The darkness of the room had seeped into their souls, it seemed to be making them tired, the exhaustion made them close their eyes to doze off. But what it actually appeared to be, was them falling into unconsciousness that was induced upon them.

Suddenly, purvi felt a flicker of light flash across her eyes for a split second. It was quick, but it was enough for her to look around for it again. Only for her to follow the line of sight leading to the source of the light, it was a phone lying across the room that nobody had an idea about was there this entire while. She moved to it, as even a sound was starting to accompany the flashes of light, seemingly of a notification. She saw no one notice it, but her, as she immediately took to action, getting to grab hold of the phone.

She caught the phone, as it opened immediately to a video, ready to be pressed to play. She seemed doubtful, as to what it could be, wondering if she should press to play it or not.

"Purvi, kya hai tumhare paas?" questioned a voice from the back, as she looked to find kavin, and everyone else seemed to regain consciousness again.

"Yeh phone pada hai yahan, pata nahi kabse....video hai ismein koi....maybe we should play it?" informed purvi in reply to the question.

"Karna phir play..." stated dushyant promptly in response, as everyone seemed to agree, waiting eagerly.

The video played to a black screen, only pleading cries were audible, as it cut to kartik, ishita's son, crying desperately, wailing for help, as he was held to gunpoint, the hand of the gun holder being the same that held the butcher knife that almost killed her that day in the elevator.

"Mumma...please bacha lo mujhe..." murmured the poor child out of all terror he could muster to speak despite off.

Only for a text notification to arrive, on the same group they were unwillingly added to by the unknown blackmailer, as it read:

'Want to save your child? Be ready to drink poison....'

The text had left her baffled, obviously, as she seemed to be in a situation where she would blindly and instinctively choose to sacrifice herself. Only for then, a bottle to reach her, sliding across from a corner in the room which was hard to detect. It had the label for a poison too, and upon catching its sight, she knew exactly what to do.

But fortunately or unfortunately, as one may interpret it to be, the bottle was kicked off from her hands by dushyant, making the poison spread all over the floor, as the bottle broke into scattered fragments of glass.

"Ishita, tum...tum nahi kar sakti yeh...it's some sick game this person is trying to play with us and you don't have to do this!" insisted dushyant, enraged and bothered to a point which was deeply moving to witness, it only shows when someone really cares, after all.

The tension spreads in the room, the air catching onto it tightly, as suddenly, a beep hit the phone in purvi's hand again, as a text hit the group again.

'He's right...you don't have to do this...but he'll have to do something instead..'

They all exchanged glances, wondering what could possibly be in the twisted mind of the elusive threat looming over them.

'Just tell her the truth, of the night on 8th october, 8 years ago...'

The text made dushyant's face turn white from shock, as he reluctantly looked at ishita, who could sense that his confession held a truth she would not want to hear.

He swallowed a huge lump down his throat, before he revealed the truth.

"Ishita, maine tumse isliye break up nahi kiya tha kyunki main padhne dusre sheher jaa raha tha aur long distance nahi karna chahta tha because it's too difficult.....it was because, tumhare papa ne mujhe paise diye the, tumse door rehne ke badle mein....and i took it." confessed dushyant, as ishita looked at him in complete disbelief, shaken for a good second.

It was only this time, when kavin looked at her with awkwardness, about to reveal something even more disheartening.

"Ishita, this text is for you...." stated kavin, showing it to her, as she was able to read it and end up feeling completely crumbled.

It was the deadbody of her son, shot in the head thrice.

'There was never hope....he was dead already...' read the text below. The minute couldn't get anymore worse for her.

"I'm really, sorry, par..." attempted dushyant to express his repent and apologise, but the attempt was turned down by ishita interrupting.

"How could you!" exclaimed ishita, as dushyant was only left ashamed honestly.

"Ishita main...." attempted dushyant to yet again explain but it was in vain.

"Our relationship was something you could exchange for money! Are you kidding me!" argued ishita loudly, expressing her anger at him.

"Ishita, baat woh nahi hai..." attempted dushyant to still explain to her calmly, but she was completely provoked and unwilling to listen.

"Kitne paise lage for you to completely sell yourself out, huh?" questioned ishita, as dushyant could no longer remain unflinched.

"It was a lot of money ishita! You know tumhare paas hamesha paise rahe hai so you don't realise, but what is a small amount of money for you, joh tumhare baap ne bina halki se shikan ke ek cheque pe likh ke bas phaink diya, usse i was able to pay off all the debts my family had taken so that they could send me to a college someone like you would go to! They put the one house they built their whole life on the line for it...you know why? So that i also don't end up spending my whole life just to make one damn house! So that i'm better off....toh you know what, jab mujhe mauka mila, i saw that sacrifice as worth the sacrifice they made to actually exchange it! Aur tumhe jhut bolte mujhe pata hai kyun bura nahi laga? Kyunki mujhe pata tha, ki tum kabhi yeh baat samajhti bhi nahi..." spat out dushyant all of his wrath into his words, turning away from her, as she was only left with moist eyes glistening with tears, that were slowly rolling down her cheeks.

"Sach mein toh tum mujhe nahi samjhe hoge na, agar tum yeh sochte ho..." stated ishita in a voice subdued from her earlier raised pitch, the anger simmering inside only now, and vanishing to just utter disappointment.

But this one storm wasn't the end, with many more to follow the way, as suddenly, purvi collapsed on the floor, holding tightly onto her collarbone in pain, wailing from it.

Kavin immediately held onto her, as she tried to compose herself but in vain. The phone in her hand had fell down, as ishita caught it to reveal another text in sight.

'Remember the pain all of you felt after waking up here the first time? It's from the poison darts that hit you when you opened the box kept in the back of your car. Don't worry though, it'll kill you slowly...'

The text only brought more horror and panic in the already despair ridden and tight with tension air.

"Oh god, she's dying..." uttered ishita, horrifying purvi.

"No, no...even if it was slow poison, we should all have been showing symptoms by now...it's something else..." stated kavin, trying to remain calm.

"What if it's not?" questioned dushyant, as suddenly, they received another text.

'You can be saved by a secret...ask purvi what she did 8 years ago...'

Everyone turned to purvi, as she could not have been put at a worse spot, it was worse than dying, but she didn't seem to be willing to take this secret to the grave.

"Guys.....that night, after the festival, the people who attacked us...they were there intentionally, not by accident...." revealed purvi, as everyone was left utterly appalled.

She looked down in embarrassment, as she gulped down before revealing her truth.

"They were there to kidnap you, ishita..." stated purvi, as ishita was not ready to receive this other shock thrown at her.

"When my dad was in the hospital, because he got a stroke...we needed a lot of money at once, and, we had already sold our house...there seemed to be no other way....so, i made a deal, with a criminal, to help him kidnap you, in exchange for 10% of the ransom money..." broke down purvi, in the middle of admitting to the truth, as ishita was left shattered.

"Wait, so, we went through all that trouble that night so that you could get some money from helping ishita, your best friend by the way, get kidnapped!" exclaimed dushyant, completely astounded.

"Seriously purvi, we all could have died!" yelled kavin.

"It wasn't part of the deal! They were just supposed to pretend to threaten us a little, give some light injuries for show...that's all!" protested purvi in her defence, as ishita suddenly remembered something from the night.

"Is that why you killed him?" questioned ishita, shocking dushyant and kavin.

"Ek second...uss raat joh humne gunshot suna tha jab tum log jungle mein the, was because you killed him?" questioned dushyant, immediately recalling the night.

Purvi, could only give a look of reluctance to accept in exchange.

Purvi and ishita are running away from the goons, as ishita is holding onto the gun. Purvi keeps on looking back, as she sees her plan fall apart, and the man running behind her, had a gun pointing right in their direction, about to hit ishita.

Panicked, purvi immediately snatched the gun from ishita, and stop running only to shoot the goon.

The silence is the room was starting to get deafening with everyone's fury and resentment with each other clouding it. Only to make this atmosphere worse, was when bottles of antidotes were again let inside the room, from what seemed like nowhere.

Purvi, who was really starting to feel she was going to faint, immediately grabbed hold of that bottle, only to be met with more frustration, as she realised that the bottle was sealed with a cork that wouldn't open so easily. 

Everyone was beaten up and frustrated at this point, when another message notification arrived with that phone.

Dushyant, just done with it at this point, threw away the phone in anger. But that only brought another notification, to everyone's dismay, as kavin looked it up in anger, only to have a horrifying shock of his own.

This made dushyant walk over and check the phone himself.

'Come on, kavin it's your turn now..you know what you did....'

Dushyant looked over to kavin in shock.

"What did you do?" interrogated dushyant, as kavin was filled with repent, awaiting the inevitable confession.

As dushyant and kavin were ambushed by all the gunmen surrounding them, they couldn't help but be puzzled about their next move. Only for an unexpected turn of events to take place, as ishita and purvi arrived from behind and managed to get hold of the goons' car.

ishita took to the driving seat, as she turned the engine on and blared the horn, clearly giving a signal that she wouldn't mind letting the car come under the car on her way.

The goons got away, atleast those who could before the ones who came under the car did.

They quickly stopped the car by them, letting dushyant and kavin quickly get inside and drove away in a rush.

Ishita was trying to rush away from them as fast as possible, driving the car very rashly, as all of them had their glances fixed behind, not realising that a car had come in front of them on the way, that ended up hitting theirs, causing it to be thrown to the other side of the road, where it ended up landing at top of a cliff, just a single whoof of wind enough to let it crash downstream.

Ishita was left shaking and scared, realising just what she did.

Unfortunately, the weather didn't seem to be in their favor either, as a hailstorm initiated, causing a tree steps away from the cliff to fall down completely on it, getting it stuck there.

"Ok guys...i don't think there's any chance they'd be alive..." stated kavin, as everyone was looking back, except for ishita.

"Hum bas phaste hi chale jaa rahe hai....this is insane..." stated purvi, as she held onto her forehead tightly.

"You know what, humein iss gaadi ko thikaane laga dena chahiye...." suggested dushyant.

"What do you mean, are you insane!" exclaimed kavin.

"Look don't be stupid, we have fucking killed people....not just them, all those fucking criminals...woh ghunde peeche padhe hi hai, agar yeh car kisiko mili na and somehow we got traced, police bhi hamare peeche pad sakti hai! Kisse bhagenge hum? Jahan se bach sakte hai, wahan se toh bache...." stated dushyant, as the panick-stricken atmosphere made the reasoning sound just to everyone.

"Well, itni bhaari baarish ho rahi hai....do log toh lagenge..." stated kavin, as he exchanged glances with dushyant, the queue to action was given.

"Tum dono yahi raho, hum aate hain..." instructed dushyant, as he and kavin stepped out of the car. The rainstorm was tough to walk through, as they mustered up their steps to the car, and from the behind, started to push. It took all of their sheer force, but the car was finally pushed off the cliff.

They both took a huge sigh of relief, as they saw the car get washed up into the sea and disappear completely.

"Humein chalna chahiye..." stated dushyant, as he turned to walk away, as kavin was about to too, when he noticed, that behind the fallen tree, lay a girl, 16 at max, struggling to breath and badly injured.

She forwarded her hand, asking for help, as it took kavin no time to realise she had jumped out of the car. Kavin, wasting no time, quickly pushed her off the cliff too before running away.

"I really didn't want to....i was just so, scared..." confessed kavin, teary eyed.

Finally, a text came to end it all, as it read:

'That was me, you pushed off the cliff....'

Everyone was left completely apalled by the revelation as everything was just starting to slowly piece together, when a final video came on for them to press play.

The video left everyone, but most of all dushyant, with the face in front of their vision, as it was his wife, or what he had thought to be his dead wife, shefali.

'Kya laga tha tum logon ko, bahc jaoge bas aise hi? Uss din car mein bas main nahi, mere parents bhi the....aur aaj woh nahi hai, tumhare kaaran....maine dekh liya tha tumhe aur jaan gayi thi, ki badla toh mujhe lena hai. Bas phir, maine ek-ek karke tum logon ko dhoondna shuru kia, aur kismat bhi saath de rahi thi mera..dushyant aur main post graduation ke liye ek hi college mein the. Maine tumhe pataya, pyaar ka natak kiya, shaadi bhi ki, taaki tumhare zariye, baaki sabki bhi information mere paas rahe. Par jaise-jaise maine tum logon ko jaana, mujhe samajh aane laga ki tum log kitne bichad chuke ho ek dusre se, aur tum jiss tarah ke log ho, tumhari zindagiyan minuton mein barbaad karna bilkul bhi mushkil nahi hai. Kavin tumhari biwiko divorce ke liye bhadkana aur tumhare khilaaf karna, mera kaam tha, ishita, tumhare pati ka apni college waali girlfriend se milna, mera haath tha, aur dushyant, tumhare liye toh maine apni maut ka hi natak kiya, purvi, tumhare case mein toh bas company ke legal advisor ko paise dene the toh suggest to fire you as course of action....tum sabko inn haalat mein daala taaki tum itne toot jao jitna main tum logon ke kaaran tooti...aur ab, tum sab ki zindagi itni bhattar ho gayi, ki tum log ek dusre se gusse aur nafrat mein zeher ke dard se bas tadap ke maroge uss ek kamre mein, jaise mere maa baap marre uss car mein...'

The video ended, as everyone was left to only bitterly accept their own end, dug up all by their own actions....

***