"What the fuck do you mean all this happened?!"
There was a pause — a heavy, ringing clang of disbelief echoing in the air between them. Gorgo ran his fingers through his hair, pacing in a slow, jerky circle. Then he spat out, voice racing ahead of his thoughts:
"But—according to my knowledge—the Supreme Lord and his wife aren't even in Vaikuntha! They're up in Mount Kailash with Mother Parvati, preparing for some ancient festival! Even Sheshanaga and Garuda have gone with him! So who the hell did you meet there?! No one… no one can trespass into Vaikuntha without the Lord knowing. That's impossible!"
Boom.
Dhruv felt the words hit him like a thunderclap to the skull. His ears rang — rrrrrring — and a wave of nausea coiled in his stomach. What Gorgo had said… didn't make sense.
Yet something else did.
Dhruv stared at the dusty ground, his thoughts spiraling. His voice, when it finally came, was a whisper, almost drowned in the noise of the wind.
"Then… who was he?"
His fingers trembled at his side. A slow, haunted blink.
"Why… why did he look familiar? Like I'd known him forever. Like I was talking to an old friend..."
Thump-thump.
His heart echoed the question louder than anything else now.
"Why?"
"I think my brain is going to explode thinking all these stuff together," Gorgo muttered, thud—his hand landing on his forehead in disbelief.
Seeing Gorgo like that, Dhruv slowly stepped forward. He placed a firm hand on Gorgo's shoulder—clasp—grounding him with the touch.
"Worrying about this is the least of our concerns now, Gorgo," Dhruv said, voice steady. "We don't even know who the hell that guy is—a madman or a saint—but if he's telling the truth, then we can't just let a innocent girl die right infront of our eyes, right? WE CAN'T TAKE ANY CHANCES FOR THI—S, RIGHT!!!!"
His voice echoed through the empty alley, reverberating off the walls like a warning bell.
Gorgo turned to look at him. Dhruv's eyes were burning—full of fire and purpose.
Huff...
Gorgo exhaled and dropped his shoulders with a sigh. "Yeah... we can't take a chance. It's an innocent life." He paused, then looked away. "...But—"
Dhruv squinted. "BUT WHATT!!?"
"...If Yama has his eyes set on that girl," Gorgo said quietly, his tone grim, "then she's... she's doomed to die."
There was silence. Heavy. Suffocating.
Then—
"T—Then we'll just beat his ass out, I guess—ss," Dhruv mumbled, trying to force a crooked smile. His voice cracked a little—but the spark was there.
Pfft...
Gorgo let out a small giggle.
HAH!
Then burst into full-blown laughter.
HAHAHAHA!
The sound echoed loud and unrestrained, shaking off some of the tension like dust from an old rug.
Dhruv chuckled too, softly.
Heh...
Just two idiots laughing in the middle of a mess.
"So, jokes apart..." Gorgo said, his voice dipping back into seriousness. "We know that—I mean, you know that girl's in danger, and she's literally calling you for help. But you're telling me you've never even met her before in your life..." He paused, confusion tightening his brows. "So how the hell are we supposed to find her?"
"...."Dhruv was silent.
The kind of silence that stretches. Thick. Uncomfortable.Tick... Tick...Gorgo glanced at him—saw the blank stare, the clenched jaw, the eyes searching the ground like it held the answers. He was about to change the subject, maybe drop the tension—
But then—snap!—Dhruv lifted his head.
"It's just my theory..." he said, voice low but resolute. "...but I g-uess I know where she is. I just need to ask you this—do you trust me, dude? In this?"
Gorgo let out a slow breath—fwooo...—and gave a crooked smile. He looked at Dhruv like he was seeing him for the first time.
"Do I have a choice?" he chuckled, "I wanna go home too, dude."
For a second, Dhruv's expression cracked—the weight lifted, just a little. His fade pale face had smiled a little after 5 years, tugged at the corner of his lips.
Clap!They tapped hands, the sound echoing with the quiet energy of something new being born.Not just trust
It was a blooming of a flower a beautiful one, a beautiful flower of bond, a flower of friendship.
Even though Dhruv and Gorgo were sharing a moment, somewhere in the distance… eyes were watching.
From across the street, half-shadowed behind a rusting power box, a man stood silently. His sharp gaze locked onto Dhruv. He could see them laughing, tapping hands—but their voices were too faint, carried away by the whoosh of passing vehicles and the hum of the wind.
The man narrowed his eyes, then reached into his jacket.
Click.He pulled out a walkie-talkie, brought it close to his lips.
"Alpha, bzzzz alpha, do you copy?" his voice was low and crisp.
A second later, static crackled."bzzz Copy, Beta," came a calm, measured reply.
"The suspect has entered the city. bzzz Should I take action?" he asked, eyes still fixed on Dhruv's figure.
There was a pause.
"bzzzzz Do not take action. I repeat—do not take action at all cost. Just observe. bzzz Do you copy, Beta?"
The man clicked the side of the walkie once—chk!
"bzzzzCopy, sir. bzzzz"
Click.He turned off the walkie-talkie and slid it back into his coat.His expression was unreadable.
He stepped back into the shadows—tap, tap, tap—boots quietly hitting the pavement as he continued his silent pursuit.
Far below, unaware of the silent eyes trailing them, Gorgo stretched his arms with a groan and glanced at Dhruv, who seemed unusually calm.
"So… where's our next stop, partner?" Gorgo asked, dusting off his jacket and tilting his head with curiosity.
Dhruv looked ahead. For the first time in hours, a small, fleeting smile tugged at his lips.
"We're going to an orphanage," he said, voice steady.
Gorgo blinked, thrown off. "Orphanage??" he repeated, his brows furrowing. "Wait, like… kids and caretakers and all that? What are we doing there?"
Dhruv didn't immediately answer. He just kept walking, his smile fading slightly into a look of faint nostalgia.
"You'll understand when we get there, partner."
As they turned down a narrow lane, the distant hum of the city softened beneath the rustle of leaves and the crunch of gravel underfoot.
But suddenly…rustle.crkk.
Gorgo's ears twitched.
Something wasn't right.
His body tensed, instincts flaring. He spun around sharply, scanning the rooftops, the alleys, the shadows.
"Dhruv, stay here!" he barked, already sprinting toward the darkened alleyway across the road. His boots pounded the ground — thump-thump-thump — as he dashed into the thick of the narrowing passage.
And there — a flash of movement.
A silhouette, a blur, slipping between walls and vanishing like mist.
"Hey! Stop!" Gorgo shouted, but the figure didn't break stride. It leapt effortlessly onto a fire escape, the metal clanging underfoot — clang! clank! — before disappearing over the roof.
By the time Gorgo reached the spot… nothing.Only silence remained there.
He panted, his eyes narrowing. Whoever that was… they'd been watching. Listening.
He clenched his fists."Who is he?"
Behind him, Dhruv called out, breathless."Gorgo! What happened? What's going on??"
Gorgo turned back slowly. Dhruv looked worried — pale, confused, beads of sweat glistening on his forehead.
Gorgo hesitated. His eyes met Dhruv's.
And in that moment… he made a decision.
He walked back and patted Dhruv on the shoulder, forcing a small grin.
"Nothing," he said casually, waving it off."Just thought I saw a rat."
But his mind was anything but calm.
"So what were we talking about now, haaa?! How do we get to this orphanage? You do realize we're standing in the middle of the damn road, right?" Gorgo asked, throwing up his hands.
Dhruv shrugged casually, almost smug. "Can't you just teleport us to the place I'm talking about?"
Gorgo blinked. Then, with a straight face, he said, "Oooh... did I forget to tell you?"
He leaned in a little, voice mock-whispering.
"My powers have been taken away by Yamaraj because he doesn't want me to wreck havoc here. Hahahaha!"He laughed awkwardly, scratching the back of his head.
Dhruv just stood there.
Frozen.
The smile drained from his face like someone unplugged him from reality.
In his mind —CRACK!RUMBLE!The earth beneath his feet split in half with a dramatic, apocalyptic KRSSSSSHHH.
He fell.Fell deep.Like into the very pits of disbelief.
And down, down, down he tumbled… until—
SPLASH!
He landed face-first into a giant, bubbling cauldron.
A hulking red demon, wearing an apron that said "Hell's Kitchen – Souls Served Fresh", turned around with a spatula in hand."Oi! You just landed in my infernal stew, buddy!"
Dhruv blinked. Soup dripping from his eyelashes."…What."
Back in reality, he just stared at Gorgo like he was having a full-blown fever dream.
"…You're joking, right?" he finally said, blinking rapidly.
Gorgo, still grinning awkwardly:"Nope."
Dhruv groaned, rubbing his temple."This day just keeps getting better."
Then suddenly, Dhruv's brain short-circuited. His eye twitched. A bead of sweat rolled down his temple as his thoughts spiraled into full meltdown mode.
"Which dumb fu—" he screamed internally.
"WHICH ABSOLUTE CLOWN OF A COSMIC INTERN ASSIGNED THIS MORON AS MY GUIDE???""F*. F***. FITY F! THIS DUMBBELL JUST TOLD ME HE'S A NORMAL HUMAN NOW???"**He mentally grabbed the nearest celestial clipboard and snapped it in half like a breadstick.
"WHY GOD, WHYYYYYYYYYYY???"
He looked to the sky—well, mentally—and yelled like a tragic soap opera hero from a 90s TV show:"WHAT SIN DID I COMMIT?? WAS IT THE TIME I CHEATED ON A MATH TEST??""WAS IT THE TIME I ATE MY FRIEND'S FRIES AND LIED ABOUT IT???""IS THIS MY PUNISHMENT FOR NEVER LIKING THAT ONE RELIGIOUS WHATSAPP CHAIN MESSAGE???????"
He grabbed at his invisible collar and screamed in his mind:"TAKE ME BACK TO THAT DEMON'S SOUP POT, I'D RATHER DIE SEASONED WITH SPICES THAN WALK AROUND WITH THIS BOZO!"
The heavens, naturally, did not reply. Only the buzzing of a faraway fly and the faint honk of an auto-rickshaw echoed in the background.
And then—
"Hey bro, you there?" Gorgo waved a hand in front of Dhruv's blank, soul-departed face.
BOINK.
Dhruv snapped back to reality like someone just slapped him with a fish.
He blinked once. Twice.
"…Yeah," he muttered, his voice hollow. "Fully here. Mentally thriving. Absolutely not considering jumping into oncoming traffic."
Gorgo nodded innocently. "Cool cool. So… we walking or hitchhiking?"
Dhruv let out the longest, most exhausted sigh known to mankind....
-TO BE CONTINUED