There was dirt and filth everywhere despite trying to clean the place as much as possible. Not even a little bit of space was left for her to be able to sit and rest her starving, weak body. Considering she was only ten and not very big, it should have been an easy task.

Inside the abandoned hut, there was only one rickety cot where her younger sister’s body lay. She had been dead for the past twelve hours. The cause was hunger. The school had been closed for the holidays, shutting their only source of nourishment.

Despite Nina and Devi sacrificing their share of food, they were not able to gather enough for Uma. Their younger sister’s seven-year-old body could not tolerate extreme starvation and had given up.

Nina sat listlessly on the floor, next to the cot. She was tired, hungry, and filthy. She tried to rest her body against the cot and close her eyes.

As soon as she did, she felt the crawling. The maggots from her sister’s dead body mistook her own starving, filthy, and emancipated body to be dead as well.

Nina began screaming as they completely covered her flesh and tore into it.

 

Nina woke up with a jolt. She began to frantically brush her hands all over her body. It took several moments for the feeling of something crawling all over on her skin to subside.

She lay still on the bed, keeping her eyes focused on the window from where the sunlight was streaming into the small yet clean room.

She sighed softly in relief that she wasn’t dead, and the maggots hadn’t gotten her flesh.

It was another dream. No, not a dream. She was having another nightmare. At least it wasn’t the other nightmare. This particular one was rarer, and it was most likely triggered by hunger and near starvation.

She hadn’t been given anything to eat since the previous day. And before she could get to the food, she was attacked and choked.

Suddenly, the hair on her neck stood up as she felt a presence in the room. She whipped her head around, and her heart which had been pounding hard due to the nightmare, picked up even more, threatening to beat out of her chest.

A masked man was standing at a distance from the bed, watching her.

How long has he been watching me?

She lay completely still as she stared back at him. A part of her questioned whether her current reality was better than her nightmare.

She took in the details of the man.

He was dressed entirely in black. The fabric of his t-shirt stretched tight across his broad shoulders and biceps as he stood with folded hands.

She hadn’t seen him before. The only people she had seen in the last one week were the old man and the man named Vikram.

She then recalled that while Vikram was strangling her, a commanding voice had ordered him to stop. The voice must have belonged to this man.

Nina’s breath hitched when the man began to walk towards her. She kept her eyes riveted on his masked face while she continued to stay completely still.

As he neared, a faint smell of a subtle cologne or soap filled her nostrils. A small frown formed on her forehead as a memory crossed her mind.

“It was you,” she said. “You were the one who took me.” The tall and broad shape looked familiar.

At her statement, the man’s pace remained unchanged.

“Even though I wasn’t able to see your face completely, I know it was you who was near the building while I distributed the food packages.”

At that time, the upper part of his face had been covered in a hood. But she knew that if she were to rip off his mask now, she would see a strong chin covered by heavy stubble. 

“I know you kidnapped me for a ransom? How much do you want?” she asked.

He didn’t answer her. He kept watching her.

He let the suffocating silence stretch for some time, until his lips firmed. “Shower. Next room. Fifteen minutes.” He said those words curtly before turning and walking out of the room.

Nina sat still for a few seconds, trying to process what he meant. Then, immediately she got up and followed behind him. He went up the stairs, leaving the door of her room open.

Cautiously, she stepped out, and instead of following him up the stairs, she went towards the next room as he instructed. The door to that room was open as well. She saw another smaller door inside and knew it was a bathroom. Crossing her fingers, she went towards it and opened it.

Her heart jumped in relief when she saw a tap with a bucket and a mug under it.

She probably had very little time before someone comes looking for her. Quickly locking the door to the bathroom, she looked around.

She searched every nook and corner. She flung open the only drawer, desperate to find something. But there was nothing substantial. No shaving blades or razors or even a nail file to be used as a weapon. Everything was empty.

Didn’t these men use the bathroom?

Her eyes fell on the mirror. She could break the mirror and use the pieces as a weapon, but it would be too obvious.

Sighing in disappointment, she picked up an unused soap and shampoo bottle placed on the counter. It was the generic commercial brand, unlike the hand-made organic ones she had been used to over the last ten years since she shared the bathroom with Suraj. As long as her body didn’t smell of vomit, she didn’t care if the harshest of chemicals were used to make the soap.

She turned on the tap. The water was room temperature and had a strange smell to it. The water was slightly brown in color as well. She washed her hair twice and scrubbed her body, until all the grime and smell of the stale vomit was completely gone.

And when she was done, she searched for a cloth to dry herself. Her eyes fell on a fluffy pink towel with red embroidery work. It looked so completely out of place that she stared at it for a few moments.

There were three people in the house apart from her. And she didn’t think any of the three men she had met so far would select that particular towel.

Slowly, she took in the rest of the tiny bathroom. She had been in too much of a hurry to find a weapon and then clean herself up to have observed it in detail. But now, she took in small details like the carved soap holder, and the pattern of the mirror on the sink gave her the insight that a woman must have been involved in selecting or setting up the bathroom.

But who? Were any of her captors married? Or may be a female relative or girlfriend visited the place often.

Nina’s heart beat faster in the hope of getting help from someone. She knew there wasn’t any guarantee that just because another woman visited the cabin, the woman would be willing to help. But still, Nina clung to that small hope.

Drying her body with the towel, she stared at her discarded clothes. A thin cotton slip with underwear and a bra. There was no way she could wear them back right then. She took them to the small sink and washed them thoroughly before hanging them on the towel stand to dry.

Was it stupid on her part to step out of the bathroom in just a towel? But if any of the men had intentions of molesting her, they would have already done so by now, especially when she was unconscious.

With that thought in mind, she cautiously opened the door. When she pushed it wider, her eyes fell on the open shelves which had several shirts and pants that were neatly folded and placed inside.

She went there quickly and grabbed a shirt and a pair of pants.

They were too large, but she couldn’t afford to be picky, and so she hurriedly donned the clothes. She rolled the sleeves and folded the bottom of the pants.

Once she was properly dressed, she looked around the room. It was as bare and devoid of anything to be used as a weapon like the one she was held captive in. This room wasn’t that much bigger than hers either. The difference was that it had a bathroom with a shower.

But the bathroom floor had been completely dry, and there was no used soap. Maybe there was another bathroom, too.

Less than a minute later, she found her answer when she looked out of the window on the side wall.

There was a breathtaking view of a lake at a distance, and it was surrounded by the tall trees of the forest. She could see a few clothes hanging near the bushes next to it.

Nina’s fingers trembled as she placed her palm against the window pane. She was making sure it was real and not a picture or a mirage her mind imagined.

Where exactly was she? She had been trying to guess it for the last one week, but all she saw from the room she was held in were the endless trees.

This picturesque lake looked unique. She tucked the image away in her mind to be able to provide to the police at some point.

Reluctantly, she turned away from the view and looked at the room she stood in.

She stood uncertainly, wondering whether or not she should get back to her room or go out. And if she went out, whether or not it was even advisable to do so.

No. I cannot be passive, waiting like a sitting duck for whatever fate had in store for me.

Her stomach growled, deciding it further. She hadn’t eaten well in the past week because they hadn’t given her a big enough portion. In order to stay alert and clear-minded, she needed every bit of strength and nutrition to face whatever came her way.

With that thought, she opened the door.

She hoped that the older man would see her first. She walked through a short, narrow hallway and saw stairs at the end. As soon as she reached the top of the stairs,  she saw the old man in the kitchen. Before relief could hit her, her heart jumped when her eyes met with the other man in the room.

Her captor.

He was seated in one of the chairs in a small dining nook attached to the kitchen. And watching her.

The look in his eyes as he swept them over her body almost had her running back to the basement. But bracing herself, she slowly walked to the dining table and sat in a chair opposite to him.

“Where are your clothes?” he asked quietly.

“Drying.”

He was silent.

“Have you reached out to my husband?” she asked.

She thought he wouldn’t answer, but he did. “Not yet,” he said in a curt tone.

She wanted to ask him why, but self-preservation demanded that she not question him right then. “How long will I be kept here?” she asked instead.

“As long as it takes.”