2 hours before the release of the video
04-12-2019, 19:57:00
A quiet, uneventful neighbourhood in suburban Bangalore.
Mitra was walking through a dark alleyway, tired and hungry after a long day at office. Earphones plugged into her phone, she set up a full blast of pop music as she treaded along wearily, slowly. The streetlights were dim and the black night was setting in coldly. Winter winds blew around in loud whispers.
The houses along the alleyway were cluttered, most of them high-walled buildings, and there was not a single person looking out of the windows. With winter setting in heavily and the nights turning colder, people had closed and locked their windows and veranda doors. Stray dogs moved around, barking occasionally, recognizing the girl they saw everyday walking past them.
Two streets more to cross and she would be home: a single room penthouse on the rooftop of a crammed apartment complex. A few more steps and she would reach the small convenience store. Maybe she could buy herself some snacks for her midnight cravings.
The music silenced the sound of a man approaching from behind. The dim streetlights didn't spike the intensity of his shadow. The laidback and tired girl didn't look back at the nearing danger. A young man in a black jacket walked behind the girl, inching closer to her with every step.
A stone rolled down the slope of the road, past Mitra. A moment later a hand shot out from behind her. Before the hand could grasp her into captivity in strong arms, she retaliated. She manoeuvred, escaping from the hands that tried to catch her and turned back to face him, bringing forward a can of pepper spray and attacking him with a long spray of the defending solution.
The dimness on the road, the thick winter air and the fog of pepper, all spun into a confusing sight. What Mitra couldn't see from her disadvantaged point of standing on the road was that the man had closed his eyes, blocked his nose with his muffler and tried to blow away the sprayed mist with his hands waving ferociously around. Mitra assumed he was subdued and kicked him in the ribs, throwing him across the road.
She didn't stop there. She didn't run away. She didn't care that she had time to escape. She wanted to get the man who attacked her. She launched a couple of kicks into the fallen man's ribs with intensity, making sure that the pain weakened him. When she tried to kick him a third time, the man grabbed her leg and pulled it, crashing her onto the ground.
And the fight began. Punches were thrown, kicks were landed across and they rolled around on the ground trying to overpower each other. There was a difference in their attack stances. While Mitra fought offensively to incapacitate her opponent, the man simply defended himself trying to capture her in the process. She didn't scream for help and he didn't succumb to her punches.
Finally, when she thought she had an edge over him, trying to hit him near the crotch, he avoided it just in time, wrung her arms behind her, twisting her to face forward and pinned her against a wall with his whole body. Before she could retaliate, he pulled out a syringe and stabbed her near the neck, injecting whatever was in it. She struggled for a few moments against him, letting out a scream in pain at last from the stab of the needle and then, her body went limp.
As she slid down the wall onto the road, the man caught her, saving her head from hitting the ground again and looked down at her. In the dim light, her face shone with the brightness he had always seen, blood oozing from the minor injuries she had sustained from their fight. He gazed at her for a moment and then lifted her up in his arms, carrying her over across the street.
It took him half an hour to put her in his car, drive over to his hideout, bring her in to her room of confinement and tie her down to a chair with a blindfold across her eyes.
Around nine pm she woke up, unaware that the video was being shot.
Thoughts of confusion, pangs of pain across her body and fear of the darkness and binds around her didn't control her for long. The initial struggle to comprehend what had happened after she was stabbed lasted only for a few minutes. Reality dawned on her faster than the man's expectations. She realized she had been taken captive, that she was totally under the mercy of the assailant and she had no clue where she was or what was going on around her.
Amidst fast breaths, her thoughts spiked rapidly. Relax Mitra, you need to calm down and think. Relax, it's okay. Think. Think straight. Think...
She tugged at the ropes tying her down to the chair, trying to free herself, but they were bound too tightly. Logic spoke in her mind; you will get tired if you keep wasting your energy without knowing the circumstances around you. She stopped struggling and instead, piqued her ears to listen to the sounds around her, anything and everything.
Is he here? Am I locked alone somewhere? Wouldn't he be watching, waiting to see if I woke up?
There were no sounds. She slowed her breathing, focusing her whole consciousness into trying to sense who or what was around her. Then she heard it.
The rugged breath at a distance, like a soft whisper.
"Who's there?" she asked, half wishing she were alone and half praying there was someone who would give her an idea of her situation.
Silence was the only answer. It confused her. She had definitely heard someone breathe. She tried with all her might and focus to try and hear again. There were only the vibes she had had that she wasn't alone.
"Anyone there?" she asked again, louder this time.
"Yes," a voice answered. It was his voice, the one who had attacked her. The sound of his voice in that frozen silence was chilling. She realized she had lost the first round. She hadn't been able to subdue him in their fight earlier, despite all the strength she had used.
Now, she was a captive.