As planned the three of us were again at my apartment, seated together watching Tv. Arnav had already had the cctv set up so we really hoped this time we were finally going to find out who was putting those notes outside my house.

Arnav seemed quite moody though, he was pretty pissed and he kept on talking to Tanvi but anytime I'd say anything he would just look at me angrily and roll his eyes.

I know he was mad because I wouldn't tell him about the guy I was dating, well if there was one I would tell him. Quite weirdly, no guy ever approached me, and if a couple of them did, the next day they would disappear.

It was as if I scared them off or something, so believe it or not but I hadn't actually dated any guy. I guess that's why Arnav was really mad, I was now suddenly dating and he didn't know about it.

"Okay, did you two fight or something? You've been behaving like kids this entire time. Come on guys, this is supposed to be a great time, the three of us hanging out and doing stuff." She pouted as she looked at the both of us.

"He's the one that's mad at me."

"Yes because now you're keeping things from your best friend." He replied rudely.

"I wasn't keeping it, I was just waiting for the right time to come."

"And when was the right time going to come? Maybe when you get married and decide to invite me, like hey Arnav, I'm getting married to a guy after dating him for ages and I never told you about him despite being your best friend." He rolled his eyes.

"What? You're dating someone?" Tanvi looked at me in shock. Why did I lie? Oh God, I wished I could have lied about something else, this was going to put me in trouble.

"And we wouldn't have known if I hadn't found her talking to her boyfriend on the phone outside the class." Arnav said.

"How can you not tell us that you have a boyfriend?" Tanvi stood up and looked at me in shock.

"Jeez, why are you two making a big deal out of this?"

"Because you are our best friend and we are supposed to know. Were you ever going to tell us?" Arnav asked.

"Like I said, I just needed to be sure about the relationship first before I told you. I dint want to bring a random guy and introduce him to you and end up breaking up with him in two months, there's no point of it." I tried to explain.

"Seriously, right now I don't even feel like talking to you." Tanvi walked away and Arnav followed her, leaving me all alone in the hall.

Well if Arnav could get this mad about me not telling him about my imaginary boyfriend, I wondered how mad he was going to get when I told him that actual secret. No, I couldn't do that, I could lose him forever.

I wish I could find this stupid person forcing the secret out of me and slap the hell out of them and tell them to stop doing this shit!

*****

Tanvi and Arnav were pretty mad at me so we all slept in separate rooms, Arnav slept in the guest room, Tanvi slept in my room and I slept on the couch in the hall.

When we were deciding to stay at my place together, we were so happy about it and how fun it was going to be and now it was all ruined just because of a stupid lie I said.

Why did this kind of things happen to me?

I couldn't sleep, I just kept wondering if they were ever going to be okay with all this or not. At sharp three o'clock, Arnav walked in the hall, I was seated on the couch lost in my own thoughts.

"You're awake?" He asked as he walked towards me and sat down next to me.

"Yeah." I replied.

"You dint sleep? If you did, you would have set an alarm and I could have heard it."

"You know me, I can't sleep when I stress too much."

"You don't have to stress about whoever's sending you those notes, one day or the other we'll find out who it is."

"You think that's what's stressing me?"

"Then what?"

"You. You're mad for me for no reason. Why can't you just try and understand my point. I dint want to hide things from you, I just wanted to tell you at the right time.

Do you always tell me about all the girls you talk to or flirt around with?"

"That's because I'm not serious about them, when I would be serious about a relationship, you would be the first person to know Shona."

"Exactly my point Arnav, if this was serious I would have told you, I just don't think it is."

"Okay... you are right. Maybe I over reacted, I'm sorry." He apologized.

"You always do that Arnie, you get mad at me for stupid reasons and get me all stressed up. You know what, from tomorrow you and Tanvi should go back to your place, I'm fine here all alone, I'll handle things on my own."

"Who is over reacting now?"

I looked away from him and faced the other side. There have been so many times when Arnav was mad at me, but it never really bothered me this much, because I knew at the end of the day he would come back to me.

Now that this stalker had been blackmailing me to tell the secret, I was scared that Arnav was going to get mad at me and leave for good this time, and that was difficult. I dint want him to leave me, ever.

"Shona. I'm sorry." He grabbed my arm and turned me to face him, once I was facing him he cupped my face and looked me into the eyes.

"You do realize that I get mad because I care about you right?"

"I know, it's just that sometimes I get scared, I think you'll get mad at me and leave me for good." I looked at him sadly.

"That will never happen, I promise." He smiled at me.

"Okay." I smiled faintly as he moved closer and placed a kiss on my forehead giving me goosebumps. Jeez what was wrong with me suddenly? Arnav had kissed me on the forehead so many times, and I don't remember ever getting goosebumps. What had changed?

"Why hasn't the doorbell rang yet?" He asked looking at the clock on the wall, it was three thirty.

"Maybe the stalker found out that we installed CCTV?"

"Maybe, let's check." He held my hand tightly into his as we both walked towards the door, and opened it.

As usual, there was a card at my door, it was weird that the doorbell wasn't rang. I picked it up and flipped it around.

"Tick tock, time's ticking." Were the words written on it.

"I'll check the footage." Arnav said as he rushed inside to get the laptop, we both settled down on the sofa and started watching the footage when Tanvi walked out of her room.

"Sorry, I forgot to set an alarm, did the doorbell ring? Was there a note?" She asked as she sat down beside me.

"For your information, I'm still mad at you but this is important for now." She said.

"No it dint, we're just checking the footage." Arnav said as he fast forwarded it.

At exactly three o'clock, we saw a figure... as it got closer, it looked like it was a tall, well-built man. The figure looked the kind of a man, I could say that from the muscles. Although he was wearing a hood and almost everything was covered, it was easy to figure out if it was a girl or a boy.

He walked to my door step, all the while staring at the floor and he was wearing a cap so we could see his body and everything but just not his face because he wouldn't look up and the cap was blocking pretty much his entire face, apart from a piercing he had on his left ear.

"Who could this be?" Arnav asked.

"Do you know anyone in college with a piercing on their left ear?" I asked.

"I've noticed a lot of guys with such bodies but never the piercing. We have to look keenly at everyone in college tomorrow and see if anyone look familiar." Tanvi suggested.

"What if it's not someone from college?" Arnav asked.

"We aren't sure of that, besides what's the harm in trying? We have to move forwards somehow. Today we found the piercing tomorrow we might find another clue." Tanvi said.

"Yeah you are right, we'll look around." Arnav agreed.

"Great, now I'm off to bed." Tanvi yawned as she headed back to sleep in my room.

"You should sleep too Shona, you haven't slept at all." Arnav said.

"I just don't know if I can."

"Come, I'll sing you a lullaby." He smiled as he pulled me along to the guest room.

"Oh please, I'm not sharing bed with you."

"I promise I won't touch you." he laughed, I just nodded as I lied down on the bed and he joined, he dint keep his promise though, as soon as we lied down, he put his arm around me and fell asleep, I dint bother to push him away, I liked this.

Okay Khushi, there's something definitely wrong with you.

*****

"From today onwards, forget you ever knew me, I will forget you too."

"You are dead to me."

"Don't ever try to contact me, or find out anything about me, forget you ever knew me, just think I am dead, it would be better for all of us."

*****

"Shona!"

"Yes." I sat up sweating horribly. I hadn't had this nightmare in ages and now all over a sudden it was there.

"Were you having a nightmare? I thought they stopped years ago? You're all sweaty and you were moving too much, what's wrong?" Arnav looked at me worriedly.

"They stopped, but it started today again."

"Don't worry you'll be okay, besides it's just a nightmare." He said as he pulled me into a hug trying to calm me down, yes it was a nightmare, only if he knew it wasn't just a nightmare but a memory too, a memory we both lived through.