Sahej's heart was beating fiercely at the thought of incoming doom. The sensation of emptiness crawled back into his skin mixed with fear and confusion. But it was different this time, now Sahej felt his emptiness to be in proportion to how close the Death Angel was. His uneasiness grew, but he stayed perfectly still, like everyone else who realized this was the core of the city and they had nowhere to run, it was too late to take action. Everyone was calling their closest friends and family to give or exchange last words, long due confessions flowing here and there.
"I hated this job!", a guy in his mid 30s shouted at the upper brass.
Even if his home city was close enough to the capital to be inside a blast radius of a size sufficient enough to capture the entire capitol, the Angel wouldn't put in the effort to reach it if Sahej's intuition was right, so his parents must be safe, Riya was in Mumbai, so he didn't need to worry about her right now, his only concern was his own life. Sahej wouldn't go down without a fight, but how was he supposed to put a front against a flying monster?
The defense bases in the capital should already be in motion, but there was no hope on that end, going underground wouldn't cut it, so that meant his only option was to....
'BOOM', a sonic boom interrupted his thoughts as he instinctively looked up in the direction of the sound, then quickly averted it to a little ahead of that point, and there, he saw it, despite the other person being way up in the sky, about to go behind the building and disappear from his sight, Sahej felt his eyes looking at him, and he looked at them, knowing very well what the masked man's eyes were telling him.
....
Sahej had gone to Mumbai to pay a visit to his one friend there, Ajeet, his best friend. Sahej was enjoying his summer after the second year of university and Ajeet had started his internship after a third year in Psychology. Sahej thought Ajeet's course to be scarier than his own, not because of complaints that Ajeet always made, but because it seemed to make him require help from a Psychiatrist, ironically. Both of them had changed over the couple years of college, but they were still together, at least as long as time would allow.
Sahej had no recollection of what they were talking about as they walked lousily to the hostel after a day of roaming aimlessly around the seashore. Sahej sipped merrily on his coffee while Ajeet had already thrown his cup, they would have looked really off for people starting their 20s, walking without any liquor at that hour. The campus was still a kilometer away when someone unexpectedly jumped on them. Both of them were shocked by the sudden change.
"Out with the money", the guy shouted at them as he pointed his gun.
"We don't have any left", Ajeet tried to answer calmly, trying to suppress his fear.
"That's a Starbucks cup you are holding, don't try to act smart with me kid", the guy's accent didn't sound local, but that didn't change the fact that the gun looked like the real deal.
"Ever heard of online transactions?", Ajeet's tone had a slight change Sahej didn't notice.
"You smartypants think you know everything," clearly the guy wasn't convinced, and even if their lie had been true, they had expensive apparel here and there, including Ajeet's diamond ring on the right hand's middle finger. They were in for serious trouble.
The guy stepped forward in his act of intimidation, trying to point the gun at Ajeet's forehead as he said, "If you wanna reach your home safely then don't try to act smart with m.."
Ajeet's fist connected with the guy's face, engraving the small diamond in his skin. Ajeet didn't reach for his gun but launched another punch with full force at his other side. The guy fell over and Ajeet snatched the gun. Sahej thought he would stop there, but he went ahead and sat on the guy's chest and started hitting him with the back of the gun. Blue and red marks filled the mugger's face in an instant. Sahej stood there, coffee in hand, unable to move, until the guy coughed up blood.
"I think that's more than enough", Sahej shouted at Ajeet, who looked over his shoulder to give him a furious look. The look wasn't meant for Sahej and he knew it, it was given in the flow of the moment, but his eyes, they said what was going deep inside Ajeet's heart, what his message actually was, Sahej could read them at that moment, and he thought it was something to be expected, yet something that gave him chills till months later. While his facial features showed a deep anger, his eyes looked content, child like. He was enjoying it.
The monster wasn't born that day, it had been there for a few years, breathing in the chaos of his mind, Sahej had known about its existence since the day it was born, and that incident had been nothing more than a window of opportunity for it to come out and live in the open for a minute, fulfill a fraction of its dark desires before being shunned indefinitely again.
"Call him an ambulance, let's go", Ajeet said as he got up. His hair were messed up and his face was drenched in sweat, but the other man had it a lot worse, with a face so swollen that it was impossible to imagine what he looked like 5 mins ago when he had his gun to boost his confidence.
Ajeet had done too much, but Sahej had nothing to say about it, so he just called the ambulance and reported the mugger as someone injured and 'found', and left before the authorities arrived, throwing his unfinished coffee away on the way.
.....
The eyes he felt on himself were the same as Ajeet had all those years ago, the face with them must have changed though, the Death Angel must have worn a cruel smile behind that mask, Sahej was sure of it.
Sahej figured that Delhi had just been en route to wherever the Angel's real target for today was, or maybe he wanted to mock the government, "Only he would know", Sahej muttered.
Sahej looked down to find all his coworkers down to their knees, some fallen over, he was the only one still standing, and among the few who managed to look at the flying thing in the sky. Sahej started helping them up, not bothering with his own miserable stench.
Once everyone was back inside the office, a loud chatter overtook the people who thought this was going to be their last day, Sahej smiled at the thought of how hospital beds will be full in a few months. Sahej couldn't bring himself to enter anyone's conversations, and then someone at the front of the crowd silenced everyone.
"Okay everyone, I know this was overwhelming for all of you and it's going to stay on our heads for a long time. So I would like to say that the rest of the day's off, enjoy yourself". Everyone relaxed at those words. Sahej too found it convenient as the disgust from toilet water pants creeped on him, thankfully no one seemed to care about it, for better or worse.
On his way out, he overheard what looked like an office couple looking out a window in the direction of the Angel's path, "So what direction is that?", the girl asked.
"That's nearly south-south-west", the guy replied in after some thought.
"What do you think, Jaipur?"
"Possible but, that would be a little more westward, that building over there...." Sahej walked out with that, he didn't understand how air routes worked and whether the Death Angel was using them, but the words "South-south-west" stuck with him.
'south south west', the words went on a loop in his head as he stepped out of the building into the open where he had first made the resolve to continue his life as it was.
'South - southwest', it finally struck what that direction meant, and he didn't like it one bit.
"Well, shit!" he looked at the edge of the building where he saw Death Angel last, realizing his real target for today was the one person more precious to him than his own life.
He was going to Mumbai, he was going after Riya.
.....
He called Riya before thinking out what needed to be done, he wanted to confirm her situation first.
"Hello!", Riya's voice echoed with panic, and the background chatter sounded the same. Apparently the panic wave had already reached.
"Riya, I want you to get to a safe spot on the ground floor or basement and not move!", Sahej said with firmness and urgency, hoping to get his message delivered as soon as possible.
"What?", she responded with confusion.
"You are more likely to get crushed in the mass running than by the hands of the Death Angel, just go close to the ground and avoid the crowds!", Sahej was trying his best to sound louder than the chaos Riya was in.
"It's the Death Angel we are talking about Sahej, staying close to the ground wouldn't work!", she shouted, it would be hard to convince her.
Sahej took a deep breath and thought out his next words, "The Death Angel would never reach you, I don't want to lose you, neither by its destruction nor in a crowd crush." he paused for a breath, "So please, have faith in me here, I know what I am asking for here, I know it sounds impossible. But, just get away from others for the moment and reach a safe space by the end of the hour, the crowds should disperse by then."
Riya was quiet for a long time before answering, "Is this really the place to ask for such a huge leap of faith?", she did not sound skeptical, but unsure, she was asking Sahej for reassurance, whether he trusted his own instincts here or not.
"Yes. I love you, and I would never let anything leave a scratch on you"
"I love you too, I guess."
Sahej ended the call with that. She would be mad at him for ending the call in such a situation. But his sympathy wouldn't be enough to save her, he knew he had something tremendous to do at hand, and he had to figure out a way to do it fast.
"He wouldn't live to see tomorrow if he breathes in the same city as her."
Sahej had the same clarity he had a week ago on these steps. It might be short term, but he had another goal he was going to follow through, and with those thoughts in his mind he started walking to the highest building in the area, its top standing out in the skyscrapers.
He slipped his phone into a passerby's pocket, his shoes in the trash can, and the tie in the pocket. It still wasn't much of a disguise, but the details needed to be worked on while in pursuit, the Death Angel had roughly 10 mins of head start, and Sahej didn't know how to travel at the sonic limit. He wasn't thinking straight, he had lost the ability to.
At the foot of the building, he snatched a pair of sunglasses and ran away barefoot to the other side. He examined the architecture for a second, out of instinct.
And jumped.