Nina stared outside the window.

More than two days had passed since she woke up in captivity.

She had barely slept since then for the fear of being attacked or killed. So far, no attempt was made. After her initial confrontation with the two men, she was left mostly alone. Only the older man came into the room to provide her with water and some snacks. He placed the tray on a small stool which was the only furniture in the room apart from the bed and a chair.

The old man had a kind voice. But how good could he be if he was abetting a crime to keep her captive while also slowly starving her? She kept asking him about why she was taken, but he continued to keep quiet.

Nina sat up straight when she heard the lock of the door turn. The old man brought in a bottle of water along with a small apple.

“Mrs. Bhupati,” he greeted, not meeting her eyes.

“I need to shower,” she told him. Her clothes smelled faintly of vomit.

The room she was kept in had no closets. There was just a window and an attached bathroom. And the bathroom was tiny with only a toilet and a sink. She had tried to clean up as much as possible in that little sink, but the smell of stale vomit didn’t leave her, and grime on her skin only seemed to grow.

The older man looked at her with guilt. “Until—” He broke off and cleared his throat. “Until our boss gets back, we have clear instructions not to allow you out of this room.”

“Who is your boss? Please tell me why I was kidnapped?” she repeated. But like always, he remained quiet.

“Please, ma’am, just cooperate with us. Don’t ask too many questions. I’m not—”

The door banged against the wall, cutting off whatever the old man was about to say. The other man whom she had barely seen since the last week strode in angrily.

“Is she giving you any trouble? Demanding more food?”

“No. She was just—”

“I requested for a bath,” Nina said quietly.

The younger man’s nostrils flared as he came closer to her. “You don’t get to make any demands here,” he hissed as an answer to her request.

“It’s not a demand. It’s a basic need. I feel filthy, and my clothes smell of vomit.”

“I don’t care if you smell of shit. You’ll remain in that state until I decide whether or not to allow you a shower.”

Nina knew the man wasn’t going to budge, but despite that, she forged on. She needed to forge on.

“I need to be clean. I can’t stay this way.”

“You will fucking stay how I tell you to!” he roared, wrapping his hand around her throat and pressing hard.

She struggled to get away, and her nails dug into his skin, drawing blood, but his grip did not loosen.

He kept squeezing until Nina began to see dark spots in her vision.

“Vikram! What do you think you are doing! Let her go!” The older man’s panic-laden voice shouted out the words while he tried to pry the man’s hands away from her throat.

However, the man kept at it.

Soon, Nina began to see a red haze, and darkness was threatening to take over completely.

“It’s better this way,” the man said. “Her death will accomplish much more than what her being alive would do.”

The older man tried to pry the hands away from her throat. “No. Stop!”

The pressure only got tighter.

“Let her go,” a deep, calm unfamiliar voice of a man instructed from somewhere.

This time, the hands around her throat began to loosen.

Nina began to cough while she tried to suck in air. She collapsed on her knees to the ground as weakness took over her limbs due to lack of oxygen. The dark spots in front of her eyes took a while to clear up.

Through her blurred vision, she saw the tall, broad shape of a man.

“Come with me,” the man instructed before turning and walking away from the doorway.

The younger man followed behind him, but the older man stayed with a worried look in his eyes.

“Are you okay, madam?” he asked.

Nina managed to nod. She coughed some more and took in deep breaths before asking him the one question that ran through her mind during the period of her captivity. “Will I be killed?” she asked in a raspy tone.

“No,” he said gently. “You won’t be killed. They won’t gain anything by it.”

“They are holding me for ransom then?”

Something flickered in the old man’s eyes. He simply nodded his answer.

Relief hit her so hard that she almost collapsed. “Thank you,” she said.

The old man nodded again and went out of the room. Nina could hear the sound of the lock after the door was shut.

Maybe it was relief, or maybe it was the past week’s lack of sleep catching up with her, but her eyes drooped, and she allowed the darkness to take over.