Dark Seduction Ch. 05

Pankhudi held his hand and followed him deeper into the jungle. She was in pain, she was unable to move fast, but he dragged her along, because moving slowly would mean certain death for him and perhaps something worse for Pankhudi. They had to get away from those assailants. They were outnumbered; they could only escape using stealth. As they were trying to get away, Pankhudi's leg slipped making a stone roll down a slope. One of the assailants began to chase them, and they had to run deeper into the forest. After running for a while, he stopped to check whether they were still being followed. When he was sure that there was no one after them, they stopped running and walked to find a shelter from the night. They were deep inside the jungle by now, there was no sign of anyone else except the two.

He was sure that the assailants would have given up by now. He spotted an old ruined structure in the middle of the jungle, would have been a house at some point of time. The walls were broken, but a part of the roof was intact. He thought it could be a good shelter for the night. He took Pankhudi along and made her sit down.

"Are you ok?" he asked her.

She didn't reply. She just curled into a ball and started crying.

He frisked his jeans pockets and found his cigarette lighter. He collected some twigs and lit a small fire and sat down next to her. He put his arm around her trying to pacify her. In the light of the fire he noticed blood around her feet. He suddenly realized that Pankhudi was not just naked in the trunk; she didn't have any footwear on either.

"Pankh, let me see your feet" he said out of concern.

"Please...they are hurting a lot" she said as she was crying out of pain.

"Let me see Pankh" he spoke authoritatively and she allowed him to inspect her soles. Multiple thorns had pierced her skin and the poor girl didn't complain all along. He felt very sorry for her. "I will remove the thorns one by one. It will hurt for a while, but I must do it else your wounds won't heal" he said as he gently touched her shoulder trying to pacify her.

Pankhudi just nodded. He removed the thorns from her feet one by one. Even though it was hurting, she tried not to scream. He finished as quickly as he could to minimize the pain and tore off a sleeve of the shirt to bandage her feet. He made her sit on his lap and rested her head against his chest. Pankhudi had stopped sobbing, her feet were not hurting as much as before. She hugged him and snuggled deeper into his arms.

"Do you think they saw me while I was..." she couldn't complete her sentence out of shame. "Is that why they followed us? Did they want to rape..."

"No sweetheart, they were after me. I don't think they even knew that I wasn't alone." He said rubbing her back. "Don't worry, I'll call for help, we'll be OK"

He tried to find his phone but was shocked to realize that he had forgotten it in the car. He was mad at himself, but there was no other option than to wait till morning it was impossible to backtrack at this hour. Sounds of howling of night creatures tore through the silence of the night and it was very dark. Pankhudi was feeling very scared, but his presence calmed her. He made her lie down and put her head on his lap till she fell asleep. He rested his back against the broken wall and tried to sleep.