Song of the Chapter is
Wicked Game by Chris Issak

-12-
-Veronica D'Rosario-
-Present-

_________________

Mittal Mansion
18 November, 2019
7:01 pm.

The stubborn silence among the eight of us was utterly uncanny of the silence between graves at a graveyard.

Made me wonder when had we become so distant?

" Hey V," Zizi drawled, " You called us here for a reason, remember?"

"I did." I deadpanned. Her gaze lazily flickered at me. " And well, to answer your question, um..., where should we start?"

" Perfect." She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and looked at me threateningly. " This is going to take longer than I thought, hm?"

" My God, do you always have to be such a bitch about everything?" Saina argued.

Zizi tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowed at Saina. " Oh look who's talking!"

"Zoya, no one's forcing you to stay here. You can leave if you want to." Avinash said calmly.

" And what? Let you guys make some dumb move and get us all in trouble? Uh no mister, not happening!" Zizi said.

Kartik rolled his eyes in annoyance.

" V, here's an idea. Why don't you- well, just begin?" She drawled.

I looked at the others then at her again. " We need to tell the truth about what really happened the night she went missing."

" But , don't we already know what happened?" Saina said but it sounded more like a question. "We sneaked into school at midnight and then partied a little and left at dawn."

We all looked at each other as if to confirm that that was all that happened that night.

But who were we kidding?

" Except," Kartik drawled. " That's not all what happened that night, did it?"

The elephant in the room was addressed and we had no choice but to remain silent.

" What are you implying, Kartik?" Moose queried.

Kartik looked at him as if contemplating whether to answer him or not.

" Do you guys remember everything from that night?"

Our widened eyes were enough proof of the fact that we didn't.
Siya was the first to answer, "No".

I watched as Kartik's gaze shifted and landed on Siya. Strands of his ebony locks fell on his forehead as she neatly placed her hands on her lap in an attempt to stop fidgeting under his gaze.

" I remember bits and parts. But not the whole night." Moose said.

"Me too." Ahaan agreed. The rest of us nodded too.

"How is that possible? We weren't that drunk to not have remembered anything." Kartik argued. " I mean, how is it possible that none of us remember anything?"

I sucked a deep breath.

" Why don't we tell each other the last thing that we remember from that night? Maybe , that way we could put the puzzle pieces together." I suggested.

Kartik looked around before nodding. " The last thing I remember is playing the game and then....." His gaze shifted towards Siya. " Nothing."

" Same. I remember drinking from that bottle and then.... I think I passed out." Avinash said.

" Same." The others agreed. From my peripheral vision, I bet I saw Saina gulp. I didn't think much of it.

" So....do you think there was something in that drink?" Siya asked to no one in particular.

An unwanted weight settled heavily against my stomach as their gazes flickered over to my direction. Kartik gazed at Zizi, briefly.

" Who brought that bottle to the school that night?" Ahaan asked.

My eyes suddenly widened, as the sudden wave of realisation hit me. The events of that night came rushing back all at once.

" Alishka." I said, my voice was shaky. Moose gazed at me , his brows furrowed.

" It was Alishka who brought that bottle. Remember? She told us all to take a sip claiming it would keep us warm for the night. We all took a sip...and then played that stupid game....and after a while....we passed out."

Kartik narrowed his gaze at me. I looked at him, knowing completely what he was thinking.

" So...do you think she....spiked our drinks?" Kartik asked , the obvious.

My eyelids fluttered as I fidgeted with my cross necklace, that hung around my neck .

" Oh, why am I not surprised?" Zizi intervened. "Of course, she spiked our drinks! "

" So,... what you're saying is that....she planned her getaway?" Saina asked, looking dubious.

"I mean, that is the possible chance." I said,my voice lowered.

" So you're saying that she did all of these so she could pull off a fucking hoax ?!" Zizi chirped.

" Zizi, come on , there's probably a more better explanation for this." Moose said.

"And what," She drawled," Makes you so sure of that?"

"I just-" Moose hesitated.

" Don't let your messiah complex get in the way, Himanshu." She answered, her words dipped in scorn. She looked around the room,
" Seriously, guys? Are y'all still debating on this? We all know what she was capable of. We know that she most probably was planning on eloping with some douchebag jock! But unfortunately, her planned backfired and now she's dead and buried! Karma did its deed! End of story! Let's go get a pizza or something!"

"Zoya , for once can you stop being so indifferent to everything that's happening around you. We all saw you that night, we saw how scared you were and none of us gave you shit for it!" Kartik bellowed.

The rawness in his voice seemed to have knocked some sense into her, by the way she sank into seat across Saina's. It seemed like the only person she listened to was Kartik. He managed to catch my gaze, but this time I didn't look away.

"Do you think we should tell the cops about this?" Moose questioned.

" So the detectives can tell us that we killed her? If we say some of is were under the influence of alcohol, it'll give them evidence that we killed her in a drunk fight or something!" Ahaan said.

" And not to mention that we're not supposed to drink!" Avinash added.

" So what do we tell the cops? What were we doing in school that night?" Saina questioned.

" We're not telling the cops!" Zizi chirped.

The seven of us reflected for a minute in silence before she continued," Do you want the finger to be pointed at us just because we happened to be doped up and trespassing the same night she went missing?!"

Kartik groaned in frustation. Moose and I exchanged glances.

" No one else knew we were there. So we keep our mouths shut. Agreed?"

" Why protest so much , Zizi? Because you killed her?" Saina taunted.

" Oh I so wish I did, Saina. But someone unfortunately beat me to it." Zizi retorted.

Zoya Afreen was honest to a fault. She spoke without thinking. She was impulsive and blatant, not aware how deep her words cut until it was too late.

But then again, it was better to be a brutally honest person rather than one with plastic smiles.

" How could you say that?" Saina asked in a quivery voice.

" Just like you could sit back and watch her destroy our lives!" Zizi's face softened a bit as she looked between Kartik and Saina. " Both of you let her destroy me and several others and not once did you speak up against her! So I'm sorry if I don't give a fuck about what karma did to her! She deserved what she got! And so will you two."

"Zoya...." Kartik said in the softest voice I've ever heard. From the corner of my eye , I saw Siya flinch and look away.

I sighed.

" We all hurt each other, Zoya. But have you ever wondered why?" Saina's voice was hoarse as if she had just finished crying a river. "This goes deeper than what we did to you. This isn't about us , you see. It will always be about Alishka Malhotra. Even now that she is dead, we're sitting here and talking about the night she went missing."

" The hands on the clock never stop ticking." I finished.

It only took a moment to realise the collateral damage Alishka Malhotra had caused on only a fraction of the people she knew. I caught myself wondering about all the other lives that Alishka had destroyed and all the people who begged God to take back the day that they met Alishka.

" Whoever this is, knows that we were there that night." Siya said.

" Whatever it is. I'm not going to sit here and be paranoid about something that might just be a prank or something." Zizi chimed.

"Do you really think someone would sent a cut off tongue as a prank?" Ahaan asked.

" Yes, man child! We didn't touch it, remember? For all we know it could easily be a fake one, with red spray paint around it!" Zizi argued.

As none of us said a thing, she continued, " If you want to probe on this further, be my guest. But I'm not going to waste my time with this bullshit."

She flipped her hair and stormed out the big black mahogany door of the Mittal mansion, leaving an awkward silence among us.

" We should go too. Thank you for having us here , Avinash." Moose said as he guided Ahaan and Siya out.

" Let's go Ronnie," and this time I didn't argue nor did I ask any questions. I caught Kartik's gaze but he looked away immediately.

As my foot crossed the entrance, a symphony of rings cackled in the room. My eyes widened and I looked back. All of our phones were chiming, indicating a new message.

We exchanged horrified glances as we checked our messages.

' She should've listened to you, V. Doesn't she know that nosy bitches never make it to the end line?'