Mitra was staring at him blankly, her brain crammed with so much chaos that it made processing of Vishals' question difficult for her.
"I... I left her. But that was only because I wanted her to understand how I felt," she babbled.
Vishal scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, "What? I don't understand..."
And Mitra broke down into sobs again. Vishal tried to quiet her as much as he could. After a few minutes, choking on her tears, she managed to speak up.
She spilled out everything, starting from the way she was led to a dark corner by their classmates to the abuse she underwent, the escapade she made to the cove before walking back home and coming across Lekha being held in a chokehold by a stranger.
Even as the difficulty of being honest about the worst thing she ever did bogged her down, Mitra admitted everything to Vishal. She came out strong on her reason for abandoning Lekha.
"I really thought she would be fine," she blurted through her choking sobs, her voice hoarse now. "I thought she would simply be hit like how she hit me, and then she would be okay. I just wanted her to feel the humiliation I felt. I thought that would be all..." She repeated it over and over, again and again, as if imprinting those words on her own conscience and that of her best friend would make her less guilty of her actions.
Vishal gaped at her in complete shock. He had not imagined even remotely that something as twisted as this would have happened in his absence.
It had been just one evening after two weeks of constant company when he hadn't walked Mitra home. Just one evening of his absence from her side, and his best friend went through physical abuse and the perpetrator of the bullying herself had met a terrible death.
He processed the information carefully. There were too many implications. He knew Mitra too well to figure out the exact sequence and reasoning for the happenings.
Mitra's stance was clear to him; and a suitable redressal was needed for his friend. He sighed, turning his head sideways, thinking as fast as he could. Mitra was still uncontrollably distressed, something that disturbed him more than the news of Lekha's death he had heard so vividly.
His heart broke seeing Mitra in hysterics, his helplessness in resolving her trouble evident in the pained expression his eyes exuded.
Finally, he grabbed her shoulders in resolution and said with urgency, "Look, Mitra, we first need to get to school."
Mitra shook her head vehemently. "No... no... no... I can't go."
Vishal bent down a little to level his gaze to Mitra's. He blinked his eyes once in assurance and insisted, "It's okay. I will be there. You first need to calm down. Really, please, please relax a bit. You are just overwhelmed now with all that has happened. We both can think straight only if you calm down. Otherwise everything will be messed up."
Mitra sniffled and stifled her tears that won't stop flowing. Vishal's grip on her shoulders tightened as he paused for her to regain her wits and continued to counsel her, "We need to see the situation at school. They might close the school today. And who knows, you might not be the last one to see Lekha before she got kidnapped. We don't know all the facts yet, Mitra. Let's go for now. We will check the situation and then, if you can't handle it, we'll go home. Okay?"
Mitra shook her head, "I can't go anywhere now. You... you go ahead and see how things are going. I just can't..."
"And leave you here alone in this state?" Vishal burst out in evident worry. "No way, not after what happened yesterday."
"Please..." Mitra pleaded with her teary and beady eyes. "Please, I need to be alone for a while. I need... I need some time to recollect myself. Please."
Vishal could only look at her with an aching heart. He could understand her. He knew she needed a lone time out. That was the only way she could get up again. Yet, leaving her alone was unthinkable for him.
He was scared.
Scared she might do something reckless in her agitation, scared that someone might hurt her. After all, she had witnessed a kidnapper in action.
Still, it was broad daylight and they needed to gauge the current situation in town and at school.
"Okay," he finally decided. "It will take me fifteen minutes, maybe twenty. But I will be back as soon I can. You know how fast I run, right. Mitra, I need you to promise me that you will be okay here. I will come and fetch you, but you need to be very careful. If you feel you're in danger in any way, at any point of time, run across that street to the main road and shout as loudly as you can for help. Okay?"
Mitra understood what he was saying and planning. She nodded her head and grunted a 'yes'. Another round of assurance and instructions later Vishal sprinted at top speed towards their school.
Mitra swayed in her spot, standing weekly, and then lowered herself to the ground, pulling her knees towards her chest and wrapping her arms around her legs. She buried her head to her knees, her heart heavy with exhaustion, crying in earnest.
She knew there was no going back.
If Vishal had any naïve confidence that he and Mitra would be able to handle the situation, it disappeared when he reached school out of breath from running. The campus was in chaos with students either gathered in scattered groups across the playground or leaving for the day.
Vishal spotted a few policemen returning from the Principal's office, with a few of their classmates in tow: Lekha's friends who had been with her when she had assaulted Mitra.
It was logical to interrogate them; after all, they had been with Lekha the whole evening.
The question was how much they knew about the kidnapping and murder. And how much they would reveal about the evening's happenings before Lekha went missing.
Vishal did a quick calculation. There was no way they all would keep quiet about their involvement with Mitra. Atleast one girl would spill the beans under pressure. They would be scared that Mitra would report them for the bullying and mark them as the last people to be seen with Lekha. Something that would be enough to keep them at the Police Station under investigation.
In every possible scenario, Vishal could fathom Mitra being called upon for the inquiry.
Before that, he and Mitra needed to arrive at a common understanding of what should be reported to the cops from her perspective. They need to be prepared with the narrative to be shared with the Police.