An Upgraded Soul

Aditya remembered how this woman had dislocated both the arms of a person, he started regretting holding her. It would have been fine if he just walked after making sure she was safe. He should have just called 100 (like 911 in the US). But, there was no way to 'undo' his deeds. So, Aditya braced himself as he said, "Elder sister, I found a dead body and noticed that you were injured, so I thought of giving you a hand and get you to the nearest medical care facility.

Taarini looked at Aditya with dubious eyes as she asked, "If so, why are you covering your face?" her tone was getting colder by the second.

"Of course, its because I don't want to be associated with a murder. Although I want to help you, I can't risk revealing my identity." Aditya spoke trying to stay as calm as possible. He did not want to reveal that it was he who had scared the other guys away as it was too eye-catching. He did not have any idea of 'advertising' his skills especially facing 'those' people. After speaking, Aditya released the woman because he wanted to leave her as soon as possible, he did not want to stay here any more. His objective of saving her has been achieved, he did not feel the need for him to stay here with her and chat the meaning of life.

But, when Aditya released her Taarini staggered violently and almost fell down before Aditya caught her again. Aditya rolled his eyes thinking, 'why did this woman have to scare me with that tone, I thought she had recovered'

Taarini had not imagined that this fellow would leave her when she spoke just a few words. She did not know that her words had scared the hell out of Aditya. She had been used to speak in this way to survive in the underworld.

Aditya found that Taarini was looking at the dead body with unblinking eyes as grief flashed in her eyes, but it was only temporary as she looked at Aditya and asked, "Do you have a mobile?"

Aditya took his mobile out asking, "should I call an ambulance for you, you seem to need medical assistance."

Taarini shook her head as she snatched his mobile and dialled a number. Aditya really wanted to slam his head against a wall, if he wanted to maintain anonymity, why did he allow her to use his phone? wouldn't it make it easier for her to track him down? Aditya turned his head to notice a cunning ray in Taarini's eyes as her mouth curved into a slight grin. He knew that he had fallen in her trap.

But suddenly Aditya thought of a possibility if 'those' guys wanted to erase all of his parents' digital files, he was sure his mobile phone information should also have been tampered with. He was sure Taarini would not be able to find him through this number. He sighed in relief as he thought that it was second time today that he thanked 'that' organization.

Aditya held Taarini and walked towards a pile of cement bags, he helped her to sit there. He planned to leave her as he did not want to stay with her anymore. Taarini sniffed near Aditya as he helped her sit as asked, "Do you have a smoke?"

Aditya nodded and passed her his cigarette pack as well as a lighter. He said, "Since your people are coming for you, I will take my leave."

When Taarini saw that Aditya wanted to leave, she asked, "Who are you?" she really wanted to find out what happened after she got hit by Rana, she could only remember cries of pain and curse words. She knew she was rescued otherwise she was even scared to think of her situation, she knew for sure that she would have committed suicide if Flame Tiger had done anything to her. So, she had to know who it was that saved her and the only link was this person in front of her.

Aditya shook his head as he said, "I am a nobody. Just go on with your life as if nothing had happened today. I don't want to see you trying to find me or trying to contact me." he turned and walked decisively into the darkness.

Taarini looked intently at the disappearing figure of Aditya with a small smile on her face. She laughed in a ridiculing manner as she muttered, "You really think the underworld is something that you can come and go like it's your family's backyard. When you are seeing the Abyss, the Abyss is also seeing you. Even if I leave you, you think the others would."

"If it was that easy to withdraw from this field, why would I be still here?" Taarini laughed self-deprecatingly as she looked at the dead body of Raju, as tears slowly started rolling down her eyes. She lit a cigarette and smoked calmly looking at the direction Aditya had disappeared.

After some time, a metallic black Hummer H3 skidded to a halt in front of the construction site. Dust rose in all directions, as some figures darted out of the car towards inside. When these figures came in front of Taarini, they found her smoking calmly, she had regained her icy demeanour, no teardrops could be found on her face. Some of the men let out gasps as they found the lying body.

Taarini looked at a burly figure who was in the front, he was 2.2 meters tall with bear shoulder and big muscular physique. She ordered, "Satya, carry Raju." then she turned towards the lead figure who was six ft in height and possessed a fit body though he appeared dwarfed in front Satya, she said, "Munna, then game rules of Bangalore's underworld have changed overnight, I want to know what happened these past few days which we seemed to have missed."

"I want all our arsenal dugout tonight, it's going to be chaotic from now on. Those f**ckers started this, they can't blame us for being ruthless anymore, I want all the properties of that Flame tiger in east Bangalore pounded tomorrow. I want to at least ten people to accompany Raju." Taarini spoke calmly as if it's not a big deal as she smoked.

"Let's go to Raju's family" Taarini tossed the cigarette bud away as she got up and walked steadily towards the cars. All the men who came only nodded their heads and followed her in quick strides. No questions about what happened here or how Taarini was alright were not asked. In the Underworld, people lose their lives just for being curious.

When all the cars had dashed away from this construction site, a figure slowly walked out from the shadows. Aditya watched calmly at the leaving cars as he sighed and turned towards his home to pick his bag from his home. He did not want to spend the night in that house where his parents were no longer present.

When Aditya reached the crossroad where he had met Bunny in the morning. He turned and looked at a closed flower bouquet shop. Its front shutter was covered in dust. Aditya felt grief at the sight as this shop was his mother's hard work. Not only this, his mother had a total of five flower bouquet shops in Bangalore which she had built from the start.

After his mother had married his father against the wishes of her family, his mother and father had to depend on themselves. His father was a science freak which was not exactly a profession where you could earn a lot. In turn, this profession drained a lot of his father's energy and time so he couldn't have other earning options.

Though his mother's family did not leave anything for her, the high-quality education and foresight she had acquired due to being brought up in an affluent family, stayed with her. So his mother could start from scratch and become a successful entrepreneur. Aditya still remembered accompanying his mother as she designed bouquets with many colours which he found fascinating. Since then, Aditya always liked diverse colours.

He had accompanied his mother to go the Lalbagh flower show which displayed hundreds of thousands of red roses, orange roses. They would buy some flowers and sapling on sale there every year. Due to his mother's dedication and perseverance, her business became successful and their family's financial situation became better and better. He remembered that his mother had said that she was having talks with a start-up company to start home delivery system. But all these efforts of his mother were taken away from her in a single day.

Aditya didn't find any mention of this in his mother's letters as if she didn't get affected by this. He knew that his mother did not have the habit of sharing her pains, she would only share her happiness with him. Aditya clenched his fists as he vowed that he would get back these shops and their home at any cost.

"Big brother, we shouldn't do this." a timid imm.a.t.u.r.e male voice spoke waking Aditya from his thoughts as he looked at the two teens who were around his age walking out of a wine shop.

"little pig, you don't know, I had my first break up, if I can't start drinking now, how can people know my sincerity. If I was alright and was roaming around happy, won't people think that there was no profoundness in my love." another aggressive teenager's voice was heard suppressing the first voice.

Aditya almost laughed at these words as he turned to see who was such a 'sincere' lover, he was shocked when he found that the speaker was known to him. Not only did he know him, but he was also his best buddy when he was studying tenth grade in a school which followed the national curriculum.

"But Big brother, you have to turn 18 before you can drink." the first one who was unknown to Aditya spoke up apprehensively.

"Did the shopkeeper ask us our age when we bought this beer, why are you getting so worked up?" the second one whom Aditya recognized spoke confidently.

"But I remember that you said that you didn't love her, it was all an act." the first one spoke

"You know that I know that but others need to think that mine was true love."

"Big brother, why did she leave you."

"that gold digger found a better person than me who was also richer than me, it seems."

"Who is it? Your classmate?"

"No, she caught him on Facebook."

"Oh."

"But don't worry. She will suffer because of her shortsightedness."

"Why, Big brother?"

"Because the better, richer guy on Facebook is just my fake account, serves her right, mwahaha."

"Big brother, you are very intelligent."

"I know, right."

Aditya had smacked his hand to his forehead when he heard these words, this white buffalo had not changed a bit. This idiot successfully became his own love rival and lost his girlfriend to himself. Now, he wants to drink alcohol to prove that he is distraught because his girlfriend had left him when the main culprit was himself.

"White Buffalo, you haven't changed," Aditya called him as he walked towards them.

"Hey, who has the gall to call me by this name, only 'Playboy Adi' has the right to call me such."

"..."