As Surendra was seated in the car, his mind racing with the thoughts of kanak.

" Where the hell is she?", Surendra questioned himself. He took his phone and called Vipul, asking for kanak's location.

"Sir, we have found ma'am location , I'm sending you", vipul informed him.

His hands gripped the steering wheel tighter than necessary. The engine roared beneath him, matching the chaos thundering inside his chest. His heart was pounding, not from fear, but from something sharper—urgency.

she had been a thorn in his side, the only one bold enough to call him out, to challenge his authority without blinking. And now she was at the mercy of monsters who didn’t care about politics or power—only blood.

His jaw clenched as the tires screeched around a bend. He tried to shake off the storm of thoughts, but they kept coming. Why am I doing this? She had humiliated him, exposed him. Yet here he was, driving faster than he ever had, every second eating away at his self-control. Anger surged through him—anger at Malhotra, at himself, at the world that had somehow made Kanak his responsibility. But beneath that fury was a strange sense of fear—something unfamiliar. What if I’m too late?

The GPS pinged, warning him he was only fifteen minutes away from the location. Surendra's foot pressed harder on the accelerator. The lines between enemy and ally blurred with every mile. All that mattered now was getting to her—before the world lost someone who had always fought to expose its darkest corners. Before he lost something he never realized he needed.

"Kanak,just wait for me, hold for few more minutes", Surendra muttered under his breath.

As his breath was in danger, him thinking about his last interaction with her, how he hurt her.

I hurt her

I hurt her

I hurt her....

The air inside the compound was thick with dust and dread. The faint, flickering light of a single hanging bulb cast long, trembling shadows on the cracked cement walls. Kanak’s hands were tied behind her back, her ankles bound tightly. Her face was bruised, a thin trickle of blood dried near her temple, but her eyes—though tired—still burned with defiance.

Malhotra, the cold-hearted enforcer of the Kaalnetra syndicate, stood in the doorway, his hulking frame silhouetted against the corridor’s dim light. His smile was the kind that made skin crawl—amused, cruel, deliberate.

“You talk too much, Kanak,” he said, his voice low and oily, like venom slipping from a snake’s tongue. “Always so brave. So loud. Let’s see how brave you are now.”

He dragged her forward by the arm, ignoring her limp and her wince of pain. They reached a rusted iron door at the end of the hallway. Malhotra pulled a ring of keys from his belt, selected one, and with a grinding screech, unlocked the door.

Kanak looked up, squinting into the darkness beyond. The smell hit her first—damp, earthy, and oddly pungent. Then came the sound: the quiet, unsettling skittering against stone.

Malhotra shoved her in.

She stumbled to her knees, the cold floor stinging against her skin. The door slammed shut behind her with a heavy thud, and the metallic click of the lock echoed like a final sentence.

Suddenly, the bulb above flickered on. Dim, but just enough to show her the horror around her.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of lizards clung to the walls, the floor, even the low-hanging pipes from the ceiling. Big, bulbous-eyed reptiles of all shapes, tails twitching, tongues flicking. Some were perched motionless, others crawled slowly, aimlessly—yet they all seemed to sense her presence.

Kanak froze, breath catching in her throat.

The lizards began to move.

One dropped near her foot. Another scuttled across her thigh. She recoiled, but with her limbs bound, she couldn’t move far. Panic clawed at her throat now, sharp and uncontrollable. Her breath quickened. Her heart raced. Her body was trembling—not from pain, but from the primal fear surging up inside her.

Outside, Malhotra chuckled as he leaned against the door, listening to the silence—and waiting.

Inside, Kanak squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will away the panic. This is nothing. They want you to break. You can’t break. But she could feel the lizards crawling, creeping over her skin, tailing along her arm, brushing against her face.

Her screams never came.

Only her shallow breathing.

Only her whisper, to herself.

“Not like this… not like this.”

But deep down, she knew Malhotra wasn’t done.

As the lizard moved across her legs, she finally screamed, pouring her heart out.

"Pleaseee, leave me, please", she shouted but Malhotra ignored her and went down to the hall.

His father, Manish stopped him, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Dad, please don't interfere in my matter", Malhotra stopped his father .

" You know , if something happened to her, Surendra Rathod will eat you raw, he is mad behind this girl, and you have abducted her, He will kill you and punish you in such a way that your entire generation will bear it"

Malhotra before his dad could say anything else, left the room.

Manish ordered his man to open the room and let her go.

As soon the door creaked open, kanak Panicked and ran outside. She was running without any direction, just for her life, she did not know where she was but her legs were continuously running for life.

Kanak’s breath came in sharp gasps as she ran barefoot through the jagged terrain, branches clawing at her skin, thorns tearing at her clothes. Her heart pounded not just from exhaustion, but from the terror that Malhotra and his men were still behind her.

Here, Malhotra came to know about kanak escape, he hired his men to find her at any cost.

They all were behind kanak, finding her in the forest.Kanak plunged into a dense forest, hoping its thick cover would shield her from the eyes hunting her down. Every sound made her flinch—a snapping twig, a distant call, the rustle of leaves. She was alone, scared, but determined to survive.

Meanwhile, miles away and closing in fast, Surendra and his friends tore through the landscape in their jeep, their faces set with resolve.

Every men was finding her in the forest, surendra was finding her in the forest as the location says.

Kanak’s breath came in ragged gasps as she sprinted through the dense forest, her feet barely finding footing on the uneven ground. The moon was high, casting pale silver light through the canopy. Behind her, the sound of footsteps—deliberate, heavy—echoed like thunder in her ears. They were still following her.

Her legs burned. She didn’t know how much longer she could run.

Suddenly, she broke into a clearing—and froze.

Under the gnarled branches of an ancient tree, three figures stood in silence. They were cloaked in black, faces half-hidden in shadow, but what caught her eye was unmistakable: each of them had a sword tattoo inked into the flesh of their forearms. The blades of the tattoos glinted slightly in the moonlight, as if real metal had been etched into their skin.

"We have to find that girl at any cost", a tall figure among them spoke.

It was clear that all were behind her.

On the other hand, " Sir it's a very dense forest, it's impossible for us to find her",a man of Malhotra said.

"Set the whole forest on fire", Malhotra ordered.

All the men spread the petrol in forest and while spreading petrol, one man saw kanak hiding behind a tree.

He silently grabbed Kanak from behind, kanak struggled to come out of his grip but his grip was getting tighter and tighter.Before she could scream, a cloth soaked in chloroform pressed hard against her mouth and nose. The sharp, chemical sting burned her senses. Kanak struggled, her hands clawing at the stranger’s grip, muffled cries escaping her lips.

Her heartbeat thundered in her chest, her vision spinning.

He splashed petrol across the dry leaves and tree trunks, the sharp stench filling the air. Flames licked to life as the first match struck, dancing hungrily, spreading fast with the wind.

The night forest echoed with Surendra’s fury as his army spread like a storm, torches blazing against the dark. Every order from his lips was sharp as steel—“Find her, she is here!”—and his men obeyed with relentless urgency. But before hope could tighten its grip, the forest roared alive with fire. Flames rose high, swallowing the silence, turning the search into chaos. A soldier’s panicked voice rang out—“Sir, the forest is burning!”—and in that instant, Surendra’s heart thundered with rage. "Sir, the fire will consume you!”—but he broke free, eyes blazing with the same fire that burned the forest. “Then I’ll burn with her,” he spat, charging headfirst into the inferno, “but I will not leave her in his hands!” The flames licked his path, the smoke clawed at his lungs, but Surendra stormed forward, his army trailing behind, every step a war against fire and fate.

Garv had already called the fire brigade. Surendra running madly in the burning forest to find her, his breath, his jaana....

The whole forest on fire, my heart beat fasting , from fucking 8 hour, 50 min and 43 sec I haven't seen a glimpse of her. The fire was increasing with each passing min and finally!,finally! I found her—

My breath, my jaana, my kanak..

She was tied to a tree, trying to catch her breath in this fire and smoke,her face pale, her eyes wide with terror as the fire circled closer. In that instant, nothing else existed. With a roar, Surendra cut her free, grabbing her arms tightly, bringing her closer.

"What the hell do you think of yourself?, why didn't you informed anyone?, are you a small child, what if something happened to you?", he shower her with his questions, his voice echoing.

" Why do you care so much?", Kanak screamed.

" Because I Love you dammit" Surendra shouted at the top of his lungs. As soon he completed his words , kanak felt a complete silence around her , still in the dilemma about what just happened.

Surendra soon placed his lips on her. Both stood still no one ready to move , kanak still and silent ,her body frozen the warmth of his lips, the desperation in his embrace, the raw intensity of the moment—it broke through all her fear. Her hands gripped his shoulders, anchoring herself as the fire roared around them, a mirror of the storm inside both of them.

Her lips were still , not ready to move and Surendra who moved his lips , taking her small whole lips at once.

A proposal in burning fire which was never expected by both of them.

Garv, sapna, tej, yash, prachi and Naman all ran towards them. Their moment was disturbed by all of them.

" Kanak , are you okay?", the same questioned asked by Everyone.

But before kanak could say something, her head spinning, making her vision blur, loosing her balance but before she could fell Surendra grabbed her in his arms.

Kanak's eyes getting closed with the final glimpse of surendra , all the voices in the background becoming inaudible to her.

The fire brigade control the fire, making a way for all of them to leave. Surendra took kanak to her house and called the doctor.

They all wait outside the room , doctor checking her inside. The air outside was thick with tension.

After few minutes the doctor came out," "She is fine , due to stress and fatigue her body was not able to cooperate, and the smoke caused her more trouble in breathing, that's why she fainted".

"Also , I had banded her leg which was bleeding because she was running without any slipper or shoes, but for now she is out of danger", the doctor said and left from there.

Everyone enter the room, and Surendra sat beside kanak, his mind still thinking about her condition and confession.

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