Song of the chapter is
Poison by Roses and Revolution

-33-
-Kartik Malhotra-
-Present-

__________

Aldonis Street

24 November, 2030
6:45 pm

As I finished reading the text, my heart sunk in its place.

My eyes immediately darted towards my wife.

She had a horrified look on her face. In the faint glow of the streetlight above us, I could see the look of alarm on her features. Her breathing was shallow, as though she was scared someone would hear her.

"Siya-"

"They know." She breathed, her gaze fixated on the asphalt of the road. Her breathing suddenly grew faster. "Kartik, they know-"

"Siya, it's okay-"

"No, no, no...no it's no-not okay." She stammered as she shook her head frantically. "Kartik, they know about that night. They know what we did. They know what I -"

"I, Siya." I reminded her. "I did it."

Her gaze flickered at me, with a trepidation in them.

"It's okay, alright." I held her by her arm. "Whatever they know... can't hurt you, okay?"

Tears started streaming down her face as she said, "How can they know? We-we took care of it, didn't we? I never said anything to anyone, I promise!"

"I know, Siya." I reassured her as I pulled her close. "I believe you."

As she buried her head in my chest, faintly sobbing, my heart broke into two pieces. After all that she had endured over the past few years, she had finally started to recover and get back on her feet again. She had stopped taking pills, got over her constant fears and finally, got back on with her life. And now, this one little text had managed to overturn all of that and made her crumble again.

My mind filled with unbridled rage against whoever was doing this. She didn't deserve. Out of everyone in this world, she didn't deserve it.

I squeezed in tighter as I heard her sobs get louder. Rubbing her back, I tried to calm her down. "Ssh. Ssh. It's okay. It's going to be okay."

"How?" She broke apart and demanded. "How is it...going to be okay? We can't put it behind anymore, Kartik! Someone knows what we did. And that person is going to try to do everything to reveal that and get us in trouble! We're fucked! We're done!"

"We are not, Siya." I held her as I enunciated. "Trust me, whoever's doing this,....they just want to mess with us, alright? It's not gonna come out, ever. Because they need that leverage....to use against us."

Her brows knitted as I continued,

"We'll figure something out. We always do. Right?"

Her breathing calmed it's pace a little. Holding her tear-stained face in both of my hands, I reassured, "I'll protect us, Siya. I promise, I will."

Her face contorted and features eased out. Slowly, she nodded.

"Come on, now let's get out of here." I said and holding her hand, walked down the road.

We passed several cars before finally getting to the more populous side of the town. I quickly called a taxi and got in, asking the driver to take us to the Paper Lantern as Zoya had instructed over the call a minute ago.

During that almost an hour drive, I could feel my wife shaking terribly next to me. I held her hand as tight as one could and tried my best to calm her down. Her eyes were trained on her lap, not moving an inch.

I sighed internally in defeat.

How could this person had known about this?

As far as I could remember, I had made every possible effort of making sure that the truth of that incident never came out. It was like a bad nightmare that we had overcame somehow. And now, one single text had managed to break all of those walls down and bring us to our knees.

How was any of this possible?

There were only two possibilities; Either whoever this was was simply messing with us or he had something to do with that accident.

My brows furrowed.

Is that why he was doing all of this? Because of the accident?

My mind went to several places all at once. No....it couldn't be. The doctors had clearly told me that the victim had no family, no relatives or friends had come to visit him over the past few years ever since he.....

Then how? Was this person someone related to the victim? Was that why he was blackmailing us and murdering people? To get revenge for what we did?

I threw my head, exhausted.

Stealing a glance at Siya, I decided to keep mum about this for a while. She clearly wasn't in any state to talk about this. I need to give her the time.

About another half hour later, we finally arrived at the Paper Lantern. I paid the taxi driver and got off and found Siya sitting still in her seat, her eyes still trained on her lap.

I shook her softly by the arm.

"Siya...." I spoke as softly as one could. She flinched at my touch and looked at me, her eyes bewildered.

"We're here...."

Her eyelids flickered as she looked around at her surroundings. Nodding softly, she quietly got off the taxi. I held her hand as I watched the taxi drive off into the distance before glancing back at her.

"Are you sure you wanna go in?" I asked gently. "I can talk to the others...we can directly head home..."

"No... it's-it's fine." She answered nervously. "I'll be okay."

My brows knitted in it's place. "Are you sure?"

"Mm." She mumbled, looking away.

I breathed a sigh and nodded. "Alright, let's go."

As I took two steps towards the parking lot, I felt a grip on my arm and looked back to find a look of panic in my wife's eyes.

"Kartik....if you don't mind.... let's no-.... let's not tell the others abo-about the text." She stammered.

I nodded immediately. "Ofcourse. I won't say anything."

Siya slowly nodded and together, we both made our way to the diner.

The sonorous chimes of the bell rang through as I opened the door for the both of us. My eyes immediately spotted the rest of the gang, except Veronica, sitting at our booth. We made our way to them.

"Where's Veronica?" I asked as I settled next to Zoya.

"Over there." Zoya pointed to a booth at the far right corner of the diner, where Veronica was currently sitting with a guy, both of them busily chatting with each other.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"Some reporter who apparently knows her." Zoya answered, munching on the fries on her plate.

"They've been talking for a while now. Wonder what that's all about." Himanshu muttered as he stared at them from a distance.

A short cackle left Zoya's mouth as he said that. She leaned closer to me and whispered, "Himanshu's been whining in jealousy for almost half an hour."

"I'm not whining in-"

"Who are you kidding?" Zoya gave him a sound glare. Himanshu immediately succumbed in his seat.

"How does Veronica know a reporter?" I asked, declining Zoya's offer for a single fry from her plate.

"No one knows." Zoya answered nonchalantly. "By the way, what have you guys been up to the whole day?"

I felt Siya stiffen beside me as I answered, "Oh... nothing...just looking around."

"Looking around what?"

"You know.....places...."

Zoya raised a brow.

"For clues."

"Where did you guys go?" Himanshu asked.

I exchanged a glance with Siya before responding, "Uhm.....we visited Yash's old neighborhood."

"What?"

"What?"

I nodded, looking between the two. "I gathered some information about Yash's mother from my father's old office files and found out that he used to live in Delmore before everything happened."

"Wait....so Yash was a Delmorian all along?" Zoya asked. "So....wait was he in our school too?"

I shook my head. "No,....he was in a different school, across town. After his house burned down, he apparantly vanished and was never seen again in that neighborhood."

"And what about his other family members? Does anyone live there?" Himanshu asked.

"No, he apparantly does not have any extended family. It was just him and his parents. Both his parents were detached from their families." I answered.

"And who told you all this?" Zoya asked.

"Just this neighbour of his." I answered. "Lives two houses down. He was kind enough to talk to us. The rest of the neighborhood seems to be unaware of Yash's existence prior to the murders."

The two nodded, Zoya a little skeptically.

"Well, our little investigation was also a major bust." Himanshu informed. "Even though we found out the possible pattern in which the killer is murdering these people, but we were still unable to prevent him from killing the waitress."

"Yeah the sight was just......." Zoya trailed off, speaking. "Let's just say I'm not sleeping with two closed eyes anytime soon."

I sighed.

"It must be why the other waitress isn't here right now." Zoya continued, talking to Himanshu. "You know, the one we drilled with all those questions."

Himanshu looked over at the counter and then back at us. "Oh yes, Shefali. God,.....she must be devastated right now. She seemed to be close to the victim."

"How long is this going to go on?" Siya's feeble voice echoed beside me and I looked at her. Her eyes looked strained as they stared off at the abyss.
"How long....are people going to get killed for our mistakes? How long are we going to be the reasons for so many tragedies?"

I tensed as I felt the onslaught of tears stinging the back of my eye. A lone tear fell down her cheek. My heart crumpled into a piece of paper.

She was blaming herself for all of this, just as I had expected.

"Siya..." I touched her hand softly. She looked back at me, teary eyed.

"It's all my fault.... it's all my fault, Kartik..... it's all my fault."

Saying those words, she rushed to the washroom. I stood up to go after her but decided it better to not do so. She needed the space. I needed to give her that.

"Is she okay?" Himanshu asked as I sat back down.

I nodded, not exactly knowing how to respond. "She's....just....a little overwhelmed."

"Do you want me to check on her?" Zoya offered.

I nodded negatively. "No, it's fine....she just needs some space. She'll be okay."

Zoya gave me a short nod.

A moment later, I heard Zoya sigh heavily as she proceeded to ask nobody in particular,

"Will we ever be able to go back to being normal, living people?"

And as my mind gave me the obvious answer, I felt a strong pang in my heart.

How had we come to this?

_____________

this chapter was just a lousy one to push the story forward so I've decided to publish two chapters back to back as sort of an apology for being so late at updating!

so do enjoy the next chapter as well!

also, please don't forget to vote, comment and share the book as much as possible!

love,
Bosedisha