Song of the Chapter is
Hands of Time by Rachel Diggs

-09-
-Kartik Malhotra-
-Present-

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Delmore High
18 November, 2019
8:16 am

As I stood beside the podium of the school auditorium, the events of the last two days flashed before my eyes.

Alishka's last rites had been performed last weekend. Only our close friends and family were invited to attend the ceremony.

It's quite weird, you know, cause I don't have any idea of what had gone down in the past two days. All I could recall was my mother's agonizing cries and my dad's comforting words.

The service that had followed the funeral had lasted almost 6 hours but for me , everything had been a blur. Maybe it was because all I had done was stare ahead of me the whole time. The loud noise of chatter and everyone leaving had snapped me out of my trance.

After the service had ended, I had walked Saina and Avi out the door, being greeted by the Autumn breeze and crisp orange leaves , whispering around us.

Walking down the front porch, we had been approached by Detective Gomez.

"Nice day for a funeral, eh?" He had begun.

Saina had muttered under her breath, "If you say so."

"I was wondering when you kids are going to stop by the station to make your statements? "

"Statements? What statements?" Avi had asked.

" Oh you don't know? You three need to come down to the station so we can speak to each of you. You should know that we aren't ruling anyone out as suspects yet, but you three are high on our list." He had said.

" You do know that I'm her brother, right?" I had asked. I just couldn't process the audacity of this man.

"Oh kid," he had begun, "crime doesn't consider family or relationships." He had looked at me dead in the eye. "All it needs is a motive."

Saina had rolled her eyes.

"And if you ask me, you three have plenty of motive alright."

"Excuse me-"

" Come down to the station sometime this week. K?" He had said and handed me his business card before turning around, getting into his cop car and driving away.

" Can you believe that guy?!" Saina had asked to no one in particular. " He's really suspecting us? Out of all people? If anything, they should be interrogating that Zoya or that Veronica ! If anything, they have the biggest motive, don't you think?"

She had looked at me , expecting an answer to her question. But at that moment, I couldn't reply. The words had just stopped at the brim of my mouth. No matter how hard I tried , I couldn't get the words out.

Why?

I had no idea.

" You ready, Kartik? " Principal Mathhews's words snapped me out of my trance. I looked at him before nodding . He smiled slightly and stepped aside , letting me stand in front of the podium, facing the entire school.

I drew a deep breath.

Principal Matthews had called me last evening and said  that he wanted me to shed some light on the tragic incident that had taken place. He of course had asked me if I would be okay with the idea since you know, he didn't wanna seem like a douchebag. But I couldn't find any real reason to say no to him. So I agreed.

But now that I was standing in front of the entire school, about to deliver a non prepared speech on my twin sister's death, I couldn't help but regret my decision.

My eyes hovered through the crowd in front of me. At the corner of my peripheral vision, I spotted Himanshu. He was sitting at the far right of the seats , along with Veronica, Ahaan and..... Siya, I think.

Her eyes widened at the sight of me looking at her. She looked like a deer caught in a pair of headlights. Her eyes reflected some sort of fear and concern for me ,of which I couldn't decipher the reason. It was like she wanted to tell me something so bad but couldn't.

I shifted my gaze away from her to avoid my curiosity to evolve more, to Saina and Avi , who were seated in the front of the middle row.

My eyes searched for her too. She  was probably bunking assembly again. But I wanted to catch her sight so much at that moment. And to my utter good luck (mind the sarcasm) , I found her. Sitting at the far end of the seats, Zoya was busy playing with her midnight locks and chewing gum. She glanced at me once but then again turned back to playing with her hair.

I breathed in frustration.

The lights dimmed indicating that it was time to start the assembly. I cleared my throat and started,

" Father principal, teachers and my fellow Delmorians , today I stand here to address this morning assembly. " I breathed heavily.

" Many of you were lucky enough to know my sister personally. Each and everyone of you meant the world to Alishka. "

I could practically hear my mind screaming ' liar '.

" So I speak, with a confidence that only a twin could have,........ Alishka wouldn't have wanted us to mourn all year. She wouldn't have wanted us to be sad and miserable. Which is why, I have requested the school board ,not to cancel pep rally that is scheduled for Friday. "

There were loud hooting amongst the crowd as I said that.

" The pep rally will be a way for us to collectively heal together from this loss and celebrate the too short life that my sister had in this world."

My phone buzzed in my blazer pocket.

"Thank you everyone."

I stepped aside and let Principal Matthews continue with the further proceedings of the assembled.

I slowly slipped to the backstage as he went on and on with his speech. Taking out my phone, I scrolled through the new notifications until one caught my eye.

It read : ' Sweet speech , wasn't it? I have something sweet planned for all of you as well. Want to know where your gift is? Go back to the room where it all began.'

Who the hell was this?

I looked around before slowly sneaking out of the auditorium through the back door. As I stood in the empty hallway, my nerves suddenly started acting up. I clammed my palms to my face and breathed heavily.

"Kartik?"

Saina's voice brought me back to my senses. I turned around and found, not just her , but everyone  standing there.

Himanshu, Veronica, Siya, Ahaan, Zoya accompanied by Saina and Avi ,were looking at me as though they knew something was wrong. They had anxious looks on their faces.

I was clearly having a diabolical sense of deja vu.

Except now , the circumstances were very very different.

" Did you get a text too?" Avi asked.

My eyes widened.

"Too?"

"We all got one." Himanshu said. I looked at him and asked,"What did yours say?"

Without saying a word, he pulled out his phone and showed me the text. It was the exact same as mine.

" What is this supposed to mean?" I asked to no one in particular.

" He....or she...or it.... whatever it is,wants us to go back to the room where it all began. He says he has a gift or something." Siya said. I looked at her and she immediately lowered her eyelids.

" Where what began?" Avi asked.

There was a short pause.

" Us." Veronica said. We all looked at her questioningly.

" Us?" Himanshu asked.

" Yes, us. I think.... I think I know where we need to go. " Veronica looked at me.

"Where?" I asked.

" The detention room."

Without another word but several anxious glances, we made our way to the detention room, which was located on the far end of the hallway that we were in.

Bolt opening the door, Veronica entered the room, followed by the rest of us. A strong sense of bad nostalgia engulfed me, making me anxious. From the corner of my eye, I could see Siya fidgeting with her fingers. I restrained myself from looking at her.

My eyes wandered around the room before finally stopping on the teacher's table. A medium sized cardboard box sat on the table, covered.

I looked at the box and said, "Guys, I think... that's what we're here for."

The rest of them followed my line of sight and found the unopened box sitting on the table.

" Should we open it?" Ahaan asked.

" We have to." Veronica answered.

She inched closer to the box and took a close look at it.

" The box is opened. Just covered." She said.

Saina breathed a shaky sigh.
" Can we not open this? What if it is something dangerous?"

I saw Zoya roll her eyes in annoyance.

Veronica slowly opened the lids, one at a time , until the box was opened wide in front of us.

The sight of what was in it made me nauseous to the extent where I almost gagged and looked away. Siya let out a shrill cry and buried her face in Himanshu's arms ,while he just looked away in disgust.

Saina's breath got caught in her throat and I could tell that she was glad that she hadn't eaten anything. She let out a choked sob. Avi held her hand while having his eyes closed in disgust. Ahaan just looked perplexed and baffled.

Out of all of us, Veronica's face remained hauntingly calm. It was as though it didn't affect her at all. She kept looking at the contents of the box with a look of sheer fear in her face.

In the box, there was a severed cut off piece of tongue. There was dried blood around it. For a minute, it almost looked fake.

But, unfortunately, it wasn't.

A white piece of paper lay beside it. A note , which was probably written by the sick person who was doing this.

Veronica slowly inched closer to the box and fished out the note, without touching the tongue. Her hands shook with fright as she unfolded the paper.

And with an equally shaky voice, she read the note out aloud.

' A little something to remember her by.'

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