Dark water - Nightwalker 

Vaanya

Darkness cloaks the room with a waxing horror bracketing me in as I rock back and forth—a coping mechanism I have taken up years ago—while hugging my knees tight to my chest. The stench of death is not far away and I tremble so hard, I feel I'd crawl out of my skin.

He's dead. He's dead. He is dead!

I release a shaky breath as a low sob begins to escape my throat and my palms dampen with sticky sweat. How did I land in a room with these girls? Why can't I remember a single detail from last night? It was supposed to be a harmless girls' night out with few drinks and banters—a dead body was never the plan. Oh Good God!

I slap my hand against my mouth to a harsh intake of air for my burning lungs. The girls are asleep—no passed out—I don't really know but what I do know is that we are in really dark water.

I prowl slowly towards the body on the marbled floor and inch my finger away from his nose. Oh my God. He isn't breathing. It's the third time I have done it.

The thunder crashes in the distance and the lightning flashes across his dead face fleetingly, sickening me with terror as it reveals his lifeless face, startling me and I sprawl back on my butt. I wheeze sharp pants as I begin to hyperventilate. Why can't I breathe? I need to breathe—in and out...in and out. It's not helping. I struggle to navigate my way through the pitch darkness and my feet hits against another limb. I soon fall onto my knees with a soft thud.

"Wake up," I whisper, tears constricting my throat as I shake her. I'm not sure who she is but I need at least a friend right now. "Please wake up," I whisper-shout and she groans in her sleep.

"Go away," Ella grumbles throatily, "Let me sleep." Crap.

I prowl to the other direction in hopes of waking up Maira or Sam and blessedly enough, I hear her moan lazily in her sleep. "Sam?" I mutter audaciously. "Sam! Wake up!"

"Vaanya?" Her voice is a thick rasp as I reach near her. "Hey, what's going on?"

"I don't know..." I trail off with my watery voice. "I—we—we got here and he's—he's dead." I stutter and choke on my muted sobs as I touch her hand and for a moment, I think she fell back asleep. "Sam?"

"Yeah, no, I'm here, I'm just—wait, who's dead?"

"Kunal!" I snivel because that's all I can manage to do with my shaking body. I hear the blood ring in my ears when I acknowledge it out loud. "I woke up a while ago and..." I wipe my damp face and release another shaky breath. "...found him lying on the floor with us." My eyes sting with fresh tears as I sit beside her and reach for a comforting hand—a hug—anything because I still feel I'd crawl out of my skin. "But he isn't—he isn't waking up—he isn't breathing Sam. I—"

She is on her feet before I can manage another word and the lightning flashes again through the murky room. "Are you sure?" she inquires, rummaging through the bed aimlessly and I wipe my sticky hair away from my temples. "Where's my freaking bag? I need my phone."

"Why do you need your phone?" I'm not whispering anymore—I'm full-on sobbing but not enough loud for the other girls to wake up. "Can you just check his pulse or something?" I stifle my cry and get on my feet. "Please? I need to know if he's really gone."

"I need flashlight V." She roots through her bag, her belongings clamoring through the thick air. "Fuck it. I can't find it," she mutters and walks to me. "Where's he?"

Before I can point my finger in Kunal's direction, the thunder crashes again and I hear the downpour as lightning flashes in a series.

Sam gasps in horror. "What is this place?" She pivots to note her bearings but I'm sure she fails to fathom any of it. It's dark and cold here with the only source of light being the thunder strokes, thank god. "How did we get here?" Her voice catches the venomous panic and I hug my tummy to release the ache in my chest. "Vaanya, how the hell did we get here and why is he dead? How is he dead? Why can't I remember anything? I'm so scared..." Her voice is alarming and I hear all the sirens in my head, begging me to bolt before someone catches me with a dead body but I can't ditch the girls either.

"I wish I knew," My voice falters with a shaky breath. "I too, don't remember last night and I'm not sure where we are or what—"

"Where's Maira?" she queries and I go painfully numb. She is going to absolutely lose it. "We have to wake her up, V. She has to know." And she will.

Ella

The pound in my head is a bitch!

I so don't wish to regret last night but I am, and it's not pretty. Ugh, where am I?

My eyes flitter to adjust my vision as I prop my hand on the marbled floor to shift. My feet dash against another body and I hear Maira groan raspily as something crashes on the floor. Oh hell, my head is spinning and I want to throw up. I push to my feet slowly but sprawl back on my ass as my leg hits something. Son of a—

"Thank God, you're up!" Sam exclaims with somewhat relief? And my infuriating head cannot stop spinning for the life of me.

I really want to stem my heaving chest but, "I need to throw up!" I rise to my feet and wander around the dark space haphazardly, and finally push through the door.

"Here, let me help you." Sam turns her phone on and the flashlight casts upon the muted surface of the counter as I turn on the faucet.

"Why does it smell so awful in there?" I ask, almost gagging with convulsive saliva in my mouth and I fail to hold it back anymore.

"Easy there, easy," she says, catching my hair from behind and rubbing my back up and down to ease me.

One of the girls finally manages to find the switchboards and flicks the light on as I rinse my mouth and pat it dry with a tissue.

I dart my gaze around the bathroom and take in the details. Silhouettes of toiletry items on the counter beside the sink, the leaking shower, and a broken mirror; have I been here before? I feel absolutely sick all over again. I look at Sam's reflection in the remnants of the mirror and she urges me to get back to the room.

"We're screwed Ella," Sam says horridly and I turn to face her. "Something happened last night and we're—I—you should go see..." she quavers and I'm already on my feet.

My hand travels to my throat upon noting him on the floor while Maira sits frozen beside him, chanting under her breath, words I can't quite figure out myself.

So that's what she meant. But how did this dude wind up dead anyway? "Don't touch him," I demand before Maira could make the contact and she stills in her tracks, and glares at me. Her eyes are bloodshot and I know she is holding back her tears.

"We need to at least check his pulse," Sam asserts and at the same time Maira asks, "What if he's not—what if he's alive?"

I kneel beside her on the cold floor. "Can't you see already? He is dead! That might be evidence so don't. Do. Anything. Stupid," I demand lowly. "We shouldn't be here and we've no idea how he got here."

"Maybe he's alive—we should call in an ambulance." Maira tucks her hair behind her ears as she leans closer to him on the floor. "Maybe we can save him."

"I've already checked his pulse," Vannya whispers softly. "He isn't breathing."

"Fuck!" Maira yells. "Wake up Kunal? Kunal!" Kunal is dead as a doornail, with his eyes rolled back and bugged out. He looks like he must have choked on something with a trail of dried suds around his mouth. Oh no, no, no...this is a disaster.

"Maira, he's no more..." Vannya's voice is watery with sobs.

The next couple of minutes for me personally feels like an out-of-body experience with Maira's impending wails undulating and colliding with the stark walls of the room. She chants his name over again and again, and I'm so petrified, I think I'd run and hide for the rest of the month—but I can't let my fear drag me down; drag us down.

"Shit! Guys, let's get out of here," Sam says as she gathers her bag from the bed. "Let's just leave him here and call the police later and—"

"And what huh?" I bite out gruffly, "Of course this will trail back to us." And I can't let that happen. Ever. "We need solid alibis," I propose and Sam's brows knit together with attention. "I can get Aagnay to agree that I was with him last night." In that way, we can also get some time to spend with each other since his Math tournament. He often keeps so busy I barely catch up with him.

"But what about us?" she asks, wandering her gaze around the girls.

I shrug. "I'm just gonna go out in a limb and say that I don't know." I gave them the idea to get out of it, didn't I? That should be more than enough. "Aagnay will be suspicious if all of us reach out to him." And my potential alibi will be long gone before I see the light of another day.

"This is so typical of you E!" Sam snaps and I roll my eyes in exasperation. It isn't my fault she has zero connections. "You're so selfish. You ditch us the moment you find your way out. Are you forgetting that all of us are in this together?"

"You're so fun S." Sarcasm drips my voice and Maira rises to her feet. "I'm not getting cold feet but I gotta watch my back and so should you. Can you think of a better idea than alibis right now?" People will eventually know that Kunal's dead and if we don't have an alibi to vouch for us then we will be in so deep waters that even my father—the freaking mayor of this town can't drag me out of it. And I have to avoid scandals as much as possible since his election's 'round the corner.

"No you're right," Vaanya says placidly as she dusts her knees and wipes her face briskly.

"Of course I am." I cross my arms over my chest. "Where are we anyway?"

"Looks like a refurbished warehouse but I can't tell," Vaanya says, darting her eyes around and I do the same to take in the details. Oh, Sweetie, I'd never, in the right frame of mind, ever spend a night in this dumpster. This room is a joke—now a disaster with a corpse—but a décor hazard nonetheless. There aren't even linen bed sheets here and that is disturbing.

"Why aren't you affected by this?" Sam inquires curtly, her gaze daggering onto me.

I slide my mask on instinctively. "Excuse me?" I square my shoulders defensively.

"No, all of us are freaking out, except you," she says as though she's doing some math in her head. "I mean Kunal is dead on the floor. Doesn't that scare you? Freak you out a little? You've been acting like everything's okay." She uses the tone I'm aware of all too well.

"Just what do you mean to imply?" I step closer to her. I'm taller than her by at least three inches so it's easy to tower over her. "Sambhavna, do you mean to imply that I have something to do with Kunal's death?" I ask and her gaze wanes from me. Just what I thought.

"I won't spell it out Ella but it sure looks like you have zero remorse," she daggers and I'm baffled by her deduction skills. More than a year of friendship and she still doesn't get my coping mechanisms. If it weren't for Vaanya, she wouldn't even be a part of my crowd.

"Kunal was fucking alcoholic who probably had wrong drinks that killed him eventually. What do we know?" I say disconcertingly and flinch as Maira grabs my upper arm.

"He would never do that," she snaps defensively. "I know him enough to know that he wouldn't do that." Her gaze lingers on me for another second for far too long and I know what she must be thinking. I'm surprised to know that even Maira doesn't trust me either. "You're acting as though it isn't your first time waking up to a corpse in a living room out of nowhere."

I laugh like a maniac. "So that makes me accountable for this? Just because I'm not kicking and screaming?" I bite out gruffly and she searches my face for a beat.

"Why are we here?" she finally asks—as if I know the answer to that myself.

I shrug. "I don't remember anything post our last glass of Jack and coke last night," I pick my nail mindlessly. "What's your last memory?" I toss the exact same look Sambhavna threw my way a minute ago and I know I have Maira's attention.

"Shit! Fucking Shit!" she yells, tugging the roots of hair around her temples. "That's my last memory too."

"Fantastic! So none of us remember shit and we magically land with a corpse in a fucking warehouse the next day? Seems completely normal to me." Did alcohol turn us into nightwalkers?

"Just shut up!" she screams to my face but I'm not offended. Maira loved this dude for all I care and I can understand that must be difficult—it's just that I'm more concerned about the after-effects of this scenario because he's gone and we are still around, waking up next to his dead face with a night that seems like a big black hole right now. If I let my emotions rein on me then there's no way I'll be able to make it out of here.

"So what do we do now?" Sambhavna asks hopelessly and Maira stares at Kunal's face.

"I know someone who can be our alibi," Vaanya announces and I bet a million bucks she's about to name the last person I want to share a room with. "Ranveer." Of course! Well, I'm glad I don't have to be a part of that cheap episode.

"Good for you," I chirp. "So that's settled then." I grab my clutch from the floor and root for my phone. "We'll meet in the city tomorrow at Rider's café? Six o'clock sharp." I have to get the hell out of here and away from this place. I can't stand it for another minute.

"You guys go ahead, I need to spend some time with Kunal for one last time," Miara murmurs and I want her to do exactly that because God knows Kunal isn't coming back but the sooner she leaves, the better.

"I don't think that's a very good idea." Thank God Vaanya agrees. "We have to leave him and go Maira, and I know this is tough but what if someone sees us? We'll be in so much trouble."

"Can't you see he's dead?" Maira snaps viciously and I drop my clutch to my feet. "Kunal is gone! My Kunal..." And her dam breaks. Again.

Deafening silence surmounts the air, the steady dribble of the rain billowing through the room, thudding my chest and I feel my shoulders grow limp as desolation dawns on me."We can all see that," I whisper mostly to myself. But the real question remains: Who killed him?

~~~

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