"Haa...haa...haaa...."
*thump thump*
"haaa...haaa...ughhh.... so gooood."
*splash*
"Hold that bitch down. It's my turn now."
"You take her. I'm not yet done."
*thump thump thud*
----------
[The year 2022]
"haa, haah.... haaah"
"Stop, you brat, how long you think you can run for, eh?"
On the gritty streets of Kamathipura, Mumbai's red-light district, a 15-year-old boy named Boddh with black hair, piercing eyes, and porcelain-coloured skin found himself in a heart-pounding chase, pursued by a gang of thugs after defending himself from one of their attacks. Darting through narrow alleyways, leaping from house to house, and taking daring shortcuts, he ran with all his might, breaths ragged.
As he raced through the maze-like paths, an unfortunate misstep caused him to collide with an open window, banging his head against it with a painful thud.
*thwack thud*
"ugh...."
One of the thugs who caught the boy then, kicked him on the chest while the boy was down and smiled wickedly.
"Now, now, you really thought you could run away from us after making a bloodied mess out of one of our boys?"
"Let's have some fun, shall we then? As a price for your insolence?", caught at the mercy of the pursuing thugs, Boddh's eyes blazed with hatred and determination. Despite the grim circumstances, he refused to shed a single tear, determined to stand strong in the face of his adversaries.
Throughout this ordeal, bystanders turned a blind eye to the scene, with the ongoing commotion being an all-too-familiar occurrence. The heart-wrenching reality of their indifference weighed heavily on the young boy's spirit. Everyone just averted their eyes as if nothing was happening there.
The thugs finally cornered Boddh and brought him to an abandoned house and locked the door throwing him on the floor, their sinister intentions evident. One of the thugs, gleefully cruel, took out a club and started wrapping barbed wires around it, revelling in the fear they instilled, approached the boy, but as soon as he was about to hit him with that, a loud knock reverberated through the door, interrupting their sadistic plans.
*chet*
"Check who is barging in on our fun.", the boss ordered one of his lackeys.
Opening the door, the lackey could see a beautiful, pale-skinned woman named Priya with dark brown hair and emerald eyes standing before them, her anger palpable.
"Oh! Look who this is. Our dear Priya, did you miss me so much that you couldn't wait for the night to come?", said the boss.
"What are you trying to do to my boy, Lakki?", her voice contained deep hatred for the thugs. Someone had informed her that his boy was being taken away after being beaten badly. Priya had rushed to the scene upon learning that her beloved boy was in grave danger. She came running as fast as she could and fortunately, she was here in time.
The boss smiled wryly and answered, "The same thing which you beg for me every night."
"Let him go!!"
"kekekeke, can't let that happen, woman, see this boy of yours smashed one of our boy's head with a bottle, and he's now on death's door."
"... Well since the mistake my lackey, that rascal did was quite grave, I could leave this boy, but you know what to do in return for it, don't you?"
"Never! Never listen to him, Mother! Just go, I'll handle them on my own."
Seeing the poor state her boy was in, beaten and all bruised up, Priya bit her lips as blood flowed from them. She was the most beautiful prostitute and also the most helpless in front of Lakki. Lakki was the boss of the thugs around here and even the police didn't try to mess with him. Even though her boss was quite protective of her girls and mostly Priya, she didn't give a damn what happened to others or someone near them, it was just not worth it. Thus, Priya couldn't go and ask for help from her boss in this matter. Seeing no other way out of it, with great struggle, she replied, "I.... I'll do it. I'll marry you, just let him go."
Hearing this brought a cruel smile to the boss's face.
'Finally, this bitch is now under my thumb, it was quite a good plan to simmer this kid's anger. Guess, I've gotta provide a good enough compensation for that bastard for going through this plan and getting his head messed up.'
Lakki then ordered one of his lackeys, "Let the boy go."
"NO! Don't listen to him Mother, you don't have to sacrifice because of me.", said the boy in a coarse voice. Although, Priya was not his real mother, the love she'd shown her was no less than his real one. She was the only light in his dark world.
Priya took the boy in her arms, and said with tears flowing from her eyes,
"Boddh, remember this one thing, you did nothing wrong, it's the world which is cruel but never forget the light, Boddh, never forget the light."
"We have to be light, even if there is only darkness around."
"M-mom..", this was the first time he called her mom, and regretted why he didn't do so earlier.
Boddh could instantly feel that something bad is going to happen again, he tried to hold onto his consciousness but too much blood had flowed out from his body and as he was drifting away to blankness, he heard the last words he would hear from her mother, "I love you Boddh."
The boy was then taken to the hospital while Priya stayed with Lakki.
"Get ready for tonight, Priya, as it will be a memorable moment for you.", said Lakki as he approached her caressing her face.
But as soon as he came close, Priya pulled a shaving blade from under her sleeves and tried to slash at Lakki's neck. Lakki's right-hand man, who noticed this, pulled a gun from his behind his waist and pulled the trigger.
*bang bang*
But he was too late since the blade has already slashed through Lakki's neck. Blood flowed out from his neck as Priya saw Lakki's horror-filled wide eyes and blood gushing out of her abdomen with a cold and indifferent look.
Both fell back to the ground and Priya murmured with a single tear coming out of her emerald eyes, "I'm sorry, Boddh and I love you."
----------
*flash thunder*
Heavy lightning with great thunder flowed as the rain started falling on the windows of the hospital. It was past midnight when Boddh opened his eyes. His body hurt all over and he could barely get up. Opening his eyes, he could see his teary-eyed aunt, Riya. The first thing he asked after waking up was, "Where's Mother?"
Riya started crying even more when Boddh mentioned Priya, she could not bear to tell the little boy the news of her mother's death but she knew she had to,
"S-she is dead, Boddh, she tried to kill Lakki and was killed by his lackeys. We need to get out of here Boddh, as Lakki's lackeys will come for revenge on us. And....."
Boddh couldn't hear anything after Riya informed him of his mother's death and had an absent-minded look in his eyes. His life had again shattered into bits and pieces. He couldn't forget the time when he was 10 years old middle school student and came back to his home happily to show his mother the medal he had gotten at the martial arts competition at his school only to see his house engulfed in fire. He couldn't hold back and tried to run towards the fire to save his mother but was stopped by the firefighter. He bawled his eyes out crying and begging the firefighter to let him go and save his mother when he saw his mother's charred body being carried out on a stretcher. The whole world had come crashing down for him.
He had never seen his father, his mother only told stories to him of how good he was and how it was not that his father wanted to leave but had to because of some grave circumstances. He had no uncle or aunt or any other relatives. The house they lived in was also a rented one since they belonged to a lower-middle-class family. With no one to rely on, he wandered the streets, working his life by begging.
Then, one day, he was taken in by Priya, a prostitute in Kamathipura. She told him that he resembled his boy who she once lost in a fire. There were many similarities between them. Priya, like Boddh, had never seen her father and had lost her son in a house fire. Slowly, they both filled a major part of each other's hearts. He once again started to feel what love is.
But, then again, his life turned into hell. Riya had gone out to pack some things and cash to leave here and move somewhere else. Boddh then got up and moved out of the hospital and wandered around aimlessly. He couldn't feel the pain in his body for the pain in his heart was greater than the body.
When he came to, he was standing on the edge of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link bridge.
'Why? why? why? why? Just why-just why does this keep happening to me? Why is everything being taken away from me? What sins have I done to go through this hell? Am I not supposed to be happy? What am I supposed to do? What life should I live? Who should I live for? Tell me, Mom, what should I even hope for? You said to be the light but who should I be the light for when everyone is gone?'
'I never had a father, but I was happy with my mom, she always loved me, and cared for me but she also had to leave me. Then I found Priya, a mother whose love was no less than any other but she also had to be taken away. I-if only I hadn't broken that guy's head in anger, it wouldn't have happened.'
Right, Boddh hit the lackey with a bottle in anger since he had insulted Priya and his aunt with profane words that he couldn't bear to hear. At that time, he could only hear some parts of what the lackey was saying, 'whore...bastard...cursed...tonight...fun...', after that a part of his memory went blank, and when he came to the lackey was already bleeding from his head. The next moment, he was running away from Lakki's underlings.
"ughhh....haaah...haaaah"
*ba-dum ba-dump*
*ba-dump-tsh*
He could hear his heart beating wildly in his ears as if the heart said, 'It's time to let go.'
'Right, it's all because of me, Mother died because of me, now, there's nothing to live for, it's better to die, ain't it?'
The starry skies and the bridge's beautiful lighting were in stark contrast to what was happening with Boddh.
"I'm sorry, Mother and I love you."
Just as he lifted one of his feet and was about to end his life by throwing himself off the bridge, he heard a heavy voice from beside him.
"What are you doing?"
"....son."
Turning his head in the direction of where the voice came from, he saw a handsome man with hazel green eyes looking straight at him.
It was the moment his life was going to take a strange turn that he never would have thought of.