Mitra froze and then regained herself. "Are you crazy? Where is all that coming from? Don't just spew nonsense!" she shouted at her. "You think you can get away with this? Be prepared, I am going to complain to the principal that you hit me. You will be punished for this. And not just this, I am going to officially complain about all my missing notebooks. I know you have been snitching them, and today's incident just proved it. You just wait and see..."
She hadn't even finished her sentence when Lekha struck her again. And again. And again, till Mitra dropped the book in her hand and fell down to her side.
"We'll see who gets punished," Lekha swore threateningly. "Who's going to believe you? No one saw you getting hurt, did they?"
Mitra looked up from the ground at the group of her classmates present there, and from their looks of apathy and smirks, she realized nobody was going to take the stand of witness for her.
They might even frame her for Lekha's favour.
Tears streamed out hot and burning from Mitra's stinging eyes, loaded with helplessness, pain and outrage.
Lekha simply kicked away Mitra's fallen book, gave her an icy smirk and left, followed by her friends.
Mitra scooped herself into a sitting posture, too hurt to think straight or get up. She tried her best to control her tears, yet they wouldn't stop. A sense of her surroundings caught her up and she felt embarrassed to be sitting in a corner of the lane.
The thought of some random person walking in on her scared her the most in her lowest and dishevelled state. Gathering all her strength, she slowly got up, getting a head rush from the pain of her blunt injuries.
She shook her head to get some control and then started walking.
For a moment she didn't contemplate where she was going. She knew she needed a secluded place to cry her heart out, and the side of the street or her house wasn't the right hideout. She walked and then broke into a jog as she headed to the one place she knew no one would catch her weeping.
Ten minutes later, she was sitting on the shore of the lake in their secret cove, shedding her tears without censoring the sound of her sobs. It was the first time she had been so actively bullied and abused. She had accepted the possibility of her not being liked by her peers long ago; yet, the idea that they might target her for an upfront violent attack had never popped in her imagination.
Shock was an understatement to what she went through. The incident had made her feel worthless and terribly vulnerable. Doubts of self-worth, confusion about what she had done so wrong to warrant such an outbreak, dwindling self-esteem and a strong hit to her pride tumbled in her mind, her emotions scattered all over the place.
She didn't want anyone to witness her dire state and distress, not even Vishal. It was a humiliation beyond anything she had suffered since times immemorial. And so, she sat there alone in the dimming dusk, as darkness crept all around her into the night.
Half-an hour passed, or maybe an hour; Mitra didn't know. All she thought was she was late to home and her grandparents would be worried to death. Feeble willed, she stood up brushing away her now receding tears, sniffling and coughing mildly from the cold of the night.
She glanced around doubtfully, scared it might be too dark for her to walk back home alone. The exit path seemed like a maze through the trees, very quiet and scary.
Mitra sighed. She just hoped not to run into snakes in that wilderness.
It was indeed deserted. Thanking her luck, Mitra treaded out of the tree cover onto the lane leading away from the lake. She knew the shortcuts to her house, something she had explored in her escapades to the lake with Vishal.
The shortest one was through some of the darkest lanes of the quieter part of the town. There were never enough streetlights and the neighbouring houses always had their windows closed. Yet, over the few months she had travelled through those streets in the silence of the nights, she had rarely run across people.
That pretty much warranted her casual, incautious walk back home. She was feeling horribly down, trying to calm her agitated and offended mind. No sort of premonition of an intrusion on her life or a life altering scene aroused her senses. She simply walked straight home, her eyes not registering her surroundings much.
As she turned into another dark lane, a little closer to her house, she heard a scuffle. There was a movement much ahead of her, in the darkness.
Mitra stopped in her tracks and peeked forward, trying to gauge the activity. In the shadows of the lane, Mitra could faintly make out two people being involved in a tussle.
Oddly, it seemed like the struggle was moving further along the road, as if the two were shifting the place of their clash. Mitra took a step forward, and observing the silhouettes of the two, realized that one person was dragging the other to the further end of the street.
Mitra didn't ponder about the danger of witnessing the scuffle. It was a small town where street brawls were happened once in a while and were expected. Passers-by never intruded on two people fighting it out. So, without much consideration, Mitra treaded along the path.
Till the two people involved in the scuffle stepped into the dim light of a streetlamp.
Mitra froze.
It was Lekha. She was held in a tight headlock by someone from behind, choking up, not speaking a word. Her eyes were wide open in a flaring and frightened manner.
The assailant who had Lekha in his chokehold was wearing dark full-sleeved clothes and had his face shadowed by a cap he was wearing. He was struggling to keep a hold around Lekha's neck and seemed to be exerting a mighty force on her with his arms squeezing the life out of her.
As Mitra stood with her gaze locked at the two, the two people paused their struggle to notice her.
The assailant froze and so did Lekha, but with different countenances. The way the assailant looked at Mitra was confusing. She couldn't make out if he was furious at her or plain surprised.
Lekha, on the other hand, stared hard at Mitra, as if she was expecting something. As if she was asking for help.
Everything stood still around Mitra. Even the chilly air felt encapsulated in an environment devoid of any movement.
Mitra could feel her heart pounding. She understood that Lekha was being bullied. The same Lekha who had ganged up on her just an hour back and hit her ruthlessly. The same Lekha who had made Mitra doubt her own self and worth.
Would Lekha be now getting a hang of how Mitra had felt? Would she be comprehending that being abused is not "deserved" by anyone who's innocent? Would she be regretting hurting Mitra before?
And in a snap, Mitra made her decision.
She wanted Lekha to feel the pain she had felt. She wanted vengeance.
She turned her back on Lekha and walked away.