"Yeah no. you guys did something," Ragini stated. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and raised her perfectly trimmed eyebrow at lakshya and shikar.

She had woken up this morning to an empty room. Divya had left the house earlier with a note saying she needs to do something and for that needs to go to school early. Ragini didn't buy it even for a second. Divya wouldn't get up early even if the world was ending. Her sleep is simply more important to her.

The fact that these two were also early and sitting in the canteen without the third musketeer, convinced her that something was off. These three were partners in crime. They wouldn't do anything without telling each other. If they were here, where was Divya?

"pfft...No we didn't. You have quite the imagination. Right lucky?" shikar chuckled nervously.

Lakshya nodded his head at Ragini. "We should be talking about you. Are you okay?"

Ragini stopped her prodding and took in the question. "I think I am. At first, I felt shitty for not standing up for myself...but then I realised I was being a fool."

A few years ago, she wouldn't have stepped foot into the campus. But now she didn't feel the need to stay hidden in the room. No one could hurt her now. With her friends all around. She was not about to let Harshad win after losing. That didn't mean she wanted to be alone but she wasn't going to be either way. Her family would make sure of that. As long as they were around she is fine.

"You were. Harshad probably needs to go to the hospital to have his ears checked. That scream was pretty loud and high pitched." shikar jokes.

"Are you surprised? They don't call me a musician for no reason. Anyways, I did freeze when all that was happening."

"You saw Shahid didn't you?" Lakshya asked although he knew better.

"Mhm. but that just gave me a push to shout. I won't let him or anyone for that matter to do what he did."

The boys smiled, giving each of her hands a little squeeze. "Shahid can never hurt you again and we will be getting back at Harshad. I promise." shikar stated firmly.

Ragini immediately shook her head disapprovingly. They didn't need to do anything. He was already getting his punishment of suspension. "He already got his punishment from Ms M. We don't need to do anything. We don't need jaan getting another...where is she?"

They both shrugged their shoulders and went back to drinking their coffee.

"So you guys just happen to be early on the same day and she just happens to not be with you and you just happen to not know where she is?" she raised her eyebrow as the initial topic of discussion came back to her mind.

"Yep pretty much." lakshya agreed.

"Funny." Ragini rolled her eyes. "Now seriously, where is she?"

They looked at each other before looking at Ragini. "We don't know," they said together.

"I totally believe you guys," she said with sarcasm dripping from each of her words. "If you guys did something just tell me now. If you end up in prison I need to know why."

"Aww, mera bacha. You care about us so much.'' Lakshya got up and kissed her cheek. He was trying to distract her but it wasn't that easy.

"That wasn't a denial, lucky." it wasn't the first time they did things without telling her. But when one of them is missing it makes her worry even more.

"It wasn't an admission either." shikar was quick to jump in. They both went back to their coffee avoiding eye contact.

"I know that look. You guys did something and you don't want to tell me...oh my god. Please don't tell me you did something to miss Sharma!"

The guitarist and drummer just remained quiet with their attention glued to the cups. Ragini gave them the glare she reserved especially for them. "Lakshya Maheshwari and shikar Maheshwari, where is Divya Singhania?"

They audibly gulped and met eyes with her.

Ragini leaned closer to them staring right into their eyes with an evil smirk. "Where is she?" she asked in a low growl.

Before the words could reach his brain, shikar blurted out, "Storeroom fourth floor beside the old recording room!" Ragini was sweet and all but when she is angry, she isn't to be messed with. Any other day he would have kept his mouth shut but she used their full names.

Without another word, Ragini walked off to the given location. Lakshya and Shikar cringed sliding out of their respective chairs.

"Lucky, we're going to be dead meat today." shikar whispered to lakshya.

He nodded sadly as they followed a pissed Ragini to the storeroom.

---broken promises---

Drishti was afraid. She was trying not to freak out. Not that she thought that this was by any means a haunted house; it was just a stupid old room in S. P. A. C.E. And it wasn't even the first time she was locked. Back at a younger age, she willingly locked herself up in her room for hours. Drishti was freaked out because... because... she couldn't quite explain. It was a visceral feeling.

Even though this kind of situation was something she could manage, the fact that she was trapped kept hammering her mind. And there was the fear; that odd feeling that unsettled her so much. That made her bones shake.

She was stuck in this dark room with no escape. Her phone had no service, so she couldn't even call anyone to get her out of this hell hole. All around her were just walls. They couldn't talk to her. They couldn't tell her that there was nothing to be scared of.

She curled into a corner with her knees to her chest and phone with the torch turned on in her hand. She hated the dark. It frightened her. It makes her feel vulnerable. In the light, she puts on a facade of a calm and composed person who has control of her emotions. In the dark, she doesn't know who is watching, who is judging her.

This darkness robbed her best sense and replaced it with a paralysing fear. She sat, muscles cramped and unable to move. The only way she knows her eyes are still there is because she can feel herself blink, still instinctively moisturizing the organs she has no current use for.

If they did this, they would let her out too. She just had to wait. Reminding herself of this was the only salvation that kept her hanging on.

She can't hear anything either. It should bring her heart rate down below the level of a rabbit in a snare. But it doesn't because this new sound of squeaking entered the furnace-like room. She used the flashlight and squinted her eyes in the dark to see what was making that sound. And then she saw them. Rats.

She screamed the loudest she had in a long time.

They were starting to crawl out from what looked like a little box and were advancing towards her. She jumped up onto the desk to avoid getting beaten by any of them. She tried shooing them away but they sadly didn't understand or care about what she was saying.

She cursed whoever thought this would be funny because it's not. It's dangerous. She despised rats from the very core of her being.

She was just starting to see the midnight spirits as good people. But this brought them back to square one. They were monsters. They didn't care about who they hurt as long as they got what they wanted. Which was to see her scared.

"Fine, I give up! You win. I'm sorry. Please let me out of here! I swear I won't tell anyone. Just get me out of here please!" she begged. She hated the desperation in her voice but she was surrounded by dark and rats, the two things she hated the most. The torch that was her saving grace was discarded long ago in her moment of panic.

On the other side of the door, Divya was enjoying her panicked state as she watched all the happenings on her phone. They had placed cameras in the room to monitor what was going on in there and to know if they needed to step in. Being able to watch her misery was just an added bonus.

Her grin turned into a pained cry when Ragini twisted her ear.

"ow ow ow. Ragini let go!" she squirmed around trying to free her ear from the pianist grip

"Divya Singhania, what do you think you're doing?" Ragini asked, releasing her ear.

Divya rubbed her ears to soothe the throbbing. "I was...exploring?" she offered weakly. She looked at the male members of her band for help but they just held their hands up in defeat.

Busted. Divya sighed. "you guys had one job, keep her distracted. Was that so hard?"

"Have you met her?" shikar asked. "She's scary." he hid behind lakshya to avoid the glare he got from Ragini.

"no, she's not."

"she is when she uses our full names." lakshya clarified.

Divya widened her eyes in realization. Ragini has used her full name a few seconds ago. She was in deep trouble. She smiled sheepishly at Ragini but she was not affected in the slightest.

"Explain," she demanded, arms crossed clearly unimpressed.

"Well you see..." she got cut off by the knock on the door.

Drishti had heard muffled voices from outside. Deciding that this was her best chance she carefully hopped off the table and blindly made her way to the door and banged on it. At this point, she was not concerned about her image as a teacher who got bullied by her students. She just wanted to get out.

"help. I'm stuck. Please let me out!" she pleaded.

Ragini shook her head disapprovingly at the three of them. She unlocked the door but was pulled back by Divya just as the door was pushed open and a pail of black paint overturned on Drishti.

The two guitarists and drummer burst into fits of laughter while the two women stared at each other in shock.

"I guess it's raining paint." shikar said in between laughs.

Drishti recovered from her shock and took a moment to breathe. Being free of captivity had a different kind of salvation. Once the moment was gone, she wiped off the paint on her face and glared daggers at the band. "I'm reporting this to the principal right now. You guys are so dead!"

The three laughed harder at this.

"I'm sorry. I'm so scared," lakshya said, controlling his laughter. "Do you think we are that dumb?"

"Yes. I'm going to ms m whether you like it or not."

"You could or you can just keep this to yourself and forget about it."

"You wish. I'm not a scared victim of yours who would cower in fear."

"You didn't let me finish. We don't mind if you tell Ms Malhotra. We are just concerned for you."

"Oh my. I'm so touched. Thank you so much for your concern but I will be fine on my own." she said, wiping away her fake tears.

"You're welcome but I doubt you will be after going to the principal." he sniggered seeing as he got her attention. "So, if you go to Ms Malhotra, the whole school will be seeing this beautiful video of you screaming and begging for help." he took out his phone to show her a video taken when she was inside the room.

She growled under her breath and lunged for the phone. shikar immediately leapt into action and snatched the phone out of lakhya's hand.

"Not so fast miss Sharma," he smirked.

"We understand that people have things they fear and we should be sympathetic towards them but I highly doubt the students of this school will understand that. Now the choice is yours." Divya stepped in front of her. "but here's some advice. Just forget it. Go to the locker room, get yourself cleaned up and go to class. It'll be like none of this ever happened."

"This isn't over," Drishti warned them before stomping away. She didn't want to be scared into silence but her reputation at stake. Her fears were not something she was ashamed of, she just didn't want people making fun of her and making her life hard. It's easy to judge and laugh at someone else but hard take a look at yourself and see your flaws. People would rather do the easier one.

One she was gone the three of them found themselves face to face with a very angry Ragini Khanna.

---broken promises---

They tried hard not to squirm as Ragini fixed them with a scrutinizing gaze from where she was sitting. The three culprits stood in front of her with her head hung low. Looking at them now, no one could tell that they were the biggest bullies of S.P.A.C.E.

"What were you guys thinking?"

"We are thinking of locking Ms Sharma in the empty classroom down the hallway with rats inside. Lucky and I would distract you until school started." shikar started.

"It's the most deserted corner in school so it was the perfect place. And to make it even more fun we placed robotic rats in there.'' Lakshya laughed but immediately stopped seeing Ragini scowl.

"You really thought you could distract me that easily?"

"Yes." they both nodded.

"And you miss Singhania, what were you doing there...exploring?" Ragini asked Divya who was silently watching the exchange.

"I was making sure nothing went wrong just like any other prank," she said innocently.

Ragini stared in disbelief at the three of them. "You guys got up early in the morning just to come to school to set all this up? And you didn't think that it might be a good idea to inform me?" she shouted, making them flinch but no one backed away. "What if something happened to her?"

"Nothing happened and divi was there to make sure of that." Lakshya tried defending them.

"We are sorry." shikar said.

"Yeah, next time we will definitely inform you so that you can bail us out of juvie." Divya joked but the timing was bad.

"Not helping," Lakshya whispers scolded. "Look, we are sorry. Nothing happened to her, the paint can be easily washed off, the rats were fake." he reasoned. He walked in front of her and pulled his ears slightly with a pout.

Ragini would have awed at him if she wasn't angry.

"What about..."

"I have bought a change of clothes for her along with toiletries," Divya assured her by taking a bag out from their jam room closet. She sat the bag down and went to stand beside Lakshya with Shikar joining her at the other side of him.

"From now on, unless she does anything stupid, we will not bother ms Sharma," Shikar promised to pinch his neck. "The score is settled."

"Promise?" Ragini asked, holding up her pinky finger.

They chuckled and gave her a pinky promise.

"Haa mera bacha. No more disturbing her until she does something." Lakshya told her.

"Oh shit!" Divya suddenly shouted, scaring the three of them.

"What?" shikar asked.

"I didn't get enough time to have breakfast. I'm hungry!" she jumped in excitement and turned to the door.

"Not so fast young lady.'' Ragini pulled her back by the shirt and pointed to the bag containing clothes and toiletries. "Girls locker room. now"

Divya pouted but picked up the bag and started making her way to the locker room. "Stupid prank. My breakfast got delayed."

"Should have thought about that earlier."

"You suck."

"I love you too."

---broken promises---

Drishti thanked the heavens as she stepped into the girl's locker room. It was empty. She didn't have to answer questions or deal with the strange looks she would have gotten. She sat down on one of the beaches running her finger through her now painted coated hair.

How was she going to clean up, she had no idea. There was no way she was going to go out like this. She sat there debating on whether to go home or not when two figures walked in.

She scowled at the shorter person. "What are you going to do now? Cut off the water supply? Give me a break Divya."

"That's exactly what I'm here to do," she dropped a bag on the bench. "We are not that heartless."

"Forgive me if I don't believe that."

"You will when you see what's in the bag." she leaned against the wall with arms crossed in front of her and waited for her to open the bag.

When she didn't move Ragini opened it up. "A change of clothes and toiletries you may need." she stepped back and let Drishti examine the bag.

"Why?"

"As I've said before, we are not that heartless. we did that to you and now we will fix it," Divya moved closer to her and pushed the bag a little closer. "Your first class starts in about 20 minutes. You should get moving."

Drishti stood up and stared at her. "I wonder what your parents have to say about this? They definitely won't be proud. It's sad to say they have failed in their upbringing." she smirked seeing the instant change in Divya's otherwise nonchalant stance.

She wore a look of pure rage and Drishti knew she had touched a nerve. "You better stop right there," Divya growled dangerously low. She clenched her fist at her sides to contain the anger.

"Why? I'm not scared of you. In fact, I want to know more about you. Did you have a messed up childhood?" she looked past Divya at Ragini. "Is that why you guys do this kind of thing? Projecting your insecurities on others to feel good about ourselves?"

This time Ragini stepped forward. "You don't know what you are getting yourself into," she warned.

"Tell me, what is it?" she continued ignoring the warning.

"We don't project insecurities. Anyways, the rats were robots. nothing would have happened. They didn't cause you any pain..."

"pain?" Drishti turned her attention to Divya again who seemed to be becoming more pissed, if that's even possible, each passing the second. "do you know what pain is or have you ever felt it? Because I have. You guys brought the 2 things I hated the most and made me live a nightmare."

"We have all felt pain and fear..."

"The pain of losing someone you love? The fear that she would never come back? Someone that your life revolved around? Do you know the feeling of waking up and finding out that person is not there." she said without ever breaking eye contact. She could see it. Her words were affecting her.

Ragini softened and gave a look of sympathy. "Look, I'm sorry for your loss but that doesn't mean you criticise others."

"That's rich coming from you guys. You know, I thought you were the nice one. turns out I was wrong," she went back to meeting the eye of the student seeing red. "Then again, how can someone like you feel that? Maybe if you did you wouldn't be like this today. Maybe your parents would be happy to give you up for adoption. At least it would save them the disappointment. " she scoffed.

That was it for Divya. She had been silently listening to Drishti barking nonsense to Ragini and herself and she had enough. Yes, they locked her in a room with robotic rats and dropped paint on her but they didn't go around poking in her personal life. She doesn't have the right to question them or their lives. She doesn't know what they have been through.

She grabbed Drishti and slammed her into the nearby wall, almost tearing her collars. She dug her nails into the fabric of her shirt hearing the slight rasp of material.

"you think you know me?!" she screamed, pressing her to the wall. "guess what? You don't. You don't know the slightest thing about me or my friends."

"I know your parents..."

"You don't! my real parents don't know who the fuck I am!" she pressed a little harder really pinning her against the wall. "I don't remember them either! The feeling you just said. Yeah, I know the feeling. I get it!" she shouted.

Drishti gasped in shock. "I m... S..." she stammered.

Divya raised her fist and Drishti closed her eyes as her reflexes kicked in. 

A/N: I'd really love to know what you guys think about the story! so dont forget to R&R.