Whistling to keep himself awake, Neil leaned over the bonnet of his car. He was indeed struggling to not doze off, he was yawning rapidly. He had come to Delhi on a special case of theft, highly unusual in many ways.
But he had no lead as of now, so here he was, accompanying his colleague cum friend at a night shift. Saurav had insisted Neil to come with him, so they could sit and have a chat before Neil caught his flight at 2 am.
"You get to do this? How boring." Neil blinked his eyes numerous times to remove the blurring due to his yawns. There they were, at a post near Agrasen ki baoli, shooing away tourists, laughing at lame jokes.
"You know why they are trying to come here? At this time?" Saurav asked, sipping water to cool himself after a long day at work, the weather helping him.
"Why?" Neil asked, spotting a young girl, going secretly inside. He opened his mouth, shocked how she flouted the rule. He was pointing his finger at her and then looked at Saurav but he seemed to have lost his senses after drinking the water and due to fatigue. "-some rascals spread this fake news of ghosts, trying to push people down the well. Ruddy department-" Neil left Saurav to his ranting and ran towards the entrance, entering without any problems.
The sleek body walked cautiously near the walls of the well, keeping her hands on them. At one point, she stopped, running her hands on the wall , till where she could as she was rather short. As if inspecting something, her eyes roamed all around the well. Neil stood there, staring at her, not wanting to go further.
Baolis were, for him, very spooky. It was only when she resumed walking in a way that indicated she was hypnotized that he decided to go and stop her.
Just at the right moment, her shoe had been kept a little out of the edge and he held her.
"Are you mental ?" Neil hissed, looking everywhere but at the girl. "Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you for helping me though, Mr. Khanna." She spoke awkwardly. Being addressed by a stranger made him look at her.
"I don't remember telling you my name." Neil narrowed his eyes at her. "Of course you don't, you're wearing a badge for public display, aren't you?" When she put it, it sounded obvious.
"Right." Neil spoke, feeling embarrassed. He held her hand firmly and guided her away from the step well. "That's called flouting, miss-" Neil paused to make a dash with his finger in the air "now you aren't wearing a badge." He added.
"Pareikh." She spoke, hiding from his eyes. "Purpose?"
"I came to Delhi due to my architecture project. I covered other places but didn't get time to come here. I really wanted to but....I thought this time was perfect...I've got a flight to catch in a few hours." She sniffed in the end, looking scared, probably by the thought she was going to the jail.
"We don't send people to jail for completing their projects. When is your flight again?" Neil asked, softening . "2 am, Mumbai." She added, looking relieved.
"Airlines?" Neil interrogated. "Indigo." She replied. "Aha, same flight. You'd better come with me. Delhi is, not so safe in my humble opinion. Plus,I'll get to know how it feels like, being able to pursue what you want to." Neil spoke,smiling gently at her.
She looked hesitant.
"Okay?"
"Okay."She accepted the offer.