“Anthony? What was he doing there?,” asked Mike.

He couldn’t believe in his wildest dreams that Anthony would be related to any of this.

Then Akira took Mike inside the house, made him sit on the sofa and then narrated the whole incident which had happened in the parking lot. She didn’t tell all the details because she knew that her baby brother would flip out. So she just gave out a brief outline leaving all the gory details.

Mike couldn’t believe that Anthony could do such a thing. He never liked Anthony in the first place but after hearing what he had done today he literally loathed that scumbag. Given an opportunity probably he would have killed him. He was just thankful that Raymond came and saved his sister at the right time. He felt sorry for Raymond as he got caught in the middle of all this for no reason.

“Tomorrow morning let’s go and visit your boss at the hospital. I don’t know what would have had happened if he would not have come to the parking lot at the right time. I really owe him big time for saving you,” said Mike and a chill ran through his spine just by imagining what could have had happened. After losing his parents he only had Akira. She was everything for him. He hugged her tight and said softly,

“Promise that you will stay safe. Promise that you will always be there for me”.

Akira hugged him back tightly and ran her fingers through his hair and ruffled them up a bit and said,

“Always !!!”

After a moment Akira asked,

“Did you eat?”, she was worried because she had promised him that she would be back by 7 pm.

“Yeah, I made some instant noodles. Gosh Akira, I am not a kid. I know how to take care of myself. You better go and take rest now,” Mike said and pushed Akira inside her bedroom.

Akira came inside her bedroom and picked up her phone and started checking her WhatsApp messages. There were a couple of messages from Vikram which she had not even read yet.

“Hey, have you returned from office yet? Call me once you reach home.” – Vikram

“Are you that busy on Day1?” – Vikram

“Now this is unacceptable. I am not texting you back until you reply. Huh.” – Vikram

Akira read all the texts which had been sent by Vikram and felt bad for not replying to them on time. So she started texting him back immediately even though it was way past midnight.

“Sorry for such a delayed response. I got into some situation today. Trust me it was awful.” – Akira

“I am telling you the truth and I am not making any excuses here. Call me when you see these messages tomorrow morning. Good night for now”. – Akira

After finishing texting to Vikram, Akira locked her phone screen and got up from her bed to go the washroom to clean herself up. But before she could take even one step towards the washroom she saw that Vikram was calling on her phone.

“Hi, Vikram”.

“What happened? What situation are you talking about?”, asked Vikram impatiently.

“Well, you won’t believe what just happened today. Anthony came to my office in the evening. He was all high from alcohol I guess. As I didn’t go and meet him, he followed me to the parking lot and yielded a knife on my throat. Probably he was angry that broke up with him. I had no way to escape as he had pinned me down, but luckily my boss was also leaving for his house at the same time so he came to the parking lot a few minutes later. Thanks to my stars he was there and rescued me, but he got hurt himself while doing so”, Akira said and sighed.

Vikram’s body was on fire after hearing all this. There was so much rage building up inside him that probably he could kill Anthony with his bare hands.

“Did you sustain heavy injuries?”, he asked calming his own nerves.

“No, just a small cut here and there. My boss is hospitalized though”, Akira replied.

“Where is Anthony right now?”, Vikram asked.

“I am not sure, but I guess the security guys of my office have taken care of him. We did not have enough time to register a police complaint”, Akira said.

Vikram was a bit relaxed to hear that Anthony was still not out in the open.

“One day I leave you out of my vision, out of my eyes and look what happens”, Vikram murmured.

“Come on Vikram, I am fine now. Things like this do happen as we live in a society which is not safe anymore. Anyways sorry for troubling you so late. Now go to sleep ok? I am all fine”, Akira said to pacify Vikram.

“No, I am doing a video call. You expect me to believe when you said that it’s just a small cut?”, Vikram said with clear irritation reflecting in his voice.

“Ok just give me a minute. I need to change out from these clothes”, Akira said and rushed to the washroom. She didn’t want Vikram to freak out like Mike to see all the blood stain on her clothes.

10-15 minutes later when she was done, she made a video call to Vikram. He saw the wound on her neck and clenched his fists in anger. He didn’t say a word after that.

“See, I told you. It’s not that huge. Just a cut here and there,” Akira said craning her neck couple of times so that Vikram could relax. She could easily sense that he was all agitated after hearing everything.

“Does it hurt?”, Vikram asked.

“It does hurt. And do you know what will heal it up?”, asked Akira and made a baby face.

“What?”, Vikram asked.

“If Vikram can just relax and not be angry”, said Akira.

“This girl is just nuts”, thought Vikram in his head.

“Hmmm… you go to sleep it’s already quite late now”, Vikram said and disconnected the call.

—

Two minutes later a car wheeled out at top speed from Staten island towards Brooklyn to Delphie’s office. Obviously, Vikram couldn’t keep quiet after hearing what had happened to Akira. He couldn’t bear anyone touching a single strand of hair on Akira’s body and this guy had physically hurt her. The demons inside Vikram’s body had completely possessed him by now. He was converted into a raging wrecking ball of fire.

He made a couple more calls and by the time he arrived at the Delphi’s office, a lawyer was also ready with paperwork and footage from the security camera of the parking lot.

Anthony was still under the influence of alcohol and was locked up inside the security office. The moment Vikram saw the monster, he knew that this garbage needed immediate disposal.

He asked his lawyer to register a Police case against him and asked the security guys to take Anthony immediately to the nearby police station as they had ample evidence to lock him up for couple of years under the charges of a murder attempt.

Since the guy was not in his senses, Vikram had no way of asking him why he did anything like that in the first place. But then he thought there was no point of reasoning with this guy, so he requested the security guards and his lawyer to take him away as fast as possible.

But before anyone could pick up Anthony, they saw a sucker punch landing on Anthony’s face breaking his nose and disfiguring him completely. Before anyone could comprehend what had happened they heard Vikram saying,

“Now, that felt good”.