Episode----- 47
Night pressed heavy over Kolkata, rain washing alleys into black rivers.
Dev ran, lungs raw, the ledger burning in his hand like a live coal. Each footfall echoed through empty streets — a drumbeat of fear and resolve.
---
Behind him:
The sedan screeched around a corner. Malik's men leapt out, knives drawn, coats whipping in wet wind.
Dev ducked into a narrow lane, breath hitching. Walls wept rain, paint peeling into the gutter. His chest screamed for air.
Don't stop. One more street. One more breath.
---
Ahead:
Lights glowed from a battered sign: Sharma & Sons Press. Rusted shutters half‑open, ancient presses silent in the dark.
Dev stumbled toward it, every step an act of defiance.
---
A door slammed behind him. One man, blade glinting, blocked the alley mouth. "Stop, reporter!" he barked.
Dev's pulse spiked. If they catch me, Aria dies. Raian dies. The truth dies.
His free hand scrabbled at crates, found a rusted iron bar.
---
The man stepped closer, knife raised. "The ledger. Now."
Dev swung wild, iron sparking against wet brick. The attacker ducked — knife slicing Dev's arm, hot pain blooming.
But Dev didn't let go.
---
He rammed the iron bar into the man's ribs. The attacker gasped, stumbled back, slipped in rain‑slick mud.
Dev didn't wait. He ran, boots pounding cracked cement.
---
Inside the print shop:
Dust thick as grief. Cobwebs draped old machines. The smell of ink and rust, sharp and real.
Dev dropped the ledger onto the press table, breath ragged. His blood smeared the cover.
Print. Even if it kills me.
---
He flipped switches. Old cogs groaned awake, rollers trembling under age. The press rattled to life, louder than gunfire in the quiet.
Rain lashed broken windows. Shadows shifted beyond glass.
---
At the warehouse ruins:
Aria stood alone now. Ayan, Lina, and Bashir had slipped out — drawing Malik's men away.
But four figures stepped from the shadows. Knives. Clubs. Rain dripping from their sleeves.
"You're the doctor," the tallest sneered. "The boss wants your head."
---
Aria's chest rose and fell. Fear coiled sharp and cold in her gut.
But she lifted the rust‑stained rod, knuckles white. "You'll have to take it."
---
They closed in.
One lunged, knife flashing. Aria sidestepped, rod clanging against the blade, metal ringing pain up her arms.
Another grabbed at her shoulder. She twisted, rod cracking against his wrist. The knife skittered across wet concrete.
---
Pain ripped through her ribs — a boot catching her side. She staggered, breath exploding from her lungs.
Her vision swam. But she forced herself upright.
Don't run. Not now.
---
The man who kicked her stepped forward, teeth bared. "Brave for a little doctor."
Aria's voice shook, but words still came: "Better to be brave once… than live afraid forever."
---
He lunged. She swung.
Metal struck flesh; the rod slipped from her numb fingers.
The man's fist caught her temple — white pain flared, knees buckling.
---
She fell. Rain kissed her cheek. Blood trickled warm from her scalp.
Bootsteps circled her, shadows leering.
---
In the cell:
Raian's breath rattled. Chains bit his wrists.
The warden leaned in, voice a blade cloaked in velvet. "Last chance, Raian. Tell us where the girl hides. Spare yourself."
---
Raian's pulse thundered. Aria… alone, bleeding, hunted.
Memories rose: her laugh in quieter nights, her hands on his wounds, whispering "I won't leave you."
---
His jaw clenched. "I have nothing left to trade," he rasped.
The warden's eyes glittered. "Then give me your empire. Names. Routes. Betray Malik… and she walks free."
---
For a heartbeat, silence. Rain dripped from stone like tears.
---
Raian's gaze lifted, raw and haunted. "If I give you Malik… you let her live?"
---
The warden smiled, thin as a cut vein. "She disappears. New name. New life. Far from Kolkata."
---
Raian's chest heaved. My empire… everything Father built. Everything Rajveer died for.
But Aria's face burned behind his eyelids. Blood on her cheek. Fear in her eyes. And love, stubborn and trembling, refusing to die.
---
Slowly, voice breaking, he spoke: "Get me pen and paper."
---
At the print shop:
Dev fed pages into the ancient press. The machine thudded, ink staining paper with Malik's secrets.
Shipment dates. Bribes. Names.
---
Footsteps outside. Glass shattered. Malik's men, faces twisted in rain‑lit fury.
"Stop the press!" one roared.
---
Dev's hands didn't stop. His voice rose, ragged, half‑mad: "Print it! Print it all!"
---
A blade caught his shoulder. Hot pain tore across muscle. Dev fell against the machine; blood splattered rollers.
But the press clattered on, metal teeth biting truth into pulp.
---
He crawled, breath a wet rattle. Fingers shaking, he grabbed a half‑printed stack.
Even one page. Even one copy.
---
The attacker's boot crashed into his ribs. Bone cracked. The world turned grey.
Dev's vision swam. He pressed the paper to his chest, whispering: "Not ashes. Ink."
---
In the alley near the ruins:
Ayan and Lina staggered through wet dark, Bashir limping behind.
"Aria!" Lina gasped. "We have to go back!"
---
Ayan's gaze, raw with guilt, swept rain‑slick stone. "If she's alive, she's fighting."
Bashir's eyes burned. "Then so do we."
---
They turned, pain forgotten. Back toward broken windows and dying echoes.
---
At the ruins:
Aria's breath rattled, face pressed to cold concrete.
The tallest man raised his blade, rain running along the steel. "Say goodbye, doctor."
---
Aria's eyelids fluttered. Blood blurred her sight. But her lips shaped a single name:
Raian…
---
In the cell:
Pen shook in Raian's hand. Each letter burned worse than knives.
Ships. Routes. Names. Secrets Father taught him in whispers.
---
When the last word bled onto paper, his breath broke.
He met the warden's gaze, voice torn raw: "Now swear. She walks free."
---
Beyond stone and steel, rain poured.
In the dark, truth ran in ink and blood.
And far from hope, love stood bruised but unbroken — between ashes… or ink.
---
Teaser for Episode 48:
Dev's blood‑stained copies scatter into Kolkata's alleys. Aria's pulse falters on wet stone — until help comes from an unexpected hand. And Raian's betrayal sparks a fire that cannot be stopped.