The Selfie

11:40 p.m - same night

Diana and Prithvi were just looking at the picture when Ankit and Rudy barged into the apartment. Diana jumped up from the couch.

"How did you-"
"You didn't lock the door." Ankit replied, knowing what the question would be.
"Oh."

The boys sat down next to the two girls. "So what's this I hear about some picture? I didn't get the whole story on the phone." Rudy asked, dropping his sweater on a chair.

Prithvi braced herself to explain the story one more time. "I was just going through some pictures." Prithvi said, as calmly and patiently as she could manage. "All the old pictures were there, and I was just reminiscing when suddenly I came across the pics that we took yesterday, before we found... her." She gulped and then continued. "Remember that selfie that you took?" She asked Ankit. He nodded in reply. "Yeah, well, I took a look at the picture and thought I saw Atisha in it. I thought I just imagined it, but deleted the picture anyway. Then I found it again, so I deleted it again. But then, two pictures after that, I found it again, and this time, I freaked and called Diana. That's pretty much it."
"But guess what? I just took a look at the pictures. There is that selfie of course, minus Atisha." Diana said, looking at Ankit. "And now I'm wondering if she imagined it all." She said, glancing at Prithvi.

Prithvi fumed. "I am not crazy. And I did not imagine all that. The same selfie thrice with my dead friend in it? Come on!"
"That's exactly my point! Three times in a row? Look, I'm not saying you are crazy. I'm just saying that this has affected you the most, probably more than me. And trust me, you are not exactly the strongest in the group when it comes to emotional matters." Diana said, gesturing wildly.

Prithvi looked like she had been shot. "Well, considering you keep losing your temper, I wouldn't say that you're the strongest in the group either. But at least I try to hide that." She said quietly and then stormed inside the room.
An uncomfortable silence took over the now three-membered group. "Can I take a look at that picture?" Ankit said quietly, stretching his hand out.
"What?" Diana asked him distractedly.
"I want to look at the picture."
"Oh, yes, that." She handed him the phone.

Ankit pursed his lips as he scoured through the pictures in the phone. Of course, he hadn't expected Atisha to be in the picture. It was physically impossible. He handed it to Rudy and then turned to Diana. "She imagined it all." He said. Diana scoffed. "But I think we should wait for at least a month before we put her in some kind of treatment." He paused as Diana and Rudy looked up at him with surprised expressions. "Who the hell gave you that idea?" Rudy asked him, wide eyed. "I thought that's what you wanted." Ankit told Diana, looking confused now. "What I wanted?" Diana said, surprised. "Hell no! I didn't want to send her off somewhere just because she imagined seeing her dead friend in a picture!" She said.
"Thrice. It happened thrice."
Diana's eyes burned into Ankit's. "I know. But we should give her some time to get over it. Maybe a month, 3 months, hell, I'll even give her six! But I'm not going to ship her off anywhere now. Besides, its not my decision to make." Diana said.

The silence came back once again. After about five minutes, Rudy cleared his throat. "Hey guys, about that interview that got postponed to coming Wednesday? I asked them if they could shift it to Saturday." He said.
Ankit and Diana looked at him. "Why?" Diana asked after a while.
"I'm not missing Atisha's funeral over some stupid job interview. That can wait. I'm their best candidate anyway."

Diana shook her head. She scooted over so that she was now seated next to Rudy. "You listen to me right now, young man." She said, thrusting a finger at his face. One wrong move and she could end up poking his eye out. "I get that you are their best candidate, but don't push your luck too much. I know for a fact that they didn't just postpone your interview the first time, you asked them to-" Rudy seemed surprised that she knew, but she continued, "-and now you asked them to postpone it again? If I were taking your interview, I would get vibes that clearly say that you aren't interested. So naturally, I won't be interested in your work either. So I suggest that if you are going to postpone it, postpone it to Thursday. Because excuses don't work twice." She paused. "Even if it's a legitimate reason this time." She added quietly.
"Okay. It's a good thing that the funeral is in the morning. I'll catch a flight at night."

The funeral was held this late because of all the post mortem issues that the investigation team had to face. Some complications had to be dealt with, and the body been handed over to a weeping mother and father and a brother who was trying hard to console his parents and at the same time, not to tear up himself. They had kept the body for a few hours before handing it back to the forensic team, so that they could perform a few more tests. They were planning to hand over the body back to the family on Tuesday, so that they could perform the funeral.

Diana was still in charge of the case and after today, some unlikely but expected problems had come to surface. But she wasn't giving up without a fight. For heaven's sake, this was her friend she was talking about! And she knew that, sooner or later, and hopefully sooner, she would be able to prove him guilty...
The three of them continued chatting until one by one, they all stated feeling sleepy. They decided to go to bed. Diana went to the room where Prithvi was now sleeping she the boys decided to share the other room.

Just as the boys were getting into their separate beds, Rudy suddenly caught a movement in the living room. Frowning he went to see if something was wrong.
The living room was dark and the only bit of light that was streaming in was the city light through the window. Rudy turned around; he assumed that it was just the shadow of some car, it happened sometimes.

As he turned, he saw Prithvi's phone on the couch. He picked it up and saw that the same selfie was still on screen. Minus Atisha of course. But that's not what bothered him. He turned around to just check on the girls' room. The lights were off and they seemed to be asleep. He frowned and looked back at the phone, confused.

He swore he remembered switching it off...