Amisha woke up and this time, she felt much better. The pain in her body was gone and her headache had calmed down a lot. Plus, she also remembered much of what had happened. Realizing panicking will only lead her to pass out yet again, Amisha focused on her surroundings.
She was in a small room on a couch. On one end of the room was a small platform with a water cooler and a rack full of snacks. Next to that was a coffee machine, above which there was a picture of three strangers. The two boys looked almost her age and the other girl in the picture looked a little older than them. Taking a good look, Amisha remembered that these were the same people she had woken up to the last time! The girl there had helped her calm down and fall asleep. But the question was, who were these people and why and how did they find her?
Amisha then noticed the boy in the middle of the picture. He was cute and had a really sweet dimple on the right side of his face. He had curly locks that hid his eyebrows as he smiled so gleefully.
They all looked so happy and the picture pushed Amisha into trusting them a little. After all, what other choice did she have? She had to trust them.
Even though her legs felt a little wobbly, Amisha forced herself to stand on her two feet. She then took a deep breath in and started taking slow and steady steps toward the door that led out. As she approached the door, she heard voices outside. So, she decided to listen.
"So why did they kidnap her? Based on what you're telling us, she didn't have anything to do with Louis or Marcella." A female voice spoke with a French accent.
"It is complicated," Spoke a male voice that sounded eerily familiar, "Just know that her best friend is of importance to the one who kidnapped her and they're using Amisha to get to her."
"I don't understand. Why not kidnap her best friend? Why Amisha?" This time, a male voice with a French accent spoke.
Deciding that she'd had enough and wanted answers herself, Amisha burst through the door. The people outside were caught off guard and Amisha registered her surroundings again. She was at a store! And… when she saw him, relief surged through her as tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Time!" Amisha rushed to the creature and hugged him, "What's going on?"
Time embraced the poor young girl. His heart hurt to watch this girl go through so much. As he consoled her, Love walked up to them and started patting her back gently.
"This is Love." Time told her, "You're safe now."
Armel looked at the scene and felt relief take over. He looked at his friends and they had the same reaction. They were right, these people knew the girl and were really here to help her. That's when a small, tiny feeling of sadness started to creep up his heart and he didn't realize what was going on until the strange woman with Amisha suddenly turned around and gave a full-teethed smile.
"Umm what?" Armel asked, confused.
"Nothing." The woman turned back to Amisha.
***
Death watched as Shiuli snored lightly on top of him. It was as if she had decided that he was her bed and he didn't complain. He played with her long hair and felt her snuggle closer to him. So in love, Death kissed the top of Shiuli's head lovingly. Just when he was about to fish for his phone to check if there was any update from Time and Love, Faith slowly walked into the room, making sure she didn't make any noise to wake Shiuli up.
Death looked at Faith with eyes wide open and hope floating in them. Faith gave him a bright smile and asked him to check his phone. Death quickly, but gently fished it out of his pocket and read the text – 'Amisha is safe and with us. Love insists and we keep her in France, but I want to bring her over to the beach house. We will decide on a safe place for Amisha as well and keep you posted.'
Letting out a deep breath, Death thanked the universe for keeping Amisha safe. He then felt movement on top of his chest and watched as Shiuli lifted her head up and opened her eyes.
"How long did I sleep?"
"Not long. Maybe an hour or so?"
"An hour?" Shiuli gasped, "Why didn't you wake me up?"
"And why would I do that when you were peacefully sleeping in my embrace?"
Hitting him playfully on his chest, Shiuli got off him and let out a yawn and that's when she noticed Faith standing by the door smirking.
"Oh my god!" Shiuli was shocked, "Since how long have you been there?"
"Not long" Faith smirked harder, "you two are super cute, you know?"
"I am not cute, Faith." Death complained.
"To me you are." Faith walked out of the room.
Shiuli then walked to the washroom to freshen up. Death got up from the bed and walked out of the room, toward the living room. He found Faith there, reading a book on the couch.
"We've saved Amisha for now, but I have a feeling this will only fuel Life's anger further." Death spoke.
"You're right," Faith put her book aside, "He won't stop at this. He will try and keep trying until he finds us. We need to do something."
"But what?"
"I have an idea. But it involves Time and hence I want to wait until everyone is here before I say it out loud."
"Very well, I'll hear it with the others."
Death sat down on the couch opposite Faith. They both had been delighted briefly, but again they were back to the worrying. Life was keeping them on their toes and the worst thing was, it felt like he was using the Moon to get his way in destroying Death and his love. If they had to do anything against Life, they'd have to be very careful.
***
Louis banged the door for the hundredth time! They had messed up! They should have never let that Armel kid take over his brother's shift today, that too for such an important assignment. It was all Marcie's fault! She was the one who asked Armel to cover for his brother.
And look at them now. The boy must have gotten a whiff of what was going on and had planned to rescue the girl. It had to be! Marcie wasn't here in the men's room and now that he thought back, the noise he heard from the ladies' room was probably Marcie shouting for someone to set her free.
But now, the important thing wasn't that Armel had locked them up in the washroom and had made a complete fool out of them, it was the fact that he and Marcie had failed to do what Life had asked them to. And the fact that his stupid self-had forgotten to bring his cell phone along with him. Life was probably calling him right now for an update and he had no way to get to his phone!
As Louis waited for some miracle to set him free, he heard some sudden banging from outside the washroom. There was somebody outside! Louis quickly resumed banging the door himself to make himself known.
"Hello!" Louis screamed, "Anyone there? Please unlock the damn door!"
A few seconds passed and Louis had already started to give up all hope when the door suddenly opened and a beautiful man with ebony skin stood in front of him.
"You've been stuck for long, Louis?"
That voice! A chill ran down Louis' spine as he realized who this person was in front of him… or rather the creature…
"I-I don't k-know who you a-are." Louis stammered.
Amused, Time walked towards the pudgy human and wrapped his palms around his neck in a strangling motion.
"Cut it, Louis" Time stared him dead in the eyes, "We both know each other quite well. Even though this is our first meeting, it feels like I've known you for eternity."
"You cannot hurt me! I'm immortal too! I won't die!"
"Die?" Time scoffed at his foolishness, "you know what's worse than death? It is torture… and I know just the right spell to punish criminals like you."
Shaking from fear, Louis looked behind Life through the open door and watched as Love dragged Marcie outside the ladies' room. Marcie's left eye was bruised and it looked like the creature was not the one who'd hurt his wife. There was a young French girl standing next to Love who had a bruised fist.
Louis couldn't imagine how furious Life would be if he saw what was going on here. Before Louis could even think of his next move, Time tightened his hold on his neck and pulled him out along with him. From the corner of his eye, Louis saw Armel stand there with confusion and a sense of pride, probably because he was successful in rescuing the girl. Louis was dragged until they reached the limo and Time threw him inside. Soon, Marcie joined him when the girl who looked like was friends with Armel and the other boy next to him, threw her in.
"Give me the keys, Armel," Time spoke, still maintaining the eye-contact with Louis, "I'll drive them to their doom."
Armel did as he was told. He was both scared at these strangers and in awe of the powerful aura they emulated. Were they the members of the Interpol? Who exactly were these people and how was Amisha related to them? Heck, even their names were peculiar – Love and Time? What kind of names were these?
As Time drove the criminals away, Love walked up to Armel with a faint smile. She had been acting super weird since Amisha woke up. She was more relaxed and the funny thing was, she kept looking at him with a weird smile every once in a while.
"Armel, I have a request."
"Umm… what is it?"
"Amisha is not safe. There is a much bigger conspiracy involved here that we cannot disclose to you for the safety of you and your loved ones. But I trust you. I know that you are a good person and can keep Amisha safe."
"W-what?" Armel didn't know how to respond, "What do you mean by that?"
"Listen, I've already talked to Bella and she has agreed to take Amisha in for a few days. Amisha cannot go back to India right now." Love's tone was serious, "Protect her until I'm back for her."