nothing about him could be right.
I didn't know what came to my mind that I moved to stand just in front of him and pointed the gun directly at the middle of his chest.
" You know I wouldn't do that if I were you," He murmured, and then his oceanic blue eyes got wide open in amusement, "It's always unwise to shoot the man for whose help your father is in desperate need."
Just then I stepped back, I wanted to go, far away from him. He didn't seem good, he wasn't a good man. He was a deceiver disguised as a friend.
"And this does not belong to you sweetheart." and he reached for my hand in which I was holding the gun.
His proximity was enchanting, for a second he held my hand, his thumb moving over my knuckles.
That's when he took it to his mouth and kissed. I felt pleasurably crushed under the weight of his power, then he stepped back.
" Mr. Knight, Sir is waiting for you." Mr. Smith came there all of a sudden.
"Erica, your mom is calling you inside." He completed.
Before I moved from there, he whispered, " See you soon. I mean very soon."
I gave him a questioning look, and then he pointed towards the file, "You have something that ought to be mine, so take care of it & yours too." He winked and went away.
He went with nothing but with giving me the memory of his touch.
To be continued.....
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Till next time...
With love
Your writer
Purva Narang
