The Unknown Danger

Shweta sat quietly in a corner of the bus. She was looking outside expressionless and pale. A sudden chill ran down her spine. She had never expected her life to take such a turn and full of upheavals. She started breathing heavily and sweat trickled down her forehead. The chain of incidents occurring yesterday flashed past her mind in quick succession.

It was 8 pm yesterday when Shweta walked out of her office as per her routine hours. She used to walk down to the nearby bus stop to take 8:15 bus till her home. Yesterday, when she had been waiting for the bus, she heard a shrieking female voice which got suppressed among the traffic sounds. She was not sure what to do and whether she must follow that sound. She could not make out exactly where the sound was coming from so hesitated in making a move.

'How can I help? I don't even know her.. Besides it could be something else.. I may be acting on the wrong signal.. It's also quite late, not safe to check around. ' she was willing to shrug it off and look for the bus, which was soon approaching her stop.

However when the bus came to a halt on the stop, just one thought could not let her board it, "it could have happened to me as well! What if I was in danger? ' She froze for a moment and then decided to find out the truth. She slowly walked towards the alley where the sound had come from and kept watching around closely while looking for some trusted aide for this search but to no avail.

Soon she could hear a voice about 50 meters away from her, 'Don't worry, I have ensured she cannot do anything. We will meet hereafter 11. We are safe.' Shweta was scared to no limits. She could imagine the nefarious agenda of these men, three of them. Her mind told her to return and forget everything, the conscience opposed staunchly. She was wondering how to reach the girl. 'At least she is alive', Shweta thought. The alley looked darker and more surreptitious ahead. There was a small house with a half-open door, rest were closed. Winters were on full swing, hence half-open door struck her.

She went a little towards the door and almost slipped; there was wet mud, which looked like from the nearby field. There were some bloodstains on the wall, which forced Shweta to go inside. Inside, there lay an unconscious girl, of about 12 years. She was deeply wounded on her forehead and was bleeding. She looked at her blood-stained palms, which were scarred badly. Shweta was totally dumbstruck but realized she had little time to waste. She tried waking the girl up but did not succeed.

The girl was breathless and was rendered unconscious using a piece of cloth. How could Shweta pick her and leave without signs? She used her forefingers to press points on the girl's forehead, one of the acupressure tactics she knew. The girl slowly seemed to regain consciousness, when Shweta whispered in her ears, 'We need to leave this place right NOW!' The girl looked at her puzzled and asked very softly, 'Who are you Di? '

'I'll tell you, but first, let's escape! We are in danger! Where have you come from? '

'I came from near the mandi (vegetable wholesale market). I came here to meet my uncle's sons to get some milk for preparing sweet, but they.. " She could not speak further. Shweta was astounded but knew that they needed to leave.

'Hey, come along to my home now. We will talk about this later.' She saw a blanket lying carelessly. She took it to cover her face and both of them left the alley towards the main road. As they got on the bus, the girl blurted with a scared tone, 'Deepu Bhaiya! ' Shweta looked outside the window and could see a tall man peeping inside. He had seen them inside. Luckily the bus had paced up and he got left behind.

She just took Sarita ( girl's name) home and calmed her down. She made hot tea for her and comforted her. She had not thought about the next day, or how she can get her home safely. Sarita was concerned about her parents but got convinced to wait till the next morning. However, Shweta was concerned about Deepu, who had seen her and could possibly trace her down. Should she go to the police? She wasn't sure as she had heard negative experiences in such cases. She was perplexed and very scared to take Sarita to her house. The night was excruciatingly and they couldn't sleep. Shweta lived with another colleague in a shared apartment but was often alone on weekends when her colleague would go to meet her guardian.

The next day she dropped Sarita near the mandi from an auto but was quite concerned about her safety. She couldn't muster the courage to go to the police and was not sure of the implications.

On the bus, Shweta was thinking what gave her the strength to take this risk and save the girl. She was seething with anger on the audacity of this boy who wanted to use his own sister for his carnal pleasures and had no shame in his eyes. She wondered if she could ever trust anyone after this, but felt relieved that she could save the life and dignity of a girl who was yet to see the misgivings and mal intentions in the world. She kept thinking to what extent our soul gets hurt in such events and transforms a carefree girl to a scarred woman. It is not just about physical wounds or only the act , but the heinous intentions and helplessness one feels that makes the act even more detestable.

However, the positive side as she thought is that Sarita was a survivor and could stand up against the mal intentions of the world in the future. That thought showed a ray of hope, in that she didn't run away from the danger and didn't ignore a cry for help. If only, we could listen to our instincts like that amidst the suppressing voices, the world could be a much safer place.