Crawling in my skin

Akira was lost in her search when she received a call from Vikram.

Suddenly the hair on her skin started rising up, like revolting against her body as she saw his name flashing on the screen of her phone.

Even though during the last one and a half year he had become a changed man, he was someone because of whom she had suffered all this in the first place. Even though he was her best friend who supported her all this time in Raymond's absence, she felt like taking a spear and jabbing it through his heart.

That was the level of hatred that was being harbored in her heart for Vikram right now.

He was one of the pillars of her strength, he had changed but right at that moment, under the shade of anger, nothing mattered to her.

He had even helped Katherine with a project land so that she could convert her clinic into a full-fledged hospital. In short, he had tried to do everything possible in the last one and a half year to win her over.

Acquiring that land wasn't easy, but when it came to Vikram, he was the man who could make anything possible. So with his sources and his money, he made it possible for Katherine to obtain that lease even though that piece of land was a bone of contention between multiple parties.

He had changed. Maybe for her, but he had changed for good.

But now she realized that it was just part of his act or maybe an attempt to get rid of the guilt that was choking him from within for all these days. She thought that all that guilt was because of all the planning and plotting that he had done against Raymond and his company. She thought that maybe he was guilty of trying to sabotage the career of Raymond.

But now she knew that the reason of guilt was not this at all.

The main reason behind his guilt was his hands, which were stained with the blood of Raymond. Tainted with his life, which he had destroyed, along with the life of people associated with him, including hers as well.

She had saved him N number of times. If Raymond would have had wanted then he would have been behind the bars since long, but just because he was Akira's friend, Raymond had refrained from doing so for her sake.

She wanted to pick up the call and just lash out on him. She wanted to unleash all the anger that was cooking up inside of her, running through her veins.

But this time the anger inside of her had a new language. The language of revenge. This time she wanted to punish him for all the pain that he had inflicted on Raymond, She wanted to punish him for even thinking to take away his life. She wanted to punish him for lying to her all this time.

But she knew that he was a man who was ready to make her mother take the toll on his behalf. So she knew that she had to be crafty and had to plan well to make it happen.

So, drinking up the pail of hatred that was brewing within her, she picked up the call.

"Hey".

"Hey there. Busy?"

"Not much. You tell".

"How was your meeting?"

"It went well. They have accepted to our terms and are ready to do it at even a lower profit margin".

"What? How did that happen?"

"Well, you can call it a miracle".

"Not a miracle. I know you made it happen. I know you have the talent and skill to do it. You will soon become more successful in business than me Akira".

"Oh please, Vikram. There is a level of cracking jokes".

"I am not joking Akira. I am telling you the truth. Anyways you never trust me. So there is no point of forcing you to trust my words".

"Only you have the knack to convert a lively conversation into dark and dense".

Vikram chuckled after hearing her statement and then said,

"So all packed up? And what is all this noise around you? Are you outside somewhere?"

"No, I mean yes. A conference was going on here. So I just attended".

"What? Why would you go to a random conference Akira?"

"Not random. It's not random at all Vikram. It's something very very important", she said and stopped to take a pause and then again continued.

"It's something which even I never thought in my entire life that I would be attending".

"Don't strain yourself Akira. You already have so much pressure of work. Can you please go back to your hotel room and relax? Maybe go for a relaxing spa".

"This isn't the time for me to relax".

She said with a wierd smile etched on her face.