We all began walking to the girl’s dorm after Twinkle told us about Parth. “How did he come there in your closet? Any idea?” I asked. “No, I just know that he’s dead,” she said. “And you never bothered to tell me? I would’ve done something, I would’ve asked the warden to change the cupboard or our dorm, why didn’t you tell me?” Avni asked. “Because I started to get attached with him, everyday when I returned to dorm, I told him about my day, everything I did I told him, he’s a nice guy, he’s not bad, he’s not a scary ghost,” Twinkle said.
“But all that matters is that he is a ghost and no need to trust a ghost, we’re here, let’s burst inside so he has no time to hide,” I said as we reached the dorm and then bursted inside. No one was there. “Closet, let’s look for him inside the closet,” Avni whispered. I walked to the closet and then opened it all of a sudden. No one was there also. Just as I turned to Twinkle, I gasped, the guy was behind her. As I met my eyes with him, he smiled politely.
Avni followed my gaze. Before we could say something, he had his arms around Twinkle. To our shock, she didn’t protest, instead she looked back at him and smiled. I and Avni looked at each other and then at them. “Leave her, what are you doing?” I asked and tried to approach them but instead he moved back along with her. “Twinkle, do you remember what we promised the first time we met? Koi bhi humare beech mein aya toh hum usay nasht kardengay,” he said to her, I and Avni looked at each other in fear. Both of us were scared.
“We never promised anything like that, we were just best friends and not lovers, you’re hugging me like this as if I m your girlfriend, you’re giving me shivers down my spine, leave me, you’re cold,” she said looking back at him with her hands on his hands trying to make him leave. He left her and she turned to him maintaining distance. “Parth, the more you live on Earth after dying, the more loneliness you would suffer, I want you to go to heaven and have a peaceful after life, it’s not that I don’t like you anymore, it’s just that I can’t see you in pain,” she said to him.
His sad eyes stared at her. “Don’t you want to know how did I die?” he asked sadly. “Of course I want to know,” she said. “I was in the second year of college and was the most quiet person ever, I rarely used to talk, everyone used to call me dumb but I always ignored it, there was a group of students who used to bully me since the beginning, whenever I would be sleeping, they would do make up on my whole face and..,” he said and looked down sadly.
She sensed his sadness and cupped his face. “And?” She said stressing on the word. “And they often used to call me slenderman as I m tall, once when I was sleeping, they ruined all my preparations, once they locked me in this cupboard and said that till I don’t speak, they won’t let me out. Much time passed by, I felt suffocation, I banged on the door but in vain, no one opened me, and like this I died by suffocation. When they got to know that I m dead, they threw my body in the swamp, warden saw them but they even threatened her that if she speaks against them then they would ruin her in every way possible, since then I m trapped, it happened two weeks ago, and you can trust me as well as recently only you saw my pic in yearbook,” he said sadly.
“I trust you,” Twinkle said. “Tell us the names of those notorious kids who did this to you, we won’t leave them,” I said. “Yes, we will get you justice,” Avni said. “They were named as Harshad Saxena and his sister Aalia Saxena,” Parth told us. “We all are with you Parth, we will get them here tonight, don’t worry,” I assured. We all joined our hands together.
*************SPLIT**************
Next day, we all went to those notorious siblings and told them that we will be having a party in our dorm and we want them to come there. They agreed. We high fived secretly. At night, the siblings came inside and looked around the dorm in amazement. “We thought there would be a bunch of kids in here but only you three are there,” Aalia said getting surprised. “Actually only our one friend would come and then we would start the party,” Twinkle told her.
“Oh okay,” Harshad said. We all settled down together and suddenly all the lights switched off on their own. I could hear the cupboard creak open which was of course assumed by those siblings as the room door opening. And then the lights switched on that too on their own. Parth was standing right behind Aalia. We were sitting making a circle in such an order that first it was Aalia, then Harshad, then me, then Twinkle and then Avni so Parth wasn’t visible to Aalia or Harshad fortunately.
“Yaad karo apnay ateet ke gunaahon ko,” I said all of a sudden and the siblings looked at each other. “Ye Kya mazaak hai?” Harshad asked. “Kiun? Kuchh galat kaha? Gunehgaar hi toh ho na tum dono,” Twinkle said and they shook their heads. “Humne kuchh nahi kiya, band Karo ye bakwaas,” Aalia said. “Oh achha? Parth yaad hai? Wohi student jisko tumlogo ne isi room ke cupboard mein band karke maar daala?” Avni asked. “No, we don’t remember,” Harshad said sweating badly. “Yeh toh maan’ne ko tayaar hi nahi Hain apne gunaah ko,” Avni said to Parth and the siblings followed their gaze.
To Be Continued…