Song of the chapter is Emperor's New Clothes by Panic! At the Disco

-62-
-Zoya Afreen-
-Present-

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Delmore High
26 December, 2019
12:00 am

" Oh my god....it's you."

Siya's whispered words were drowned in an air of desolation. My eye pained me , yet still I tried my hardest to keep them open to watch the catastrophe unfold in front of me.

I was bewildered. Shaken out of my core.

" Surprise, surprise!" Daniel Fernandez stood in front of us, grinning from ear to ear. His eyes were more sinister than Sanchi's. He threw the Ghostface mask to the side and dragged a chair for him to sit. Sanchi sat beside him.

" What? Got nothing to say?" Daniel chuckled, looking at us. "Have I left you completely spellbound?"

"Wh....why?" Veronica stammered, asked.

Daniel looked at her and then shook his head, laughing harder.

"That's a very long story."

" Well, we got nothing better to do." Kartik sneered at him. "So why don't you give it a shot?"

Daniel gave him a smirk and exchanged glances with Sanchi before looking back at Kartik.

He sighed, feigning rememberance. "Where do I even begin?"

" Start from the beginning. Why did you kill Alishka?" I asked.

Daniel's smile faltered a touch and he sat straight, composing himself. I looked into his eyes. There was something undecipherable in them. Alishka's mention stirred something within him. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was.

" Impatient much, Zizi? What's the hurry?"

He's making us beg for it. He's playing fucking mind games with us. Fine, I guess two can play at this game.

" Fine. She seems to be a sensitive topic for you. We'll save that for later."

There, I saw it again. I swear I did! An unsettling alloy of guilt and madness. It's dangerously surprising what all goes on in his mind. And how he has an innate flair of disguising his thoughts. It's what he had been doing all this time.

" Why are you doing this, Daniel? Why us? What have we ever done to you?" Himanshu asked.

" Interesting question." Daniel said, smirking. "Well, the most precise answer to that would be that you guys are kind of like my scapegoats. I need you in order to save myself."

" What is that even supposed to mean?" I asked.

" At the first hour of dawn, the police would come storming into this room only to find six dead students, a bullet to each of their heads." Daniel narrated like telling a story. "Then they're gonna look around you and find hundreds of pictures of Alishka and the mural, ofcourse, and try to put two and two together. Then they're gonna find a note in Veronica's clenched fist, explaining why you all died."

He took out a little parchment of paper and showed it to us like an asset to be proud of. He read, "To the one who finds us, we want you to know that what happened to us was a deliberate attempt on our part to get rid of the guilt and burden that we had been carrying on our backs for two whole months . What happened with Alishka was our fault and the guilt of it all slowly started consuming us from inside. Thus, we decided to take the easiest way out and kill each other. As an act of freeing ourselves from the guilt of killing her, we surrender our lives too. Hopefully, you understand."

I was left speechless beyond my imagination. How much thought had he put to this sick plan of his? How could a person be so fucked up?

" Signed by all of you." He ended and looked hopefully at us, as though expecting a complement for his work.

" You're... crazy!" I muttered somehow.

" Tell me something I don't know!" Daniel smiled brightly at me.

" No one's ever gonna believe that. A suicide pact out of every other possibility is the last thing anyone would believe!" Kartik tried to break his overconfidence.

"You don't think I thought of that?" Daniel asked, chuckling. "Ofcourse, no one would believe a simple note. And that's why, I have all the proof in the world to make the world believe in my story."

" What proof?" Saina asked.

Daniel turned to Sanchi and gave her a knowing nod. She nodded and went outside and then came in with a big box and placed it in front of us.

Daniel surfed through the contents of the box and pulled out several pictures, "Here!"

He showed the pictures to us one by one. They were taken from when we visited that abandoned cabin to investigate. Several others were taken from when I and Ahaan snuck into the hospital to get the autopsy reports and many others from when we snuck into the school for looking at the outside security cameras for proof. But mostly, the pictures were taken from the night when Alishka went missing. Several pictures of us sitting next to each other, several others of us sneaking into school at night with Alishka were present.

This sick bastard had been planning this for a long time. He had always been keeping an eye on us. He was always one step ahead of us.

"These pictures are enough proof that you guys wanted to remove every bit of evidence that would connect you to Alishka's murder. An anonymous delivery of this box to the police station and it would be more than enough. Don't you think?" Daniel asked, putting the pictures back into the box.

" I'm gonna kill you, you understand? I'm gonna fucking kill you!" Kartik roared. Siya looked worriedly at him. Daniel's face was stone cold for a split second before it blossomed into a rosy smile.

He stood up and glowered at Kartik before taking out his knife and in a quick swift movement, stabbed Kartik in the leg.

Siya and Saina shrieked at the same time, the sound of it making me squirm. Kartik winced from the pain.

" No! " Siya shouted, looking at Sanchi and Daniel.

" Next time you disrespect me, I would drive that knife through your fucking skull! Remember that!" Daniel shouted at Kartik. Kartik looked at him with gritted teeth, but said nothing.

"That goes for the rest of you too, okay?" Daniel asked, looking at us. We nodded in swift motion.

" Okay! Good!" Daniel's face suddenly turned happy again and he looked at us with contempt like a little child. "Let's continue the game, shall we?"

He spun the bottle when none of us answered. This time it stopped on me. I gulped and looked at him. Daniel smiled sweetly at me, his psychotic brain probably deciphering what sick thing he was gonna ask me to do.

" Zoya! I was hoping for it to be your turn and look!" Daniel said with an excited voice. "Lucky me!"

I rolled my eyes internally at his fake excitement.

" And I have just the thing planned for you!" He said and stood up. He walked over to my chair and untied my ropes. I relaxed my hands once he did and looked up at him.

"Here , take this." He said, overstretching his hand towards me. I then realised that he was handing me the knife. I gulped and took it.

" No funny business,okay Zoya?" Sanchi reminded me. I gave her a curt nod. I knew it better to not cross them at the moment. They were psychotic. God knows what they'll do if I tried anything.

"I dare you to cut Siya's stomach with the knife I just gave you." Daniel said and my jaw dropped. So did of the rest.

" What?!" I shrieked.

"Are you crazy?" Veronica shouted.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Himanshu shouted.

" If you so much as touch her, I'll kill you!" Kartik yelled.

" Oh I'm not going to do anything." Daniel said, turning to me. "Zoya is."

I looked at him, bewilderedly. My hands were shaking with fear. But I knew that if I didn't do it , he would do something much worse to Siya.

" Are you seriously gonna sit there and watch this happen?!" Himanshu yelled at Sanchi. "She's your sister, for fuck's sake!"

" Sanchi, I beg you. Please stop this madness." I pleaded.

Sanchi smiled slightly and went over and stood behind Siya. She started stroking her hair from behind. Siya whimpered with every touch.

" You're right, Himanshu. Siya is my blood sister. And I love her with all might." She said, looking down at her heartbroken sister. "But that's the sole reason why I feel responsible to discipline her. She needs to learn a lesson."

" A lesson? What are you talking about?" I questioned.

"Well Zoya, lately Siya has been very.....imperfect. She has defied rules and brought a shame to our parents' name. I can't tolerate that, can I ? When I tried to discipline her in a nice way, she slapped me and chose this rich bastard over her own family! Can you believe that? After everything mom and dad did for us, she had the audacity to go ahead and fall in love with the enemy."

Siya's tears had dried up by then. She looked calmer than usual but her head was hung low, probably feeling ashamed at her sister's deeds. I wish I could tell her that it wasn't her fault.

"And not to mention that she also had the audacity to kiss my boyfriend and never even told me about it."

Siya looked at her for the first time. She had hurt and hatred in her eyes. They were gleaming in anger and disturbance.

" I didn't kiss your boyfriend. He tried to force his tongue down my throat!" Siya yelled.

" Shut up!" Sanchi snapped at her and Siya grew quiet again. "Don't ever talk about Nikhil like that! I won't tolerate it. Understood?"

Siya looked away in anger.

Sanchi's face turned passive again and she came back to her cheerful state. "Now, Zoya... hurry up and do your dare."

The knife in my trembling hands felt heavier than stones. I slowly approached Siya's chair. Before I could process what to do next, Sanchi took a scissor and ripped a small part of Siya's clothing off her, revealing her stomach.

Siya started crying. My eyes welled up too.

" Siya , Siya, look at me." Kartik said and Siya looked at him, her face drenched in tears and sweat. "She's not gonna hurt you, it'll just be a small scratch , okay?"

Siya nodded slowly and looked at me. I gave her a reassuring nod.

I inched closer to her and put the knife on her stomach. She flinched as the cold metal made contact with her skin.

" I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Siya." I whispered.

" I know, it's okay....just do it." Siya said, shaking her head.

" Just do it already! There are other things to do!" Daniel yelled, impatiently.

" Do you think this is a game?" Saina asked.

" Indeed it is." Daniel chuckled.

I took a deep breath and started cutting Siya's stomach. Blood started pouring out of the wound. Siya was crying the whole, yet still shaking her head in pain and saying it's okay.

" That was good!" Daniel said, clapping. " You can go sit now."

I choked up looking at my hands, now filled with blood. The tears forming in my eyes found an outlet. I somehow back traced my way and sank down on my seat. I wanted to scream, throw hands , howl and do so much more.

" Time for your question, Zoya!" Daniel said, excitedly. I looked up at him with all my might and swallowed a lump before asking.

" How are you two connected? Why are you working for her?" I asked, indicating Sanchi.

Daniel chuckled slightly, "Who said I'm working for her?"

" What do you mean?" Saina asked. " Well, atleast one of you is working for the other, right?"

"We are working for ourselves, Saina." Sanchi said in a matter-of-fact tone.

" How are you two even connected?" Siya asked, still bewildered at the thought of them working together to cast a ruin on our lives.

"Well, I met Sanchi a year ago when she was in Delmore for Christmas break. And we instantly became friends." Daniel said, looking at her.

"He told me all about his plan and I decided to help him." Sanchi answered. " God knows, I've always wanted to get rid of that bitch."

" Alishka?" I asked.

She nodded happily.

" Why Daniel? " I begged. "What revenge? Why are you both doing this? Sure, Alishka wasn't the best person. But that doesn't mean she deserved to be killed."

" That's interesting coming from you, Zoya." Daniel said, looking curiously at me. "Because if I remember clearly, two months ago you would have been more than happy to get rid of Alishka."

" I would've never wanted to hurt her. I know I said some things that might seem like that, but I'm not a killer like you. I would never do this to a person." I said.

" Well, I guess that's the difference between you and me then." He answered.

" How did you know Alishka, Daniel?" Himanshu asked.

Daniel smiled sweetly at him and took a seat next to him. That smile reminded me of the old Daniel. The Daniel that Ahaan had fallen in love with? Is that why he was killed? Because he came to know the truth?

" First of all, stop calling me Daniel."

" Why? Don't like the name, Danny boy?" I asked , sarcastically.

He pinched the bridge of his nose. "No. It's because that's simply not my name."

Boom!

And then silence.

Thoughts, theories and this new revelation ran a marathon in my mind in a haphazard manner. They clashed and tripped and then resumed again, making me insane like this devil.

"Then who the hell are you?" I asked.

A series of evil laughter filled the void silence again, it's echoes colliding against the beige walls and wooden floor.

"I'll tell you, but are you ready for it?" He challenged.

" Yes. " I breathed out a shaky breath , gulping in anticipation. At this point, we were ready for anything and everything.

" I'm Mahi's son, Yash Sehgal."

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