The relief water quenching a raw throat was the kind of satisfaction twinkle felt seeing Harshad in this state. The smug look, arrogant body language and flirtatious voice didn't leave his throat as he sat quietly and to some extent fearfully.

Lakshya carefully wrapped up the cuts on the defeated boy, electing a whimper every few minutes. Once he was done, he set the supplies aside and smiled at him. One that gave the terrified teenager a sickening feeling. "So, how was your stay in the coffin?

He tried but Harshad couldn't form words. All that came out was a lump of air.

"Do you remember that feeling of being stuck in that box? With no way to escape, creepy crawlies all around, no room to breath... You were screaming but no one heard you," he gave twinkle a glance. "That's how she felt when you cheated on her. Suffocated and scared. She begged you to let her go but you paid no heed. That's how it feels, Harshad when someone hurts you and uses your fears against you."

"You knew she loved you and feared losing you. Instead of telling it to her face that you dont feel the same, you kept her in a meaningless relationship. And well, I hope that taught you a very valuable lesson,'' Shikar crouched so he was at the same eye level as him while Lakshya started packing up the materials used and preparing to throw away the used items. "Don't mess with us. Don't mess with any other person for that matter. If we find out you did, no matter where you are, we will find you and make the experience even more unbearable."

Laskhya picked up all the things he had to and patted Shikar on the back, "Don't be so threatening," he turned back to Harshad with a more serious expression. "But he's not lying. I'd watch my back if I were you. Good night. I hope you have atrocious dreams."

As they were about to leave, Shikar paused. He turned to twinkle to see her staring at Harshad with unshed tears. "Twinkle?" he called out gently.

"I'll be fine. I just need a moment."

They nodded and walked off to their tents to crash for the night. Once they were gone, twinkle spoke. "Harshad I... I am not sorry but I really wish things could be different."

"Did you really feel that way?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

"What?"

"Did u feel...suffocated and hurt?" he explained barely above a whisper as he mindlessly played with the bandage around his arm.

If she was anything like Divya, she would have slapped him at this moment. "Are you dumb? Or are you just so self-centred that you don't get it? You cheated on me and used my feelings- used me! And you are asking me if I was hurt?" Any sympathy she was feeling for him was absorbed by the grass she was standing on. She was still silently hoping that he was guilty of what he did. Now she feels like an idiot for wishing for something so ludicrous. "No shit sherlock. I feared losing someone I loved and you used that. But when I got over that fear and decided to move on and set you and myself free, you threatened to slut-shame me just to keep your reputation among those people you called friends."

"I-i didn't realise..."

"Being in a worthless relationship was suffocating. I couldn't do things like go on dates or share my eye candies with someone because that would have proved the allegations you were going to make, true. It was asphyxiating and lonely. A black hole that sucked up every bit of love I had for you. All that's left is hurt."

Harshad kept his eyes on the ground. "I was a narcissistic jerk."

"That's an understatement."

His cheeks flared up in shame as he realised what he had done. He played with someone's feelings to the point where all the person felt was hurt, not even anger or disappointment. That was a whole level of low. He didn't realise that at that point in time but now he did. He understood the repercussions of his actions. "I get what it feels like when someone uses your own flaws against you. I am sorry," this time he looked at her and kept his voice steady. "I know these words wouldn't make up for what I did but... I am sorry. I get how much of a dick I was. Using you was wrong on so many levels and then cheating on you was... I am sorry."

"If only you realised this sooner. It wouldn't have reached this point."

"Is there anything I can do to make up for this? Twinkle... I want to make up to you."

Twinkle said nothing and returned to her tent. For years she wanted him to apologise so she could get closure. Today she finally got it. He realised his wrongdoings, she hoped he did; and sounded sincere. She felt a new kind of relief flood her. Like a healing wound. It would leave a scar but now she could move on.

---broken promises---

For a moment, Drishti thought she misheard it. She whipped her head towards the unsuspecting guitarist in shock. The word felt so nauseatingly familiar yet so alien coming from someone she didn't even like. However, she would be lying if, for a second, it didn't feel like her little sister was calling out for her.

"Di..." she whispered to herself. She glanced back at the younger girl, eyes slightly glossed over.

Why do I even care? It's not like she is divi. Maybe she has a sister that lives far away? She is not who I am looking for. But the word was so soft and gentle, almost like how her sister sounded. Shaking away her thoughts, she pushed the wave deep into her heart, filing the information to mull over later. She went back to the sky praying that she would find her favourite person soon.

The younger girl didn't seem to notice what she just said as her eyes were glued to the sparkling sky. The moonlight shimmered in her brown highlights and her face contorted as if deep in thought.

Divya quickly shifted from thinking about her biological family to her current family, her lifelines. She knew the conversation between Ragini and herself was pending. There was never going to be the right time. Sooner or later they had to discuss it. She had even simulated how the conversation would pan out in her mind but they all ended the same way. Pitying looks and then walking on eggshells around her. It was happening now as well. She didn't want that. She wants to be treated normally. After her confession, everything would inevitably change. So as much as possible, she tried to avoid it. At Least until the camp was over.

After that, she would deal with all the things to come and revisit the stupidity that changed her life. The stupidity that led her to close herself up as much as possible. Only letting the special five people in. yet never discussing how she ended up like this. It was an unhealthy coping mechanism, they said. Talking about it was better. Letting yourself feel and exercise emotions was important. She did, in her music. Their compositions came from all the crap they faced.

Furthermore, how could she exercise emotions she can't recognize? All that was present when thinking about that day was numbness...empty. To fill up that void and feel something, she got irritated, sad, angry. Even those were façades at times. Sometimes, it was just what it was, numb.

there isn't any part of her that feels anything else. So why eat? Why sleep? Why continue to breathe? She often asked herself. But she has a loving family- her only companion in the wilderness called existence. It is the fuel that keeps her scarred heart pumping and brain ticking over. Without them, I'd be nothing, feel nothing.

It would be a lie to say she never considered running a shiny blade through her wrist to feel something in those moments. Somehow, she managed to stop herself. It's not worth it. Instead, she let that emotional numbness swim around until she felt again.

"I am sorry," Drishti said, interrupting the younger girl's staring competition with the stars.

Divya met her with a confused expression. "For saving my life or saying something really uncalled for in the locker room? Cause the former one, I don't need an apology for and the latter... let's just say I don't care."

"You seemed to care a lot at that moment."

Divya subconsciously rubbed her arm thinking what she should reply with. She didn't like what the housemaster said but she saved her life. If it were any other way, she would have probably been in Harshad's position.

"We pulled a prank and it pissed you off. Like we said early, we can't control people's feelings. You were angry and said something to make me angry. That was my reaction to that emotion."

"So you're not mad anymore?"

"I don't know. It's... never mind," she shook her head. "Looks like you are less tolerant and short-tempered than I thought."

Drishti would have been offended if the allegations didn't make sense. "I-i don't know what came over me. None of that should have been said to anyone. Your parents are really lucky. I should never have said they didn't want you. I am sorry. I'm not usually like that."

"Hard to believe," Divya drawled. "By the way, you would've been where Harshad is if you didn't save me that day. So count your blessings."

"I saved you?"

"Yeah. According to my friends, they couldn't find me in the bromine room. It was you who spotted me first and thank you for that," she said, receiving a small smile and nod from the class parent. "Come to think of it, what were you saying when you did find me?" she inquired with genuine curiosity.

"I was just asking if you could hear me. I actually wanted to ask you the same thing. There was a lot of panic going on so I couldn't really hear what you were mumbling."

Divya wrecked through her memories to figure out what she had said in her almost unconscious state. "I...I don't know. I guess something about helping me probably."

Drihsit nodded, not wanting to push further. She knew it wasn't along those lines at all considering her lip movement that day. Instead, she chose to clear the doubt in her mind since that day. "I thought it was a prank at first. When you called me I meant."

"You were the last contact so I think I hit that. In case you didn't realise, I wasn't in the best frame of mind at that time." she snarled.

Drishti let the silence draw longer between them. She needed to apologize for what she said. But there was another thing nagging at the back of her head since it happened. "Why didn't you punch me?"

"What?" Divya coughed, caught off guard.

"You're the most violent one from what I've heard. I'm still surprised you didn't smash my headlight just to make it even but I'm guessing that was because you had other priorities. But that day, why the wall? You had me right where you wanted so why not me? Not that I'm complaining."

Divya didn't answer for a while. "I don't need to tell you that," there it was. The wall that shielded her from the world. Drishti cursed her naivety and thought she could get the girl to tell her something personal. "Besides, I get where it came from. Actually, that's the first time someone stood up to us like that. I respect your guts." she praised, looking actually impressed for once.

"You do?"

"Don't flatter yourself. It's just a one-off. Other than that you are really irritating and I dislike you. You are also damn blessed for not being on the receiving end of my fists. According to ja-Ragini, they drew blood."

Drishti noticed the slip when the girl mentioned her best friend but ignored it. She instead signed and got on with her apology. "Whatever you guys did was...horrible to say the least. But I was out of line. I didn't have the right to drag your personal life into this. I am sorry," she scooted just a little closer to the band member, making sure to keep a comfortable distance. "Not just for what happened there."

"What else?" Divya pinched her brows together.

"We both know how our first meeting was," she said, recalling their encounter on the road. "Then I came to space and I learnt about your reputation and your bullying of shahid," she explained carefully.

Divya immediately clenched her fist out of habit. That boy who harassed and almost violated her best friend, mentioning his name was enough to boil her blood. "Personally, I don't think he got enough after what he did," she mumbled.

Drishti seemed to pick up on the anger radiating from her student and scooted back to her original position. "I found out that he almost committed suicide because of you guys. I thought it happened just because he asked Ragini out. Turns out I was wrong. I got to know about the stalking and..."

"How?" came her sharp question.

"Ms Malhotra filled me in," Drishti said. " but it wasn't her fault, she was protecting you guys," she added quickly, seeing Divya on her feet about to march off for a confrontation. There wasn't a need for that. "When my accusations got serious, the cat came outta the bag. My point is, I had assumed the worst of you guys and I am sorry for that. Yes, you all are monsters and bullies in the name of pranksters but not murderers."

"Really now? you think we enjoyed him almost jumping off," she scoffed. "No, Miss Sharma. Our goal was to get back at him for all that he did to Ragini. The MMS was to make him realise how Ragini would have felt. If he did what he wanted to, that humiliation and pain were what she would have gone through in fact worse. I won't let anyone do that to my family."

"I don't support what you did but I am sorry for judging and assuming you all to be vengeful murderers. It wasn't fair. Murder and bullying are two very different accusations."

"Him going to the rooftop wasn't part of our plan. We weren't even at school that day. As much as I'd like to see him dead, we would have stopped him. We wouldn't have let him live in peace either. So we gave him the option to stay or leave. He made his choice."

"Why do you guys go through all this trouble? Just tell the police."

Divya broke into a fit of sarcastic laughter. "Police? really? Oh, you are so naive. I don't know which fantasy you live in but in this world or country at least, the police don't want to help. Ninety-seven per cent of rapists get away scot-free and you are telling me to go to the police. Hell, the penal code doesn't see marital rape as a crime here."

Drishti kept mum. She couldn't deny these points. Marital rape was not okay. Just because you are married doesn't mean you get to have sex when it's not consented to. As inhumane and wrong as it was, the IPC considers it legal. So what would the law do for Ragini in this case especially if all the evidence was circumstantial or non-existent? It would have been Shahid's word against Ragini's.

Drishti sighed knowing this was a losing argument. "Let's get back now. It is 3. I wanna get at least a couple of hours of shut-eye."

Divya nodded and stood up. They silently made their way back to the campsite. Before they parted, the rockstar halted the teacher. "Apology accepted," before Drishti could respond, she continued. "And you saved me and we saved you from Harshad so we are even now. However, this does not mean we are friends or anything. Got it." she held her hand out for the diplomatic gesture.

"Got it," Drishti affirmed and shook her outstretched hand. "Goodnight."

"Good Morning." she rolled her eyes, heading back to her own tent.

After all that, she didn't dislike the teacher as much anymore so making peace with the classparent seemed like a good idea. She didn't care what people thought about them. Some called them monsters, other heartless creatures. This was the first time someone apologised for it. It felt nice for some reason.

Entering her tent, she zipped up the entrance. After quickly taking off her boots, she snuggled up to her best friend.

Ragini's instinct was to shove whoever it was and run away. Her mind briefly flashed back to when Shahid had done something similar. Just as her muscles tensed and her fist was about to deliver a blow to the person, the human spoke, "good morning jaan...or good night?"

It was enough to stop any form of the assault she was planning and unwind her cramped nerves, "Took you long enough." Ragini said sleepily when she felt a cold body cuddling up to her warm one.

"You have no idea." she sighed.

---broken promises---

As the sun dawned upon the campsite, all the campers exited their tents and stood in front of the makeshift podium for further instructions. Most of them patiently waited while three restless souls were itching to get this over and done with as Ms Andrews went through her notes before starting.

"Campers oi."

"Oi!"

"Today is pretty relaxed. Your night hike starts at 6, so until then, the day is yours. Chat, play, explore the place but keep within the boundaries and rest up well before the hike. Report back at the podium at 5.30. Don't forget to keep yourselves hydrated ya. Is that okay?"

"Alright!" The campers slowly broke off into their respective groups at their designated areas to take attendance.

"Where's Harshad?" asked Drishti noticing her missing group member.

"He left the camp this morning. Personal reasons." Rajat supplied.

"I think I know what personal issues there were," she mumbled under her breath eyeing the notorious band who merely smirked and cocked their heads to the side. "Anyways, you heard Mrs Andrews. 5.30 back here. Actually, make that 25. We will take attendance first."

The first thing the band did after being dismissed was barge into Mrs Malhotra's morning coffee time. Each one of them wore a harsh glare, especially Ragini. "What the hell did you do?" she demanded.

The principal happily placed her mug on the table after taking a large slurp from the cup. "Well, I drank coffee if that's what you're talking about."

"That's not what we are talking about," shikar growled, taking a step towards his principal. "We are talking about you telling Miss Sharma about shahid."

The smugness in the principal drops and she stares at the four with an apologetic frown. She should have seen this coming. Albeit it wasn't her place to tell but she couldn't sit and hear the accusations hurled at her students. "I did it to protect you guys."

This time Ragini strode forward and took a seat in front of the older woman staring at her dead in the eyes. "I don't need protection. It wasn't your place to tell her anything."

"She was pretty much accusing you guys of murder. I couldn't sit back and let someone accuse my students of something this huge."

Ragini softened her gaze but kept the anger evident. "We have been accused before, nothing makes her different. She is just another person that doesn't know the facts."

"She is your classparent and someone that was alleging murder. Not bullying, murder. Do you know what that means?"

"So what. We have had different titles throughout the years."

"Monsters." lakshya supplied.

"Satan with instruments." shikar threw in.

"Devils from hell," Divya added to drive the point home as they all joined Ragini at the table. "You shouldn't have told her."

"Alright guys, I know you think what I did was wrong. I admit to some extent it was because it's not my place to tell. I'm sorry about that. But what I am not sorry for is protecting my kids from being called cold-blooded murders that drive another student to suicide without knowing the circumstances. She didn't even know you guys were punished for the MMS and yet she had the nerve to confront my methods and accuse you guys of something so severe."

Ragini sighed as she dropped her defensive act completely. It was tiring to be pissed at someone. She wasn't a violent person nor someone that held a grudge. She practically wore her heart on her sleeves but when Divya told her about Drishti knowing the shahid incident from their principal, she was not pleased. But now with all said and done they can't do anything.

"We appreciated the sentiment but it was wrong ms m. I dont want anyone to know about this. You know because you are the principal and whatever happened on the rooftop. But other than that, no one else in space needs to know. They can call us anything, we don't care. But now one needs to know."

Miss Malhtohra gave her a firm nod. "I get it. From now on, no one else will know. My lips are sealed. I am sorry."

"You better be or else." Divya begin

"We won't be so nice..." shikar continued but stopped getting a nudge in the shin by Lakshya and Divya from Ragini. They scowled at the older members but they weren't bothered.

Laskhya decided that the meeting was over and stood up first with the rest following after him. "We will see you later ms m." he waved her goodbye and left the command post with the 2 youngest members.

Ragini hung back a little, still looking at Ms Malhotra although she was stoning.

"Ragini?" The concerned principal shook her a bit. Coming back to the real world, she apologised, attempting to get up. "It's not your fault. Shahid, Harshad, it's not your fault."

Ragini gave her a small smile as she got up and made her exit, stopping to say, "I know, they made sure of it." she knew the older woman would know who 'they' were.

The principal gave herself a pat on the back and continued sipping her coffee. She hadn't expected them to be so calm when they found out. She was almost certain she would have needed to replace something because Divya would have broken it in her fit of rage. Yet, she thanked her stars that this happened during aspire camp. The three of them always remained more in control of their actions during aspire camps. Ragini and sometimes lakshya was always calm and ensuring they were not doing something stupid...too stupid.

The midnight spirits decided to have a breakfast table for a while before catching up with some sleep. Just as Divya was about to continue giving them the details of her conversation with their teacher, she appeared from behind them with her own plate of food.

"Speak of the devil," Shikar said not bothering to hide his disdain.

Ragini sighed at her little brother's inability to be civil. "Miss Sharma, good morning."

The housemaster mouthed a thank you before returning the greeting, "Good morning."

"Is there something we can help you with?" Lakshya inquired, getting slightly annoyed at her silence for a whole two minutes whilst giving them apologetic looks. "Cause if not, you're being a little weird."

She cleared her throat awkwardly, playing with the salad in front of her. "I um... I wanted to say," she took a deep breath and said the test in one go. "I am sorry."

Divya chose to remain quiet as she kind of expected this since Drishti sat down. She watched her friend's confused reactions carefully. Ragini was the first to find her voice after the shocking statement. "Why?"

"It was wrong of me to assume you guys to be murderers after..."

"no shit," Shikar grumbled, cutting her off.

Drishti nodded her head. "I didn't know what Shahid had actually done and I thought you deliberately put him on the rooftop and wanted him to jump. To me, it was you guys being murders blinded by rage because someone asked your friend out. But then, Ms Malhotra told me the actual story and that you guys were not behind him going to the rooftop."

Ragini sighed for the third time that day. She needed to navigate the situation before any of the three highly emotional teenagers did something and trigger another round of pranks. "It's okay. Most people see us as vengeful monsters either way. But thank you for apologising. It means a lot. right guys?" she said, ever the voice of reason. they didn't really include her as a monster because she seemed to be absent from their stunts most of the time but she had her fair share of moments.

Drishti played with her hands in her lap waiting for an answer to Ragini's question from the two boys. She already knew what the youngest female had to say about this.

After a few seconds of uncomfortable staring and silence, they relented, giving nods of approval. Even what she would assume to be a hint of a smile because of how their lips inched upward.

Laskhya decided it was time to settle once and for all. Divya wasn't saying anything and looked bored. Assuming this was what they were talking about after he left yesterday, he proposed a solution. "Let's call a truce."

"We already did," Divya said, causing three heads to turn to her. "We called truce this morning. We will stay clear from each other. She helped us, we helped her. It's settled."

"Alright then. We've put our guns down."

"Just to be clear this doesn't mean I support all your bullying. You are not cold-blooded killers but still bullies."

"We get that a lot." the three grinned.

Ragini shook Drishti's hand as a sign of diplomacy before she left them alone. She then turned to her best friend with a raised eyebrow. "What was that all about."

"I'll explain later during the hike. I need some sleep right now."

----

A/N: don't forget to R&R!