Chapter 26

26th December 2019

Cathy's POV:

I was lying on my back, my limbs sprawled across the bed around me. Every part of my body screamed out in pain restricting me from doing even the slightest move. The bleeding didn't stop for a long time since he cut me last night. I just let it bleed unable to do anything of my own. Being a medical student I just realized that I didn't even have a first aid kit with me...

I couldn't sleep properly in one stretch last night from the immense pain that radiated inside my body in all different directions. I had fallen into small pockets of sleep throughout the night exhausted from all the weeping and injuries.

The only person who suddenly appeared in my mind was Renita. She treated me like a baby whenever I fell ill refusing to let me do my chores even if I was capable of doing them myself. What will she do if she sees me in this condition now?

I haven't taken bath after my last shower yesterday before going out to the lake. I was unable to even move my ankle without pain. Stepping out of the bed was something impossible right now. I didn't even use the washroom since the injuries happened. I was still in my white sundress which was now tattered from the cuts and bloodied everywhere.

Victor hadn't shown up for breakfast. Maybe he was still mad at me from what I did yesterday. I wondered whether he was planning to starve me for a few days as an additional punishment. But I was already very hungry. The last meal I had was yesterday's breakfast.

I also wondered what he did to the other three. Did he kill them? A shudder passed down my body. The thought that someone who stepped forward to save me got them killed made me feel sick. I remember how Mishelle told me that she was fortunate to get lost since that only led her to save me and how Imran told us that his mom wouldn't eat until he was home. God, let anything happen to me but not them!

I prayed that someone would at least report the photographers to be missing so that the police would track them down to this woods. Did Imran mention where he was exactly to his mother when he spoke to her for the last time?

Suddenly I heard the bell ringing. I felt like a dog salivating when it hears its bell. When I dragged myself to the bedside table and grabbed the blindfold, I didn't know whether to be happy to finally have the food or to worry that my bruised body was refusing to cooperate.

Then I tied it around my eyes immediately and struggled to lean over the headboard waiting for the door to open. When it did instantly the aroma of butter naan and butter chicken masala assaulted my senses. I inhaled deeply as I heard him close the door behind him and walk towards me. In spite of punishing me, he didn't fail to bring me my favorite foods.

He sat beside me and pulled the roller table towards him placing the tray he brought over it. He didn't greet me as he always did but instead quietly started feeding me the naan with the butter chicken. I so badly wanted to ask him what he did to the other three but feared that he would punish me again for doing so. I silently ate what he gave.

Though I had put up fights a few times before when he offered to feed me, I never refused to eat. Because I should have a good amount of energy and strength to fight him on the day I flee from here. All these days I always thought that that day wasn't too far. A small hope inside me was sticking to my soul. But after what happened yesterday, even that small piece of hope had disappeared into nothingness.

"I know that you are hungry, chew patiently", he said suddenly making me jump. I didn't say anything but just nodded quietly. After the food, he gave me some water as always. He was very quiet, unlike other days.

"I will leave now and you have a surprise waiting in the next five minutes", he said as he kissed me. The cut on my cheek was stretching past my lower lip. He didn't seem like minding it at all since his kiss wasn't soft enough to not hurt it. But I was too scared to pull away and tried my best to suppress the whine that was waiting to escape my throat. With that, he had left.

He had left me a gift? But I thought he was still mad at me. Maybe he wanted to make things right between us again.

I untied the blindfold and looked around for a gift-wrapped box with something that I had removed from my online shopping cart but there was none. So what was the surprise? While I was wondering, a foul smell of something being burnt entered my nostrils. I looked around sniffing the odour to find its source before I noticed the dark clouds of smoke that entered the room through the window.

A lump formed in my throat. He had set something in fire outside the window. Did he burn them alive? I shook my head pushing the thoughts away. No, that shouldn't have happened. I slowly slipped my legs out of my bed on the side which was closer to the window and tried to stand up placing my hand on the side of the wardrobe for support.

A sharp pain shot up my legs as I took slow steps forward to the window. I bit on my lip as my eyes blurred and tears rolled down from the unbearable pain. My knees buckled as I took small steps forward. Blood started to ooze out of the wounds that seemed to be healing finally. I slowly made my way to the window holding on to the walls to see something small set aflame outside on the wild grass.

I squinted my eyes to make out what it was and noticed the fragile brown cover and the black ribbon burning along with it. That's when I realized that it was the diary I made for Noel.

My eyes widened in terror as I felt it in the deep pit of my stomach that Victor had done something to Noel. A small scream escaped my lips as I slid down the wall beside the window. My head felt light and dizzy as the pain I was feeling till now drowned replaced by numbness. Soon a thick veil of darkness and a soothing silence embraced me.

*

Renita's POV:

I was standing over the cliff of our terrace with my eyes closed as my lips worked on silent prayer. The night breeze whipped past me tingling my bare skin.

"What if I fall down from here Ren?", the voice I had missed so much all these days asked.

I opened my eyes immediately to look at Cathy who was hanging down from the top of the building with both of her hands grasped by mine. She was dangling beneath me as her curious eyes pierced into mine.

"How many times will I tell you to not talk things like that when I pray Cathy? Now take your words back", I said sternly.

Her thin lips spread into a wide smile as she said, "I won't"

"Maybe you should have listened to me", I said as I let go of her hands and she started screaming and falling, her screams drowning into a distant muffled noise as she flew farther away from me into a small black dot.

I quickly jumped up on my bed, panting heavily. It took me two whole minutes to look around and realize that it was a dream. What kind of dream is that? I let out a brief air and wiped my damp forehead. I was sleeping alone on Neha's bed. She was probably sleeping in Preeti's room.

My body condition was worsening day by day. I didn't even have the energy to walk steadily. In these past nine days, I would have hardly eaten five meals properly. I was deprived of a proper sound sleep too.

My head started throbbing in intense pain as I got down from the bed and stumbled to my feet. I checked my phone on the nightstand for time and it was 11:47 pm. I didn't even remember when I got into bed.  The walls seemed to close in and I felt suffocated. I glanced back at the window and it was open. Though it was open I felt deprived of air. Two minutes of a walk outside would hopefully help.

I took my phone and an umbrella in case if it rains. I walked out of the room and shut the door behind me carefully not to wake anyone. Thankfully no one was awake and roaming outside in the corridor. Few rooms were lit and small voices were audible outside. I walked silently, not to gain anyone's attention.

Since the police kept visiting the hostel, the main door was no more locked like before but was simply latched. Though three security guards were standing outside to whom I lied that I was going to get some medicines. They offered to accompany me but I just thanked them and said it's okay.

As I was walking by the tall trees that lined every border of the buildings on our campus the cool breeze eased my tightening lungs with some fresh air. I looked up at the clear sky and its crescent moon. Cathy and I were selenophilic. We love watching the moon for countless hours. I realized that I have stopped that habit without her. Has she also stopped? 

I sighed as I pulled the scarf that I had wrapped around me tighter and walked aimlessly in all the directions where my legs led to. After a few minutes, I realized that I had walked up to the main gate of the campus.

I walked out of the gate which led to a busy road. Coimbatore was busy and crowded twenty-four by seven of course. As I halted and looked around me, a familiar face was getting ready to get into his car which was parked outside the campus.

"Hi", I said as I walked up to Vasudev Kishan, one of the colleagues of Noel in our college and hospital IT department.

"Oh hi!", he said closing the car door which he had just opened to hop in.

"Busy schedule I guess?", I asked as he nodded with a wry smile and asked me why I was out at this time. I told him I felt nauseating locked up in my room all day and so I thought of taking a little walk for relaxation. Then he talked about Noel and Cathy's disappearance. We exchanged our sorries and sympathies.

"Though I have been working with Noel for two years now, I have hardly been to his home twice or thrice. He never came to my house either. He was a very silent guy. At least I was the only one to whom he spoke to in the office", he said smiling sadly.

I nodded, "Did you inform his parents or the police did?", I asked as he shook his head.

"His parents died in a fire accident when he was a kid. But his villagers are not aware of his survival from the fire. He grew up on his own in an orphanage. He always pretended to others like his parents were still alive since he didn't like people feeling sorry for him. And so I think I am the only person who is aware of his parents' death. He hasn't talked much about his past to me though. I just know that he is from Kanyakumari"

I froze hearing what he just said. "Kanyakumari?", I asked as a disturbing feel settled in my stomach.

HAPPY READING!