Mitra was furious as she stormed through the streets along an alternate route to home. She wasn't sure if she was enraged at the way things went out of hand in the evening with the whole bullying incident, or at herself for pulling a tit-for-tat at her assailant. Lekha didn't definitely seem like she would be able to handle her way out of the clasp of her assailant.
Mitra didn't want to bother about what would have happened after she left Lekha. She wanted Lekha to learn it the tough way. They both could probably apologize to each other at school the next morning and move on.
What Mitra could never understand in her whole life, in vain, was why she had so strongly dismissed herself even a mere curious musing of what was happening to Lekha as she walked away.
A very powerful denial had clouded her mind as she went home. A cloud so dark and repulsive that it confounded all logical functioning of Mitra's otherwise rightful brain and made it go blank.
Her mind was indeed completely blank and as Mitra stepped into her house, she simply forgot where she had left her forsaken classmate. Maybe she didn't anticipate that something sinister would happen. Maybe her clouded judgment didn't enlighten her that being captured by a forceful man is always fatal for a weak girl.
Maybe she was too naïve to presume that Lekha's struggle would end with just a few strikes across her face like Mitra had faced. Or maybe her sub-consciousness wilfully distorted her rationale to believe that her refusal to help Lekha wouldn't lead to any heavier consequences.
Maybe it was a little bit of everything.
The workings of the mind of a fifteen-year-old girl.
Everything that finally destroyed directly her conscience and indirectly her life.
It was a long night, the last one Mitra spent blissfully. Unaware of the fire she had lit that consumed the life of her frenemy.
###
Mitra was having a fuzzy morning. She felt a foul mood settling in on her, the cause unknown. As she bustled around to get ready for school, her grandfather came home from his morning trip to the farmers' market, huffing and puffing about a murder case that had erupted overnight.
The victim was a schoolgirl from one of the prominent families of the town and both the police and working-class people affiliated with the family were scarily hustling around the town. Talks and rumours were flying around everywhere.
"I think that girl studies in your school," Mitra's grandfather remarked to her as she hurriedly gobbled her breakfast.
"Who?" she asked, not much interested.
"The girl who died. I heard she is from your school. She got kidnapped on her way home after school and was murdered. Poor child..."
Mitra paused as her heart skipped a beat.
It can't be Lekha, right? No, she would have escaped. No one would dare hurt someone like her, given her background and connections.
Mitra's thoughts couldn't go beyond a dumb assumption that Lekha wasn't the victim.
She kept assuring herself that she would meet her at school, and everything can go back to square one.
"Did you hear her name?" Mitra asked her grandfather cautiously.
"No, just that she is the daughter of that sugar factory owner."
That was definitely Lekha's family, yet a hopeful doubt lingered in Mitra's mind. Lekha had an extensive joint family that managed the sugar factory outside the town, and she had a couple of cousins attending their school. There was still a chance.
She was walking to her school through one of the narrow lanes when Vishal rushed in from behind, panting as he halted his run towards to her.
"Mitra..." he whispered over his ragged breath, catching a hold of himself as Mitra looked up at him in surprise at his panic-stricken face.
"What? What happened?" She put a hand to his shoulder to steady him and asked, "Why are you running? We aren't that late to school."
"No, it's not that. The school might be off today," he replied, finally controlling his breathing. "Did you know that Lekha got kidnapped last night?"
Mitra literally felt her heart stop beating. She paled a little as she whispered in a shaky voice, "Lekha...?"
Vishal answered with a horrified tone, "Yeah. She went missing after school last night. And, they found her dead this morning."
Mitra's face went completely white as she went into a shock. She stood stone still, unable to process anything.
"Mitra? Mitra?" Vishal tried shaking her up, worried about her state.
She recovered after a moment, completely shaking and gasping for breath. "Wh... what? How?" she barely managed to speak.
Vishal seemed to be thinking of how to best break the news to her. Pursing his lips for a moment, he answered, "They say she was raped and murdered. Whoever did it left her body near the lake..." He paused again before slowly adding, "Very much close to our hideout at the cove."
Mitra's heart was pounding so horribly, and in such an excruciatingly wrong beat, that she felt like choking on air. Her knees gave way and she collapsed to the ground. Vishal caught her squarely in his arms, managing to stop her from completely falling down, but she still needed some support to stay in a sitting posture.
"Mitra! You okay?" She heard his voice distantly. The arm grabbing her and shaking her into a response felt very feeble.
The only sound ringing in her ears was that of the ragged breath of Lekha she had heard through the scuffle she witnessed the previous night. Lekha's gaze pleading for help. Her attempt of saving herself which Mitra had ignored.
Everything kept running in Mitra's head in an overwhelming loop.
Gasping for breath and breaking into a sob, she finally regained her senses just enough to mutter, "No, no, it shouldn't be her..."
"Mitra, are you okay?" Vishal was still trying to pull her through, unable to understand her reaction. He knew it would be shocking news to her, but the scale of her distress confused him. They weren't exactly on good terms with Lekha to show such a strong reaction.
Mitra slowly tilted her head up to look at a worried Vishal, her eyes turning red with tears that broke into an unstoppable flow.
A vicious doubt pressed into Vishal's mind. He scanned the street to see if anyone was intruding on them. Scared that someone might walk in on an unstable Mitra and eavesdrop on them, he pulled her up carefully and led her into the lane across from them, one surrounded by high walls of residencies, devoid of possible passers-by.
As he pulled her to a shaded corner, he asked cautiously, "You know something about this?"