Angel. That's the first word that came to my mind when I first saw her. She was wearing a yellow salwar suit, munching on jalebis as she walked to a shop which belonged to her family, I had presumed. As she walked down the street she spoke to almost each and every person she saw and gosh, could she talk?! Looking at her I wasn't sure whether she could stay silent for five minutes! But it wasn't these qualities which held my attention. I had seen many beautiful girls in my life - I mean I must have with the number of girls who have tried throwing themselves at me in the hope of getting my attention. But all those girls never held my attention for more than 30 seconds. This girl however, had me absolutely enchanted. What held my attention was her smile. No - in fact it was her whole aura. The beautiful smile never left her lips, and it was so infectious that she spread her happiness around to everyone she met. She just had this positive aura about her that made everyone around her want to be happy too, just like her name. Khushi.

I had been ordered by the police commissioner to secretly follow and protect a girl called Khushi. He had given me the case details and he had assigned me to handle the case. I have always been proud of the fact that I am one of the best police officers in our whole force. That was because I was the only one who didn't mind taking risks - I was the only one who was not scared by death. My job as a police officer was to protect the innocent and punish the criminals, and I would go to any extent to do that job. It was not as though any one would care if I died. The only person who would care if I died was my Dadi, but even she'd only be upset because there was no one to carry the family line forward. I mentally sniggered at that thought.

This case was extremely dangerous, which is why the Commissioner gave me the case. When I read the details of the case, I felt sorry for this girl almost instantly. As I read all the information gathered by the detectives about her, I realised that she was innocent and the poor girl was caught up in a very messy and dangerous web without even knowing it. At that instant I vowed to myself that I will save this girl no matter what.

As I spent months watching over Khushi's every move, I realised that she had such a pure heart. Everything about her screamed purity. What had me intrigued beyond anything was her selfless love. Generally, the one thing we can never get enough of is love, and the one thing we never give enough of is love. But this girl was something new altogether. Looking at her you would think that all the love in the world was locked up within her one tiny heart, and she gave it out so freely just like her infectious smiles. She cared for everyone - whether that was her Buaji, Jiji, her neighbours, or a mere stranger. She played plenty of pranks alright - I can never forget the day she changed the ringtone of the dhaba owner who had insulted the hungry children and had refused to give them any food. But then again her pranks were absolutely harmless...

Her biggest strength was her selflessness but then that itself was also her weakness. She didn't see the bad in people very easily, and when she did, she would forgive them very easily for their mistakes. People could easily take advantage of her innocence and I was glad that I had been assigned to her case - that way I could always protect her from all the harm that came her way.

My sense of protectiveness for this girl was increasing day by day and I had a faint idea as to why, but I didn't want to think about that. I wanted to avoid these sorts of feelings for good. She reminded me of someone I did not want to think about. That was a chapter of my life which I wanted to keep closed. Forever. Just the way I had promised myself that I would keep myself closed to everything and everyone. I had learnt life the hard way, and I knew that feelings and emotions only made you vulnerable. People preyed on you and stepped all over you. I may have been that prey once, but no more. Never again.

But this girl seemed to be breaking my barriers without even seeming to know. I hadn't let myself feel for so long. In fact I had thought that I was incapable of experiencing any emotion other than anger for so long. Oh and of course emptiness - the emotion I feel most of the time. I couldn't remember the last time I had actually felt something other than these feelings...

But now as I looked at the pale girl lying on the bed, exhaustion clearly visible on her face, I felt something prick my heart. I felt like kicking myself for being so harsh with her. But I also knew that unless I behaved like that with her, she would not learn from life. She was too innocent to live in this harsh world with no support. As I gazed at her, I ran through today's events in my head.

I had been following just like usual when I noticed a few men murmuring amongst themselves whilst looking at Khushi now and then. Just by looking at the discreet calculative look on their faces I could predict that their intentions were definitely not good. I glanced at Khushi who was completely oblivious to all this, as she was buying vegetables at the market, arguing with the vendor about the price of tomatoes. Slowly, I walked to a vendor next to Khushi and I pretended to have a look at the pumpkin. Out of the corner of my eyes I kept a watch on Khushi and the men.

When I saw Khushi walking away slowly, I waited for about 20 seconds before heading in the direction she went. The men were also following her slowly, and as she turned into an empty street, completely unaware of the danger around her, the men walked faster. I maintained my distance enough so that the men didn't know that I was following them, but I was close enough to run over to them when needed.

It seemed that Khushi finally realised that these men were after her, as she looked back to them a few times, anxiously. She started to walk faster and the men followed on. She then broke into a run as she realised these men were after her. The goons also started to run after her and I started to run behind. The sound of their footsteps was too loud for them to notice me running behind them. Khushi ran as fast as she could and with the goons and me running behind. When she got to the bridge, the men were only just a bit behind. She looked around hurriedly and in a split second her face had a determined look on it.

It was as though I knew her decision instantly. I could foresee her jumping off, and that's exactly what she did. She jumped. And so did I. The men froze when she jumped, as though they didn't s see that coming. Of course they wouldn't have seen it coming - they were just a load of paid fools after all. As I was behind them, they didn't see my face and my jump was too quick for them to be able to see my face. It was important that they didn't know that the police was involved in this - because that would mean that they would play harder. And the aim was to cut them off in the easiest and quickest method possible. Their awareness of police involvement will make things more complicated.

As I swam over to Khushi, I could hear the goons running off in case they got caught by someone. I heard her struggling in the water, and I quickened my pace. When I heard her struggling I don't know why but I felt like I wouldn't be able to breathe if she wasn't alright. I quickly reached over to her and took her into my arms at the first opportunity. She had her eyes closed and I realised that she had fainted. I held on tighter, as I saw her in such a weak state, wanting to protect her. I quickly took her dupatta and tied her to my back so that I could swim to the side with her.

As soon as I got to the side, I looked around quickly but carefully to ensure that no one was watching us. I quickly called the one person I knew I could always trust. He was the only one I could trust in this situation. Aman.

I called him, holding Khushi in my arms trying to give her some warmth. I hurriedly gave him details of our location and asked him to come and pick us up with a non-registered car. We didn't want any sort of evidence left behind.

The journey in the car was one of the worst in my whole life. Every second of it was torture. I could barely breathe looking at Khushi in that unconscious state, looking lifeless and cold. It felt like I was being strangled with no mercy. It was so hard to bear, but kept a straight face, reminding myself that I was only here to do my job. I should not be getting attached to my clients. Not her. Not anyone.

When we got to Aman's house, I went straight to the guest room while calling Sheetal, Aman's sister, asking her to change Khushi's clothes. As I set Khushi down on the bed and turned away I felt someone pull me back holding me by my collar. Hope sprouted within me, but when I turned back round I realised that Khushi hadn't woken up, but had held on to me during her state of unconsciousness, as though I was her anchor. I appeared nonchalant but only I new the heartache I had to go through as I took her hands off my shirt and left the room.

After Sheetal had attended to Khushi, I went to sit by her, waiting for her to wake up. I don't know why - maybe because I'd been shadowing her for the past 6 months, but I couldn't help but sit with her. I couldn't bear to be away from her, even if it was a small door away. At that moment I made my decision. I wouldn't let her leave until she was completely safe. I couldn't risk letting her go back to her family - the enemy had finally made their first move, and we couldn't let Khushi go because that meant exposing her to more danger. Even though that would make things easier for the police I was not going to put her at risk for our own benefit.

When Khushi had woken up I'd waited for her to clear her mind a little as it must all be a shock for her, and I offered her some water, knowing she would need it to calm her down a little. But then I reminded myself that I couldn't be too lenient with her - I had to handle her in the exact same way I would with any other case. I spoke as bluntly as I could with her, making sure I wasn't too harsh, and I kept a straight face. But this girl was able to get out all my most extreme emotions! Whether that was affecti- no that didn't exist for me. But definitely anger. Boy could she anger me! Here I was trying my best to be calm with her but she was hell bent on making me angry! No one ever got away with Arnav Singh Raizada. Not even her.

But every time I saw her face wilt with sadness and confusion, I couldn't help but loosen up a little. She was too innocent for this. I wasn't allowed to give her too much information about her case - the little she knew, the safer she would be and the easier things would be for us. So gave us as much information as I could without giving away too much. But it seemed that even that was too much for her to take. She became hysteric. She was too confused about everything.

When she tried to leave, I told her as calmly as I could that she couldn't go back home as it was just too dangerous for her. But that was the final nail in the coffin. She fainted. And I caught her. Again.

Now as I looked at her angelic face, waiting for her to wake up, I thought that maybe seeing me again may make her hysteric again. I thought it's probably best to give her some time to come to terms with everything that's happened in her life lately - or to be more precise, within the last day. So I called Sheetal and gave her an overview of what happened to Khushi today and told her to stay with Khushi and talk to her when she woke up. I told her to try and get Khushi to relax and feel comfortable with her surroundings. Maybe some girls talk would calm her down, I thought.

Then I walked out of the room reluctantly, looking back at Khushi's distressed face. I stood there gazing at her face for who knows how long. The ringtone of my phone broke my reverie. As I listened to the Police Commisioner, my face hardened. After putting the phone down I walked out determined. It was time to make some important decisions.

Note: Hope you guys enjoyed that! I wrote it from Arnav's POV as I thought you might want to know how he is feeling.