"Goooood Morning, ladies! Hope you are feeling at the top of your health!" Raghav, or as Bhairavi had taken to calling him: that boy, jogged over to the group just as everyone finished their breakfast. 

Bhairavi noticed the dark circles under his eyes and that he was wearing the same shirt he was donning the day before. Must have spent the night getting drunk! 

She had barely caught any winks the night before after seeing the dead girl walking… standing… whatever. Same difference! 

Soon after waking up, the sleep-deprived woman had handed her phone to Maithili, asking her to go through the pictures and select some she liked. Surprisingly, the girl obliged cheerfully and returned the phone to the rightful owner after 'hearting' a few of them. 

When Bhairavi had enquired if she found anything odd in them, the girl had shrugged and mouthed a casual 'Naa.' before returning to her business: prettying herself. 

'Maybe, I am the only one seeing her.' Bhairavi had concluded, and suddenly multiple possibilities had taken form in Bhairavi's consciousness:

I am losing my mind.

Borderline Schizophrenia.

Stress-induced dementia. 

Paranoia

It has to be one of the above. Right? 

It can't be real, can it: Koyal walking among us!? 

Bhairavi ran her eyes over the now-smiling women. No one seemed to have noticed Raghav's unkempt look. 

If anything, the guide's arrival sprinkled new jest into the otherwise sulking faces. "Before we officially commence our day, I want to share a few things with you all." he continued in all seriousness, "Last night, I went to Jiddal Gaon. Since I am responsible for your safety and failed Amrit Nani, I thought the least I could do was check on her and apologize."

Though the words sounded sincere, there was no compassion in the young man's eyes. In fact, if Bhairavi had to guess, she would say the boy looked relieved.

'Hadn't Raghav's mother been close to Aunty-ji?' Bhairavi contemplated. 'Had Aunty-ji exaggerating their bond?' 

"I am happy to inform you that she is stable. But due to the injuries, she and Ms. Kaur will no longer be part of this tour. In fact, they must have already reached home safely by now."

The news hit Bhairavi hard. Her mind drifted to yesterday's incident. As a doctor's daughter and wife, she could attest that even though the older woman had sustained mild burns, it was nothing that a light course of antibiotics, proper medication, waterproof dressing, and a good night's sleep couldn't fix. So why had Amrit abandoned the tour?

"So, are we ready for today's adventure?"

Bhairavi realized with a start that her absentmindedness had cost her missing the day's schedule. Not wanting to stand out like a sore thumb, she nodded and followed the group to the waiting van. 

The day passed in the blink of an eye. Their visit to the Fallen Fort, followed by lunch and a stroll through the centuries-old Medicine Garden, had proved entertaining and educational. The stressed woman, too, had forgotten the possibility of a (very) dead 'Koyal' walking among them for a few blissful moments.

Dressed in matching floral crayola-yellow salwar kurtas with braided hair twisted into a bun, the mother-daughter duo turned heads at both tourist locations, much to the group's younger women's ire. Which translated into the two being left kinda-sorta alone by the rest of the group. 

Luckily, neither of them cared. Bhairavi was happy to have her precious daughter sit by her, and Maithili was busy on her phone. 

Under normal circumstances, this act would have made the overbearing mother complain or throw a fuss. However, in light of how things stood between them, for as long as the said activity kept her daughter away from that boy, she was okay with it. 

Speaking of whom, after the upbeat speech he had given in the morning, for the most part, the youngster had kept busy with his phone. 

Not interested in the after-dinner bonfire arranged by Raghav, Bhairavi excused herself and returned to the hut. Earlier that day, after apologizing profoundly, Raghav had offered them the now empty accommodation occupied not long ago by the Kaurs, only to be turned down by a very red-in-the-face Maithili, who gushed over how lovely the view from their window was. 

As she replayed their conversation back, the irritated mother ground her teeth. The only thing visible from there was the fudging van, for God's sake!

Wait! 

It was as if a light bulb had turned on in her head. Of course, the closest thing to their hut was the van. The van that Raghav and Golu were sharing as their makeshift accommodation. 

This could mean one of two things: either one of them was snooping around their cottage, or the vehicle's dashcam might have caught the pervert who had ventured into their space. 

Bhairavi opened the window and peered outside. Unlike the night before, the sky was clear, and the moon shone with all its glory. For a moment, the woman contemplated sneaking into the van. She rejected the idea instantly. It was too early. If there indeed was a perverted serial killer lurking around, she needed to ready herself. 

On the pretext of craving something sweet, she visited the kitchen, which was being cleared for the night, and while the gracious hosts: Nans, scurried to arrange snacks for her, she tiptoed around the area and flicked the sharpest-looking knife from the well-stocked cutlery drawer. 

She would have preferred an iron one, but even she knew: a stainless steel knife was better than being unarmed. 

With time to kill, the motivated woman bid her time by first calling Amrit, whose phone was switched off, and then busied herself in finding what she could about Koyal. 

An online search of the girl's Instagram revealed the girl to be a shy yet highly achievement-oriented person. In fact, she had gushed about her being lucky enough to bag a scholarship to her dream college. 

All in all, the girl didn't look like she had any reason to commit suicide. The official cause of death was definitely bogus. 

Why had the police treated it as an open and shut case? 

Why hadn't her parents fought harder to uncover the truth?

If it was a suicide case, why had Koyal chosen such a drastic step!? 

There were just too many questions, and all Bhairavi had was a phone number Amrit had shared with her the day before.

'Beta-ji, sometimes I feel like Roshni was murdered too. Maybe, Kabeer, her husband, had gotten wind that she was asking around about the victims.' Amrit had told her teary-eyed. 

With nothing else to go on, the amateur detective decided to call Koyal's mother. 

"Bhagwanta, since arriving here, my network has been terrible. I haven't been able to contact anyone else except Ashutosh." She left a shaky breath, recalling the chill that had gripped her and made her toss and turn in her bed the whole night. "Something is not adding up. I can feel it." Her finger hovered over the call button, and then, glancing at the ceiling, she whispered, "Jai Shree Ram." before bringing her finger down on it. 

It was past eleven when the last embers of the bonfire died. Maithili had returned with a big grin on her face an hour ago and decided to regale her mother with Raghav's-cool-tales-of-awesomeness, and the latter had tried to act as neutral as possible. She couldn't afford to get into an argument with her daughter tonight. In any case, it wasn't as if that boy had gotten any time alone with her, what with the rest of the ladies fluttering around him, acting like school girls desperate for attention! 

Bhairavi bit the inside of her cheek. Ashamed. Yes, it was true that her daughter was head over heels for that boy, but she didn't have any evidence to prove that others were the same way, did she? Nope. 

Trying to shake off the unwelcoming feeling lodged in her gut, she harked back to her conversation with Koyal's mother. 

The talk hadn't revealed much more than what she already knew except that after returning from The Valley, Koyal had become somewhat of a good Samaritan; in fact, she had even decided to donate her organs, stating that the world should become more empathetic to others' needs and that shortly after Koyal's passing, unexpectedly, the family had come into a large inheritance. Until recently, when there was an emergency, the family hadn't touched the funds. 

On the surface, the new information seemed unconnected to Koyal's demise. Bhairavi pushed it to the back of her mind. She retrieved her backpack from under the bed, and with one last glance at her sleeping angel, she stepped out into the cold, dark night. 

Chapter Word Count: 1484
Word Count so far: 11094