THE MIST IN A DREAM

The Mist In A Dream By Lavanyaa Mariappan


THE MIST IN A DREAM BY

LAVANYAA MARIAPPAN PART 1: *Give me some sunshine, Give me some rain, Give me another…* Rahul checked the name in the display. It’s Pallavi. A smile appeared in his handsome face. :-) “It’s Saturday, Pallo. Let me sleep, please!”-he pleaded with a cooing tone in his voice. “No Rahul, we’re going for the outing today. I want to meet Karthick. It’s been a week, but it’s like ages for me!”-said Pallavi in her honey-coated voice. “To see Karthick and to make me bored when you two got lost in the ocean of Love. Oh please!” “Don’t say Please and don’t let me say Please too. Before that, say yes!” “Haha. Okay, queen. I’ll be in your home in 30 minutes!” “Exactly 30 minutes. Otherwise I’ll come there!”-she said warningly. Rahul imagined her face and laughed to himself before getting up from the bed. After 30 minutes, he came downstairs, humming his favorite song and playing with his bike key. “Wow! Look who woke up before 11 on a Saturday morning!”-Laughed Ekta, Rahul’s cute sister. “Eki, and we know why!”-his mom Revathi winked. “Oh yes, you all know why and let me go now!”-said Rahul without looking either of them but hurrying towards the front door as it is already late. “Oh who is stopping you now? Take the car. And better change to blue. Swetha likes you in blue!” “Whaaaaattttt?? Swetha?? Coming here? Oh my God! When?”- Rahul looked alarmed now. “Yes. I told you on Wednesday. Here’s the car key, pick her up from the railway station and drive her home safely!” “Aiyo mom. You misunderstood. I am going out with Pallo!”-He couldn’t help the urge to run away from there. Now the happiness in Revathi’s face dimmed. “Pallavi. Pallavi. Pallavi. Enough of her. I am not giving you any choice. You’re going to railway station. That’s it!”-His mom said irritably and entered into Pooja room. Rahul was speechless for a moment and was brought back to the real world when Ekta started laughing at him again. “Eka, don’t laugh!”-said Rahul with an annoying look. “I know you were all set to go out with your sweetheart Pallo as usual. Poor mommy. She thought it was for her brother’s beautiful daughter. Haha!”-she laughed again. “Beautiful and brainless. And I’ve told you 1000 times. Pallo is not my sweetheart. She is my best friend”



“As if I am going to believe you. Now don’t forget to call her and break her little heart by saying that you are not going. Haha!”-She made a face with her tongue out and winked and finally left the place. He picked up his mobile and at the very moment he thought of dialing Pallavi’s number, it started ringing. Private Number. He pressed the green button with an absent mind and said “Hello”. “Do you want to see your best friend alive again?”-said the voice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Pallavi – It’s difficult to describe her flawless beauty unless someone woke up a poet like Lord Byron from his deep sleep in heaven. In simple terms- A heavenly pretty girl. When she smiled, a dimple appeared in her cheeks and her big brown eyes narrowed and even heaven struggled to compete with her at such times. :-) Her pretty face was filled with little tension now. ‘Did this idiot wake up or not?’ ‘It’s close to 30 minutes. What is he doing still?’ ‘Best friend- if he uses this word once again today, I’ll kill him!’ ‘What on earth is making him so late to reach the house next to his house?’ ‘I’ll go there if he took another 10 minutes!’ All these thoughts ran in her mind in that little gap of 30 minutes while her lips continuously bit her chain and her eyes continuously checked her watch. Her mom Laxmi looked at her in surprise. “I thought it’d be a war to wake you up today. Thank god that you got ready even!” “Sorry mom, I don’t understand!”-she said in the same honey-coated voice, but with a little confusion. “Your fiancé Abhilash is coming from USA today. Even I got the news at late night from your aunt after you were asleep. I was afraid that you’d go mad if I… “ Pallavi cut her in the middle by shouting, “Fiancé? Aunt? Did you fix everything without asking me?” “Of course, not! Your wish is more important!” “Then stop this non-sense. I don’t want marriage right now!” “Just speak with Abhilash once. He is a very good guy” When Pallavi tried to speak again, she added, “For me!” Pallavi looked beaten and whispered “mom”. “If you say No after that, I’ll stop it. Give it a try before saying no. Okay?” After all, she knew her mom. There is no point in arguing as this happened already and she’d lose anyway when it came to Laxmi’s emotional drama in the end. She doesn’t want to create or to be part of another scene and so she just murmured “okay” with a sigh.



‘That’s the only way to escape from mom now. Let me deal with that Abhishek, oops, Abhilash later!’ ‘Rahul and Karthick will go mad if I cancel the plan now!’ Her fingers scrolled through Karthick’s number automatically. “The number you’re trying to reach is currently switched off”-said the recorded voice. What the hell! She threw away her mobile and it fell with a noise in the carpet. “What happened?”-demanded her mom from the kitchen. “Nothing!”- said Pallavi and hurried towards the phone. She picked up her mobile and at the very moment she thought of dialing Rahul’s number, it started ringing. Private Number. She pressed the green button with an absent mind and said “Hello”. “Do you want to see your best friend alive again?”-said the voice.

PART 2:

Before she even opened her mouth, someone from behind, had gently removed the cell phone in her hand. Pallavi panicked and turned around to find her mom face to face. “What’s the point of talking to a person for 24 hours? Is it Rahul again? Give it a break!” When Pallavi opened her mouth to protest, Laxmi interrupted again to say, “Abhilash is here!” “Okay mom. I’ll be there in a minute!”

Laxmi smiled and walked in the direction of a kitchen. ‘Hmm. Special food preparations for this unknown guy? I have to remind my mom that I am also living in this home for 23 years!’-She banged her head for that stupid thought and ran behind Laxmi, “Mom!” Laxmi turned back with a questioning look; she added hastily, “my cell phone?” “No! Behave like a good girl in front of Abhilash, I’ll think about it”-Laxmi winked and left. ‘Now who is behaving mischievous?’

Pallavi went to the hall to find a “professional-looking-guy” whose every behavior said that he was a “born-with-silver-spoon”. “Hello”-She said to him and he greeted her back. ‘Now what? Should I ask him ‘how do I look’ and after a short pause ‘do you like me’? With lot of blushing and a stupid smile?’ “I like you!”-He said without giving any such troubles of putting her thoughts into action. She looked at him with surprise. “Did you consider my application?”-He asked with that same smile. “What application?” “My application for the job of your husband! I am expecting a positive response!” “Positive?”-Her eyes wide open and her perfect teeth shown when her lips stretch a bit in disbelief. Abhilash was astonished once again by her beauty of actions. ‘This girl must say yes to me. I’ll treat her like a queen’. “Yes, Pallo! At the moment I saw you in the photo, I had fallen in love with you! I am a Doctor and I earn 8 lakhs dollars per annum and you can rule my world! So Is that a Yes?”



‘Pallo? Who gave these rights to him? Is he even a Doctor?’-She bite her lips to control her anger. ‘All of this is because of Rahul. I’ll kill you da!’ When she thought that, her mind recalled that voice again. ‘Do you want to see your best friend alive again?’ ‘Is he talking about Rahul? But then who else is my best friend?’ ‘Yes, Mr. X! I want to see him alive again, and so that I can rip him apart for letting me face this confusion all alone!’

She grinned at her mind. And soon both she and her mind realized that she had done a grave mistake when Abhilash grinned back ear to ear and said, “That’s a Yes!”

To her immense relief, the calling bell invited her. She gestured to Abhilash and moved to the front door. ‘Here he comes. Here I am going to see him alive again. Are you listening, X?’-She almost ran towards the front door. ‘No, Pallo, don’t smile like this. This American fool will think you’re blushing for him!’-Her mind tried and failed to control her as her heart was excited too much about Rahul’s arrival.

To her disappointment, it was not Rahul. The courier man was standing there with a parcel wrapped neatly in a gift cover having patterns of golden hearts in the illuminating black background. Her name was neatly written with the golden ink in Italics style. She didn’t show much interest in the parcel, her interest was in the neighbor’s house.

‘Rahul’s bike is standing there. So he is inside. Then what made him so late? Let me find out!’ She looked inside. Laxmi was still in the kitchen. Abhilash was examining her childhood photo kept on the TV set. ‘This is the right time!’

She signed the form and snatched the parcel as quick as possible and ran towards Rahul’s home. She reached the hall and screamed “Rahuuuuuullll!” “Hey, he is not here. He ran somewhere just like you were running a few minutes before. He left a message to your mom as she picked up his call. So sweetie, you have to wait till your love has to return from railway station, I guess. Pity on you, it might take another 1 hour!”-Ekta answered with her usual pampering tone while her hands were busy in unwrapping parcel with gift cover having patterns of golden hearts in the black background. Rahul’s name was neatly written with the golden ink in Italics style.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Do you want to see your best friend alive again?”-said the voice. “Who is this?” “So you’re interested more in me than your friend? Then I might consider sparing your friend!”



“Sorry! Wrong number!” “No. Definitely, not! I know my Rahul’s number by heart!” “What do you want?” “Friendship of yours!” “Sorry! But I am in love with someone else!” “I said friendship, Rahul! “ ‘Who is this lunatic? Someone is playing’-He checked Ekta’s room where Ekta is reading a book. ‘Who else? It could not be Pallo!’ “Rahul? Are you there?” “This doesn’t make any sense! How’re you expecting something from me when I don’t even know you?” “So you want to meet me?”-The girl’s voice is sweet like Pallavi’s, but it had that sweetness artificially brought in. He heard some music in the background. Piano. “Why do you want my friendship?” “Because you look handsome in that black denim t-shirt and blue jeans!”-She laughed gently.

‘Ekta! Or some stupid friend of her! How else did someone know what I am wearing right now? Here, I come, Eka!’ – He took a step towards Ekta’s room. Before he landed his foot in the ground, he heard someone screaming pitifully in the phone. “Pleaseeeeee!”- Someone’s voice as if they were tortured to death. For the first time during the entire phone conversation, Rahul started panicking. Every cell inside him started dancing according to his raising heartbeat, ‘Is it Karthick?’

PART 3:

“Karthiiiiickkk!”

“Why are you yelling now?” – Rahul spun around with an utter disbelief. Karthick was standing right in front of him.

“Karthick! You’re here!” – He still couldn’t believe his eyes and ears.

“Oh yes! I had to go out for some other works! As I couldn’t reach you both, I had decided to come here to apologize!”- apologized Karthick.

“Wait a minute da! Hello, miss? Are you still there?” –said Rahul and his cells started relaxing.

“Oh yes! It seemed that you’ve got a visitor! I’ll call you after sometime!”

“Hey wait!” –she hung up. Rahul pounded the wall with his fist.

“What happened?”

“Nothing! Even I can’t go as per plan because I have to go to railway station! I’ll drop you in the middle! Let’s inform Pallo also on the way!”



“Okay!”- Then they left together.

-----------------------------------Railway Station!--------------------------------------------------------

Somebody hugged him from behind. “Rahul!”-the girl who hugged him giggled.

“Swetha! Stop it!”-he forcefully brought the girl to his front. His twitched eyebrows started relaxing at the look of the girl and he started laughing with her. “Suja?”

“Oh yeah! So you want only Swetha?”

“But nobody told me that you’re coming too! And where is she?”-He grinned.

“I told her that you were talking to some girl over there. She went there to torture that invisible girl! Haha!”- She was laughing harder than before. Even Rahul couldn’t hide his grin. He gently patted her in her shoulders and said, “Naughty!”

“But ask me why I did that to my sister. It’s for a reason, to catch you alone. So when are you going to introduce your girlfriend to me?”

“With Swetha around? Oops, I am not bringing her in front of Swetha!”

“So is it not Pallavi?”

“So you have been in touch with Eka, but not with me!”-he grinned again.

“Swetha is coming! She saw us! I’ll talk to you later, otherwise she will bite me! Now, don’t laugh, Rahul!”- She gave a harsh look to Rahul as he continued to laugh. Soon realized that it is not working, she gave a pleading look to him. He took pity on her and controlled himself.

He waved at Swetha. As soon as she saw Rahul, she ran towards him and threw her arms around him. “I—love--- you---, Rahul---! I--- missed--- you--- soooo--- much---!”- She said while she found hard to breathe because of tiredness of long travel and happiness on seeing him.

Rahul’s smile vanished and he looked at her painfully. ‘Why don’t you understand, Swetha? I am not the one for you!’- He buried those words in his heart because he didn’t want to wipe that happiness from her face at that time.

“Get in!”-said Rahul once they reached the car.

“Would you help me climbing up the car, Rahul? Previous time, I sat in front and she sulked for sitting beside you. Next time, I sat in back seat and she sulked because you have to look the rear view mirror. So if you could…. “

Rahul chuckled. Swetha had started hitting Suja with the newspaper in her hand and Rahul laughed hard. With lots of such pranks from Suja, the journey back to home was quite easy.

Rahul parked the car in the portico and helped Swetha and Suja settling their luggage. “Hey!”- He looked up and found Pallavi hurrying towards him. “I want to talk to you!”



“No! He won’t! Come in, Rahul!”- Swetha pulled him with all her strength towards the house.

“Suja, get her in! I’ll be back soon!”- Swetha stared at Pallavi as if she was going to burn her alive and turned back slowly in the direction of the house. Her face was stony.

“Why she has to look at me like that?”

“Why you have to come in front of her?”

“I have to, because it’s urgent! Check it out!”- She handed over a photo frame to him in which Pallavi is holding a bunch of roses.

“Nice photo! You’re damn beautiful as usual! But seriously Pallo, can’t it wait? Now I have to go through a lecture from Swetha about 100 reasons why I shouldn’t talk to you!”- He smiled.

She didn’t answer him. She took out another photo frame in which Rahul is holding a bunch of roses.

“When did you ever take this photo? I don’t remember carrying a bunch of flowers recently!”

“Me neither! It was morphed and sent to us, but why?”

“Did you ask Karthick? He is the one working in Cine industry in this area!”- said Rahul, still smiling.

“I checked with him! He didn’t send this! Now take a closer look at your photo!”

He looked at the photo in his hands again. He was in casual wear, sitting in the grass with a bunch of roses in his hand. Red roses. Five is the count to be precise. All of them had beautiful dew drops in them. Suddenly his eyes widened as he noticed the tiny letters in gold which was written on each flower. He moved his eyes to the first flower closely to read it properly.

‘The cutest rose which had made its entry along with you in this world will be spared till it stayed out of my personal life. It would be brutally crushed between two rocks if it had decided to enter between us. ’

“And that is me! I opened that gift parcel in first place and so I entered between you and the fool who had sent you this! So my life is in danger! That’s what Pallo trying to say to you!”- Ekta who had joined them before a few seconds completed the sentence with a wide grin and a “why-are-you-wasting-your-time-like-this” expression.

Rahul ignored her and checked the golden letters in the last rose.

‘The prettiest Indo-American rose which had recently made its entry in your life will be spared till it stayed in its native. It would be drown in sea if it had decided to cross the sea. ’

“So you are saying that this means that my girlfriend will be in danger if she decides to come to India?”- Rahul asked with a ready-to-laugh expression in his face.



His phone announced that he had got a message. “Rahul, here is a happy news for you! I’m coming to India! –Bhavana" said the message.

PART 4:

“Wowwwwwww! She is coming! My Bhavana is coming!”- Rahul started jumping up and down.

“Why is he behaving like a maniac now? Who is Bhavana?”- Ekta enquired Pallavi.

“You heard him! Bhavana is his girlfriend!”- said Pallavi, still with a dark face.

“So is it not you?”- asked Ekta who looked as though she was temporarily dumbstruck. She exclaimed and exclaimed and later joined Rahul’s celebrations without expecting an answer from Pallavi. “Whaaaaaatttttt? Wooowwwwww! Finally I am going to see her! Rahul, when?”- She also started jumping along with him, who forgot her own comment about Rahul’s celebrations a few minutes before.

Rahul, who had been completely focused on texting Bhavana, now saw Pallavi’s dark face; He stopped his celebration momentarily and stepped towards her. He looked at her, eyes full of concern. “What dear? Forget this photo thing! Let’s get ready to welcome Bhavana! Please!”

“Don’t say Please! Okay! Can’t you stop her? Why she has to come here in the middle of all the problems?”- She asked anxiously.

“What problems? I can’t consider a prank call and a prank mail as my problem!”

“Prank call? What prank call?”

“Oh No, Pallo! I shouldn’t have mentioned that! But if you don’t smile now, I will say please! So please? Oops! Sorry!” – He made a face like a child who was waiting for the function to get over and so that he will get some sweets.

Pallavi laughed suddenly forgetting her worries for a moment. “Okay! I’ll take these photos with me! I need to think a lot!”- spotting the look on Rahul’s face, she quickly added, “Okay! Okay! I’ll forget all this now and get ready to welcome the poor Bhavs who chose a stupid like you!” – Rahul raised his hands to hit her and she started running and came to a halt when she ran straight into Swetha.

“Sorry Swetha!”

She gave a suspicious look towards both of them and then shouted, “Who wants your sorry? Get out from here!”

Rahul came forward to say something, but Pallavi stopped him.

“It’s okay! I’ll go! See you later!”- She left waving a bye to Rahul and Ekta.



Rahul shot a very angry look at Swetha and later changed it when he caught Suja’s pleading eyes, who was standing behind Swetha.

“She is taking too much advantage on you, Rahul. Don’t you understand? She is… “ Swetha went on talking non-stop without taking her eyes off Rahul’s eyes. Rahul felt angry but decided to ignore it for Ekta and Suja, just stared unseeingly at her.

Suja and Ekta who were watching the fight for an hour now looked at each other. Ekta was highly amused by the possessiveness of Swetha. She thought that one of her ribs had already broken in her efforts of trying not to laugh. Despite her efforts, she was not quite successful as she let out a snigger once in a while.

“You said Swetha will give 100 reasons why you shouldn’t talk to Pallo! But if my count is correct, it exceeded that long before!” –Ekta interrupted their conversation for the first time.

Swetha turned her eyes towards Ekta for the first time and gave a cold stare.

“Leave him, Swetha! Give it a break! We came here only a few minutes before! Isn’t it too early for a fight? You have one complete month to torture him!”- Suja also tried to convince Swetha.

Somehow these words stopped Swetha. She went to her room without even looking back.

Suja asked Rahul, “Can I have your mobile? I want to inform my parents that we arrived safely! My sim is in roaming mode!”

“Yeah! Take it! And thanks that you stopped her! Take rest! See you later!” -Rahul grinned, which looked more like a grimace.

Suja closed the room door and sat in bed. After making a few calls, because of tiredness, her eyes dozed off.

*Give me some sunshine, Give me some…. “

She woke up with a bang and found Rahul’s cell phone ringing. “You scared me, little idiot!” – She said to the phone as if it’s going to listen to her. The display informed her that the call was from a private number.

“Private Number?” –she twitched her lips and attended the call.

“Hello!”

“Hello!”-A girl’s innocent voice greeted her back. “Is Rahul not there?”

“I am his cousin! Who is this?” –Suja asked keenly.

“I am his girlfriend! Could you please get him for me? Is he anywhere near you?”

Suja’s desperation to meet Rahul’s girlfriend now multiplied into tons because of the girl’s polite and innocent request.



“Girlfriend? Wow! I wanted to meet you for a long time! What is your name? Shall we meet?”

“That’s so sweet of you! My name is Bhavana! Of course, we shall meet!”

Suja was really impressed with the girl and she thought that Rahul was really lucky.

“Your voice is mesmerizing, Bhavana! Where are you?”

The girl laughed gently. “Thank you! I was actually waiting near the Hotel Red Indian! I am not sure of the way from here! If somebody could guide me, I would drive there! That’s why I made a call now!”

“I’d come there, if you wish! My sister is here! So it’s not a good choice to send Rahul to get you, well, sorry, I can’t explain this now! But shall I come there?”

“Oh! You’re so kind! My car is a black Opel Astra! Anyway let Rahul know that I am here!”

“Okay! Here I come!”-She hung up happily and came out of the room. She saw Swetha and Ekta sitting in the sofa, going through an album and making fun of each other.

‘Rahul must be upstairs in his room! But it’s not a good idea to cross Swetha and go upstairs! Damn, his mobile is with me even! How am I going to inform him?’ – Her mind was full of questions now.

‘Okay, what’s the big deal? That hotel is in five minutes’ walk able distance from here! Let me go and get her and warn her not to mention that she is his girlfriend as of now!’ - Her brain worked fast.

She smiled at her decision. She quickly got out of the house without drawing any attention from anyone and walked in the direction of the Red Indian hotel. She passed Pallavi’s silent house and soon she reached the hotel. She saw the Opel Astra which was parked at a few meters distance from the place she was standing and a smile appeared on her face.

She hurried towards the car and knocked the front door gently. The door opened with a bang and a strong killer perfume hit her nose. “Get in!”-said the same innocent voice she heard over the phone. She recognized the voice though it was almost inaudible due to the Piano music playing in the car's radio. She got in and turned her head to have a look at the girl’s face. Something was sprayed straight into her face. The car raced in the opposite direction when Suja went into a deep sleep.

PART 5:

**************At the same time Suja was out of conscious! In the Airport! *****************



Rahul checked his watch again. Pallavi watched Rahul’s nervousness with a bit of grin on her face and a flower bouquet in her hands.

“I couldn’t believe it!” – He said it for what seemed like the 100th time.

“Me neither! She came all the way down to India without a single message! We could’ve done something better to welcome her if she had informed us before leaving!” – She said in an exciting voice.

His eyes were wandered everywhere and were fixed upon her once he saw the girl who was the real meaning to his life as well as to the word beauty. Everyone around her wondered whether a girl was walking or an angel was floating.

She grinned at them and hugged Pallo before getting the bouquet. “I missed you so much, sweetie!”

“I’m here too!”- said Rahul with a wide grin. “Oh baby! I’ve waited for this day of meeting you and seeing those curious eyes and the cute smile on this handsome face! I love you!” – said Bhavana, giving back the bouquet to Pallavi and swooping to kiss Rahul on his cheek.

“So how was the journey?” – asked Rahul once they reached his car.

“Fine, dear. And I got the text from you, Rahul. So I am going to stay with Pallo, right? But why? Are you not going to introduce me to your parents?”

“I’ll, soon! Just wait till Swetha packs her things!”

“I want to see that girl! I want to know the reason why my kickboxing champion boyfriend is scared of her!” –said Bhavana with her usual Bhavish giggle.

“Oh! That’s very amusing!” –said Rahul without a smile.

“Okay! Okay! Don’t make your face like that now!” –She said to Rahul. Then she turned to her right and took time to see Pallavi’s face for more than a minute and asked, “Why are YOU looking dull?”

“Well, it was.. “ – Before Pallavi had decided what to say, Rahul flashed a warning look at her and so she changed track at top speed.

“Headache!” – said Pallavi. Bhavana raised her eyebrows. “Something is wrong with you both! Let me find it soon!” – When she completed her sentence, they were in front of Pallavi’s home.

Rahul walked towards his home half-heartedly. Bhavana entered into Pallavi’s home humming her favorite song.

“Where is your mom?”



“She went to the nearby temple to pray that I should marry an idiot named Abhilash!”

“Pallo, oh that’s the reason you are dull then! Tell her that you don’t like him!”

“The problem is more serious than you think, Bhavs! You know my mom! After my father’s death, she took almost all important decisions in front of my dad’s photo! She’d write two chits with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ in it and would take one from it and would decide accordingly! I respected her decision so far! But for the first time, I am scared to death! If the chit she is going to pick up tonight contains ‘Yes’ means, it’s a suicide for me!”

“Don’t you think that she might give you a chance? After all, you’re alive!”

“I don’t think so! After Abhilash left, she worried only about my father’s choice and she went to temple as usual before making those life-deciding-chits!”

They both gazed at one another in silence for a moment. The next moment, they heard some noise upstairs. The sounds were so clear that someone was opening the wardrobe.

“You said no one is there in home!”

“You are right! The sound is coming from my room! I think.. “ Before Pallavi saying what she thought, more sounds approached them.

“Something fell down from that someone’s hands! Something like a photo frame! Let’s go check!” – Bhavana quickly got up from the sofa.

‘The only photo frame I have in my wardrobe is the one from that gift parcel which arrived in the morning! Who wants that now? How did he/she enter into my house in first place? Who is doing all this? What do they want?’

Bhavana’s voice disturbed her thoughts in the middle. “Hey! Come on, Pallo!”

When Pallavi came back to her senses, Bhavana was half way up the stairs.

“No! Let’s call someone!” – Pallavi looked scared now.

“Before that, the thief will escape! Let’s go catch him or I’ll go!” – Without actually expecting any reply from Pallavi, Bhavana started climbing upstairs again. Pallavi’s heart started hammering that she could hear her heartbeats outside now. When Bhavana had reached the first floor, Pallavi ran to join her. “Bhavs! Wait!”- She shouted.

Bhavana placed her index finger on her rosy lips and gestured to maintain silence. Bhavana took a cricket bat in her hand and walked slowly towards Pallavi’s room, closely followed by Pallavi. The noises were getting clearer now. They heard even someone breathe. Even Bhavana started sweating now, held the bat with both her hands.



They were straight in front of her room. Someone was writing or scribbling or painting in a paper. Bhavana waited for a moment and looked back. Pallavi, who didn’t try to hide her panic on her face, hissed, “Shall we open the door?”

Bhavana gasped. She opened the door with a thud and entered the room while her heart pounded so fast that it would come out of the ribs. Pallavi’s eyes travelled to every bit of that room and found none. Her heart slowly went back to its normal pace. Suddenly something strange caught her eyes. She moved towards her bed. As she had doubted, the photo frame was taken out from the wardrobe and placed in her bed by someone.

She checked the photo in which Rahul was smiling as if he was the happiest person in the world. He was holding the same five roses, but with one difference. Out of the five roses, one rose was covered with blood instead of dew drops.

PART 6:

Bhavana took a deep breath and looked straight into Pallavi’s eyes.

“What’s going on here?”

“I don’t know, Bhavs! Okay, let me tell you from the beginning!”

Pallavi told the story from the time she had made that call to Rahul in the morning, till Bhavana’s arrival in the evening.

“Give me those photos!” – Bhavana started examining it. Without a single word, she gave it back to Pallavi. She was sure that Pallavi was pulling her legs.

“What do you think?” – asked Pallavi impatiently. Bhavana looked at Pallavi’s serious face and then started laughing, but Pallavi frowned.

“Are you trying to April fool me?” –asked Bhavana, grinning broader than ever. Pallavi felt a strong urge to hit Bhavana in the head, but resisted.

“Don’t you even want to understand what does it mean? Let me explain! There are five roses and there is a sentence on each one of them! See those!”-said Pallavi, almost angrily.

‘The cutest rose which had made its entry along with you in this world will be spared till it stayed out of my personal life. It would be brutally crushed between two rocks if it had decided to enter between us. ’

‘The most possessive rose which had done everything to gain you will be spared till it knew its loss. It would kill itself if it had decided to find the secrets of your life. ’



‘The most innocent rose which had helped you got out of your every single trouble will be spared till it had taken trouble to get me out of trouble. It would disappear out of thin air if it had decided to trouble us. ’

‘The closest rose in your life which had drawn everyone’s attention will be spared till it started deciphering all this. It would be ruthlessly axed if it had decided to help you. ’

‘The prettiest Indo-American rose which had recently made its entry in your life will be spared till it stayed in its native. It would be drown in sea if it had decided to cross the sea. ’

“The cutest rose is Ekta, the prettiest rose is you and the closest rose is me! Not sure about the other two! Did you get it or not? Don’t smirk at me!”- said Pallavi heatedly.

“How?” – questioned Bhavana who realized that Pallavi wouldn’t be this much angry if she was playing.

She gave the same explanation as she gave it to Rahul. Bhavana hesitated at first and then she said, “Just think with logic, Pallo! How did the person even know that it is you who is going to decipher it or it is Ekta who is going to open the parcel? Or were you saying that the words wrote them themselves after these incidents had happened?”

“Is it not possible? The blood drops appeared out of nowhere in place of dew drops!”

“Are you sure that there were only dew drops at first? “

“You’re unbelievable, Bhavs! If you want, go ahead and ask Rahul, he also saw the photo in the noon!” –snapped Pallavi.

“Why were these kind of golden letters written only in Rahul’s photo and not yours?”

“I don’t have any idea, do I?”

“Okay! Let’s call him! It has something to do with him as it is HIS photo sent to HIM!”

“All right!” – Pallavi took out her mobile and dialed Rahul’s number. Nobody picked up even after a full ring.

Pallavi looked at her watch. It showed 8.10 PM. “Well, did he sleep early tonight? Okay, let me try one more time!” – When she was telling this to Bhavana, the screen glowed and said, ‘One Message Received!’

‘Pallo, I am driving to my guest house because Suja is missing! I’ll call you soon! Bye!’

“Whaaaaaattttttt?” – They both shouted. For the first time, Bhavana became serious. “Let me check the photo again!” – She whispered.

“The most innocent rose! It fits! She is the savior of Rahul from Swetha every time! And now she just disappeared! But why is he going to guest house now? Seriously..” Pallavi’s voice



trailed away and she started staring at Bhavana. “What’s wrong?” – Bhavana asked in an anxious voice.

“God, I’ve been stupid! Look at the photo again, the background and everything! It is his guest house where this photo was taken!” –she completed.

Bhavana sat straight now. “This makes sense! Rahul is not in any danger, right?”- She asked with worrying eyes. “We need to tell him!”

“Wait, I’ll send him a message!”

‘Stop the car somewhere and talk to us! It is important!’ – Pallavi’s fingers played in the keypad and sent the message. No reply for 20 minutes. Pallavi called him again and heard the recorded voice saying that the number was unreachable at the moment.

“Let’s go! Something is wrong!” – said Pallavi.

“Go where? You’re not telling me that we have to.. “

“Yes, I am telling you that we are going to his guest house!” –said Pallavi firmly.

“Well, I don’t know Pallo! We are going a bit far!” –said Bhavana, sounding thoroughly unconvinced.

“Okay! You stay here! I can’t sit here and watch a TV when my friend is in danger!” – shouted Pallavi who was in her feet now. With one last angry look at Bhavana, she quickly got out of the room.

Bhavana looked hurt. She was stunned by Pallavi’s reaction. She tried to imagine the entire picture of the current situation. Suddenly a thought crossed her mind and she came out of the room to warn Pallavi. She saw Pallavi leaving the front door and so hurried downstairs. When she reached the front door, she saw Pallavi’s Zen racing in the street. “Oh No, Pallo!” –She gasped.

An Opel Astra slowly started following the Zen.

PART 7:

Suja woke up.

She tried to see where she is, but she couldn’t, the room was pitch-black. ‘Is that even a room?’

She tried to scream, but she couldn’t, something was stuffed into her mouth.

She tried to move, but she couldn’t, she was tied with ropes.



Her brain didn’t stop working though as it kept on thinking about unanswerable questions. ‘Why am I here? What are they going to do to me? What do they want?’

She tried to remember everything. ‘The phone call. Red Indian Hotel. Opel Astra. Piano music.’

‘Yes. Where is that cell phone now? Rahul’s?’- She didn’t know the answer for this question also just like the others.

****Pallavi’s house******

Bhavana heaved a deep sigh. Her eyes went towards Rahul’s house unknowingly and stopped dead when they noticed both of Rahul’s vehicles were standing there.

“What the hell!”– Bhavana said to herself, frowning.

She closed the doors behind her and quickly went to Rahul’s house. A great wave of relief broke over her when she saw him sitting in the sofa.

“Rahuuuulll!” –Bhavana cried “You’re here!”

Rahul got up quickly and had a glance around him to ensure no one is watching them. Then he went to Bhavana and hugged her. “Where else would I be?”- He grinned. “But let’s go outside! If someone from my family saw you means, it would be a problem!”

They came outside and sat in the bench in the garden.

“What happened to you? Can’t you just go through 12 hours without me? How did you manage in US for the past 6 months then?”

“You said you were going to your guest house!”

“So you were dreaming about me! And so you decided to come and have a look at me!”

Bhavana stared at him, utterly bewildered, as he continued to grin.

“Listen to me! Give me a proper answer! Didn’t you text Pallavi a few minutes before?”

“What? My cell phone was with Suja, I didn’t get it back yet! Why?”

“Oh my God! Where is Suja now?” –asked Bhavana in a trembling voice, panic expanding inside her like poison.

“She must be sleeping! I’ll call her for dinner! Why?”

“Are you sure that she is there?”

“What’re you talking about?”

“Something is wrong! Something is terribly wrong, Rahul!” –Bhavana gulped and took several breaths before she completed the story about the text messages they had received.



“I’ll kill this Suja!” – Rahul leapt to his feet, looking exasperated and angry.

“No, no, Rahul! Let’s warn Pallavi first!”

“Alright! Let’s get inside! I’ll call her!”

“Well, her cell phone is with me!” –said Bhavana timidly.

“Why didn’t she keep her mobile with her?” – Rahul shouted.

“Why didn’t you keep your mobile with you?” – Bhavana shouted back.

“Okay! Okay! Sorry! Let’s not waste time! Get in the car!” – Both of them hurried towards his Swift and it zoomed forward once they settled in.

***** Guest House *******

“There it is! Her Zen!” – Bhavana said breathlessly. She quickly ran towards the Zen and disappointed when she couldn’t find Pallavi.

Rahul found the unlocked gate and door and was surprised.

“How did she open it when the key was with me?” –Rahul asked Bhavana and he could tell from the looks of Bhavana’s face that she was also thinking the same.

Rahul pushed open the door and entered into the house. There was silence everywhere. He switched on the lights and as soon as he did so, somebody locked the door from outside.

“Hey what?” – Rahul knocked the doors and in the silence, it sounded like a blast.

“Rahul, what is going on?” –asked Bhavana with fearful eyes.

“There is a door at the back side! Let’s get out from there!”- He seized Bhavana’s arms and started walking. Bhavana stopped him in the middle and pointed in a direction.

Rahul looked puzzled. “What?” – He had not meant to shout, but the anger inside him overwhelmed him.

Bhavana ran towards the sofa and found that photo, the same photo which had driven Pallavi to lose her cool head. She found one more difference in it; now two roses were covered with blood instead of dew drops.

She dropped the photo and began to cry. Rahul threw his arms around her shoulder and tried to convince her.

A paper which fell down from that Photo frame caught his eyes. He unfolded it and found those golden letters once again.

Hold my hands and walk into my dream!



You’ll be able to see through the mist!

Rest of the clues in the photo stream!

Of the rose which is currently closed within my fist!

Once he finished reading it, the door opened automatically.

PART 8:

“This is getting pathetic!” –said Rahul in a slightly exasperated voice.

“Two girls are missing, Mr.Rahul, you need to co-operate!” – said Vijay, a detective, who was appointed by Pallavi’s mother Laxmi.

“And I know only as much as you do!”

“Okay, you can go!” – said Vijay. Rahul quickly got up and turned around. He looked irritable as he walked out of Pallavi’s house.

When Rahul was out of earshot, Indhu, Vijay’s assistant, said, “Vij! Do you really think that Rahul has anything to do with the missing girls?”

“Let me see! We enquired Ekta, Swetha, Bhavana and Rahul! According to Ekta, Rahul received a gift pack and that’s where every problem started! Swetha didn’t have the slightest idea about what’s going on! This girl Bhavana is the last one to see Pallavi and she has got an interesting thing to say! According to her, Pallavi has got a text from Rahul’s number and she took it serious and went out and also it was sure that she reached till Rahul’s guest house! Finally Rahul is saying that his cell phone was with another missing girl Suja! “

“Yes! Also don’t forget about the phone call from a girl that Rahul has received in the morning! And Bhavana said something like that somebody entered into Pallavi’s room which is a mystery!”

“That is not at all a mystery! That room has a balcony which is directly connected to the balcony of Rahul’s room! This is where the guy came under our suspicious list! Everything just fits, doesn’t it? Even the message to Pallavi was from his number, which is a proof! The guy can’t prove that he didn’t have the cell with him at that time!”

“But Vij, you’re not a lawyer! And we came here to find the girls, not to frame the case against an innocent guy, got it?” – Indhu winked; Vijay laughed.

“Oh yes, innocent until proven guilty!”

“Or let’s say guilty until proven innocent! You’re right, Vij, in fact! There is no connection among the five girls except that they are somehow related to Rahul! Why would someone want to murder all of them according to this photo? That is ridiculously insane! Maybe he himself sent the picture to him as well as Pallavi to escape from suspicions! Maybe the phone call from



a girl he was talking about is a lie altogether too; he can’t prove it again because his cell is not with him!”

“As I said, everything just fits except that Rahul was in his home when Pallavi drove to his guest house! So there is one more person in this story for sure! We need to find him!”

“Or her!” –said Indhu, giving a close look at the photo.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rahul came out of Pallavi’s house. Bhavana, who was waiting for him, burst into tears as soon as she saw him. He wrapped her in a close embrace. “Please, you are my strength, Bhavs! Don’t cry! It’s irritating beyond belief that these people are suspecting me for everything! Do you trust me at least?”

Bhavana nodded, mopping her eyes with her hanky. “Of course, Rahul! I trust you!”

“I can’t leave it to them, Bhavs! I need to work out a lot too! I need to find this person who wants me!”

“It’s more like that they want revenge on you, Rahul! Everyone around you has to die and you’re going to be framed! But why?”

“No, please don’t! No one is dead!” – said Rahul with a painful voice.

“Sorry dear! I didn’t mean to hurt you! Whatever! From now on, I am not going to tell anything to this stupid detective people! Anyway what are we going to do now?”

“I’ll go and meet Karthick! You go inside Pallo’s room and find her photo with five roses where the next set of clues will be!”

“Pallo’s room is blocked! But as far as I know, Vijay and Indhu thoroughly checked her room and they didn’t find any photo! I don’t know how we are going to solve this!” –said Bhavana, looking worried.

“Well, you stay here as of now! I am going to Karthick’s flat!” –Rahul went on and Bhavana began to protest, “I’m coming with you wherever you go!” But finally she gave up looking at the pleading look on Rahul’s face.

****************************Karthick’s flat*********************************

It took several minutes to explain the things to Karthick and even more minutes to comfort him when he went numb.

“I’m sorry, Karthick!” –said Rahul, anxiously.



“Stop it, Rahul! It’s not your fault! Let’s go to your guest house first! We may get some clues.. “ –Karthick’s voice was interrupted by a little kid’s voice, “Uncle! Here’s a gift for you!” The kid nodded her head towards Rahul with a parcel in her little hands.

They looked at each other half surprised and half amused. The parcel was wrapped neatly in a gift cover having patterns of golden hearts in the illuminating black background. His name was neatly written with the golden ink in Italics style.

“They have a close watch on you, Rahul!” –said Karthick with a warning look. He collected the gift pack from her.

Rahul found a chocolate from his pockets and gave it to her with a smile before kissing her gently on the cheeks. “Thank you, uncle! That aunt told me that you are so sweet! You are, indeed!”- The little girl said happily and kissed back Rahul who was kneeling in front of her.

“Who gave it to you, sweetheart?” –asked Rahul, forcing a smile on his face.

“That beautiful aunt left as soon as she gave it to me!” –She pointed her small fingers in the direction where Rahul saw a black Opel Astra which was racing in a top speed.

PART 9:

Bhavana sank into the sofa near Ekta after Rahul left for Karthick’s flat.

“Bhavs! Sorry that your trip to India is going this way!” – said Ekta apologetically.

“What?” –said Bhavana vaguely, now immersed in certain thoughts.

“What are you thinking?” –demanded Ekta.

“I am thinking about last night! Eka, tell me one thing! How many keys are there for Rahul’s guest house?”

“Two! One is with Rahul! And the other is with me! That’s what surprising me, how did Pallo decide to go there without a key?”

“Well, she thought Rahul was already there! Are you sure that the keys are with you?”

“Oh yes! Here! See, there are seven keys!” –said Ekta, pulling a key chain which looked like a miniature of a Guitar from her pocket, five keys were hanging from it.

“I can count! Only five are there! So two of them are missing! You are not even aware of that!” –said Bhavana quietly.

“I don’t know! I went to the guest house with my friends even on Friday night and it was me who opened the doors that day! I didn’t give it to anyone later!” –said Ekta, sounding shocked, slightly frightened.



“I don’t wonder you’re shocked, Eka! You’re so careless like your brother!” –She grinned with a naughty expression on her face.

Ekta laughed at first and then she made a sad face and said in a low voice, “I am sorry!”

“Don’t be stupid! I am just trying to find out the person who is the reason behind it all! I have a very good feeling that I might know him or her!”

“Okay Bhavs, let me think! I came back from guest house on Saturday morning; the keys were still with me! It was the last time I saw them, I guess! Hang on, no, later I showed it to Swetha while checking our photo albums! Even Swetha told me that she was always fond of Piano over Guitar! I kept it there in the table near sofa! Yeah, right, that was the last time I checked it! I didn’t check it back while pocketing it again!”- said Ekta breathlessly.

When she paused for breath, Bhavana asked, “Swetha was possessive about Rahul, wasn’t she?”

“Yes!” –a voice came from behind. Bhavana turned around; Swetha was standing there, white-faced with fury, “Who are you to talk about that?”

“She is my college mate, Pallavi’s best friend!” –Ekta said hastily.

“So what? Who gave her rights to talk about the relationship between me and Rahul?”- said Swetha angrily.

“Oh really? What was that relationship? Will you please explain?” –said Bhavana sarcastically.

“And my question is why I should tell you about that!”

“And my answer is because I was under the impression that he was seeing somebody else!”

“Who’s that? You? He would never see a girl like you!”- laughed Swetha which created a rage inside Bhavana. She started shouting before she knew what she was doing.

“Oh yeah? What type of girl would he see? Like you? Haha! Even if we break-up somehow, he’d never ever turn his eyes towards you! I mean who would! You’re a nutcase! You’d torture him to the core in the name of love! Now I am telling you one truth, he is in Love with me, yes he is!” –outraged Bhavana, with a kind of fierce approval on her face.

“What?” –gasped Swetha, tears started spilling out of her eyes.

Bhavana who realized her grave mistake of using harsh words cursed herself. She walked swiftly over to Swetha and hugged her. Swetha pushed her and ran towards her room and closed it. Bhavana was sure that she heard a sob before a thud.

*************************Outside Rahul’s guest house***************************



“Vij, even though the guest house is in the outskirts, it looks very clean and functional! But still the surroundings look scary! No other houses for 200 yards! How did she come here all alone?” –Indhu wondered.

“Not all girls have phobias like you!” –grinned Vijay.

“Shut up, Vij! Check her car!” –said Indhu with a fake anger in her voice and continued, “I know one thing for sure! There is no hint of violation! She even locked her car door before leaving! The biggest question is that who lead her into the house!”

“How are you sure that she entered into the house? How are you sure that she locked it? Maybe the kidnapper had locked it!”

“If so, why not the house?”

“For some reason, he/she wanted Rahul and/or Bhavana to enter inside, I guess! Apart from the strange things said by Bhavana about the sudden openings and closings of the front door, everything looked normal inside the house!” –said Vijay, unlocking the car with the duplicate key.

Nothing looked strange. As Vijay said, there were no hints of violations. When he decided to close the door, he heard that ringtone, “Give me some sunshine, Give me some rain!“

Indhu looked under the seat and found that Blackberry mobile with Rahul's picture in the home screen. The display read “Swetha Calling”. "I think it is Rahul's mobile phone!" -said Indhu.

Vijay couldn’t hide his disappointment. “What is she playing at? She knew that his cell phone was not with him! Something was surely wrong with her!”

“Did you notice the way she talked to us during the enquiry? All she cared about was Rahul, even when her sister was missing! Now attend the call!”

Vijay put the phone in speaker mode and said “Hello!”

There was silence for a few seconds and then some weird noises. Somebody was pouring water into a glass. Somebody was tearing some paper. There was absolute silence in the background that he could hear whatever the person in the other side was doing.

“Swetha! Is that you?” – Indhu tried her luck this time and there was still no response.

“Indhu, contact that girl Ekta and ask her to find Swetha!” –Vijay urged Indhu. Indhu took out her cell phone from her hand bag and started checking for Ekta’s number.

“No need for that, Mr. Vijay and Ms. Indhu!” -a girl’s voice answered from the other side. “Swetha would never answer anyone from now on!”

Vijay and Indhu looked at each other in horror.

***************************Karthick’s flat********************************



Rahul opened the parcel and he found what he asked Bhavana to find. The photo of Pallavi where she was holding the five roses. His heart became heavy suddenly as soon as he saw the happy face of Pallavi in the photo. ‘Is she with the same smile right now?’ –he thought. He dropped the box and gave a close look at the photo.

“Hey Rahul! Don’t be so careless, there was a note inside the box!” –said Karthick.

“Yeah, open it!”- said Rahul, with his eyes fixed on the roses on the photo still.

“Ask me, Rahul! I’d give you whatever you want! Your phone will also reach you soon! It’s not easy for me to live without hearing your manly voice! ”- Karthick read it aloud.

Rahul didn’t even move his eyes from the photo, not even an inch. “Rahul, what’s wrong?”- Karthick touched his shoulders.

“Somebody is dead, Karthick!” –he said slowly.

PART 10:

Rahul touched the drop of blood in the second rose and quickly withdrew his hand as if he touched fire.

“It’s real, Karthick! Real blood! So far everything was just a painting! Now it’s real!” –Rahul’s voice as well as hands was trembling.

After a moment, Rahul gathered himself and said, “Let’s go!”

“Where? To your house or guest house?”

“To my home, of course! I want to make sure everyone is safe! So hurry up!”

Rahul took the front seat while Karthick started driving. “Rahul, don’t waste any time! Try to figure out what that lunatic wants now!” Even though fear was stabbing Rahul’s heart with its sword painfully, he smiled a bit when he heard the word ‘Lunatic’.

“Well, it was written “DONE” in the second rose with real blood!” –He tried to remember the words in his photo in the second rose. “Yes! The most possessive rose! Who is more possessive towards me? Swetha? But why would she kill herself? So according to it, she had DONE suicide? That’s so unlikely! How would someone predict a suicide?” –sighed Rahul.

“That’s insane! This one is a lunatic, no doubts now!”

“Well, the first rose which had made its entry along with me in this world is Ekta! I can’t believe it!”

“You can’t believe what?”

“No one except the people in my close circle knew that Ekta is my twin sister!”



“Exactly, our dear lunatic is close to us then!”

“Not us! To me, Karthick!”

“Whatever! We had analyzed your photo well enough! Go ahead with this new madness now!”

He started reading the golden letters in each roses in Pallavi’s photo.

1. “The rose with the cutest appearance

Should realize the inner heart’s importance

If it did, it might get another chance”

2. “DONE!”

3. “The rose which is the most innocent

Should get my complacent

If it did, it might return to you 100 percent”

4. “The rose which is the closest

Should know who is the best (for you)

If it did, it might escape from my detest”

5. “The rose from American soil

Should forget you and get back to its toil

If it did, it might not spoil”

Rahul finished reading and turned his head to look at Karthick. “What do you think?”

“Poetic lunatic!” –said Karthick while he accelerated the car. “But I am happy about one thing! Pallavi is safe! Did you understand the fourth point? What are we going to do to save her?”

“I understood only the last thing! Bhavs should get back to America! I don’t understand a single thing about the others!”- Rahul threw it away in frustration and it slammed the back seat.

“We've arrived!” –Karthick parked the car and they both got down quickly and almost ran towards the home. They found Ekta and Bhavana doing some serious discussion in the living room.

“Hi Rahul! Hi Karthick!” –Ekta smiled.

“Where is Swetha?” –he threw the question in the direction of the girls while his eyes looked at the closed doors of Swetha’s room. He was starting to get an anxious, twisted feeling in his



stomach. He made quick steps towards the door and started slamming it. “Swetha, are you there?”

“What happened to your brother?” –Bhavana whispered to Ekta. But after a dead silence followed by those knocks, even the girls looked scared and came closer to Swetha’s room.

“Break it!”- suggested Karthick.

They forced an entry inside the room and found Swetha lying in bed. The unblinking eyes confirmed the unwanted news. “Noooooooooo!”- Ekta screamed and she couldn’t believe her cousin is dead.

*****************************************************************************************************

Vijay took his eyes off the forensic report and the PM report and looked at Indhu in disbelief.

“Everything confirms that it is a suicide! The cell phone was in her hands in which the last call made was to Rahul! A half-empty water bottle and an empty glass and some tablets in her bed! And yeah, PM report, she was dead because of excess of sleeping pills and so it’s a suicide! But it’s highly illogical!”

“Why? She loved Rahul that much that she can’t bear that loss!”

“And how was it predicted by a third person a day before? Where is the logic there?”

“It might be a mere coincidence! It seems that everyone knew about Swetha’s obsession over Rahul! Even Rahul was saying that he dreaded the day he has to say the truth to her!”

“Why didn’t she even bother to check what Bhavana said was true or not with Rahul?”

“So is that anything to do with Rahul again? I think someone is trying to frame that guy!”

“No! That’s definitely not the motive! If framing Rahul is the motive, kill one of them and frame him! I mean why do they need to kill five girls?”

“You’re right! So somebody wants to hurt him badly?”

“Killing five girls to take a revenge on Rahul? What did the girls do? There MUST BE a connection among these girls! There are two points connecting the five girls! One point is Rahul! We have to find the other!”

“Yes! Let’s start from the one point we know! I think I am going to dig Rahul’s past!”

“Exactly my point!” –smiled Vijay.

*****************************************************************************************************



“I am really sorry, Rahul!” –said Bhavana desperately, her eyes now sparkling with tears.

“If you want to blame someone, it’d be me! This had happened mainly because of me! If anything happen to Pallo, I’d never be able to forgive myself!” –said Rahul whose voice broke in the middle.

“No! No! She is going to be safe! She is going to be, Rahul!”

“And I have to protect you too! So if you just go back to.. “

“I am not going anywhere! How are you expecting me to? Do you really.. “

“To keep you safe, this is necessary! Once all the problems will be solved, you can..”

“Yeah, if you think I’d let you all alone to face these problems.. “

Both of them started shouting at each other, cutting each other in the middle.

“Stop it! I said stop it!” –shouted Ekta and that helped as they both went silent.

“I found something very important in Swetha’s room!” –continued Ekta. Rahul and Bhavana saw her outstretched hands which had the lost guest house keys.

PART 11:

“Eka, what have you done? You should have left it in Swetha’s room! Why did you take it?” –said Bhavana shocked.

“Well, I didn’t want it to be found by Vijay! He already doubts Rahul! Now he’d find a story to fit in Swetha’s suicide and frame me!” –said Ekta, looking faintly disappointed.

“Yeah, she is right, Bhavs! Also I don’t want to show this photo, I have received today, to him; he’d tell that I had sent it to myself!” –said Rahul irritably.

“But guys, we need to give Vijay a chance to find out what’s going on! He is a successful detective which means he is better than us in this business! We need help!”

“Bhavs, what are you talking about? He asked questions as if I killed Swetha and set up the environment of a suicide! Sheer madness, you know?” –Anger started growing inside him.

“Well, he did the same to me, Rahul! Because it was me who had a fight with her a few minutes before her death! He directly asked me ‘Did you intentionally let out the truth so that she would kill herself?’ So what? He is doing his duty!” –said Bhavana, convincingly.

“Okay, please don’t start fighting all over again! We’ll try our best to solve the clues in the photos and try to get back Pallo and Suja! If not possible, we will take the matter to Vijay and Indhu, deal?” –asked Rahul.



Bhavana opened her mouth to argue and then later changed her mind and said “Okay! Deal!”

*Give me some sunshine, give me some rain*

“You got your cell phone back?”

“Yes, Eka! Vijay gave it to me after the enquiry! It was in Pallo’s car!”

He pulled it out of his pocket and checked the display. Private Number. The anger faded from his face and a sudden darkness clouded his face. He pressed the red button and looked up casually.

“You cut it!” –said Bhavana who was not sure what to say other than that.

“She can’t live without hearing your manly voice! That’s what written on her note, right? You should have picked it up, Rahul!” –winked Ekta.

“Let her die! That’s what I want! I can’t even imagine Pallo’s current situation!” –said Karthick impatiently who was calm during the conversation so far.

Bhavana took the photo of Pallavi again in her hands and started reading the lines on the roses.

“I don’t get it!” –said Bhavana finally after a few minutes.

“Why did you give such a build-up then?” –Ekta sighed as she grabbed the photo from Bhavana’s hands.

“You’re not alone, Bhavana!” –Karthick shrugged.

“No, look at the fourth point! The closest rose, that is Pallavi, should know who is the best for Rahul! Why should Rahul know this? Pallavi is with them, I mean with the kidnappers! And so if they want Pallavi to realize something, why don’t they ask her directly instead of sending this to us when we can’t contact her!”

“You’ve got a point, Bhavana! We had clues but we can’t implement any of them! As you said, how on earth are we going to contact Pallo or Rahul’s cousin?” –Karthick was disappointed; He had hoped that that photo might have been able to give him a clue to reach his girlfriend.

“Well, why don’t you start packing, Bhavs, if you’re really considering this very serious? After all this photo wanted you to get back to your place!” –Ekta laughed again.

“What’s amusing you here? Your cousin is dead!” –said Bhavana with a complaining look, “You should realize the inner heart’s importance! Whoever wrote those words is right!”

“Sorry! But I don’t believe this photo! This person is trying to confuse us!” –said Ekta firmly.

Rahul, who didn’t concentrate any of these, was checking the unread messages on his mobile.



‘Rahul, some things will look more valuable only when they are in appropriate places! Like your cell phone in your hands and me in your heart! –The angel behind the mist! ’

Soon the three of them realized that Rahul was not into their discussion.

“Helloooo, Rahul, any idea of coming back to Earth?” –Bhavana grinned at Rahul’s amazement.

“I know how to end this!” –said Rahul, his eyes were fixed on Bhavana now. “Let’s get married, Bhavs, tomorrow morning!”

********************************************************************************************************

“What were you doing sincerely on a Monday morning, Vij? We need to reduce the number of cases we’re accepting! It’s getting overloaded these days!”

“Pallavi’s case! I am going through the report from Forensic department!” –said Vijay with his eyes concentrating on the file in his hand and his other hand playing with the paperweight on the table.

“Again?” –asked Indhu in a resigned voice.

“Well, yeah, to get a clear picture!” –said Vijay, still not taking his eyes off the file.

She came near him and bent over to see the file. “What’s new, Vij? We already knew that the only fingerprints on that water bottle and glass were Swetha’s! And that’s the main reason that we have to force ourselves to accept it as a suicide!”

Vijay closed the file and grinned at Indhu suddenly. “What’s your perfume name again? Why is it so mesmerizing?”

“Oh, please be serious, Vij! Open the file, I saw something new! It’s not the same I read yesterday!”

“If you really want to me to concentrate on my work, will you please take your seat rather than standing near me?” –winked Vijay with a naughty grin. Indhu hit him with the paper in her hand and went to sit in the chair opposite to him.

“Okay, tell me now! What’s with this new report?”

“Well, this was from Rahul’s guest house, Indhu! The interesting point here is Pallavi’s fingerprints were not on the door! But they were on the front gate, to be precise, on the small letter box in the front gate!”

“Wow! This is getting interesting! So she went there and found the doors locked and so she couldn’t enter! So someone else opened the door after Pallavi’s but before Rahul’s arrival!”

“That’s my guess too! Once she found the doors locked, she left a message for Rahul in the letter box as she didn’t have the cell phone with her!”



“Oh my God! Why did we miss that letter box during our first check? Anyway what was it, Vij?”

“Here you go!” –He pulled a paper out of his pockets and handed it over to Indhu.

‘RAHUL, WAIT NEAR THE ZEN TILL I COME BACK! – PALLO.’ The words were neatly organized which clearly said that they were not written in any hurry.

“What does this mean, Vij? She went somewhere willingly?” –questioned Indhu with a confused tone in her voice.

“The thing is that someone met her at this time and she went with that someone without realizing that she is going to be kidnapped!”

“How would you say that?”

“Look at the paper, Indhu! It was torn from a diary! But we didn’t find any diary or even a pen in her car! So someone might have given her that!”

“She might have taken them along with her! How are you saying that it was given to her?”

“I checked with her mom, Indhu! She didn’t have the habit of writing a diary!”

“But that’s not enough to confirm things!”

“I know! I found another courier in the letter box and I contacted the company and luckily I had found the person who had delivered it! Pallavi signed the form on behalf of Rahul, that evening! According to the courier man, Pallavi was with a man who was casually chatting with her!”

“Oh! What’s in that courier?”

“No idea! Because I found only the cover! Whatever inside was taken by someone!”

Indhu checked the cover. Rahul’s guest house address was written on one side with the golden color ink in the familiar Italics style.

“So Pallavi might have opened it and taken the thing along with her!”

“Possible! But my first question is who that man was! That’s your duty for today! Here’s the address of that courier man! Show him the photos of Rahul and Karthick and ask if she was with either of them!”

“Okay!” –She got up and went out with the photos and the address.

After an hour, Vijay’s cell phone invited him with Indhu’s name flashing in the display. As soon as he answered, he heard Indhu’s panicking voice in the other end, “The courier man died of heart attack an hour ago, Vij!”

He dropped the paperweight he was playing with.

PART 12:



*************************Monday Morning***************************************

Indhu slumped down into a chair opposite Vijay. She looked exhausted. Vijay smiled at her.

“Don’t smile, Vij! Why is this case going like this without a single clue? I am feeling like I am standing in the starting line of the running competition!” –said Indhu who lost her patience completely.

“Well, Pallavi’s friends are not co-operating! That’s one big reason! Anyway what happened to your Rahul’s history analysis?”

“Nothing’s interesting there too, Vij! He is a topper in school and college and an outstanding contributor in his company as well! So everyone likes him including lot of girls! Nothing’s fishy!”

“What about the five girls, Indhu? Did you find any other connection among them other than Rahul?”

“No! Pallavi is a school and college mate to Ekta along with Rahul! Swetha and Suja are her cousins! Bhavana is her sister-in-law-to-be! But again the base connection here is Rahul!” –Indhu heaved a deep sigh.

“Monday blues! You look tired, Indhu! Will you give me that information you have collected so far? Let me go through once!”

“Vij, you know what? I hate it when you do this!” –said Indhu, giving a nasty look to him as though he had done something terribly wrong.

“Do what?” –Vijay’s grin was ready to turn into laughter, catching the look on Indhu’s face.

“Don’t laugh!” –She said through gritted teeth, “That is, double-checking my work! You won’t take what I said as it is!”

“Tell me now! How many times did I find loopholes in your work during that double-check?” –Vijay forced himself not to laugh.

“Well, all the times?” –said Indhu innocently and she too grinned now. Vijay laughed at her words and said, “Take rest now! I’d call you during lunch!”

“No, I am going to work too, give me that cover and diary paper you found in the letter box!” –She asked like a stubborn school kid. After taunting her enough, he gave her the details she asked for.

She started walking towards the door. “Where are you going?” –asked Vijay. She turned back, gave a flying kiss and a smile which will make him fly as answer and went out.

After an hour, when he answered Indhu’s call, she said “I think I found where Pallavi is!”



**********************Sunday Evening***************************************

Bhavana pinched her arm. “What did you say, Rahul?”

“I am serious, Bhavana, let’s get married! If this lunatic is watching us closely, she would come to stop it!”

“What about our parents then?” –asked Bhavana in a low voice, who sounded thoroughly unconvinced.

“I’d die if something happened to Pallavi’s life! You can’t marry a dead body! Do you understand?” –shouted Rahul, causing Bhavana to jump.

“Okay! Okay!” –Bhavana sat near him and threw her arms around him and comforted him. “I just wondered how they would feel when they… “ said Bhavana, having stopped mid-sentence at the look on Rahul’s face, “It’s okay if it will help Pallo!”

“And I don’t know how it is going to help Pallo! Anyone bothered to explain?” –asked Ekta, who gave a why-was-this-drama-for look.

Rahul started saying something angrily, but Ekta stopped him in the middle and said, “Rahul, I know you’re frustrated and everything, but you don’t have to bite our throats for asking our doubts!”

“Exactly, Rahul! In case you haven’t noticed, we do care for Pallo as much as you do!” –Karthick supported Ekta’s point.

“Sorry!” –said Rahul, an unconvincing smile stretched his lips. “Well, the plan is simple! I have a feeling that she, the culprit, is watching me very closely! So she’d come to stop the marriage somehow and there is a chance of catching her!”

“Without knowing how she looks like! Brilliant plan!” – said Ekta in her usual pampering voice. Bhavana threw an angry look in the direction of her. “Let him finish, Eka!”

“Well, if somebody has a better plan to find Pallo, go ahead!” –said Rahul. There was a long minutes quivering silence as everybody gazed at one another.

“Alright, Rahul! Let’s do it! Let me go arrange things in the nearby temple! Let’s keep this within us! I’ll be back tomorrow! Good night!” –said Karthick. Others nodded in approval.

**********************Monday Morning – Temple********************************

“In a few minutes, you’re going to be my sister-in-law!” –grinned Ekta. Bhavana blushed. Bhavana didn’t wear any expensive dress not had don lot of jewels. Yet she looked beautiful as if she is going to compete with angels. Her smile glittered more than any jewel in the world. Rahul looked at her and stood frozen, mesmerized by her. Even he forgot all his worries while seeing that flawless, innocent face.



“Sorry Bhavana!” –whispered Rahul in her ears.

“Why?” –Bhavana gave a surprised look at him. Her eyes widened like the eyes of kid who saw its favorite chocolate. His heart missed a beat, taken by her beauty.

“You had several dreams about our wedding! But this one is not meeting any of them!” –said Rahul, with a guilty look on his face.

“Why is it past tense? I have, still! Once all the problems got solved, we’re going to fulfill all our dreams!” –She threw her arms around him and when she was about to kiss him, Ekta said, “This is temple, guys!” Bhavana blushed again and slowly moved her hands away from his shoulders.

“You’re such a fun spoiler, Eka! I shouldn’t have brought you here!” –said Rahul with a deep, sad look in his face and everybody laughed.

Karthick came along with the priest and the priest offered them the garlands.

When the priest said, “Ready to exchange the garlands!” they heard that voice.

“An Indian guy and an American girl! Simple wedding in a small temple! No press reporters to cover this?” –said a girl’s voice.

The familiarity in the voice made Rahul turn his head with utmost speed. “Pallo?”- He said with a surprised tone in his voice and his eyes scanned the crowded temple. Finally they found her. Pallavi was standing there; weak and tired ten meters away from them. All of them started running towards her and Karthick reached her first.

“Pallo, are you alright?” –Karthick hugged her, but she pushed him away.

“Who are you?” –she threw a dirty look towards him.

Rahul glanced at Pallavi fearfully and asked, “Pallo, what happened?”

“Sorry, why did you stop your marriage with that white girl?” –asked Pallavi in an almost inaudible voice.

“White girl? It is Bhavana, Pallo!” –Rahul seized her shoulders and started shaking her. “What the hell happened to you?” –His stomach contracted with a miserable knot.

She blinked for a moment and the next moment, her eyes closed and she started falling down. Ekta caught her at the right moment and everyone panicked. Several people started gathering around them as a girl fainted. Rahul’s insides started burning as there was no movement in her.

In mid of all these hues and cries, no one noticed that Bhavana was missing.

PART 13:



**************************************************Hospital*******************************************************************

“Vij, I thought our job is done! We signed a deal that we would find Pallavi! We did it! But I never believed that Rahul would come back and ask us to solve this puzzle, I mean, this case! Anyway we’re walking for a long time, where are we going actually?”

“To see the Doctor who is giving treatment to Pallavi, of course!”

“Is it even Possible, Vij?”

“Of course, if you have eyes!”

“Shut up, Vij! I was asking about Pallavi! How did she forget her past all of a sudden?”

“I got my degree along with you, Indhu! And you know that they didn’t give it to me for medicine!”

She gave a cold stare to him and at the same time, they were in front of the Doctor’s room. Vijay knocked the door and a lovely voice answered him, “Come in!” The girl who is the owner of that voice looked lovelier. She greeted them with a pleasant smile.

“You’re Vijay! I know you! I’ve seen your photo in newspapers! It’s a pleasure helping you! I am Nancy by the way!”- She shook hands with him.

“Not in obituary columns, right?” –asked Vijay while taking his seat.

“You have a very good sense of humor, Vijay! I know that too from your interviews in paper! Actually I am a big fan of you!” –said Nancy, brightening the room with her smile.

“I am flattered!” –said Vijay with a bit of grin on his face.

“How may I help you, by the way, Vijay?” –asked Nancy after a good laugh.

“I want to know about Pallavi’s current situation, Doctor!”

“Call me Nancy! Physically, she is recovering slowly! But she lost her memory and we’re trying to find some remedy for that! She would show a speedy recovery if she won’t strain much! Well, that’s why I personally asked her friends to go home and allowed only her family inside her room!”

“How did she forget everything? She doesn’t have any head injuries, right?”

“Well, it has something to do with bio-medicals, Vijay! We took her blood sample and checked it, and the drugs in it were some impossible combination, dangerous too! They damaged her brain cells; we have to thank God that she hadn't lost her senses completely!”



“Did you just say bio-medical?” –Vijay asked thoughtfully, and after a pause, he asked again, “Is it possible for a drug to remain hidden within our body after death, I mean, which won’t show itself in an ordinary PM?”

“I can understand what you’re talking about! You doubt Swetha’s suicide as murder!”

“Well, yeah, Swetha’s body is still here, right? Her dad is yet to come from Australia! So will you please give me a quick report analyzing her body?”

“Yeah, sure, Vijay!” –Nancy shook her hands again with him before Vijay and Indhu stepped outside.

Once they came out, Indhu said in a cynical tone, “I was there too!”

“Er.. What?” –Vijay looked bewildered.

“Of course, Dr.Nancy is very beautiful! But that doesn’t mean I am invisible!” –said Indhu, who made a face like she was going to cry. Vijay was relieved and started laughing.

“Let me know once you stop sulking! We need to discuss the case details!”

“Well, the case is getting complicated! Rahul, Karthick and the five girls are engineers! Now some doctor is involved in this!” –Indhu sighed.

“Pallavi’s fiancé is a Doctor, we met him on the first day, remember?”

“But he is the one who suggested our names to Pallavi’s mom! It’s like he is giving the handcuffs to us and asking us to arrest him!”

“But he is the happiest person in the whole world now as Pallavi forgot everything and she is involving more with him than Rahul, Karthick or Ekta! I am wondering if that’s what that guy wanted!”

“He’s a bit of an Idiot, Vij! Just because that guy is a Doctor..”

Vijay interrupted her and said, “No Indhu, I didn’t conclude anything just because he is a Doctor! Pallavi was talking with a guy before she was kidnapped! It couldn’t be Rahul! It could be either Karthick or Abhilash! Did you check the corner of the diary paper? It was an American publication!”

“I know it was published in US, because I told you so! Do not repeat things to me! Now tell me, you went through my files that day, right? What did you find from them which I didn’t find?”

“Well, I found a connection among all these girls, all of them had mentioned that they knew how to play Piano in their resume!” –said Vijay considerately.

“Oh wow, yes! There was another connection too; all of them had done engineering! Wait, let me find another one, all of them are GIRLS!” –Indhu started laughing, but Vijay still looked serious.



“No, engineering is common, but not the Piano skill! And you said Pallavi and Ekta were college mates!”

“Yes, they were!” –said Indhu in a firm voice.

“Yes, but they were not class mates, because Pallavi is a computer Engineer like Rahul whereas Ekta is a bio-medical engineer! That is the reason, not much people even know that Ekta is a twin sister of Rahul!”

“Did you just say bio-medical?” –she asked in the same tone of Vijay to Nancy.

**********************************************Rahul’s house************************************************************************

“I want OUR Pallo back!” –said Ekta, whose eyes were red as she cried the whole day. Rahul didn’t know how to comfort her. Pain shot through his heart like a bullet, seeing Ekta like a dead flower. “Eka, please! I lost my friend and my love in a single day! I started counting the number of reasons to live! One of them is my sister’s happiness and if it was not there, the count may have become zero!”

“Rahullll!” –Ekta looked shocked, “That’s not funny! Not funny at all! Don’t say such things! Don’t even think about such things! Bhavs will be back for sure and Pallo will soon get her memory back! Don’t worry, Rahul!”

Rahul, who started convincing Ekta ended getting convinced by her. Rahul closed his eyes and tried to remember the things happened, the past three days. He’d have never believed it if someone would have told him that his life would be upside down. He was so tired, every bone in his body was aching that he fell asleep unknowingly.

He heard someone screaming pitifully suddenly. “Pleaseeeeee!”- Someone’s voice as if they were tortured to death. He woke up with a bang and found Ekta also sleeping like a baby. He kissed her on her forehead and got up from the sofa without disturbing her.

‘Karthick’s voice! The same voice I heard over that phone call that day! The phone call that changed everything! But it’s not possible, Karthick went to his home! Did I dream?’ – Rahul looked around and found the television in the room running. ‘Some stupid movie! Ekta might have watched it before dozing off!’ – He thought to himself and started searching for the remote. Before pressing the OFF button, something struck his mind and he clicked the rewind button.

He started watching the previous scene. The scene went like this – the villain who was a gang leader captured hero’s younger brother and was asking for ransom. During the phone conversation of hero and villain, some bully from villain’s gang tortured his brother and that guy screamed, ““Pleaseeeeee!” But the voice was Karthick’s.

*******************************************************Hospital - Pallavi’s room***********************************************************



“Thanks for being so kind with me!” –said Pallavi grinning.

“It’s okay, Pallavi! Anything for you!” –Abhilash grinned back.

“I wish I could remember you all!” –said Pallavi anxiously. “That guy Rahul looked hurt when I told them I couldn’t recognize them! I wondered why he stopped his marriage with that white girl when he saw me!”

“Don’t strain yourself, Pallavi!” –Abhilash tried to calm her down.

Their conversation was interrupted by the knocks on the door. Abhilash got up and opened the door. A lady in white coat entered the room along with her strong killer perfume smell.

“Please, out, mister! Patient is not supposed to talk a lot at this moment!”

“Sorry madam, you please take care of her!” –said Abhilash guiltily and closed the door behind them before leaving. She locked the door and walked towards Pallavi’s bed.

“Doctor, I thought he would help me remembering something! Don’t scold him!” –said Pallavi in a convincing tone and looked up to see the girl's face. Pallavi couldn’t believe her eyes. “You? You?” –Pallavi exclaimed and gasped. “You’re a Doctor?” –said Pallavi in a surprised voice.

“Nope! I am a biomedical engineer! So you still don’t remember anything? Wow! Drugs invented by me are working fine then!” –said the girl with a devious grin on her face.

PART 14:

Rahul tried to wake up Ekta. She shifted a bit and continued sleeping. He poked her with the remote in his hand and shouted, “Eka! Wake up, now!”

“Don’t do that, Rahul!” –Ekta opened her eyes. She blinked twice and brushed her hair away from her face before she sat up. “What da?”

“What movie is this? How did you get this DVD?” –He pointed his fingers in the direction of the TV.

She turned her head slightly and saw the TV screen and said, “I got it from one of my friends! It’s such a boring film that I fell asleep in the middle! Don’t watch it!”

“I heard Karthick’s voice in a scene!” –said Rahul impatiently.

“Well, we all know he is a graphic designer, working in cine industry! He might have dubbed during some shortage of resources! What’s the fuss about it?” –Ekta lost her interest and started arranging the pillow to lie down.



“I thought the same! But listen Eka, you were there while I explained all the things to Vijay and handed over the photos after Bhavs went missing, right? I said about a phone call, remember?”

“Oh yeah, you heard Karthick screaming, but Karthick came to our home at that time and so you cut the call!” –Ekta, who was about to make herself comfortable on the sofa for a nice nap, sat straight again.

“I didn’t cut it! She said bye and left! Well, that doesn’t matter! So it’s not Karthick who screamed, but she used this film’s DVD to scare me! But her plans went wrong as Karthick decided to visit our house! But why would she do that?” –A little confusion appeared on his face.

“Impossible!” –said Ekta.

“What is impossible here?”- said Rahul, disconcerted.

“Running the DVD, I mean! The film got released yesterday only and I got a pirated version of the film! Now don’t start advising me it’s illegal and all!”

“No! I don’t have time for that! Get back to our problem! So until and unless someone who worked in the film helped her, there was no possibility of getting a copy of the scene from an unreleased film, right?” –asked Rahul, snapping his fingers.

“Yes! So the real question is how did she do that and not why did she do that!” –Ekta’s sleepy mood flew out of the window.

“I think we might get the answer for this from Karthick! I’ll go get him!” –Rahul leapt to his feet. Ekta also quickly rose from the Sofa and said, “I’m also coming! Don’t leave me alone! I’m scared!”

Rahul watched her expressions and found her hands trembling. He seized them and started moving. They quickly jumped into the car and Rahul started driving.

Exactly a minute into their trip, the car came to a halt and didn’t move further. “What happened, Rahul?” –asked Ekta.

“Radiator is hot! Let me get some water and come back! Please wait in the car!” –said Rahul and got out of the car.

“Okay, Rahul! We even forgot the DVD! Bring it too!” –shouted Ekta behind his back after he started walking.

After a few seconds, *Give me some sunshine, give me some rain*

“Oops! You left your phone here, Rahul!” –Ekta opened the door and got out and looked in the direction of their house. It was clearly visible from the place where she was standing. In fact, she was able to see some movements in the window of Rahul’s room. ‘Anyone can easily watch Rahul’s room from this place! It would even give a clearer view if I stand in the opposite



direction and a little further!’ –As she thought, her eyes quickly travelled to the place where she thought she would get a perfect view. An Opel Astra was watching her from that same place.

***************************Hospital***********************************

“Yes! Okay, tell me now! How did you find Pallavi?” –asked Vijay casually.

“Well, you said that there was only the courier cover in the letter box, whatever inside was missing! Our guess was it might be removed by Pallavi! But if Pallavi opened the cover, and took whatever that was in the cover, why would she leave the cover alone in letter box? That’s a bit illogical, isn’t it? So I guessed it was not Pallavi who opened the parcel! She collected it and just dropped it in the letter box and that’s why the fingerprints on them! But did you check whether this note in the letter box was written by Pallavi or not? I went to the forensic department and found that there were no fingerprints of her in it and so I found that it might be left by the culprit! So I checked the date on that diary paper which was Monday and so I called you to say that I found her! I expected her to be found near the guest house and went there and there she was, all tied up! It’s much of a guess work, I say!” –said Indhu breathlessly.

“And then you recovered her and brought her to her home, but the maid said that her mom went to the nearby temple! So you went there with Pallavi and while you were in search process of her mom, Bhavana went missing!” –Vijay completed the story for her with his guessing work, giving some time for her to breathe.

“Right! That was the story! I am wondering, Vij, suppose if I didn’t work out the clues and bring Pallavi to the place, the marriage would have happened, right?” –Indhu wondered.

“Yes, I wondered about the same! The culprit was in the temple, what was her plan to stop the marriage if it didn’t happen automatically?” –Vijay rubbed his memories and started thinking.

“Vij, I have a big doubt! Why did you give that cell phone back to Rahul? How did Swetha know that we would pick up the call on the day she was dead? Are we so predictable? Are we working in the same way that the culprit wanted us to work? Or was she watching us? If so, how could she be in two places at a time, I mean Rahul’s house and guest house?” –Indhu piled up questions in front of Vijay.

“I was tracking his phone calls to get closer to the culprit! And it was not Swetha who made that call, but the culprit, a girl who hid herself behind the mist! If my guess was right, the thing which was missing in that courier cover was his cell phone because… “ –Before Vijay completed the sentence, a nurse had interrupted him and said, “Sir, Pallavi madam is serious! Her pulses are down all of a sudden!”

***********************************************************************

Ekta’s mind started a war and a burning sensation started growing from her heart till the stomach. ‘Rahul said about an Opel Astra! Is it the same one?’ Even her palm started sweating and Rahul’s cell phone started ringing once again. Looking at the unknown number with her fear-filled eyes, she decided to pick up finally.



“Rahul?” –asked a weak voice.

“Pallo? Is that you? Did you get back your memories? Pallo? Pallo? Talk to me! It’s me Ekta! Talk to me!” –Tears started coursing her cheeks automatically. There was no response for a few seconds except that someone was struggling for breath.

“Eka! Do you remember….. our piano class…., your department in college….. Save Bhavs…“ –The call was cut.

“Pallo? Pallo?” –Ekta tried that number again and found the number unreachable. She couldn’t make out anything from those incomplete sentences.

The Opel Astra now seemed like it lost its patience and started racing towards Ekta in the utmost speed. Before Ekta decided to move, it reached her and that incident had happened in a second.

PART 15:

Ekta was pulled a few inches away from where she is standing which helped her narrowly escaping the accident. She suddenly found herself wrapped in an embrace and felt the same warmth she shared in her mother’s womb. “Thanks Rahul!” –she whispered.

“It’s okay, Eka! Come on, quick! Let’s follow that Opel Astra! Let’s try to end this today!” –said Rahul.

They rushed forward to get in the car. Rahul started following the Opel Astra as fast as he could. The girl was no match to his driving abilities, but the traffic didn’t let him get closer. Ekta sat quite still, staring at the Opel Astra, allowing her mind to relax in the aftershock of that accident.

She remembered something then. “Rahul! Pallo called me! She said something like..” She closed her eyes, trying to remember the exact words, her face on her hands.

“What?” –croaked Rahul who was concentrating fully on the speeding car.

“Something, something like Piano class! Also she said Save Bhavs!” –She rubbed her forehead and tried to get back to that phone call.

These words had some effect on Rahul who diverted his eyes from the Opel Astra to Ekta for the first time since the chase. “Piano class? Bhavs? What’s the link?”

“I don’t know, do I? But this car is leading us to your guest house, I guess! I can find some connection there! You taught us something in the name of Piano there in that guest house!” –A streak of smile appeared on her face while she said that.



Rahul who had his focus back on his chasing target, looked both the sides of the roads. He got what he wanted for the first time – some space to move forward and overtake the Opel Astra. He accelerated the car and quickly overtook it and placed his Swift right in front of it. He looked at the girl’s face in the front seat of the car. His eyes widened in shock. Did he just see Suja?

****************************************************************************************************

“How is Pallavi, Dr. Nancy?” –asked Abhilash anxiously. Nancy looked at Vijay and Abhilash who sat opposite her, and heaved a deep sigh.

“She is in coma now! We thought she was recovering! But the second dose of bio-medical injections forced her to fall into a state of coma, thank goodness we found a pulse and she was alive!” –said Nancy.

“Any idea about those bio-medicals?” –asked Indhu, who was standing near Vijay’s chair, arms folded.

“Well, yes, those medicals are doing the job of keeping the brain cells in a trance! Have you heard about hypnotherapy? Psychologists use them to heal addictions and phobias! It is almost similar to that!” –said Nancy.

“Are we talking about mind controlling here?” –asked Vijay with a bewildered look.

“Not exactly, Vijay! Since those medicines allow the brain cells to sleep, it gives a window for anyone to control the brain for a few hours! In fact, these medicines don’t work for more than 8 hours and that’s why the girl came again to give extra dose which left Pallavi in a coma!” –The answer came from Abhilash.

“Do you know about bio-medicals?” –asked Vijay.

“No, I am a specialist in plastic surgery!” –answered Abhilash.

“Well, I need you to answer certain questions, Abhilash! Let’s discuss them outside!” –They thanked Nancy before leaving.

“Is this your cell phone, Abhilash?” –asked Vijay.

“Yes! I gave it to Pallavi to show the photo that her mom has sent! I thought it might help her remember me!” –said Abhilash, the anxiousness in his voice hadn’t dropped even a bit.

“So you two were talking to each other till a girl entered Pallavi’s room in the disguise of a Doctor! You went out allowing her in! When you heard Pallavi screaming, you broke the door and went inside and found Pallavi unconscious! The girl sprayed something into your face and escaped! This is your side story, right?” –asked Vijay casually.

“That’s not a story! That’s what happened!” –said Abhilash indignantly.



Vijay took out his mobile and showed him the photos of Ekta, Bhavana and Suja. “Did the girl who entered into Pallavi’s room look like any one of those girls?”

“Yeah! Her!” –Abhilash pointed out Ekta’s photo.

****************************************************************************************************

The girl who didn’t expect this collapse all of a sudden pulled her Opel Astra in reverse. Rahul accelerated too, but Ekta caught the steering to stop him. “Let’s go to your guest house, Rahul! That’s what Pallavi asked us to do! We can’t afford wasting time following this lunatic!”

“But Eka, if we catch this girl, then it will be better!” –said Rahul unconvincingly and the Opel Astra started moving out of his eyes slowly.

“Better if you lose your Bhavana and catch this girl?” –asked Ekta in a firm voice which made Rahul turn his vehicle in the direction of his guest house.

“Did you see the girl’s face for a moment?” –asked Rahul who tried hard to keep his voice casual and not to let out his anger.

“Yes!” –said Ekta.

“What did you think?” –asked Rahul. The look on his face clearly said that he didn’t expect that one word reply.

“I don’t know, Rahul! I’m confused! There was a girl who wrote poems for you in that Piano class, remember? Your so-called part time job?” –Ekta’s face read that she was into some deep thought.

“Well, really? I don’t remember much actually! What’s your point now? That mystery girl is now chasing me to hunt me down? Again what’s the point? Why did she hide herself at that time? Why didn’t she just come in front of me and declare her love for me? Or why can’t she do that at least now if it’s all about love?” –His anger burst his boundaries now. He shouted at Ekta before he knew it.

“Because I told her not to do so at that time! I thought you were in love with Pallo!” –said Ekta timidly.

“Who is that girl, for God’s sake? If you knew it all along, why didn’t you just say it to me? What the hell stopped you? Were you waiting for this stupid chance of saying it in front of that same Piano class perhaps?” –Every bit of frustration inside him was pouring out of him; His bitterness due to Bhavana’s absence, his resentment due to Pallavi’s behavior, and his fury due to the loss of culprit who was few inches away–all those feelings ignited a fire inside him which ended up shouting at Ekta.

“It could be better if you’d have asked me who the hell stopped me!” –said Ekta calmly.



******************************************************************************************************

Indhu checked the cell phone of Abhilash. Last call made was to Rahul’s number. There was a message in drafts which was unsent. “Eka, Save Bhavs! Rahul’s guest house!”

“Vij, did you see this?” –asked Indhu.

“Yes! That’s why I’m driving towards that place now!” –said Vijay with a little smile.

“Vij, I think we solved this! Some friend of Ekta fell in love with Rahul, who is the mist girl! But Ekta was under the impression that Rahul was in love with Pallavi and so she stopped her friend from proposal! So they planned to threaten Pallavi and for that, they prepared those photo things and made some prank calls! They didn’t expect Bhavana’s unexpected arrival all of a sudden! They tried to scare her too by entering into Pallavi’s room that night! In the meantime, they killed Swetha as she was the biggest nag! Pallavi and Bhavana were kidnapped just to scare the hell out of them and so that they would stay out of Rahul’s business!” –said Indhu breathlessly. When Vijay tried to say something, she gestured him to stop and continued with her speculations.

“In fact they wanted us to find Pallavi and Bhavana, because they don’t want to kill them! So they left us that diary clue in the place where Pallavi was kidnapped! Now they left another clue in the form of an unsent SMS!”–completed Indhu without giving any chance for Vijay to interfere.

“The story cooked by you is very tasty! But I am not buying it! Where do you fit Suja in this cooking?” –asked Vijay, his eyebrows twitched.

“I think she is the mist girl! In fact she disappeared without anyone noticing! That was increasing the doubt in that character!” –said Indhu with a little doubt in her voice.

“What about the man who met Pallavi in front of Rahul’s guest house just before she was kidnapped?” –questioned Vijay in a clearly demanding voice. Now Indhu went silent as she couldn’t fit anyone in that place. When they both were engulfed in their thoughts, Indhu’s cell phone ringtone disturbed them.

Indhu checked the display and answered the call, “Hello Ekta!”

“Indhu madam? Vijay sir? Somebody kidnapped Rahul!” –Indhu heard Ekta’s trembling voice.

PART 16 - A:

Vijay looked at Ekta. “You played a major part in this entire drama and you’re hiding it! Until and unless you open your mouth, it’ll be really tough for us to find your brother! Mind it, your brother is in hands of a dangerous lunatic! So if you prefer him dying rather than telling us the truth… “



“Nooooooooo!” –cried Ekta. “Don’t hurt me! I’d prefer dying instead of letting him die because of my prank!” –breathed Ekta, very white-faced, with tears in her eyes.

“Relax, please! My aim is not to hurt or make you cry! But I know very well that you know something! Rahul himself told me that Ekta was not interested in solving the clues in the photos while he handed over them to me! Why were you not interested?” - Vijay passed a tissue paper and a glass of water to her.

“I am not, because the first photo of Rahul was Suja’s creation and I know it!” –said Ekta over her sobs, wiping her face with the tissue. Vijay and Indhu stared at each other, and there was something more than shock in Indhu’s expression.

“Why did Suja make one such terrific photo?” –asked Indhu. Ekta looked as if she would rather die than suffering the shame of admitting the truth.

“We tried to find Rahul’s girlfriend! That’s all! I know those lines were terrific and you might not accept that it’s all for fun! Only if someone had not tried implementing those lines, then we all would have had some good laughs!” –said Ekta, now looked a bit more confident than before.

“So you were saying that you started the game, but you don’t know who is playing it right now?” –asked Vijay.

“Yes!” –said Ekta, who drank some more water from the glass.

“How did you know about Bhavana? How did you mention something like Indo-American if you were not aware of the existence of Bhavana before her arrival?” –asked Vijay keenly.

“Bhavana didn’t give any surprise visit to India! She called Rahul to inform about her arrival three days before! Fortunately or unfortunately, I picked up! As she had American accent, I asked whether she was an American! She told me that her mom was an Indian and her dad was an American! She just asked me to inform Rahul about her arrival and hung up! I don’t know anything else except she is an Indo-American! That’s why I wrote only about that whereas I managed to write the closest, the most possessive kind of phrases for others!” –said Ekta.

“Right! So you didn’t write anything on Pallavi’s photo?” –questioned Indhu.

“No! Suja and I had doubts that they two love each other in the name of ‘Best Friends’! Just to involve Pallavi in this, we simply sent her a photo! We guessed Pallavi would show it to Rahul anyway and if Rahul would show his photo in return, Pallavi would definitely show interest in deciphering them which would help us finding whether they were in love or not! That was our plan!” –It was clear from Ekta’s voice that she was embarrassed by her own plans now.

“How idiotic!” –Indhu banged her head.

“Somehow Pallavi behaved as per our expectation and I did find that Bhavana was his lover! That’s the end of story from my side! I swear I didn’t do anything else!” –said Ekta with a pleading look in her eyes.



“Did you make any prank call to Rahul or Pallavi on Saturday morning?” –asked Vijay.

“No, that’s not me! I don’t know who did that! Well, Rahul said that he heard Karthick screaming in the middle of that phone conversation! But we found out it was from a film that released yesterday! Karthick might have dubbed for the film, we’re not sure! In fact we started our journey to clarify this with Karthick, but ended up in our guest house where some guys kidnapped him at gunpoint!” –Ekta looked completely tired now.

“Please cope with me for a few more minutes! Did you tell Suja that Bhavana is Rahul’s lover?” –asked Vijay in his casual tone.

“I didn’t get a chance because Swetha started a fight straight away with Rahul! Suja was too tired and she went into her room to take rest! That was the last I saw her! I don’t know who abducted her from our house!” –said Ekta, surprised by the casualty in Vijay’s voice.

“Not only who, but no one knew when, how and why too! Well, on that same night, Bhavana arrived and stayed in Pallavi’s home! They two heard some weird noises in Pallavi’s room that night and found that the photo, yes, the same one sent by you, was edited to change the dew drops to blood drops over Suja’s rose! Who changed it?” –That casual tone still remained in Vijay’s voice.

“That was when the game moved out of my hands, I think! I don’t know who took over! I am very sorry! But why are you wasting your time and my time like this? Will you please take some action to find Rahul?” –Ekta started feeling a little angrier.

“Well, where to start unless we have a thread? Well, back to the enquiry now, there was a connection between Rahul’s and Pallavi’s room balconies! So who were all in your home at that time, say 8’O clock on Saturday evening?” –asked Vijay without caring much about Ekta’s angry look.

“Rahul, Swetha and me! Well, Suja too, but I was not sure when she exactly disappeared!” –said Ekta, trying to control her anger.

“And Rahul’s cell phone was with Suja at that time from which Pallavi got some texts and she went to your guest house! That’s where she disappeared! We found out two important clues there! A courier plus a diary paper!” –Vijay pulled them from his table drawer and showed it to Ekta.

“This is Suja’s handwriting, I guess! And this is from Karthick’s diary; I know it because that diary is special for him! ” –said Ekta, after handing them over back to Vijay.

“Okay! That’s some valuable information! Well, back to the point, Rahul and Bhavana decided to go find Pallavi, went to the guest house and found Pallavi’s Zen standing there without her! One more shock for them was that the guest house was already open! If one set of keys were with Rahul, somebody might have used the other set of keys to open it and those were yours!” –said Vijay with a you-can’t-escape-from-this-enquiry expression.



“See, I didn’t open it, okay? Just .. just.. don’t try to frame everything against me! How would I send such ‘love poems’ to my brother? Come on! Maybe this is why I decided to hide all those from you in first place!” –Ekta burst into furious tears.

“May I know what are ‘all those’?” –asked Vijay, who had no changes in his expressions.

“I missed the keys somehow and later I found them in Swetha’s room on her bed! I took them back; that’s it!” –muttered Ekta, sobbing under her breath.

“Okay Ekta, you don’t have to give up your emotions this much for asking some simple questions which will help finding your brother!” –Indhu placed her arms in Ekta’s shoulders as an effort of comforting her.

“Before you took those keys, certain incidents had happened! On Sunday morning, Rahul went to Karthick’s home to inform him that Pallavi was missing! He received a parcel from a girl at that time! At the same time, Bhavana, Swetha and you were in your house fighting about some silly things, right?” –Vijay asked the question more to himself rather than to Ekta. Ekta nodded her head.

“Before Rahul and Karthick arrived, Swetha was dead! And you two, I mean, you and Bhavana were at that time in the house, right?” –continued Vijay without looking at Ekta. “Yes!” –breathed Ekta.

“Vij, we were in front of Rahul’s guest house at the same time and we received a call from Rahul’s mobile and a girl answered us! But no one knew that we were going there, right?” –interrupted Indhu.

“As a matter of fact, two people knew it, Indhu! Abhilash and Bhavana! I was informing my every move to Abhilash as he is the one who paid us such a huge amount to find Pallavi! As I needed Rahul’s guest house keys to enter, I asked Bhavana to bring them! Let’s discuss it later!” –said Vijay to Indhu and turned his head towards Ekta.

“Where am I? Yeah, Swetha was dead! At the same time, Rahul received the photo of Pallavi which was originally sent by you for the first time, that too with some poetic lines in those roses! It was with Pallavi before; it was removed from her room to write those lines and was sent back to Rahul! We searched the room on Sunday morning and we didn’t find that photo which means it was removed on Saturday night itself! Where were you at that time?” –Vijay threw another question to Ekta who looked exhausted.

“I was in my home, my room only! Bhavana was the one who stayed in Pallavi’s house that night! Now don’t tell me that Bhavana is the culprit! Rahul loves her already and so she doesn’t have any motive to do all these!” –said Ekta irritably.

“You know Bhavana only for a day and you’re supporting her, interesting!” –Vijay smiled.

“No, it could not be Bhavana, that’s what I thought! Rahul received a call and a text while we, I mean Rahul, Karthick, Bhavana and I were discussing the details in the photo! At the end of that



discussion only, Rahul came up with a so-called brilliant plan of marrying Bhavana the next day!” –said Ekta.

“Oh yeah, he told me that! He rejected the call after seeing the private number and then that angel behind the mist sent him a text about his mobile to be in an appropriate place, that’s with him, yeah, I do remember!” –said Vijay, watching the expressions on Ekta’s face.

“Yeah, on Monday, I found Pallavi and brought her to the temple! Bhavana went missing the same day!” –said Indhu thoughtfully.

“Pallavi was drugged with some dangerous bio-medicals, Indhu, don’t forget that! So you are a bio-medical engineer, right, Ekta?” –Vijay turned the enquiry into a different direction.

“So are Suja and Swetha!” –whispered Ekta.

“Yeah, I know! Even Bhavana is a bio-medical engineer, for your information! Tell me about Rahul’s piano classes by the way!” –said Vijay like a suggestion.

“He learned Piano during his school days! He took it as a part-time job that is teaching us how to play Piano during college days! He used our guest house for that purpose! Mostly my friends and Pallavi’s friends were in that class along with Swetha, Suja and Karthick! A girl used to send him poems, greeting cards and all! We doubted that was Swetha and even Karthick and I used to make fun of her! We never found who it was though! I thought of telling this to Rahul, but Karthick stopped me!” –said Ekta bluntly.

“So except Bhavana, everyone was in that class! Alright! One final question, Ekta! You decided to go to Karthick’s home, started chasing an Opel Astra in the middle, ended up going to Rahul’s guest house for saving Bhavana where he was kidnapped finally! You gave me that Opel Astra’s number, that’s okay! But did you ever get a chance to look at the driver in that Opel Astra?” –Vijay’s face showed some curiosity for the first time in his casual enquiry session.

“Well, yeah, that’s insane though! First she looked like Swetha for me, but my eyes might have tricked me because Suja resembles Swetha a lot even though she was only a half-sister! I saw Suja for a moment, I guess!” –said Ekta in a doubtful voice.

“Thanks Ekta! One enquiry with Karthick would end this case! That Opel Astra was registered in Karthick’s name!” –said Vijay calmly.

PART 16 - B:

“You’re the only person other than Pallavi to know about Bhavana-Rahul love story, right?” –asked Vijay straight away without any formalities.



“Yes! It’s the other way around too! Rahul and Bhavs are the only two persons in the whole world to know about our love!” –Karthick answered without looking at him. His facial expressions clearly showed that he didn’t like this enquiry.

“All four of you just don’t care about people who thought that Pallavi and Rahul were lovers!” –Vijay said it as a statement but his gaze demanded an answer from Karthick.

“Is that a problem now? You’re not here to question our life-style, Vijay!” –said Karthick irritably.

“How’re you expecting us to help you if you hide half of the things?” –Indhu interrupted as she was irritated with Karthick’s careless answer.

“I am sorry if I was rude! I just wondered if that question is really necessary for you to find Rahul and Bhavs!” –said Karthick quickly.

“Of course, it is! When did they first meet? How did they fall in love with each other?” –said Vijay, with no change in his expressions.

“Well, Bhavs is his boss’ daughter! He met her in NY during some client side meeting! After some dates, they decided to be together forever! One fine day, Rahul proposed and Bhavs accepted too! Her family didn’t oppose too!” –grinned Karthick as he tried to remember those good old days.

“So Bhavana is completely unaware of what’s going on in India, right?” –asked Vijay.

“More or less, yes! Rahul was worried about his family especially Swetha, but he made sure that Bhavs didn’t know all this! Even though she came to know all about this during this India trip, she is very much understanding and helpful to Rahul!” –said Karthick.

“Yeah! I can see that when she was even ready for a marriage without informing her parents!” –said Vijay sarcastically.

“Sorry Vijay! I know you’d take it that way! But the situation is demanding! Her best friend Pallo was missing! I won’t say that wedding as a super plan from Rahul or something, but he didn’t want to sit idle giving the job to you detectives! And so he planned something, Bhavs is matured enough to understand Rahul’s feelings!” –said Karthick convincingly.

“Why are you so interested in telling me that Bhavana is such a darling?” –Vijay’s eyes even smiled.

“Because I think you doubt her as she is the new girl to our gang! But she would never do any harm to Rahul! She is a sweetheart of course; she even said that she’d make me and Pallo as Godparents to their kids! If someone was pathetic enough to do any harm to that innocent girl… “ –Karthick’s voice trailed away and he stopped the sentence mid-way. He looked as if he was troubling himself by imagining the worst.



“Well, I know that! When did I ever say that she wanted to hurt Rahul?” –muttered Vijay thoughtfully and continued, “Even though I know the answer, for the sake of records, why did you register an Opel Astra before Bhavana’s arrival?”

“Opel Astra? What are you talking about?” –Karthick looked clueless for a moment and then he said, “Well, it’s a gift! My producer gave me after one of the songs in his movie was a big hit mainly because of my graphics designs! I didn’t even give a proper look at it as it was meant to be kept as a surprise! Is that even an Opel Astra? Thanks for the information!”

“Is that the song from the same movie that you’ve dubbed for hero’s younger brother?”

“Well, how do you know that? Yes!” –said Karthick with a surprising look.

“Also you tore a page from your precious little diary while working on that film when a little girl asked you to give a paper to get an autograph from the hero?” –questioned Vijay while he continued scribbling something on a file in his hands.

“Well, yes! In fact that little girl asked me to give a particular day as it is her birthday or something! How do you know all this?” –Karthick was in heights of surprise now.

“And is it not the same girl who gave that gift parcel to Rahul in your home?” –Vijay didn’t seem to notice Karthick’s surprise which was multiplied again.

“I.. I didn’t notice that! How did you find that little girl?” –Karthick’s respect towards Vijay suddenly increased and he recalled Bhavana’s words, “He is the best in this business!”

“I did as a matter of fact and she helped me solve the entire case! I am not taking any credit! And who is the producer who decided to give you such a gift for a song?”

“If you’re so good with the leads, you should be knowing that as well!" –said Karthick.

“Finally, what did you do to the girl who used to send letters to Rahul in those Piano classes?” –asked Vijay.

“What’re you asking? We didn’t do anything to her!” –said Karthick with a shocking look, “In fact we don’t even know who she was! Ekta doubted that it might be Swetha and we used to make fun of her! But now I understood that it could not be Swetha! Even Swetha tried to find that mystery or mist girl at that time, but we thought she was pretending! We did write replies to that mist girl in the name of Rahul and it was again for some fun! Stupid girl, she might have believed it was Rahul!” Karthick laughed a little.

“Wow! Very funny! You two literally cheated a girl and you’re calling it fun!” –Indhu who was silent so far suddenly burst out.

“Indhu, wait! Karthick, why did you stop Ekta from telling all this to Rahul or us?” –asked Vijay, keeping an eye on Indhu’s angry face.



“Nothing in particular! Rahul is sensitive enough that he would have never accepted our pranks as fun! Even he would have called it the same way as you, ‘cheating’! I just didn’t want him to fight with Ekta! And we’ve never guessed that girl from Piano class is doing all this! Now with all this, I am actually wondering whether she is trying to frame Ekta and me for what we did during college days! She might’ve somehow found it that it was not Rahul who replied to her, but us!” –said Karthick thoughtfully.

“Thanks Karthick! You may go now!” –smiled Vijay. Karthick looked back with the same surprising look twice before leaving. Vijay was busy dialing a number and Indhu continued staring at him.

“Hello, Dr.Nancy? Vijay here!” –said Vijay, looked up and smiled when he caught the eyes of Indhu.

“Oh yes Vijay, I re-worked on that PM report of Swetha and I didn’t find any bio-medicals in there! I did work with some advance techniques!” –answered Nancy from the other end.

“Well, okay! Is there any cut in her fingers or something? A very small one to take a drop of blood?”

“No, Vijay! Nothing like that! If there is a possibility of murder, then it would be only if someone forced her to eat those tablets!”

“Thank you, Nancy!” –He cut the call and continued scribbling something on his file.

“What did you expect on her PM report? Well, whose blood was it in that Pallavi’s photo if it’s not Swetha’s?” –questioned Indhu.

“Any culprit will do a small mistake in their bigger plans! Our culprit’s mistake is this!” –said Vijay with a grin.

Indhu got up from her chair. She strode away from Vijay as far as she could and turned to face him with her arms folded.

“Vij, I am angry, you know?” –said Indhu furiously.

“Because of Karthick? Well, leave him, Indhu! They four are really close that he let out his frustration when I asked about them! Forget it, Indhu, will you help me now? I need you to find the details of Abhilash and at least a connection with one of these five girls!” –said Vijay seriously.

“I am angry on you, not on him!”

“Er.. What?” –asked Vijay with a perplexed expression.

“I’ve told you many times not to do things without my knowledge! I am your would-be! I am your business partner and life partner! But you’re doing things on your own! Tell me right now



what else do you know which I don’t know!” –There was such a furious glare on her face which made Vijay grinning again. She tried to give a cold look, but Vijay didn’t recoil.

“I know who the culprit is! I am just trying to work out what’s her exact plan behind all this! What’s her expectation?”–said Vijay more to himself.

“Rahul, of course! But I am just wondering why she didn’t kidnap him in first place like she did now!” –sighed Indhu.

“Well, she didn’t! I did!” –said Vijay casually.

“What did you say, Vij?” –Indhu froze, watching Vijay, her eyes wide.

“Rahul is very safe in my custody! I did that so that Ekta will open her mouth and our very own culprit will come back from her hiding place!” –said Vijay, that mysterious smile was still on his face.

PART 17:

“Vij, you’re just so unbelievable! Alright! How on earth did you manage to find that little kid who gave the gift parcel to Rahul?” –The interest within Indhu sharpened palpably; she leaned forward to have a clear look.

“Well, it was not easy, but not impossible either! Rahul told us about a prank call where in he heard Karthick scream in the middle of the conversation during our first enquiry! That’s when I started digging Karthick’s past! Nothing suspicious, other than that he was working in a movie produced by Swetha and Suja’s dad caught my attention! So I just followed the tracks and found out all of them! The kid had also worked in that movie, that’s all!” –said Vijay casually without any excitement in his voice.

“After our first enquiry itself? Oh wow, I thought you doubt this Rahul guy! We were actually clueless in the beginning, right?” –Indhu’s tone was completely opposite to that of Vijay’s which was bubbling with excitation.

“Not exactly clueless! We had one prank call, one prank mail and some strange incidents as to somebody entered into Pallavi’s room and somebody opened the guest house! The prank call left us two clues again – one was Karthick’s voice and the other was the girl mentioning Rahul’s wear that day! The first increased my doubt towards Karthick and the second towards Ekta! And I started enquiring about both of them!” –said Vijay, his mouth curved into a smile.

“So like Karthick said, the entire plan was just to frame Ekta and Karthick? Just because they sent letters to that mist girl in the name of Rahul in those piano classes?” –questioned Indhu like a kid in a KG school to her teacher.



“Not exactly! You’d be astonished if you came to know about the culprit’s original plan! The entire plan was to get Rahul, of course! And in this process, she wanted to take revenge on Ekta and Karthick also! She almost won too because my entire doubts were on the two right from the beginning!” –Vijay thumped the table with his fists.

“Yeah, possible! Even that photo was morphed and Karthick is a graphic designer!” –said Indhu thoughtfully.

“Yes, you’re right! Interestingly that gift parcel with Rahul’s photo didn’t have any courier company’s seal in it! But Ekta said that she received it and I just accepted her lie as it is, as of then!” –spotting the look of surprise on Indhu’s face, Vijay smiled and continued, “So on the very first day itself, I know that it was Ekta who made that photo!”

“Well, after all, it was just a prank and so Ekta didn’t care about perfection!” –The surprise on her face reflected in her voice too.

“That was right! Ekta’s innocence itself proved that she was not the culprit, but somebody was using her idea of prank!” –said Vijay.

“So you knew this many things on the first day itself, but you didn’t tell me! You said only about somebody entered into Pallavi’s room via Rahul’s room balcony!” –said Indhu with a complaining look.

“Oh yes! And again if you analyzed it deeper, it would end in suspecting Ekta! Just think about it, the people, who have access to Rahul’s room that night, were four – Rahul, Ekta, Swetha and Suja! Swetha was dead a day after and Suja was missing from that day itself! So it just narrowed the list between two – Rahul and Ekta! The same night, the guest house was opened with the help of Ekta’s keys and it strengthened the suspicions on her!” –said Vijay, he seemed to admire various reactions on Indhu’s face.

“Oh wow! That was brilliant analysis, Vij! Even after all this, why didn’t you bring Ekta straight away for the enquiry?” –asked Indhu.

“Well, who told us about the strange things in Pallavi’s room? Bhavana! Who told us about the strange things in Rahul’s guest house? Bhavana! I had a question in my mind - what if Bhavana was lying?” –said Vijay truthfully.

“You’re completely unbelievable, Vij! No minds in this whole world would work like yours! What if she was lying – Oh wow, how could we ever solve a case if we doubt every single person’s statement in the case?” –The disapproval in her voice was clear.

“Well, that’s how we, detectives, have to think! How did you eliminate Bhavana from your suspect’s list? We all know that the photo of Pallavi was removed from her room! Bhavana was the only person who stayed in that house that night!” –said Vijay patiently.

“I personally think that the photo was removed by the person who came into Pallavi’s room that night!”



“That’s right! That’s what happened too!”

“So if it’s not Bhavana or Ekta, it should be Swetha or Suja! As Swetha is dead now, it has to be Suja, right? After all, no one knew how this girl disappeared all of a sudden! So are we waiting for Suja to show up now?” –Indhu asked, regarding Vijay with a mixture of admiration and incredulity.

“No, we’re waiting for Swetha to show up now!” –said Vijay without any distraction in his voice.

Indhu sat up straight, wide-eyed.

*****************************************************************************************************************************************************

“You kidnapped my Rahul just because you thought the medicines didn’t work fine on Pallavi! Only my medicines could save her now! But if you don’t give my Rahul back, I won’t give my medicines to your dream girl!” –shouted Swetha.

“I didn’t kidnap your Rahul for heaven’s sake!” –said Abhilash exasperatedly.

“I don’t trust you!” –said Swetha angrily.

The doors burst open and Vijay entered along with some police officers.

“Enough is enough, Swetha! Why don’t you just surrender?” –asked Vijay. Swetha leapt back in her chair because of the unexpected arrival of Vijay. Abhilash almost fell out of his onto the floor.

*******************************************************************************************************************************************************

Swetha was sitting in a chair opposite Vijay and Indhu. Rahul, Ekta and Karthick were standing behind them; all of them looked as if they were petrified.

“So you won’t open your mouth to say the truth?” –asked Vijay for what seemed like 100th time.

“Why don’t you tell us what really had happened, Vijay?” –asked Ekta in a small voice.

“Well, I thought of letting you know the truth from Swetha’s mouth itself! But she doesn’t seem to be interested!” –said Vijay, looking at Swetha. Swetha, who was staring down into her own lap, shook her head almost imperceptibly.

“Okay then! You all deserved to know the truth! We all knew Swetha was in love with Rahul and in the same manner, Abhilash was madly in love with Pallavi! Abhilash is Laxmi’s friend’s son and so he knew Pallavi from the beginning and also the rumors about Rahul and Pallavi!”

“He came to know about Swetha when she had sent her thesis to the hospital where Abhilash worked! Her project work was all about the drugs which might even make a person forget their



past totally! He was interested in this and he came to meet her! At that time only, he came to know that she is Rahul’s cousin and about her love for Rahul and so he also confessed to her about his feelings for Pallavi!”

“That’s when Swetha came up with that excellent plan of kidnapping and drugging Pallavi and so that she would forget everything about Rahul which would end the relationship between them and so they both can get their lovers all for themselves!”

“She wanted to take revenge on Ekta and Karthick for what they had done in the past also in this plan! So she tried her best to show that they two had kidnapped Pallavi! They decided to implement the plan on Saturday, the day Abhilash returned from US!”

“The plan was simple, very simple indeed! Abhilash who was waiting in his car in front of Pallavi’s home would call her and tell that he had kidnapped Rahul! At the same time, Swetha would call Rahul to keep him engaged and so that Pallavi would come out to check Rahul’s home and so that they could kidnap her! This plan went terribly wrong as Pallavi’s mom saw Abhilash’s car and waved at him before she took the cell phone from Pallavi’s hands! Abhilash who had no other way now entered into the house!”

“Rahul did attend the call too, but then it was another wrong move as Karthick decided to come to Rahul’s house directly! So their first plan went wrong completely!”

“Now only Ekta played this prank which introduced a new character in this story and that is Bhavana! It was confirmed to Swetha that Bhavana was Rahul’s girlfriend! She also found out about their close relationship from the letters and greeting cards they were exchanged, on Saturday! She also understood the hatred of Rahul towards her and she understood that he would never look at her anytime even if Bhavana broke up with him! So she decided to play Ekta’s game for the first time! This time, her plans were more perfect than the last time!”

“The new plan was just astonishing! It’s hard to believe, hard to digest! She thought of changing herself to Bhavana with the help of Abhilash who was a specialist in plastic surgery! She thought of killing the character of Swetha and taking the position of Bhavana! She asked that in return for drugging Pallavi and Abhilash did accept this offer!”

“Possessive she is, she had problems with Suja too who was her half-sister! She could not accept the fact that her dad went for another marriage after her mother was dead, but being a kid, she couldn’t show her anger too! She was never close with Suja even though Suja treated her like her own sister! She abducted Suja and changed her into Swetha and killed her and made it look like a suicide! The PM report was done by Abhilash and so obviously it was a fake! I asked Nancy to redo the PM report to confirm these things”

“Pallavi was kidnapped and drugged! She wanted us to find Pallavi to make the game more real! She was released mainly to make Rahul believe that such things exist! So that he wouldn’t doubt Bhavana for her changed behaviors once she would also return in the same way – which meant that when Swetha would return in the disguise of Bhavana, after plastic surgery!”



“Pallavi was drugged again because the drugs were not effective enough and Abhilash messaged Swetha to do something! Swetha entered into Pallavi’s room and Pallavi did recognize her! Swetha did tell her plans to Pallavi to have a good laugh! After the next dose of drugs, Swetha left the room! Pallavi regained consciousness after several moments and she made that call to Rahul which was picked by Ekta! Unfortunately the network was not clear and so she typed a message, but she couldn’t hold on for more than that moment and she went unconscious again without sending that message! “

“For this entire thing, she did make sure that my suspicions would turn towards Ekta and Karthick! It kinda worked too! But the blood drop in that photo sent by her was from her finger which made her plan a big flop! Am I right, Swetha?” –Vijay completed the story. Swetha looked at Vijay for a moment and resumed her own deadpan stare at the opposite wall.

“So I saw Swetha only in that Opel Astra, but not Suja?” –asked Ekta.

“That’s right!” –said Vijay.

“So Suja is dead!” –Ekta’s eyes welled with tears.

“How is Bhavana?” –Rahul, who was silent so far, asked Vijay.

“She is alright! We found her unconscious, but she is fine! She’d talk to you all in a few moments!” –said Vijay, smiling.

Swetha looked up to see Rahul. For a second, their eyes met. Swetha’s eyes were full of Love and Rahul’s eyes were full of Hatred. Love met Hatred. For the first time, Love couldn’t beat that hatred. Swetha realized that she never saw such hatred in his eyes before. She couldn’t believe that she lost all his love for her because of her mis-deeds. ‘I don’t deserve him! He’d never ever see me like that girl Bhavana said!’ Her eyes swam with tears of loss.

She quickly got up and pulled the gun from the police who was standing near her. She pulled the trigger and shot herself in her head. “I—love--- you---, Rahul---! I--- will------ miss--- you--- soooo--- much---!”- were her last words.

The End.

EPILOGUE:

“Rahul, Bhavana, Pallavi and Karthick came when you were out, Vij! The two couples are getting married on the same day!” –Indhu winked.

“Wow, that’s great news! At last their parents seemed to understand things too! Very nice!” –Vijay grinned.

“But there are lots of things that I didn’t understand! Please be a nice guy and clarify all those!” –said Indhu. There was an eruption of laughter from him on those words.



“Ask me!” –said Vijay, laughing.

“How did Swetha manage to kidnap Suja and how did she manage to bring her back after she killed her?”

“Well, from the enquiry with Abhilash, it seemed that Swetha called Suja and talked to her using Bhavana’s name and Suja went out to pick her up! Swetha had seen Suja leaving and so she hurried to that place in another way and kidnapped her! That was pure luck, I should say!” –said Vijay.

“Then? How did she bring her back?”

“After our enquiry, Rahul went to Karthick’s house, remember? Swetha also went out at that time, got Suja from the place where she was hidden, came to Karthick’s house to give that gift parcel to Rahul and went back with the new-Swetha-cum-Suja to Rahul’s home! Bhavana and Ekta were really careless that they didn’t notice all this!”

“How did you know about that place where Swetha was working all these?”

“Thanks to that kid again! She said that the beautiful aunt was living in a house near shooting spot!”

“So it was Swetha who entered into Pallavi’s room and scared those two girls, right?”

“Yes!”

“Who kidnapped Pallavi?”

“Abhilash! Once I found that it was not Karthick who met her that night, I was clear that it should be Abhilash! And Bhavana was also kidnapped by Abhilash only!”

“Okay, what was sent in that parcel to the guest house?”

“Rahul’s cell phone! Just to prove that he is innocent! That cell phone was the only evidence, you see!”

“We didn’t check that letter box in our first check! And that’s why she removed it from there and dropped it inside Pallavi’s car when she came to know that we’re going to check her car from Abhilash!”

“That’s right!”

“Also it was sure that Swetha took those keys from Ekta! Why did she try to bring Rahul inside his guest house?”

“She tried to bring back the memories of those piano classes! She believed that Rahul would remember a bit of her writing! But he didn’t because it was Ekta who had replied to all those, not Rahul!”



“That was quite sad, Vij! Had Rahul got all those letters, he might have fallen in love with Swetha! Well, not sure, but a little game from Ekta and Karthick spoiled a girl’s love and the girl herself!” –said Indhu with a sad grin. Vijay nodded his head in approval.

The End.

Documents

THE MIST IN A DREAM