My dad would love to tell about Mom’s great victory at the court battle ( I do not call it that). But I will give you long story in short:- We went to the court, me and Oli gave the story, the judge had a few words with mom about the dead guy, mom insisted that I did it for self-defence, mom then gave proof, the judge regarded it to be original, he sentenced punishment. And. . . . . . . What else??

  After that life went pretty rapidly. Oh, I forgot to mention that story on me and Oli published on news, giving us a headache. How can I forget that Anik sir’s a reporter too? So anyway eventually everyone forgot the Incident except me and Oli who will have the memory in a dark corner of mind forever.

  So whatever, as I was telling you life went rapidly. Tests came, I passed. Then came the big brawny exam of Higher Secondary. With my luck, I passed that too. Well not that nicely but with enough marks to please my parents and teachers and to take psychology for B.Sc. However Oli with her brilliance scored a position in top 150 of the state. Did I mention Oli was the Topper in our school?

  My first year in college was somewhat uneventful – and that’s a lie. Most of the year was okay…. Eventless. But in the end of the year I had an experience you never would want to have, if you are a good person, ofcourse!

  Let me tell you what happened. It was a cool autumn night. Twinkling stars looked like distant flames flickering in the blowing wind. I was returning from my tuition classes, exhausted. For some reason that day, the streets were nearly empty. I was driving my scooter(mom’s scooter) slowly, letting the autumn wind to gust at my face and blow away my exhaustion. There was silence except for the sound of wind and scooter. I rounded an alley. It was narrow, and the only street lamp was flickering. After driving a few yards, a dark human silhouette stepped out of the corner, blocking my way. I screeched to a halt, just a few inches before hitting the man.

  -“ Whoa! What do you want, get hit by my scooter or send me behind the bars?” I snapped. The man stayed silent, developing a crooked grin I had a bad feeling about. In the dim light of the often flickering Street lamp I examined the man closely. He was dressed like a businessman. Black coat and pants, leather boots and a pork Pie hat. The hat was lowered in front of the face, so I couldn’t see his eyes. His angular features were more prominent because of his neatly shaved face.

  “Can you step away from my way?” I tried a calmer tone. Again silence. Urgh! This is frustrating. “ Are you deaf? Step out of the front of my scooter.” No response. I felt like yelling my words into his ears. But I doubted that would be useful. So I got out of my scooter to face him.

  -“ What do you want?” I demanded, without hoping to get an answer, but I got one. The answer came in a deep voice and the street light went out dramatically.

  -“ You.”

  -“ Sorry?” I blinked several times, more to process what he said than to adjust my eyes to the dark.

  -“ You are Tanisha Saha?”

  How does he know my name! And why he wants me? I wanted to ask so many questions, but went with a simple “ Yes. “

  His smile grew wider and more irritating. Did I mention that I don’t have much problem in seeing in the dark. My mom calls me Owl for that, not owl exactly, the hindi word for owl,’ Ulloo’, but let’s not get into that.

  -“ How do you know me?” I asked in a calm tone. He chuckled. A low rumbling sound that made the hair stand at the back of my neck.

  -“ Well, well, miss Tanisha Saha, for people of my line, it’s not very hard to know people like you.” He said.

  -“ What do you mean by ‘people like me’?”

  Much to my annoyance and irritation, he chuckled again, then clicked his tongue, then said, “such innocence… where will it go when offered money?”

  “Money?” Now my heart started pounding and my mind raced in top speed. What does he mean?!!!

  “Listen here, miss Saha, I’ve got an offer for you.” He said, his voice turning Mysteriously whispery.

  Offer! My stomach twisted into an uncomfortable knot just by thinking what it might be. Undoubtedly not something good. All of my Instincts screamed ‘DANGER!’. The first thought that surface in my mind was to punch this guy in the gut, take my scooter and get out of there as fast as possible. But I rejected it. This guy won’t be that easy to take down.

  The man lifted of a pair of briefcases I hadn’t noticed he was carrying.

  -“ Here, one of it has money to set you for life, and the other-“ He opened the briefcase in his right hand. Inside were rows and rows of sickly glistening ampules.

  I took in a sharp breath, then clapped my hand over my mouth to block the loud gasped forming in my throat, because the noise won’t be something he would like. And you don’t want to offend a man who has a briefcase full of drugs.

  He smirked at my reaction, " All you have to do is get this briefcase to a certain address. “

  When I didn’t respond, he said “ See miss Saha, you are very brave and talented girl. I have been looking for someone strong and brave like you for a long time. The article that published around a year ago about you made my search easier. I have kept watch on your friend too, but she won’t come of my use. But you will. You have far more potential than you realize. For the last whole year people of my line has searched for you, wanted to get you working with them. And here I am, first to reach out to you and make an offer. Come on miss Saha, join us, work with us and you won’t lack anything because you won’t lack money.” He held up the briefcases for me to accept.

  Does he think his Pep talks are going to make me feel all bloody inspired and join him? Gah! Just the thought of having a fat number of smugglers trying to recruit me in their gang made me want to throw up. All I wanted to do was get out of there and curl into a ball so no baddie can make me any weirdo offer. But I sooooo doubted that this man will take ‘No’ for an answer. The only option I had was to say ‘Yes’ which I definitely won’t, or to somehow tie him up and call for help. For that I have to keep calm and think in a cool mind.

  Calm…..

  Calm…..

  Calm….

  I chanted. First I have to get range since he was round 2 metres away from me. The only way to save myself was to beat him up. But if I advance suddenly he would probably pull out a gun and finish me off. These people always have guns. So I chose the most common way to buy time. I started talking. But even if I advance while talking, he would suspect. So first, I glanced at the bag of money longingly, to trick him into believing that he had manipulated me. A sneaky glance at his face confirmed that he fell for it. I stilled my nerves and took a casual step forward.

  -“ What potential do you see in me?” I inclined my head sideways and spoke as if he doesn’t intimidate me by any means.

  -“ Well your holding you own against armed men who outnumber you kind of speaks for itself. I have also heard you are an Under 16 India Champion in MMA.”

  I indeed am, but I broke my ribs and lost the Quarter Finals of the International Tournament. Therefore, for me it doesn’t count.

  “I have also realized by keeping watch on you that you have a way with words. But above everything, you have got so much strength and martial arts are always useful, so have I heard.”

  To know he had kept a watch on me for who knows how long, made my stomach churn in uneasiness. But dare I show any sign of what was going on my mind.

  I glanced at the bag of money again, “How much is in there?” I took two more steps forward. One more to go, and I get my range.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “More than enough.”

  Suddenly, I noticed something off. His eyes weren’t as white as they should look. It was hard to understand in the dark, but I believed I saw a reddish tint in his eyes. The air was smelling a little funny too. If I was right, he was drunk. God! Great. That would make his senses less sharp, and it would be easier to trick him.

  I took another step forward, smiling the sweetest smile I could master. “You know, you’re way too handsome for a man who deals with this kind of stuff.” I said sweetly and casually took another step. The closer, the better.

  He threw back his head laughed. I seized the chance and planted my knee in his stomach. His head snapped forward, the hat fell off, revealing a bald head and his body doubled up. The briefcases dropped on the ground and the ampules shattered. I caught his right arm, then shoved my finger into his eyes. Blood oozed out and he screamed an unearthly sound. And how much time did it took for the man’s life to get destroyed? Mere 5 seconds. Ha!

  I jerked and twisted his arm, his body bent and turned so that I was facing his back. I held his arm tightly in his back and pulled harder, making his agonised screams louder.

  “One thing you are right about is that, Martial arts are always useful, especially when destroying lives like you.” I whispered in his ear. I wanted to say more, but was interrupted by a loud, high pitched noise overlapping the man’s screams, and then something whistled past my ear.

  Bullets!!!

  I turned around, still holding the screaming Mafia in front of me. Two men stood there with guns held in position.

  Of course he had backup! I mentally face palmed myself. Today is my last day I thought, but then I change my decision. No, won’t give up so easily. I can’t die now. If I die, I can’t become a professional martial artist.

  No Nyssa, you can’t die, I chided myself.

  My hand reached into my pocket,( and yes, I always wear pants with pockets),where I kept the weapon I have started carrying shortly after the encounter with the goons. With a flash of silver, my sharp, jagged knife was placed firmly before his throat. I pressed the cold blade against his skin. He let out a terrified yelp but stilled abruptly.

  I examined the men in front of me. They were dressed in black so they camouflaged fine in the dark. If not for my super good vision, I couldn’t have located them.

  “One single movement, and your man is dead.” I threatened his body guards, or that’s what I assumed they were. “And by that I mean even the movement of your fingers.” I added to the guard in left, whose fingers were kind of clutching the gun and trigger tightly.

  I tried to figure out an escape plan. Think Nyssa, think. Urgh, this is hard. All of my concentration was focused on the guards. I needed to think harder, but for that I had to remove my focus from the danger at hand, which I definitely won’t. How good it would have been if they had a sudden heart attack?

  But that only happened in Fantasy stories. The real world isn’t so easy.

  One of the bodyguards spoke up in a gruff tone, “ Let Boss go.” He took a step forward.

  “No movement, stay where you are.” I said, pressing the knife harder, trying my very best to keep my voice steady. In the cool November night, I was sweating profusely. My eyes fixed on those armed men in front of me.

  Stress was overtaking my ability to think. These two I can see. But what if there are more hiding, someone who will just shoot me from behind.

  At that moment I felt certain of my death. And it is commonly said that when we are face to face with death, our wits simply close off, and an unearthly carelessness hijack our brain.

  “If you move, he is dead, I will not hesitate to slit his throat and also slit yours following that, and..” I spoke with a voice lased with madness. I pushed the man forward. Though I had adjusted the knife so it wouldn’t cut the throat, still, it pricked a little, a thin trickle of blood flowed down his dark skin. A intriguing sight indeed. The bodyguards took a moment to notice, and BOOM! BOOM!

  Two shots were fired.

  I am smaller, easily hiding behind the mafia man, making him my human shield.

  But the gunshots went so closeby, I heart started to harrumph in my ringing ears. It felt as though they will not hesitate to shoot at their boss in order to shoot me.

  If I slit this man’s throat, they will kill me.

  If I don’t kill this man, they will also kill me. They are much more capable than me to fear my empty threats.

  Is there any way get out of this?

  With every thought, my knees seemed to get weaker.

  I did not dare take my eyes off.

  The guard took another step forward. I shouted the same threat again.

  This went on in a loop, until they were dangerously close.

  But by now someone should have shot me from behind.

  Does that mean they were the only ones?

  That thought rekindled my dying hope. Though armed with guns, two are still manageable if I could use my wits and be fast enough. Can’t I?

  Or atleast I will die trying.

  I repeated my old strategy, start talking, blabbering, whatever. Just keep them engaged.

  “I have poked both his eyes out.” I started “What use to you is he now?” in the meantime, I released the man’s wrist I was twisting at his back. He did not dare move, cause the knife was pressed hard on his throat. “Why don’t you leave him be.” I slowly eased my hand into my pocket, making sure all the movement was hidden behind the large frame of this mafia.

  “He is our boss.” One said gruffly.

  “Come on now think about it.” My hands groped my mobile phone; I pressed the on button hard. It sends a distress signal. “Lalbazar is a stone throw away. Police regularly patrol around here.” Subtly looking around, I searched for anything to hide behind, anything that can take a shower of bullets. And close by. “You never know when a patrolling car steps out of nowhere.”

  There it is. A large tree just beside the street lamp. But around 15 meter away. How will I reach it?

  “See, let’s make a deal. Your Boss is sorta useless now, and how far are you gonna get with a screaming, grunting, bloody blind Boss? Lets just be real. If you kill me, and run off with your little man here, police will surely come looking after you, I am but well connected.” Nyssa, think. Think fast. Be fast. Somehow you need to reach that tree, hide behind it, make a call.

  “But if you just leave me, I will call the police, get this man behind the bars, and you two and all your other gang members can run off easily. Who will come after mere sidekicks after police had gotten the leader?”

  One snorted, and the other looked confused. YESSS! This is my chance.

  No more time to think. Act.

  I pulled back my knife from the mafia’s throat, and used my elbow to plant a hard thrust on the back of his neck. He fell down and I crouched along with him.

  I heard a gun shot just over my head.

  Heart thumping, brain whirring, I threw my knife. Without bothering to look where it landed, I sprinted 10 meters in the most zigzag way, bullets flying in my direction. I seemed to hear a yell of pain, was not sure whether it came from myself only. I dropped to the ground in a thump, and rolled my body towards the tree.

  The rolling messed with my sense of direction. But to stop and see if my progression was in my desired direction was not an option when gunshots were being fired towards you.

  After 5 seconds of rolling in the topmost speed my untrained ass could muster, I caught a brownish mass in my peripheral vision. My heart leaped. I reached it.

  At that moment I thanked my years of martial arts training so much that I had never thanked before. The agility it has given me was my only friend at the moment. I quickly got to my feet, still crouching and jumped behind the large tree trunk, and sat down with my back to it.

  I was unarmed, I could not think that they will not come to shoot me at the back of the tree. Life was not a cinema. Where you hid behind a tree or a broken car, and goons do not advance. Therefore, I had very little time before they came up and shot my head.

  With fumbling hands I took out my phone and quickly dialled Kunalda.

  Cringgg… cringg…  quick Kunalda quick.

  As the phone connected, I took a little peek from behind the tree. One of them was clutching his shoulder, my blade glistening in between, the gun was on the ground. The other guy fired a shot seeing me peeping out. At that moment Kunalda picked up the call.

  “What was that sound?” he called out.

  “HELP ME!” I whisper screamed at the phone.

  Something warm was trickling down my neck. I tried to wipe the sweat I thought it was,as Kunalda bombarded me with questions, only to see my hand coming out red.

  Blood! My ear! Nicked!

  My elbow was also burning. “Don’t have time to give details. In very huge problem. Send help ASAP!” I said and ended the call; my concentration was not to be directed at anything other than the danger at hand.

  If my counting is correct, a total of 7 bullets were fired. The last four from the same gun. One guy was struck with my knife.

  I really hope the guns are revolvers not pistols. A revolver carries 6 bullets, and takes forever to reload. That vague hope is my only chance of survival.

  I heard footsteps, and then he was there. Beside the tree. straight in front of my eye. He raised his gun, and I jumped to the other side of the tree trunk barely missing the bullet he fired at me. It grazed my leg, flaring a burning pain from there.

  The injured one was recovering.

  NO TIME!

  I got to my feet and sprinted towards the injured guard 10 meters away.

  Jumped up and planted my foot on his head; the impact had him fall to the ground. I yanked out my knife and stabbed his leg. That would immobilise him.

  I looked at the gun, revolver! The other guy was advancing towards me, not firing. The math was simple.

  And the math gave me confidence.

  Lalbazaar police station is 2 km away. It will take approx. 5 to 7 minutes for them to reach. I am on my own till then.

  I kicked the gun further away. It skittered towards the scooter.

  Rule no 2 of survival: don’t take up a weapon you don’t know how to use. Figuring it out will only slow you down.

  The surviving guard was advancing towards me slowly.

  I took in his each move, and he took in mine. This one is smart.

  Not smart enough to not use up all his ammunition.

  He was closing. 5 meters…. 4meters… 3…

  And then he whirled about and took towards the scooter.

  And I took off after him. With the help of my agile body, I reached before he did, kicked the gun into the road side bush and picked up one fallen brief case.

  Rule no 1 of survival: use everything at hand as a weapon.

  With one briefcase in my hand and shattered ampules beneath my shoes, I was about to turn around and smash it over his head.

  But too late. He was on me.

  I felt a sharp stab of pain on my shoulder as he hit me with the metal butt of his gun. My vision turned blurry and blackish, and before I knew it, I was on the ground, glass shards pricking my back.

  A hard punch was landed on my jaw. Then a slap. At the third punch, I managed to bring up my hand and block it.

  The effort made me press harder to the ground.

  Oww.. The glass shards… my back.. it hurt.. can’t think… too much pain… too… much… sand.. my scratched elbow…. uhhh.. burning… too.. too hard… can’t… can’t……

  NO I CAN! I HAVE TO.

  With all the strength I had left, jerked my body, and threw him off.

  He landed beside the scooty, and the scooty toppled over him, crushing him underneath.

  I stood up, more glass shards pierced my palm as I did, but there was no time to care.

  I knee kicked his sternum, and kicked away the gun.

  And that’s when I heard it.

  The siren.

  The opening of car doors.

  Heavy boots landing.

  Kunalda… finally… ufff… safe..

  My legs gave out, as I faintly heard Kunalda shout, “Hands up!”

  A little smirk played along my lips. Who will put up hands? I took them all down. All are unconscious.

  Wait... I have a bloody knife… It looks bad… soo bad….. I thought as I lost consciousness.

  **************

  I woke up in a hospital bed. My mom, teary eyed, sitting beside the bed. Himadi at the bed post. Kunalda rushed in as I gained consciousness.

  Then doctor came. Came the nurse. They all collectively fussed with me for an hour. Then they put me to sleep again.

  The next morning when I woke up, my head hurt badly. My shoulder was nearly numb, throbbing with a dull ache. And my back hurt the most. It burned in more places than I could count. Even my hand was bandaged.

  They fed me. Helped me with toiletries. Then everyone, including my reluctant parents were ushered out of the cabin.

  Then walked in Kunalda. Himadi. And two more officers.

  “You are impossible.” Were the first words from Kunalda.

  “Do you know who he was?”

  “Definitely not an NGO owner.” I croaked.

  “Ah! Nyssa! This is formal.” Himadi chided.

  “Mark Oberoy.” Kunalda said. “Biggest drug mafia in north east India.”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  “We have been trying to catch him for the last 2 months. And you just simply poked his eyeballs out. I am not even sure whether to thank you or scold you for always attracting the most impossible troubles.”

  I smiled faintly. “Just take my recorder. I am still processing everything. I don’t want to talk about it.”