Into The Shadows by Aayush Borulkar (smart ebook reader txt) 📗

away from the car. But Avinash could not hear or make out anything from her actions. Now she had no other option but to jump out of the car. She swiftly made her way to the driver’s seat as the truck was bolting towards their car. She managed to get into the driver’s seat and opened the door, and jumped for her life as the truck came rushing and rammed into the car. SMASH!!

Erika jumped out just in time and rolled on the ground, and hit a milestone. Avinash came running towards Erika. By then, the truck driver had done the job and sped off. The car had also rammed into a tree and was completely destroyed.

Erika lay there in the lap of Avinash, blood gushing through her forehead and nose.

“What a cliché act to pull off,” murmured Erika as her eyes rolled and she fell unconscious.

Chapter 15

“Erika! Erika”

“Baba! I can hear you! Where are you!?” screamed out, Erika as she was sitting on her bed. She got out of her bed and stood up. She was in a room similar to her room with beige paint, a silver coloured fan, and pink curtains flying inwards due to the wind. But except there was no door or windows to this room. Instead, there were just open spaces in those places. As she was shouting, she suddenly felt her feet getting wet. So she looked down and saw that her feet were in ankle-deep water. So she tried to jump out of it but failed because water had filled the whole space.

“Erika! Erika!”

She suddenly realized that she had been here before. This was not her first time in this place. She was familiar with this pitch darkness and this voice that was calling her name.

On hearing the shouts again, Erika started walking towards the direction of the voice, splashing her way through the water. She could feel that she had done all of this before, and it felt like a Deja Vu. But as she was getting closer to the origin of the voice, the voice’s direction would change. So she changed her direction. But this time, she knew precisely where she had to look, and she turned. As she turned towards the voice, she saw a tall man standing at the entrance where the door should have been. He had chains tied to his hands and legs and was a little hunched, due to the weight of the iron chains. He raised his hands a little and called out, “Come, Erika. Come”. This time Erika was a bit hesitant in moving towards the man as she could remember how it did not turn out well for her, the last time.

“Biscuit, come to daddy. We will go somewhere safe and away from all of this,” the man said.

Erika couldn’t control running and hugging her father, so she started to walk towards him. As she reached him, he took her face in his palms.

“Here you are. You have turned into such a fine woman now,” he said. “Come on, we will go away, away from all of this chaos. You are too naïve for this cruel world Erika. You are not cut out for this”

“Daddy, I am!”

“Oh no, you are not, little dumpling,” he said with a smile. “You are still naïve enough to be so sure that you could find answers to all the problems. You just won’t be able to, because of your incompetency. You are too weak to survive. You are a little kid. Come to daddy,” the man raised his voice while tightening the grip on her face.

“It’s hurting!” cried out Erika as her face started to turn pale due to the tight grip.

“You will get what you deserve, dumpling,” said the man tightening his grip more.

“Daddy!! Noo. It’s hurting. Leave me!!”

“Daddy!!”

“PUSH HIM AWAY ERIKA,” called out a voice from the dark. “Push him away!”

Both the man and Erika looked in the direction of the voice. Slowly the figure came closer and became clearer.

“Richa!?” exclaimed Erika.

“Erika, it’s high time you stop giving into your insecurities and guilt. This man is not your father,” said Richa stretching her abnormally long arms. Erika couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Let it not overpower you and engulf you.”

“Dumpling, I am your father. Are you going to leave your daddy?”

“No, he is not your daddy!”

“Dumpling,” called out the man again.

“No Erika, don’t fall prey to this again.”

“Dumpling!”

Erika was confused about what to believe and what not to, as both of them were calling her out and the decibel of their voices kept on increasing with every passing second. She closed her eyes as she couldn’t bear the chaos. Then she suddenly opened her eyes and started walking towards Richa.

“You are going nowhere!” exclaimed the man and pushed Erika.

“Dad! No!!” she exclaimed as she fell into a void, a never-ending void. She kept on falling deeper, the figures of the man and Richa becoming hazy and their voices dampening, as she continued sliding further into the void.

“Help! Help!” she cried out as she kept on falling into that never-ending void.

“Erika! Erika wake up,” shouted Avinash.

As she opened her eyes slowly, she saw a blurry image of Avinash bending over her. She woke up all of a sudden startled. She felt a heavy spin in her head as she sat up hurriedly.

“Oh, take it easy now,” said Avinash helping her up. “You have just escaped death. So I guess, you need to relax now.”

“All I remember is jumping out of the car,” she said, holding her head.

“You jumped, and the truck crashed into the car. You have a head injury,” said Avinash. “You have been unconscious since the past 12 hours, I guess.”

“The key chain?” Erika asked hastily.

“The doctor said you are out of danger. So we brought you home. And yeah, the key chain is safe with me,” said Avinash, showing her the keychain.

Erika was still feeling dizzy as she held her head in her hands, closing her eyes.

“I was about to inform