Chapter 13

24th December 2019

Renita's POV:

I was going through Cathy's mobile files. The police had already checked it and found nothing useful. But I was doing it again since I didn't know from where to start my task of trying to find her. I went through her call log first. There was nothing suspicious in it. The last one was my missed call which I made after she went missing, forgetting that her phone was with me.

Then I checked her gallery. It was mostly full of our pictures and photos of textbook pages, very few family pictures, and god-knows-who-sent-WhatsApp files.

There was also one five minutes video that she discreetly shot of Noel working on the system. I still remember how we used to wonder why he wore only four shirts alternatively. She had watched that video at least a million times and tortured us saying he kept looking at her way. It was all in her head.

Speaking of Noel, he hasn't spoken to me after I gave him the diary. Nor did he return the diary. Did he even read it? I wanted to ask him how he felt after reading the diary if he had read it. But bothering him again didn't seem right after all. He will himself call me if he needs to. I doubted whether he really cared about Cathy's disappearance.

Even the other girls in our hostel flashing a sad smile at me whenever I crossed them or passing me words of hope and confidence also seemed fake. Because after I cross them they are back to their happy life chattering and laughing at their own jokes.

While sleeping at night I hear girls giggling from the other rooms just like how Cathy and I do. It makes me cry all night wondering whether she also felt just like me. I am not blaming anyone though. But just can't help noticing the fact that only my world has stopped and all the color from it has drained.

A knock came in the door breaking my thoughts before Neha opened it and smiled at me. I didn't return the smile instead turned back to Cathy's phone and went on digging in further. She was not upset with my behavior because this is how we are going on with each other since the day I moved into her room.

Though Neha is our close friend I just couldn't think of anyone else than Cathy as my room-mate. Silly but true. Neha seems to understand my feelings and she never troubled me. She shut the door behind her and walked up to me. She sat beside me and leaned over the headboard.

"Are you feeling better Ren?", she asked as I felt her stare burn on the back of my head.

I nodded silently as her palm and back of hand inspected my cheeks and forehead for high temperature. She shuffled closer to me and peered over my shoulder to see with what I was busy.

"What are you doing in her phone?", she asked gazing at my slender fingers working frantically over the phone screen.

I didn't reply again. I started checking her social media. I started off with WhatsApp. Damn! This girl has spoken to almost everyone in our class. Our class strength was two hundred and fifty. That's Cathy! Unbelievably social person.

I didn't know which chat to check. It looked like she received millions of messages every day. So I simply scrolled down the chats to see if any name caught my attention and none did. I opened the settings and checked whether she had muted or blocked anyone though it's unlike her. She hasn't.

I exited WhatsApp and then opened twitter.  She had a hundred and ten followers and two hundred and twenty-three following. But it was almost blank, no much activity.

She didn't converse with anyone either. She hasn't tweeted anything, maybe she just wanted to see others' tweets.

Then I opened the telegram. Again plenty of chats here. She loved watching movies and she had a bunch of people in hand to share her any interesting movie that they came across. I scrolled through the chat just like I did in WhatsApp, nothing abnormal.

Then I opened Instagram, few new messages were there. I checked them and it was from a few of her far-away ex-school mates who are probably not aware of her disappearance. I opened her profile page and sighed. The last picture she had posted was the one we clicked in the fun mall just an hour before she went missing.

I still remember how mad I was for her being busy posting pictures on Instagram when we were running late to return back to the hostel. God, I think I had put up so many fights to her! But she never had spoken back to me. She just smiled or tried convincing me, she was the only soul in this whole fricking world who could bear with me. I am incomplete without you Cathy!

Then there were twenty-three new notifications blinking bright red on the bell icon at the bottom of the screen. I opened it to see that Shahid had liked a few of her pictures that he had failed to like before. I sighed. Maybe he was missing her and went through her profile last night.

"Shahid has some special liking towards Cathy, don't you think?", Neha asked. Until then I had forgotten that Neha has been watching me.

"What do you mean?", I asked raising an eyebrow.

"He likes her more than anyone of us", she said pulling a pillow onto her lap.

"Even I like her more than all of you", I said as she made a face.

"Don't act blind. He likes her means he has feelings for her. I have noticed the way he looks at her all the time. You know how much pissed he was when she started liking Noel?"

I stared at her blankly. I didn't know any of these. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah I am, even Mithra and Vicky knew. Only you and Cathy were unaware of this", she said pulling her phone from her pocket and busying herself with it.

There are so many things that only we both knew and so many things that we both didn't know. But either way around, it was always the same for both of us. If she knew something there was no way that I didn't know about it or was there anything that she had failed to tell me? I locked her phone and refrained myself from staring at the lock screen which held a picture of her kissing me before I threw it away on the bed.

"Do you doubt anyone Neha.. for kidnapping Cathy?", I asked as I turned her way to look at her.

She looked up from her phone and thought for a while with her eyes still glued on me and then shook her head. "I don't know"

She pursed her lips and stared at me as I nodded and turned away, gazing at the ceiling fan. There was not even one day we had survived without that fan spinning which now hung lifelessly. Even if it was not hot we would switch it on. We got used to its sound. But now without her beside me, everything around me seems to change, everything around and inside me, including me! Good or bad? God knows which.

*

24th December 2019

Paul's POV:

Its been a week since the girl went missing and we have not got any lead yet. We had inquired every possible people in the place from where she went missing but no useful information did we gather.

Two days back Renita got burgled. All of Catherine's belongings had been taken away. Which only explains one thing, she is held captive somewhere and the kidnapper probably wanted to give her all her belongings. Or is it to mislead us? Is he a psycho? Maybe... The only fact that's known was Cathy is probably still alive but in what condition is she now? That's again unknown.

Since it was a new building the cameras weren't installed yet. The rooms in the hostel were placed quite far from eachother and no girl had witnessed anyone breaking into Renita's room.

The only explanation was there was a window inside the room facing the backside of the hostel. The kidnapper could have used that one, though it was a difficult one it was the only possibility. We couldn't trace the tire marks because of the heavy rain that had washed out everything.

When I spoke to Renita when I went to the hostel regarding the burglary, I had asked her to think about who she thinks was capable of doing this. It's been two days since I told her that and she hasn't called me yet regarding this.

We had investigated her close friends, classmates, and parents thoroughly. There is not even a single trace left by the kidnapper even though he had visited the hostel a second time. I had also asked the men to check on the IT guy but his side seems almost clean. Where am I making a mistake?

HAPPY READING!