Another silence.
Then suddenly—
BZZZZT.
Ajay’s phone vibrated again.
Both of them looked down simultaneously.
A new message from Sandeep.
“Did she cry yet?”
Meera felt pure terror flood her body.
Ajay’s face turned ice cold.
Another message appeared immediately after:
“Send me the first clip before midnight.”
Meera stopped breathing.
Ajay slowly locked the phone screen.
Then he said something that changed everything.
— “I think he’s watching us live right now.”
Meera instinctively looked around the room in panic.
Ajay grabbed the suitcase immediately.
— “We need to leave.”
“Now?”
— “Right now.”
He moved quickly toward the door.
But the moment he opened it slightly…
he froze.
Meera’s heart nearly stopped.
Someone was standing outside.
Not hotel staff.
Not security.
A tall man in a black jacket.
And in his hand…
was a phone already recording.
The stranger slowly smiled.
Then spoke just four chilling words:
— “Mr. Sandeep says hello.”
Part 3 Meera’s heart pounded against her chest like a wild drum
Part 3
Meera’s heart pounded against her chest like a wild drum, each beat echoing louder than the next. The man standing outside the hotel room was no stranger; she could feel it in the air—this was no ordinary moment. The cold metal of the camera in his hand reflected the dim light, its lens trained directly at her and Ajay. The sensation of being watched, of being targeted, crashed into her with the force of a tidal wave.
Ajay froze. His back to her, his body stiffened like a statue as he studied the man outside. Meera could feel the terror swelling inside her, her throat tightening with panic. The door was barely open, just enough for the man to stand in the narrow hallway, smiling in a way that sent a chill down her spine. The camera he held wasn’t just an innocent piece of technology. No, it was an instrument of control. Of surveillance. Of power.
For a brief moment, the room felt small. The walls pressed in around her, the reality of the situation sinking in with each breath she drew. The air was heavy, thick with the weight of what was happening. It was like a nightmare come alive. The horror that had already been unfolding now had a face—one that wasn’t just unfamiliar, but unsettling. Ajay was no longer the calm, kind man she had trusted for so long. He was someone different. And now, he was trying to protect her from a threat that had been lurking in the shadows.
“Ajay,” Meera whispered, barely able to get the words out. “Who is he?”
Ajay didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he took a deep breath, as if bracing himself for the worst. The tension in the room was unbearable. She could see the hesitation in his eyes, a flicker of something she hadn’t seen before—something like fear. But it wasn’t just for himself. It was for her.
The man outside shifted, his silhouette visible through the sliver of the open door. His posture was relaxed, but his eyes were calculating. It was the look of someone who knew they held all the cards, and they were enjoying every moment of it. Meera’s skin crawled as she watched him. There was no mistaking it now: she was a pawn in a game she had never agreed to play.
Finally, Ajay spoke, his voice steady, but his eyes sharp with urgency. “We need to get out of here, Meera. Now.”
The words barely registered in her mind. Everything was moving too fast. Too much was happening all at once. She wanted to scream, to run, to do anything to escape this nightmare, but her legs felt like lead. She couldn’t move. The terror had rooted her in place, paralyzing her in a way that made no sense. She thought she knew Ajay—she had trusted him with so much of her life, but now, she wasn’t sure who he really was. How could she have been so wrong?
“Meera, please,” Ajay’s voice cracked as he reached out to her, his hand trembling slightly. “We don’t have time. They’re going to come for us if we don’t leave now.”
It took everything inside her to tear her gaze away from the man outside. The fear in Ajay’s eyes was real. He wasn’t lying. But that didn’t change the fact that nothing about this situation made sense. She had been lured here, brought into a world of secrets, lies, and manipulations she couldn’t even begin to comprehend.
“Where are we going?” Meera finally managed to ask, her voice hoarse, barely more than a whisper.
Ajay didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he glanced at his phone, which had been vibrating incessantly since the moment the man appeared outside the door. Meera’s mind raced, trying to connect the dots, but it was like trying to solve a puzzle with half the pieces missing. She had thought Ajay was different. But now, everything about him seemed… calculated. She didn’t know who he was anymore.
“I don’t know,” Ajay said, running a hand through his hair, frustration and fear radiating from him. “But I know we can’t stay here.”
The knock on the door came again, harder this time. The stranger outside wasn’t going away. The sound was like a hammer, each knock breaking through the silence, driving the reality of their situation deeper into her bones. Meera’s breath hitched, her chest tightening with each sound that echoed through the hotel room.
“Ajay,” she whispered again, her voice trembling. “Who is he?”
Ajay didn’t answer. Instead, he moved to the suitcase on the bed, grabbing it with quick, practiced movements. The urgency in his actions mirrored the panic rising inside her. She felt a rising tide of dread clawing at her, an overwhelming sense of doom that pressed against her chest like a vice. But what could she do? She had no choice. She had to trust him. For now.
Meera’s heart raced as she watched him pack the suitcase, throwing in items she didn’t even recognize. His hands moved so fast that it was almost as if he had done this before. But then again, she had no idea what Ajay had been doing when she wasn’t around. There were too many unanswered questions now, too many things she should have seen but hadn’t.
