I Cannot Be Your Shadow Puppet

"Every Damsel in Distress is her own Hero!" Mia hid in the darkroom, terror numbing her extremities, the putrid odour from the morgue suffocating her and the overpowering feeling of dread spreading throughout her body, making her believe that the bodies lying there might be slightly luckier than her. She was never really disturbed by the smell at the morgue. Since her graduation days, she had trained her mind to ignore the sharp smell of formalin and forget that the body she was going to dissect had lived a life. A life that she would never know about. In fact, because of some of her anatomy lessons, she had actually fallen in love with the subject and enjoyed it a lot. Later, during her undergrad studies, she had started assisting (somewhat unofficially), her Forensic Medicine professor with the autopsies. She was always humbled by the experience. The knowledge that, after all, every human around her is reduced to just 'flesh and bones' once they lose their life force. The heavy door of the morgue creaked open, and she was brought back into the harsh reality of her present situation. He had reached here, and if she was found, it would mean the end of her! Her heart thumped loudly against the walls of her chest! How did she even land in this mess? She was a Doctor of Ayurveda, the Indian Traditional Medicine, happily managing her patient consultations through her private clinic. She wasn't even supposed to be in this hospital today, let alone inside the morgue. And then, she saw his burly silhouette against the flickering white street light, streaming into the darkroom through the door that he had just opened. Paralysed by terror, she closed her eyes and prayed for the strength that she needed to tide over this situation. ****