Arjun's POV :

At around eight thirty, the next morning, I found myself frantically tapping on the girls' door, and Ananya opened it looking all bedraggled.

"What happened?", she asked groggily, pushing a couple of hair strands out of her face that had suddenly become alert.

"Don't worry", I said "I came to ask if you have shampoo".

"Right", she said looking enormously relieved.

She went inside and came out with the shampoo bottle and handed it to me.

I walked back to my suite trying to push away the uneasy feeling in my stomach and think of the next competition instead. But my anxiety doubled on reaching my room. There was more bad news.

Someone had written something on the balcony wall with blood. Yes, blood.

It read "DESTROYED".

In very shaking handwriting.

I felt liked puking, seeing it. This had gone way beyond lipsticks and teddy bears.

Kishan,Dulquer and Raghav were already standing around it.

Kishan had his face in his hands.

"Who saw this first?" I asked.

"I came out here for a second and immediately saw it", Kishan said "And I called Dulquer instantly."

"But who did it? Nobody can come here without us seeing them", I said in frustration.

"Well all of us have been in and out of this room since daybreak", Raghav said "One of us could've easily done it when nobody else was seeing or someone could've come here when we all four of us went down for coffee. It could be one of the girls, housekeeping, anybody.."

"Are you sure it's not ketchup or something?" Rubina asked ten minutes later when we called the girls from the next room.

I resisted the urge to slap her. But I already had enough shit going on in my life. I really couldn't do if an abuse allegation was filed against me.

"What does DESTROY mean?", Pooja asked "What is going to be destroyed?"

"Us!" Shilpa said dramatically "Whoever is doing this is going to destroy US!"

"Okay, this at least proves that the hotel is not haunted", Oviya said, sarcastically looking at the other girls, all of whom, had at least once suggested that this was a paranormal activity.

"How can you be so sure?" Shilpa asked looking outraged "There is blood here Oviya! Blood! And blood is serious. There is every possibility that this could be the work of some evil spirit".

"Um..humans are capable of doing this too", I intervened "After all, ghosts don't have blood or flesh. But humans do".

She didn't take my joke, instead she just did a high handed toss of her head.

"Well if it's a human, it's the same person who damaged the teddy bear and did the drawing that's out there", Rubina concluded.

"The drawing that was there, you mean", Ananya said stiffly.

I looked at her in surprise. And she explained that the drawing was missing.

"So the person drew a mysterious picture and rubbed it off too? That's twisted", Oviya mused.

"Not even rubbed it off. Wiped it clean. I mean there's no trace at all", Ananya said earnestly.

"That's extra twisted. Almost creepy", Oviya declared.

"Yeah I'd agree", Shilpa said distractedly now looking at Raghav "And what are you putting on your face there?" she snapped at her boyfriend who was at the mirror.

"It's baking soda", said Raghav "It removes acne".

"Said who? Baking soda is used for cleaning and stuff, not for beauty purposes", she argued "Don't put unnecessary things on your face after reading it from some stupid website".

"Guys we're having a serious discussion here. Can we talk about Raghav's beauty later?", Dulquer said.

Shilpa deliberately raised her voice and told Raghav, "If you want any face care cream, ask me, I'll give you". She clearly hadn't forgotten her spat with Dulquer.

"Enough", I said, "Now can we all agree that someone is making a fool out of all of us with these pranks?"

"Not pranks bro", said Kishan almost instantly, "I feel more like whoever drew this is a messed up individual. There are so many other things to do if you want to prank someone".

"So you're saying we have a psycho here?" Rubina asked raising her eyebrows.

"I'm not saying that", Kishan said "It's just my theory. And I'm sticking to it".

"Oh yeah?", Raghav snorted "I think differently. I think one of you standing here acting all innocent is the culprit".

We all looked at each other suspiciously.

"Does that include you?", I asked Raghav waiting to see what reaction I would get, "You're such a mysterious person too. We can never tell what you're thinking", I added.

I could easily picture Raghav doing all this madcap stuff. It was Raghav-ish somehow.

"Yeah Raghav", said Dulquer now "You seem to know so much about these things. Who is the aspiring criminal psychologist again?"

"Shut up", Raghav said looking bored.

"Come on, we keep going round and round", Rubina said "But we'll never arrive at anything. Nobody is going to confess anyway. What's the point of this argument?"

Woah! That was the most intelligent, I'd seen Rubina be.

"Are you afraid to talk about it because you have something to do with it?", Dulquer asked her.

"No genius", Rubina snapped "I was the first to crash last night and the last to wake up".

"I will still say it's someone in this room", Raghav said.

"And I'd say he who smelt it, dealt it", said Oviya.

Raghav glared at her, "What does that mean?"

"Oh yes", Oviya nodded "You were the one who started the accusations flying around. That would be the smelt it part. And you could've been doing all this shit. That's the dealt it part."

"Want to see what I learnt in boxing classes?", Raghav asked sharply "If you were a boy I would've smacked you by now".

Oviya glared, crossed her arms and turned the other way. A much neater reaction than what Shilpa had given yesterday. I guess, money and class really do have nothing to do with each other.

"Now, wait", Pooja said "Whoever did this needed blood and that could've possibly come only from themselves. So the person who did it would definitely have some scratches where they had cut themselves to take out the blood. Wouldn't they?"

We all got instantly excited.

"That's brilliant!" I cried.

"I actually agree with Raghav's theory now", Ananya said suddenly "It really could be one of us and I'm voting for you", she told me.

Yeah. ME.

I looked at her totally flabbergasted for a second.

And then I realised where she was going.

"And I'm voting for you!" I snapped back.

"Look at them. The legendary twins are fighting", Raghav commented finally pulling himself away from the mirror joining us.

"What do you want bro?", Dulquer asked me.

"Oh my brother wants many things", Ananya said "And people have a habit of getting hurt while he's carrying out his grand plans".

"I'm not trying anything at all. I can prove I'm innocent", I confirmed. I rolled up my sleeves and showed my arms and then lifted my shirt very briefly and showed my midriff, "See? No scratches!"

"So you're innocent. Right. But what about the others?" Ananya said diving into action.

Okay, my sister wasn't completely stupid. I had to adulate this little scheme of hers.

Dulquer, Raghav and Kishan followed what I did and quickly cleared themselves out.

"What about you all?" Raghav asked looking at Ananya, Pooja, Shilpa, Rubina and Oviya.

"I am not showing you anything", Oviya said stiffly.

"The girls will go inside the bathroom and check each other", I said.

"Fine", Oviya said and the others nodded. They all trooped inside the bathroom and I heard the door being latched.

"With all five of them in there, there's no way they can agree on some kind of cover up", Dulquer told me truimphantly. I nodded. Though I was nonplussed. I had been more certain that it would be one of the guys who was guilty since everything took place in our suite and my suspicions on Dulquer, Raghav and Kishan had been of the same level. Yeah, Kishan too. My sister was falling all over him but I wasn't about to be distracted by those silly curls.

But now that they were supposedly innocent, I tried to think which of the girls was likely to be guilty. Certainly not Ananya or Pooja so it had to be one of the other three. If so, they'd had to have come into our room when none of the boys were there. But the room had been empty for less than ten minutes. It seemed too absurd.

"We'll find out in half a minute", I said out loud.

But we didn't.

The girls all marched out of the bathroom looking puzzled.

"We're all clear", Pooja said.

"For Godsake, what is going on here?", I turned around swiftly hearing Roma's voice. She was standing at the door wearing a purple suit, a white jacket and a single braid looking striking as ever but just as evil. Her energy seemed to have been boosted up by multiple times too.

"How could you all have forgotten that you had a competition? We had to wait for you and since none of you turned up, the competition is adjourned for today evening", she said furiously.

"Sorry", Pooja mumbled. Nobody else bothered to say even that.

My mind on the other hand was pacing fast. Wasn't Roma also on my suspect list? What if she had the scratches? Trying very hard not to look like a pervert I attempted to see if there were any scratches on her skin. But the problem was, she was showing very little of it.

My manipulative mind couldn't help finding it weird. Roma was usually in flashy sarees and high waisted outfits that showed a lot of skin. Why all the winter dress up suddenly?

I suddenly had a brainwave. I picked up my half full glass of pomegranate juice which was on the bedsteads and moved forward as I pretended to trip, collided with Roma and successfully doused her white jacket in pomegranate juice.

She turned around and looked at me shooting daggers with her eyes.

"You're very smart, aren't you?" she asked coldly. I froze for a second.

"I was watching your CCTV footage from downstairs", she said superiorly, "And saw what you were discussing."

Oh.

She then proceeded to remove her jacket and showed her arms and then turned around. There was nothing on her neck or any of the visible skin.

"Enough?" she asked, "As if I have nothing better to do than running around here, trying to scare you people".

I nodded, more puzzled than before. So it wasn't Roma either.

"Well, but I think you can help us. You see we're desperately in need of some footage right now", Raghav said "We need to know who did this".

"Unfortunately", Roma said in an unreadable expression "The CCTV had not been functioning for two days here. It was fixed only fifteen minutes ago. I just found out from the management".

Uh-oh.

This was very wrong.

                                     ~~~~~

"So the first night...", began Dulquer.

"Aren't we a bit young for that?" I interrupted smirking.

"I wouldn't mind", Raghav winked at Shilpa who was sitting opposite to him at the ten seater table inside the restaurant.

"Shut up, you handsome son of a bitch", said Shilpa with so much sultry that even I felt stirred for a second. Ananya started coughing loudly.

"For Godsake, I was talking about the first night that these two saw that so called mysterious person", Dulquer said pointing at Ananya and Pooja.

Yeah they had spilled the tea about their favourite mystery guy. And most of the others like me found it far fetched but still couldn't rule it out.

"Please don't talk about any more mystery. I feel sick", Shilpa said.

"Oh you have something better to do?" Dulquer asked.

"You're lucky I'm wearing my new stilettos today and I'm not going to grease it by hitting you again", Shilpa said.

"You could end up being murdered by this person who's doing all these things", Dulquer said.

"Well, I have a feeling I might be murdered by your boring talks before the culprit kills me", Shilpa said "And I don't feel like being murdered today so I'm leaving now", she abruptly got up and walked off sashaying out of the restaurant.

Dulquer stared at her back for a second and then turned to us.

"What she did was very wrong!" he declared like a supreme court judge.

"The girl is crazy, she needs attention", said Oviya superiorly.

"Maybe that's why she's doing it", I said.

"No, I meant medical attention", Oviya replied.

"What do you think?" Ananya asked Kishan and I was irresistibly reminded of mom appealing to dad when I had announced that I wanted to participate in FYF.

Kishan didn't reply. He just looked at her distractedly. My sister frowned at him but didn't ask anything.