33. No Exit

The heart-wrecked girl of lost memory who was unexposed to the outside world wanted to seek shelter under the arms of a pure heart that beats only for her where she could hide from the dirty world and the dreadful earthly sorrows.
The comforting words would not be sufficient to explain the whole outside world. But the experience of the real world taught her in the very miserable way as such it would be as ever.
In search of her shelter, Akshara wanted to escape from those dirty-minded men and passed the big door to the entrance. In a hurry, she missed the opportunity to take a glance at her future that was within an inch gap and yet surpassed him.
She rushed out of the cave fiercely with her eyes tanked with tears and with blurred vision; she hit the man who was leaning on the wall. The man was none other than Ivan who extended his hands to help the needed girl.
Akshara rose to get on her feet and Ivan looked at her face closely. Akshara showed her gratitude by pushing him away and leaving out the word at Ivan, “Pervert! Get away from me,” and left the place to route towards the entrance.
The panic was applied on the face of Ivan Shirk after looking at the face of the girl who came out from the cave calling him a PERVERT, who was unwillingly standing outside the door of Frozen Crescent for the sake of Dev, his friend and the crown prince of Ayruzglow kingdom. Ivan wanted to know the reason for her rush, so he decided to follow her.
Ivan waited at a distance to gaze at her closely, while Akshara was caught red-handed by the Cave-Guards of Frozen Crescent. The giant-sized men over the entrance caught her by arms and didn’t allow her to venture outside the cave bar.
Akshara shouted at them to let her go instead they dragged her by her arms back to the Cave Bar. She was lifted above ground when the Cave Guards carried her to throw inside the Cave Bar. On her way, she pleaded, “No, No... Not inside, please. I beg you to throw me out to any beast. But, not inside this hell, even kill me. Let me die rather than live in this hell.”
One of the guards replied to her crying, “We don’t have any authority to decide. We are informed to guard this place. We are doing our job”
Akshara yelled at them, “I don’t remember coming in, please let me go out. I am an outsider.”
Another Guard replied, “Entry Only… No Exit. Shut your mouth. You are an annoying nympho.”
Ivan Shirk who stood some feet away overheard their conversation and felt guilty for the condition of Akshara. His mind lingered on her words ‘Let me die rather living in this hell’ pierced through his heart.
He took a deeper look at her condition, her hair was messy, her dress was torn, her cheeks, wrists were bruised. Ivan could barely sense what could have happened to her and why she wanted to go away from this place.
Ivan was immersed in guilt, “What have I done!!! Have I wronged her? What is she saying? She wanted to die rather living and she said this Frozen Crescent as hell. Oh no… What have I done? Oh my dragon god, please forgive me for my sins… I thought it would be safe for her… But it turned as hell to her…”
Akshara cried a lot to beseech them, passed Ivan, “Please let me go…don’t take me inside. I don’t think I can bribe you into letting me go… I don’t have anything with me… even I don’t have my memories… Please, let me go…”
Ivan is traumatized about Akshara’s Memory Lost condition, “What... How could this happen? She was fine…yes… just fine… when I saw her the last time. When I left her here, she was just fine. H-how did she lose her memory? Could it be the effect of the medicine used for healing her …? No, it can’t be like that…
Oh…If she lost her memories, indeed she needs my help… It is me who manipulated the battle… It is me who craved revenge…I must be the reason for her cause. If not me, she won’t be facing this situation… She will not be here with her sound conscious knowledge. I am to be blamed and cursed for her condition. I must do something.”
One of the guards replied, “It’s a waste of your energy in begging us… Go back”
Another guard opined to her, “Girl, you have your beauty. Use it wisely and survive this place.”
Chaos passed Ivan who was vertical against the wall to hear their conversation, run towards the guards, apologized to them and took Akshara back from them. Chaos asked Akshara by lending her some clothes to cover, “Axe, what happened? You look like a mess. Where are you heading?”
Akshara rested her head on the shoulders of Chaos to leave her emotion of loud cry and looked at her face and asked, “Chaos, take me to the higher authority of this place. I want to meet them. Take me quickly. I wanted to know how I entered this place.”
Chaos replied, “Agreed…But, calm down…”
Akshara urged her, “No Chaos… Take me now” and left the place.
Ivan facepalmed him, felt sorry for her. Guiltiness started to swallow his mind and Ivan could not withstand it and went inside to the Cave Bar to ease his guilt and confusion with his friend.
*****
Inside the bar, Dev was found in his usual place with his favourite red wine. Ivan rushed towards him and opened his mouth, “Dev, I need to clarify… with you”
Dev nodded while sipping the wine, Ivan stated, “We wronged her…”
Dev gestured in a WHAT way with his icy blue eyes, Ivan replied, “That girl. We did what we should not do… (Dev gave a raised brow look) It's my fault… Dev, I…”
Dev handed him with a glass full of wine to his friend who was struggling to build up his words, “Drink this, and get some dare.”
Ivan wanted to finish his words but the colour of the wine instructed him to engulf it to ease his tremble of guilt within his heart to open up to accept his guilt. He looked at Dev and returned his eyes to the wine glass and Dev was busy swallowing his wine and without a second thought, Ivan in a single gulp emptied the glass.
Ivan tried to utter, “Dev…I… did…”
Dev who wanted very badly to forget his horrible dream dismayed to hear his friend mentioning another girl. Dev left with no choice to make him drunk to stop his further blabbering, filled his empty glass with wine adequately. Ivan was a hard guy to make him drunk with dozen bottles of wine.
Dev wanted to forget his dream, Ivan wanted to escape his guilt for twisting Akshara’s fate and Akshara wanted to meet the higher authority of Frozen Crescent to know what happened in her past.
*****