The corridors of Central Jaipur High were suffocatingly silent — the kind of silence that thrummed with danger. Every echo, every drop of rain seeping through cracked windows felt amplified. Lucy's heartbeat was a war drum beneath her ribs, steady but strained.
Her flashlight flickered. The battery was dying.
> "Siya, status?" she whispered, voice almost drowned out by the faint hiss of the earpiece.
> "Not good," Siya answered immediately, her tone sharp with tension. "Nick's men are converging on your side of the building. North and east corridors are locked down. You need to move. Now."
Lucy pressed herself against the wall, eyes darting to the far end of the hall. A shadow moved — tall, steady, and deliberate. Nick's men.
She crouched lower, slipping behind a row of battered lockers, her breath shallow.
The smell of wet cement and iron filled her nose.
Every sound — the creak of her boots, the soft hum of the storm outside — was a countdown.
> "Stay calm," she muttered to herself. "He's testing me. Always testing."
---
A flashlight beam sliced through the darkness, sweeping dangerously close to her face. Lucy froze. The guard's boots clicked against the tiles — one step, two, pause — then turned away.
The beam faded.
Lucy exhaled silently and crept out.
She moved fast — slipping between classroom doors, her every motion rehearsed. Every exit she passed was one she had memorized hours before. Preparation was her only advantage.
---
At the other end of the corridor, Nick Verma stood beneath a flickering light.
His silhouette was unmistakable — broad shoulders, wet jacket clinging to his frame, the faint glint of a wristwatch that had once belonged to Sid.
He wasn't chasing her blindly.
He was herding her.
> "She's moving toward the west exit," one of his men reported.
> "Let her," Nick said softly. "I want to see if she still remembers how to survive."
---
Lucy's earpiece buzzed again — Siya's voice came sharp through the static.
> "Lucy! I'm triggering the alarm on your floor — it'll throw them off. Be ready to run!"
And suddenly — the shrill wail of a fire alarm ripped through the silence.
Red lights flashed, sprinklers sputtered. Chaos erupted.
Nick's men turned instantly, scanning the halls as smoke began to fill the air.
Lucy didn't hesitate.
She sprinted.
Her boots splashed through puddles of water as she darted toward the maintenance exit — the one she had marked in her mental map an hour earlier. The air was thick, heavy with the metallic tang of sprinkler mist. Her lungs burned as she ran, but her focus didn't waver.
> "Almost there," she panted. "Almost—"
---
Nick turned, catching a glimpse of her silhouette through the fogged glass door.
For a fraction of a second, their eyes met — predator and prey, old allies turned enemies.
And for that instant, everything — the rain, the alarms, the chaos — fell away.
There was a flicker of recognition in his eyes. Maybe even respect.
Then his expression hardened. He raised his hand.
> "Don't shoot," he ordered quietly. "Let her run."
Because he knew — she'd lead him somewhere useful.
---
Lucy burst through the maintenance door into the open air.
The rooftop stretched before her — slick with rain, glowing faintly from the reflections of Jaipur's city lights below.
She stopped only when she reached the ledge, gasping for breath. The night smelled of wet earth, metal, and danger.
She leaned against the railing, letting the rain wash the sweat from her face.
> "Made it," she whispered. "For now."
The narrow escape had bought her minutes — maybe less. But in a battle where every second mattered, even a heartbeat's lead was victory.
Her earpiece crackled again.
> "Lucy, are you clear?" Siya's voice trembled.
> "Not yet," Lucy said, scanning the horizon. "He's not done. He's never done."
Below her, the streets shimmered like veins of silver light — alive, restless, oblivious.
And somewhere within those streets, Nick Verma watched the same skyline from his vantage point — his expression unreadable.
He lit a cigarette, the ember glowing briefly in the dark.
> "Run, Raven," he murmured. "The storm's only warming up."
Lucy turned her face toward the rain, letting it blur her tears from exhaustion and grief.
> "This is just the beginning," she whispered. "And I'll end it before it consumes us all."
The thunder rolled again — louder this time.
As if the sky itself was warning them both: the war had only just begun.
---