One of us is lying

chapter 6

The sunlight from the rise of dawn fell inside dushyant's room, as he lay on his bed, scrolling through his old photos posted on Instagram. A picture of him and Kavin smashing cake all over each other, the next photo being of ishita trying to escape both of them attempting to rub the cream of the cake on her, and the final photo where purvi dunked a 2l bottle of cold drink on them while ishita failed miserably in holding her laughter. A fond smile couldn't help but find it's way on his lips, looking at what could be perfectly described as the 'good old days'.

He scrolled up only to reach to the image of that night, 8years ago, that led them all here, the road trip they wish never happened and can't be erased now.

                       ***

Purvi held onto her forehead, while her arm rested on the dinning table such as her elbow was perpendicular to it.

She scrolled through ishita's Instagram feed, her photos of she and her husband playing with their then 4 year old son on the beach, while the next photo showed her husband planting a forehead kiss on her.

Maybe she did feel a little happy for her, even a little envy too, she moved on happily and it reminded her that she didn't.

She scrolled down only to find a photo with her and her husband, seated along to Kavin and Sana, smiling to a camera while a group picture was being clicked by varun, and they were all seated at a fancy cafe, having little cups of espressos in front of them.
The caption to the image only read: ' old friends reunite!'

Purvi couldn't feel more left out than that one image alone did.

                      ***

Kavin was scrolling through photos of purvi's Instagram, as a photo of her in her cabin was revealed, while she sat there like a queen with a throne, a proud look on her face.

'Dreams come true...' Read the caption.

He couldn't help but feel, as much as he hated she wasn't in her life anymore, she still got what she wanted,right?

Suddenly, a notification flashed across the top of his screen, from that group only, the dreaded one.

The messages read:

'Task 1'

'Iss adress pe pahauncho.'

Immediately the text was followed by a GPS location for them to tap upon and reveal where were they supposed to go.

Everyone felt ambivalent, as they wondered what could be the purpose of it. But knowing very well the antics of the blackmailer, they decided it was best to just agree to the instructions.

                       ***

Kavin's car stopped in what seemed to be a crossway that seemed to lead to nowhere but a never ending empty road.

He stepped out of his car, only to find dushyant, purvi and ishita to be already there, waiting with their arms crossed.

He locked his car as he walked over to them.

"Hey... Any, messages?" Asked kavin, tucking his hands inside his pants pockets, getting a bit awkward.

"No, just waiting, so far..." Replied dushyant, as he folded his arms closer to himself inside, visibly starting to get uncomfortable.

"So... It's been long, huh?" Asked purvi, in an attempt to make conversation to fill in the air of disconcerting silence.

"As long as this wait has been?" Replied ishita sarcastically, as dushyant just chortled, reminded of the dry scorn in her comments that just instantly brought a chuckle out of him, but not wanting to revisit his past, made him just shake it off.

"What do you think this guy even wants? Like bringing back something that happened 8 years ago?" Questioned purvi.

"I don't know, I really thought this was all over when that case was closed, but this was just..." Responded kavin, but before he could go on any further, a mobile ringtone played and started to blare through the air.

The phone turned out to be dushyant's, who took it out of his pocket, before looking at all of them with a startled face.

"It's him... " Stated dushyant, receiving the call and putting it on speaker.

"Ab bharat milav hogaya hai tum logon ka, toh kaam pe aa jaate hai. Tum sab jaake kavin ke gaadi mein baith jao, uske dashboard ke andar tumhe ek address milega, chaaron gaadi mein baithkar wahan pahauncho. Ek aadmi milega tum logon ko, woh car ki diggi mein rakha ek kaala bag mangega, bas woh handover karna hai." Instructed the guy at once while everyone passed suspicious glances to each other.

The call was ended immediately as indicated by the the loud beep, as dushyant kept his phone down.

"Do you think, we should, open the bag?" Questioned kavin.

"Of course! Kya pata bomb hoon usmein humein hi maarne ko! Aur kahi pakde gaye toh, atleast we should know what we are getting ourselves into." Stated dushyant, as ishita and purvi too nodded.

They walked over to the car, as kavin after unlocking it, opened the door to the driver's seat as he pressed for the trunk of the car to lift, while dushyant stood at the back.

"Jaldi kar yaar!" Exclaimed dushyant out of annoyance.

"Arre dabaya toh maine ab khol!" Retorted kavin in argument.

"Arre kahan khula!" Yelled dushyant, as ishita walked to the back of the car to check, only to hit it a few times before realising.

"It has been locked from outside, genuises... Clearly, he didn't want to us to see whatever this bag has..." Stated ishita, just done with this.

"Great! At least phasne ko hum sab saath hai...." Remarked purvi scornfully, taking the backseat of the car.

"Wow, have we time travelled to 8 years ago already! I'm so excited..." Retorted dushyant dryly, as he took to the passenger's seat.

"Maybe a criminal record would make it easier for my wife to divorce me..." Expressed kavin his current state of nihilism, while he took to the wheels.

All the doors of the car shut, as ishita was the last one to take a seat at the back with purvi, and the car started to drive to a location where their could be nothing good lying ahead for them.