Despite that, the brief moment of their interaction left Sashi's emotions bloated in glee.
He kept stealing glances at her as he went about his work. He loitered around the place and then followed her home at a distance, oblivious to the other boy who was walking next to her. Sashi was elated; and he had found the reason to stay back.
That evening, he walked back to his shackles at his house, to his father who sneered at him for showing his face again.
Sashi ignored it. He felt comfortable to be back. All the stalking and obsession got back into track and Sashi started noticing the bond between Mitra and Vishal.
He could see that the boy had feelings for Mitra. This silently enraged Sashi. In his blinded jealousy and anger towards Vishal, Sashi didn't notice the way Mitra reciprocated Vishal's feelings.
Over the one and a half years of Mitra's stay in the town, Sashi got to know all of her mannerisms, her antics, the routes she took home, her daily schedule and weekend plans, as well as the cove by the lake where she and Vishal hung out in their free time.
Sashi was there when Vishal sang his own compositions to Mitra at the cove, when he taught her how to harmonize with his vocals, when he walked through the tree cover holding Mitra's hand and when she attended Vishal's cricket games and cheered out loudly for him.
It was a trigger for Sashi. Anything related to Mitra was a trigger. He had contemplated really drastic steps to remove Vishal from the picture. But it all stayed in the limits of his imagination. Sashi couldn't fathom Mitra's reaction in case he really acted on his impulses.
In all honesty and reality, he was right about not knowing Mitra's reactions to certain situations.
He had spotted Mitra walking home alone one evening and had started following her involuntarily. They had barely reached the end of that street when a couple of girls intercepted Mitra's steps and said something to her. Mitra looked genuinely curious and then followed the two girls in a different direction towards a quiet lane. It didn't look good to him.
Sashi followed them at a distance. The street was a bit dark and empty, except for a few other girls who seemed to be Mitra's schoolmates; they all were wearing the same uniform and looked same age as her.
The girls stopped in the middle of the road next to a huge, dense tree. Sashi knew he couldn't get any closer to them, but he was curious what was happening. He scanned around, realized the backyard wall of a neighbouring building going along the street reached the spot the girls were gathered at.
Swiftly, he climbed up the wall before the girls tuned around to check the absence of passersby. He shifted on the wall slowly, like a cat, till he reached the tree and then sat there, lurking through the cover of the branches and leaves, watching the girls.
And he saw a girl hit Mitra.
Not once but a myriad of times. Sashi froze in horror.
The girl kept hitting Mitra, threw her down on the street, said something horrible to her which made Mitra speechless in shock, kicked away a book Mitra had been holding and then walked away with the other girls. All the while, Sashi sat on the wall, hidden, watching it all in silence, dismay and repugnance. As the girls left, Mitra sat on the road, unable to get up.
All through his life, Sashi had felt a multitude of emotions, but never a seething fury as poignant as the one he felt while witnessing Mitra being abused.
Abuse wasn't new to him. In fact, he was too comfortable with it. But, watching the one entity he obsessed and felt possessive about in the whole world being hurt brutally didn't sit well with him. He barely controlled himself from jumping down the tree and attacking the girls during their mean actions.
Even after they left, despite his common sense's ideation that he need to get down and help Mitra stand up, every nerve in his body screamed at him to stay rooted in his place. So he sat frozen, peeking at Mitra through the leaves, watching her get up slowly.
She was crying, something he had never seen her do. After a few minutes, she stood up weakly and walked away.
Her book was still lying on the road, forgotten in the aftermath of the commotion. As she faded into the darkness of the empty street, Sashi jumped down, landing with a soft thud and picked up her book.
It was a book on computers. He studied it for a moment and glanced towards the end of the street. Mitra was turning to her left, into a lane that wasn't in the direction of her home. For the first time, Sashi didn't feel like following her.
He had a new motive that evening.
He was going to kill the girl who hurt Mitra.
He turned away and walked in the direction the girls had taken earlier, his teeth clenched in acrimony, tucking the book beneath his shirt so he doesn't lose it, fuelling his desire for vengeance with a repeated recollection of the whole assault scene in his head. He strode on, searching for his target, his eyes burning with a thirst for blood.
As he crossed across multiple streets, he spotted her. She was standing with her friends near a fast-food stall, happily munching on food, as if she hadn't done anything wrong just a few minutes back.
It infuriated him further. He stood at a distance, waiting for the girl to finish her snack.
When she left with one of her friends, he followed her. A few minutes onto her trail back home, she was left alone, her friend having reached her home.
Sashi smiled to himself. He hadn't imagined his prey to be served onto his platter so easily. The girl was walking merrily on the dark street, unaware of the boy following her.
She had reached a dark spot on the street when Sashi pounced on her from behind, his one hand covering her mouth first, blocking her from making a sound, and his other hand holding her tightly in a headlock.
The girl was shocked at first, which was evident in the way her body went numb for a second. And then, she started wriggling, moaning in fear, trying to retaliate and free herself.
Sashi proved to be a stronger captor. He was almost chocking her.
The girl couldn't see it, but Sashi's eyes had gone so dark with bloodlust that he lost touch with his rationality. All he could think was this was the girl who had hurt Mitra, and she needed to pay for it.
He pulled her into a darker corner of the street and strangled her, feeling her life slip away.