8 years later....

ishita returned home, placing her son's bag on the couch, as he stormed off to his room, banging the door shut. She sighed in utter exasperation, feeling like things were completely going out of control. She sat down, facepalming herself, while she pondered on what to do next. 

Her sight fell on the closed door of her son's room, as she got up, making her way to the door, only to end up leaning over it from the side, as she knocked lightly, looking down on the floor in sorrow. 

"kartik...." she called softly, as no response came from the other side of the door, making her only more sad. 

"bache, i know tum yeh sab kyun kar rahe ho....i understand ki waqt tumhare liye bahaut difficult hai....i mean, it has been anything but easy for mumma too na?" confessed ishita in a chocked up voice, holding back tears, resting her head on the door, holding onto it, hoping for any response. 

"but beta, what you are doing is not right...aisi situation mein gussa aana fair hai, but iss tarah ladaai karke kisi aur se, woh bhi bewaja, that's not right..." attempted ishita to get through him,  starting to get more stern and serious in her tone, as she stopped leaning over the door and stood straight, her hand still unable to let go of the door, but with only silence in response, she eventually let go. 

she caught one last glimpse of it, before turning to walk away, when to her surprise, the door opened. she turned back, astonished, only to find her little boy standing in front of her, with a pouty face, which was anything but surprising for the 5 year old.

She gave him a stern glare, still a little emotional though, as he was about to open his mouth to say something finally. 

"maine bewaja ladai nahi ki....woh ladke bol rahe the ki papa ne jaise aapko chod diya aap bhi mujhe chodke chali jaogi..." revealed the boy, as ishita just let out a sigh of disappointment, bending down on her knees so that she could face him while talking now. 

"main kabhi nahi chodke jaungi aapko....kyunki hum hamesha family rahenge...papa ho ya naa ho..." stated ishita lovingly, as she cupped his face, nodding asking for his assurance, to which he nodded in agreement, after which she squeezed him in a tight hug. 

But it was very evident, this was her rock bottom. 

                                                                     ***

Kavin sat in what seemed like the large conference room of an office in a skyscraper. The moroseness and melancholy was oozing through his nearly moist eyes, his head down in disappointment, while a man in a suit sat beside him, going through some papers and deliberating with another man sitting on the opposite end of him of the same table, while he had his papers and notes ready too, only for a lady in her late 20s to be sitting beside him. Kavin's glare, when it did eventually fall on her, was of cruel resentment, compounded by pure fury. 

"so meri client inke ghar ki sale ke 50% proceeds ki rightful owner hai, not to mention all the furniture items, joh inhone apne paison se liya tha..." read out the man, as the women was clearly not spiteful but still vengeful, and like him, resentful and bitter. 

"theek hai, but phir TV, fridge, microwave, oven aur dishwasher par claim mere client ka banta hai..." stated the man in return, as the lady's lawyer looked over to her for her agreement, as she looked at kavin with petty anger, while nodding for her eventual yes. 

"agreed. Baaki Ms. Sana Kumari alimony bhi demand kar rahi hai, of 50000 per month, since Mr. Kavin Sethi has caused her intense emotional and mental damage in this marriage, and also compensating for the significant loss of income for her that has come from it, due to how terribly it has affected her performance at work." stated her lawyer, while kavin plainly shook his head in no to the claim, baffling Sana. 

"seriously? alimony mera right hai! you can't deny it to me!" exclaimed sana, as kavin scoffed in pure scorn at her comment. 

"kaisa right? arre emotional damage kya, mental torture rahi hai yeh shaadi aur yeh divorce proceedings mere liye all because of you! arre compensation toh mujhe lena chahiye, tumhe kuch mil raha hai usmein khush raho! aur waise bhi, tumhari salary ka kya, woh kaafi nahi hai tumhare liye!" yelled kavin, as sana looked over to her lawyer. 

"dekhiye! iss tarah mere saath behave karta hai yeh...isse toh peecha chodhwana bhi asaan nahi hai! jeena toh mushkil tha hi iske saath!" yelled sana too, clearly escalating the conflict further. 

"you know what, how about i make it easier for you..." said kavin, as he grabbed the divorce papers, tearing them off and throwing them on her face. 

"raho phassi iss naam ki shaadi mein, akele reh kar, because if this is how it'll be, there's no fucking way i'll ever, divorce you!" proclaimed kavin, walking away in frustration, leaving her to facepalm herself in frustration. 

                                                                         ***

dushyant signed for his entry at the reception of his office building, he clearly looked dejected, but sometimes work has to be done on those days as well, no matter how much one might not want to. 

he walked inside, catching the elevator, as people's casual faces turned completely astonished upon seeing him, uncomfortable glances were exchanged, while he just awkwardly entered inside and pressed for 10th floor, the button placed right in the middle for what seemed like a 26 floor building. 

He sighed in wait, as the lift had to move from the ground floor to up, while a man standing next to him gave him the most pitiful of sympathetic smiles that could come when condolences were to be exchanged. 

"i'm really sorry for your loss dushyant....i mean, shefali kabhi aisa karegi socha bhi nahi tha....she was such a lovely person...suicide ki news was, really shocking..." stated the man, as dushyant could only muster up a forced smile and nod  once in acknowledgement. 

 Awkward silence followed in the lift, as everyone was looking over to see who'd go next. 

"but don't you blame yourself, man...i mean, kya hi pata kisi ke dimaag mein kya chal raha hai..." stated another one on his right, as dushyant looked at him completely perplexed, because the comment couldn't have seriously been more out of the blue. 

While dushyant just glared at the man, completely offended, as everyone in the lift just cringed, hoping to get out of the awkward situation as soon as possible. 

                                                             ***

Purvi placed two cups of coffees on the coffee table, while she seated herself on the couch next to a woman who was already seated there. Purvi picked her cup already, signaling her to pick hers up too, which she smiled and leaned forward to pick up, as purvi already took a sip from hers. 

"so, how are you doing, now?" she asked, awkwardly, as purvi scoffed. 

"take a guess..." responded purvi with sarcasm, as the lady bit her tongue. 

"uhh, i just..." the lady attempted to clarify, but was stopped by purvi. 

"why are you even here zoya?" questioned purvi. 

"uhh...actually, you were not responding to our messages, and we needed you to come pick up your checque for your outstanding salary..." stated zoya, awkwardly placing it on the table, along with a pen and document. 

"and you know, you need to, sign this..." passed zoya a bunch of papers, awaiting her signature, making purvi just glare her at her with a completely appalled set of eyes. 

"you guys seriously expected i would ever, come back there? let alone even look at your messages!" exclaimed purvi, completely outraged, as zoya cleared her throat before replying. 

"look, purvi, i understand your feelings about what happened..." attempted zoya to give an annoyingly diplomatic and corporate response, purvi wasn't patient enough for. 

"oh, really? how considerate, maybe you guys could have instead just not fire me...for something completely unfair, where you know, i was not wrong!" expressed purvi more disdain, as zoya tried to keep her calm and remain silent. 

"you know what, just whatever gets you out of here, i'm done with you people for real." stated purvi, as she aggressively signed off her documents, and placed the pen on top afterwards, getting up signaling her to leave. 

"just leave for god sake's..." ordered purvi, as zoya quietly collected the papers and did, but before she walked away, she turned to purvi.

"look, i know what ashwin did was completely unfair and wrong, but...what you did, that was not right...there were better ways to deal with the problem you know..." stated zoya, as purvi just gave her a blank stare. 

"maybe i'll ask you to do that when you get screwed over completely..." remarked purvi, as zoya just gave up and walked away, while purvi was completely enraged. 

                                                                 ***

The nightsky had fallen upon the sun, bringing the day to an end, and for what many seemed to be signaling atleast the end of the day's misery, but also the anxiety for what followed for tomorrow.

Kavin threw off his car keys on a table nearby the couch as he just crashed on it out of exhaustion, if it was possible to just escape the world completely, he would leave no chance of it. But it just seemed to be to out of his reach, as his phone buzzed for a notification, leaving him with no option but to get up to pick up his phone, no matter how annoying it would have been. 

The text was from an unknown number, as with confusion, he looked on, but what soon turned into complete horror in his eyes. 

                                                                       ***

ishita disinterestedly washed the dishes, as she was just drown in her never ending spiral of depressing thoughts, when her phone rang, surprising her, as she looked at the clock, which struck 9 at night, she couldn't help but wonder who must it be at this hour. 

She turned the tap off after quickly washing her hands, as she rubbed them behind her clothes, and rushed to grab the phone, only for her to miss the call because it ended just the second she grabbed the phone. 

But her glance fell on the notification for a message from an unknown number that flashed across the lock screen, which she swiped over to check in puzzlement, only to be completely horrified at what she found. 

                                                                    ***

Dushyant was drowned in a never-ending pile of papers and files, as he sighed in exasperation, rubbing his eyes in exhaustion, when he was interrupted by a buzz on his phone, startled, he immediately picked up to check, only to find a message from an unknown number, which the second he read it, left him utterly terrified. 

                                                                 ***

Purvi was staring at the ceiling fan rotate in an oscillating motion, with no lights in a completely dark room, lying on her bed, with sleep to faraway from her reach. 

Suddenly, her phone buzzed for a message notification, which just left her confused as to who and what it could be, only to pick it up, finding an unknown number text her with what seemed to be words that were simply nightmare-inducing. 

                                                                    ***

All of them received the text at once, a different image on the phone of each, one of them even had a dead body, while the other had a chair placed in an empty dark room with ropes falling off it, and even a gun in one; but the common words that followed with the different images read:

'i know what you did, and i'm not afraid to punish you for it.' 

With nothing but panic, shock, confusion on everyone's faces, only one thing was clear, that night 8 years ago had come back to haunt them, and the threat might not be easy to dodge this time....

                                                                 ***